Report Over New Years from Dunlo, PA, USA

[Dave Valko]

31 December 2010: Was in Ianns chat at 2015 and Terry mentioned a couple stations he was hearing in Newfoundland. Since the weather was nice, and the propagation looked interesting, I thought I might drive up to the SGLs for a couple hours. Conditions seemed about normal. At least better than at Christmas. Pretty fady. MUF was 6 mhz over Europe. Heard about a half dozen stations.

RX: Microtelecom Perseus SDR with ARR preamp.
ANT: 315' Beverage (BOG) at 50°.
QTH: Pennsylvania State Game Lands #26
Duration: 2050-2245 UTC
Solar Indices: Solar Flux = 91 A Index =5 K Index = 1 No storms
WX: Mostly Sunny until the Sun set. Warm, upper 40’s.


4065 R. Overijssel 2219 playing Dance mx. Not very strong and maybe abt the same as 4015 LHH. (31 Dec.)

6280 Something here w/little mx at 2240. Not getting much. Slop-over QRM from 6270. Maybe just a broadcaster. (31 Dec.)

6290 Cupid R. Definitely something here w/mx at 2056. 2103 anmnts w/ment of "Cupid" and "studio", and ID. Picked up strength in the next few minutes. Rock mx at 2105. 2110:40 song anmnt "Music from ?? and the song is ?? Cupid R. here on this frequency wishing you all the best in 2011. And watch yourself with the fireworks". 2111 played "Man of Action" and voice-over ment of R. Nordsee, seemed to greet someone in Canada and Moscow. Another ID. Went off at 2112:45 suddenly. Not that bad but hampered by pulsing UTE from time to time. (31 Dec.)

6305.14 R. Marconi 2056 lively Polka, then "Get Off My Cloud" by Rolling Stones at 2058-2101. "Footloose" at 2105, then "Fox on the Run" by Sweet at 2108. Polka, Schlager, and Dance song. 2124 "Don"t Answer Me" Alan Parsons Project. 2140 Reggae song. 2144 "Juliet", then a Polka. 2149:30 Nice ID anmnt. Many hello's. Said was in "cooperation with R. Alice". New Year greetings. Hello to Terry, Achim. Said was in Iann's chat. Songs by Heart and Free, Kinks. Massive clear signal. Best I’ve ever heard him. Weakened though by 2243 when I left. (31 Dec.)

6309.98 UNID. Signal came on here at 2106:08 Terry was getting someone here around 2020 before I left. Same stn?? Certainly sounded like some mx at 2112 and poss. anmnt at 2113. Poss. mx again at 2115. Just when it was getting stronger, it went off at 2116:02. (31 Dec.)

6959.79 Atlantic R. 2118 sounded like "Jeopardy". 2141 canned ID sounding like "Rock Radio". 2144 "I'm Still Standing" Elton John, followed by "Fame". At least 8 songs in a row w/out annmnt starting at 2152 "Back on the Chain Gang" Pretenders, "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straites, "Roxanne" Police, "Don't Stop" Fleetwood Mac, Bette Davis Eyes" Bonnie Tyler. (31 Dec.)


1 JANUARY 2011: At 0600, there was a weak signal on 6959.8 Atlantic, something on 6300, and some weak audio on 4015 LHH. Conditions seemed about normal for the first half hour then deteriorated. The data looked about the same as last evening. The solar flux and X-ray flux had come up. There was a 5 mhz MUF between the UK and Iceland. I was expecting it to be no lower than 6 mhz. The thunderstorm QRN wasn't too bad at the start but did pick up after 0800 and was pretty bad by 0830. Waited until 0915 either for conditions to improve or activity to pick up. Neither happened. I was disappointed activity wasn’t higher, but it only makes sense as everyone was probably celebrating the night before.

RX: Microtelecom Perseus SDR with ARR preamp.
ANT: 315' Beverage (BOG) at 50°.
QTH: Pennsylvania State Game Lands #26
Duration: 0645-0915 UTC
Solar Indices: Solar Flux = 91 A Index = 4 K Index = 0 No storms.
WX: Starry with a bit of haze. Warm, mid-40's.


4015 LHH 0646 Mx but not strong enough to be recognizable. Uncopiable 0649. 0652, 0654, and 0658 w/what sounded like a ment of Laser Int. once. Pop Dance mx pgm. 0737 rapid anmnt w/ment of upcoming songs and LHH, then ID jingle. Getting QRM from an awful pulsing UTE on 4016.4 which I had to notch out. Had to use the passband shift too. Pretty noisy. (1 Janunary 2011)

6200.06 R. Orang Utan Came on sometime between 0830 and 0836 while I was tuned away. Really fady. Peaks up to threshold audio level, then completely disappeared. Actually the peaks seemed easily above the threshold at times, but didn't get any respectable audio. Maybe just not modulated enough. Did get some mx at 0904. Had QRM from a het on 6199.8 which was notched out. The thunderstorm static didn't help either. (1 Janunary 2011)

6210 LHH A signal here at 0704, Prob. LHH, but way too weak. Disappeared in the worsening conditions. Still nothing at all, not even so much as a little spike by 0853, but oddly came back up quickly and pretty nicely at 0900 with tlk abt Christmas and New Years, and ment of LHH at 0901. Faded back down to nothing then. Strange conditions. (1 Janunary 2011)

6301.24 Misti R. Came on at 0858:53. Impossible to get anything as the signal wasn't strong enough to overcome the horrible slop-over from SADR. In fact the QRM was drowning out the signal most of the time. The slop-over was as high as 6302. (1 Janunary 2011)

6309.98 R. Pluto Definite mx at 0740. Wasn't there a couple min. earlier. Peaking just above threshold at times. Dropped down too much by 0750, but peaking again at 0754 w/Rock song. Poss. anmnt at 0802:35. Faded by then and much too weak. Seemed to be playing some Bluesy songs after 0810. Definite M anncer at 0848:30 but way to weak to copy. More anmnts at 0850:30. And again at 0905:05. (1 Janunary 2011)

6337 No chance for Black Bandit R. here as there's a humongous UTE on the freq. (1 Janunary 2011)

6423.83 A weak signal and small spike here at 0903. Prob. nothing. (1 Janunary 2011)

6935 Mike R. Nice ID w/e-mail addr at 0908 t/in, then jingle, and into instru. mx. 0911:55 more live anmnts w/tlk abt e-mail, Happy New Year, then Abba. (1 Janunary 2011)

6959.81 Atlantic R. 0707 "Don't Bring Me Down" ELO, then unrec. song. Seems to be just be playing non-stop mx. Had a decent peak at 0716. 0907 "I Feel Fine" Beatles. Pretty fady. There was another weaker signal just 14 hz above this but it wasn't causing any QRM. (1 Janunary 2011)


2 JANUARY 2011: At 0600, 4015 LHH had almost readable audio, a weak signal on 6959.8 Atlantic, and also a weak signal w/no audio on 6210 LHH. Was hearing the thing on 6300 again which might be an image or spur. The propagation data was almost identificcal to yesterday. Really fady. Rather noisy too.

RX: Microtelecom Perseus SDR with ARR preamp.
ANT: 315' Beverage (BOG) at 50°.
QTH: Pennsylvania State Game Lands #26
Duration: 0645-0945 UTC
Solar Indices: Solar Flux = 91 A Index = 4 K Index = 1 No storms.
WX: Cloudy with light rain and sleet. Mid-30’s (around 1°C).


4015 LHH 0645 very end of anmnt w/host giving rpt acknowledgement and into "Treat Me Right" by Pat Benatar. 0652 song and ID anmnt and the original version of "We Love the Pirate Stations". 0658 "Smooth Operator" Sade. (2 Jan.)

5810.14 R. Shoreline Came on 5809.38 at 0751:36. Then at 0753:43 was tuned (not jumped) to 5810.15. Mx up at 0752. Weak to start. 0800 "Because the Night" 10000 Maniacs. 0803:05 M anncr but too weak to copy. Up again w/unrecog. mx at 0812. "Dust in the Wind" Kansas. 0819:00 another anmnt but too weak and blasted by ear-shattering UTE for the next 4 min. Nice peak at 0823:35 and around 0825:00 during song. 0825:30 short anmnt but wasn't peaking then. 0831:20 peak during Funk song. 0835 unreadable anmnt. Except for a few more peaks around 0841, it dropped down and finally went off at 0904:05. Machine-gun UTE blasting away often. Static crashes kept kicking the Perseus out of sync. (2 Jan.)

5820 phonetics station here at 0702. Gone by 0724.

5820.04 Orion R. Signal on at 0756. Some SSB traffic at 0758. 0801:15 start of Percy Faith. 0803 canned ID and "Happy New Year" by Abba. 0807 Off Shore Echos ad. 0808:40 John w/live anmnt. 0809:55 more anmnts mixing w/(AM mode minus carrier) traffic, then surprisingly went off at 0810:35!!! Back up at 0841:05 and instru. mx began at 0843:07. 0851:45 voice-over anmnt saying he had some problems and hoped he fixed it. ID and morning greetings to listeners. Ment. R. Saxonia and something about "next Sunday". More traffic QRM around 0858. Faded badly by 0905. Very weak by 0915 and not getting any audio. (2 Jan.)

6201.8 The spur here is from 6075.

6210 LHH Getting a spike above the noise floor early on around 0700. Coming back up again after 0825 and a little mx at 0831, 0845, 0849, and 0905 but nothing substantial. Still getting a little spike when I quit at 0940. (2 Jan.)

6214.58 King Shortwave?? Came on 6214.75 at 0838:02, and 20 seconds later move down to 6215.55. Some of the peaks looked strong enough around 0842, but didn't hear any audio. Still looked like it was there at 0910 but just about gone. Seemed to be drifting up and would prob. be up to the 6214.8 at 1028 that was reported in Ricks blog as an Unid. (2 Jan.)

6301.72 R. Altrex Came on the air at 0746:52 on 6301.71. Up to 6301.76 at 0800. Came back down to 6301.72 by 0830. With this being about 500 hz inside the (highside of the) SADR slop QRM, there was no way to copy anything. Was still visible in the display at 0930 but nearly lost. (2 Jan.)

6306.42 UNID. Came on the air at 0830:30. Very weak mx on a brief peak at 0841. For as strong as it was, the audio should have been fairly easy. Think it was undermodulated. Never got any better and weakened badly. Went off at 0905:16. No drift at all. (See below) (Unid. in Ricks Irish Paul's blog) (2 Jan.)

6306.28 A signal came on here at 0928:50. Of course no chance for audio and only getting a little peak at times, but something was here. Same stn that was on 6306.42 earlier?? (2 Jan.)

6326.36 R. Sonic On the air at 0817:00 and instru. mx 37 seconds later. Very nice signal but right on top of pulsing "noise-like" UTE. 0821 Dance/Pop mx. A terrible freq. Finally an anmnt at 0842 and recognized his voice. Unable to copy because of QRM. 0901:10 poss. anmnt and 0902:20 definine anmnt. Drifting down very little and looked like he was still on at 0930 on 6326.33. Would have been a pretty nice signal if not for the UTE. Congrats to R. Sonic on his new new harmonic (baby)!! (2 Jan.)

6389.62 Low Power R. Came on at 0903:17 on 6389.67. Right at threshold audio at 0904. Faded quickly and nowhere near strong enough. Went off at 0925:40. Drifted down to 6389.58. An hour before and I might have had something. (Tnx Iann and Ricks blogs). (2 Jan.)

6395.03 UNID. Came on sometime between 0916 and 0922. Pop/Dance mx w/W vcl at 0922. Must be pretty high power to be getting audio at this time since most eveything has faded. Or possibly Ireland QTH. Deadair 0925 then another song. Down to just bits of audio when it went off at 0929:49. Unid. at 0921 in Ricks blog, and tent. R. Nova by Irish Paul and Iann. (2 Jan.)

6424.9 R. Pioneer Signal on at 0814:25 on 6424.73. Mx finally up at 0919:00. Pleasant Dutch songs. 0831:25 couple nice canned IDs, then cont. mx. 0842-0845 children singing. Had to use the notch and shift the passband a little to avoid the UTE on 6427. Went off at 0854:25. Would never have heard this just a month or so ago when the nasty UTE was here. (2 Jan.)

6425.02 UNID. Signal came on here at 0929:57. Actually got stronger and may have had ext. weak audio at 0933. Still there at 0940. UTE above causing a lot of QRM. Just too late. (Unid. at 0935 in Ricks blog) (2 Jan.)

6959.76 Atlantic R. 0655 weak w/just strains of mx. Barely even a spike showing up at 0742. "Sugar Sugar" Archies at 0920, "Get Back" Beatles 0923. Someone whistling on the freq at 0927-0929. Some LSB traffic then making it impossible. (2 Jan.)

No sign of 6280 R. Merlin Int., 6261 R. Perfekt, 6319.7 Low Power R., or 6400 Unid. reported in the blogs.

Like every year, I was hoping for good propagation over the holidays but it never happened. So I was disappointed. But it was still a pleasure to hear so many stations. I wish eveyone a Happy 2011!!

[JoJo]

Hello Dave,

thanks for the log. Indeed some tx problems at start, back after repair with lower power. Hope I to solf these problems before next Sunday. and hope to put a special show on air.
Happy Dx-ing,