Loggings from 15-16 Oct 2011 from Dunlo, PA, USA

[Dave Valko]

9 OCTOBER 2011: Since there’s been a fair amount of activity on Saturday nights lately, I figured I’d go up to the SGLs and see what could be heard. Conditions were only fair. It was very very fady. Signals were varying a lot. I was glad to finally get R. Alice. I was surprised R. Powerline Int. wasn’t on. I would have liked to gotten up there and listening a little earlier.

RX: Microtelecom Perseus SDR with ARR preamp.
ANT: 315' Beverage (BOG) at 50°.
QTH: Pennsylvania State Game Lands #26
Duration: 2205-2340 UTC
Solar Indices: Didn’t check. (See below 16 Oct.)
WX: Hazy sunshine until the Sun set. Comfortable low 50’s.

6285.12 R. Alice Remake of "The Sounds of Silence" at 2208-2211. 2212 instru. w/drums. 2212:50 M anncr w/ID and freq. "?? everybody. This is the best Pirate station Radio Alice on ?? 48 meterband, 6285 kcs.... sometime on...I will be ?? This is Alice Radio from Holland...I'm very glad...". Then off at 2213:45, then came back on about 20 seconds later. 2214-2217 sounded like a Dutch novelty song. 2217 deadair for 30 sec. 2217-2218 brief pleasant Dutch song. 2219 ID jingle, radioalice@hotmail.com e-mail and more IDs by M and W, and "Thunderstruck" by AC DC from 2219-2224. 2224-2228 "Schools Out" by Alice Cooper. 2233:45 canned e-mail by M and IDs by W ("This is Radio Alice, ?? radio on shortwave" again. 2234-2236 unrec. lively Folk-like song. 2238:45 "Radio Alice, The Netherlands. This is Radio Alice, The Netherlands". Then a couple more songs I couldn't recog. 2245- 2248 "Girlfriend" by Avril Lavigne. 2245:45 more live voice-over anmnts by M with ID "This is Radio station Alice" and ment of the Netherlands. 2248 canned ID jingle and e-mail by M and W again. 2248-2251 instru. mx and canned ID and e-mail anmnt once again. 2251-2253 more live ID anmnts by M with ment of "thank you for listening". Off the air at 2253:15. (15 Oct.)

6288.29 R. Jampie Westerbeek Signal here at 2208 also w/splatter from 6289.12. Seemed like there was bass in mx at 2211 but it could have been splatter. If it was modulated, it was barely so. Finally definitely able to hear M anncr at 2239:45, and not splatter. Couldn't copy anything said though. Went off at 2241:39. So must have been closing anmnts. ID per Terry. (15 Oct.)

6305.5 R. Wittereus Here at 2215. Some mx. Not even as strong as Jampie Westerbeek. Song w/whistling at 2242. Fast paced song at 2313. Oldie w/W vcl a little more audible at 2318:45. 2320:50 mainly unreadable jingle ("Good evening everyone...") and again at 2322:00, then an oldie instru. 2323:10 live M anncr w/ment of Europe and reports, and "...dot com". 2324-2327 old instru. song hrd on Pirates from long ago. (record at 2326:10) 2328:05 Jjingle and off at 2328:50. (15 Oct.)

6324.6 R. Marconi Big signal w/novelty instru. at 2216. "Folsum Prison" at 2221. Audio turned down and deadair. Then Rock mx. 2227 "Sheila" by Tommy Row. "Down in the Boondocks" 2235. "As Tears Go By" at 2247, followed by "I Want You To Want Me". M anncr at 2307:15. then back to mx. ID at 2315:45. Gone around 2330. (15 Oct.)

6930.06 Irish Music Pgm of Dance mx right from the start at 2208. 2212:20 very short jingle, then another by deep-voiced M. 2216:30 live M anncr. And again at 2248:15 "...all over Europe now...". Nearly disappeared at 2252, then splatter from R. Free Mars. (15 Oct.)

6295.04 R. Fox 48 Definite signal here amid the UTE at the start 2208. Certainly sounded like mx at 2239. Definite mx at 2241, and a Dance beat at 2249. Finally went off at 2336:15. Really fady signal. Often times in the noise floor. The UTEs really pounded it at times. Terry reported Fox 48 but I think I saw a report by Achim of R. Tina at 2205. (15 Oct.)

6420.41 Black Bandit R. 2252:40 ID and "good morning" by M over C&W mx. Huge signal amid UTE. 2253 another ID. (15 Oct.)

16 OCTOBER: AT HOME WITH THE POWER OFF
As the electrical power went off due to high winds the evening before, I figured it was a good opportunity to see exactly what could be heard from home when there wasn't any local noise compared to the setup at the SGLs. So I stayed home, crawled out of bed at 0645, and set up the Perseus to record from 0700+, then went back to bed. Turned out everything that was reported was at least visible on the spectrum display (except R. Saxonia). Logged 13 stations before the battery powering the Perseus SDR got too weak and started causing it to generate images every 10 khz (had I been able to recharge it after last evenings outing, I'd have been fine). Anyway, conditions were about fair. I wasn't able to check the solar indices. I think the Solar Flux was 138, A Index was 4, and K Index was 2 when I left for the SGLs yesterday evening. Although the T2FD does very well at home, I think the better Beverage antenna aimed at Europe at the SGLs gives just slightly stronger signals. If the norm was noiseless at home, I'd probably listen here and only go to the SGLs when conditions were exceptional.

6305.32 Sonic R. Here at 0700. Seemed like Rock mx. 0712 anmnt over song "Good morning everyone ?? 6305...". "Drivers Seat" by Sniff-n-the Tears at 0714. Could barely hear the audio 0730-0734. Somebody whistling and calling in SSB at 0708. Went off apparently without warning at 0741:33. (16 Oct.)

6199.98 R. Orang Utan Already on at 0700. Pleasant Dutch song at 0703, then a Polka. 0710 "Bad Moon Rising' by CCR. Dropped down just enough to make it impossible to copy then. Off at 0816:14. (16 Oct.)

6282 R. Shadow Here at 0700. Definite mx but only at threshold. Was still peaking above the noise floor at 0900, but still not strong enough. UTE on 6281 just blasted it out when it was on. Also had some SSB xmsn QRM too. No chance. Not quite as strong as Sonic. ID per ukDXers blog. (16 Oct.)

5815.04 Orion R. Percy Faith at sign on 0700. 0703 "This is Orion R., Netherlands" canned ID, then AM Forum and Off-Shore Echos ads, then into mx. 0707 canned info ID. 0708 live voice-over ID anmnts and greetings to R. Tina, etc. 0718 "We Love the Pirate Stations", followed by "Radar Love". Getting difficult after 0730. More anmnts at 0746 and 0759. Seemed to drift up about 20 hz at 0913 if indeed was still on. Maybe something else by then. (16 Oct.)

6969.98 LHH On at 0700 start. Not very good at the beginning but some nice peaks at 0708. 0707 remake of "She's Not There", followed by "Summer of 69" by Bryan Adams. Exc. peak at 0712 w/song anmnt and ment of R. Caroline. Dropped down. Still visible in the display at 0908, but got covered after that by images as the battery for the Perseus got too weak. (16 Oct.)

6265.02 Geronimo SW?? Big signal came on at 0749:39. There may have been some extremely weak modulation but couldn't tell for sure. Went off at 0757:14. (16 Oct.)

6265 R. Geronimo Shortwave Signal on the air at 0818:22, similar in strength to the signal that was here about 20 minutes earlier. Went off the air for 20 seconds at 0826. Finally able to hear mx at 0827, and strains of mx after that, but signal dropping down. Then oddly enough, came up enough at 0837 to recognize "Refugee" by Tom Petty. 0839:35 M anncr to 0842. More anmnts at 0846 UK accented w/ment of "radio", postal addr, and web site of http://www.worlddxclub.??.UK ending w/"...DXers, for DXers". After the next song, there were more anmnts at 0855, but the signal faded again. Seemed to still be there at 0912 as the splatter from the images appeared as the battery for the Perseus weakened. ID per ukDXers blog. (16 Oct.)

6304.05 R. Boomerang Massive signal coming on the air at 0829:10 and mx starting a little over a minute later. Played 4 songs including one by Dire Straites, then DT anmnts w/IDs over song at 0843. Went off at 0849:08. Came back on 6304.04 at 0852:32 w/start of "Have You Ever Seen The Rain" by CCR, and more ID "amateurs" anmnts, and off at 0855:41. (16 Oct.)

6305.32 R. Osaka. Signal on the air at 0851:16 w/good strength equal to Boomy. OC, then splatter QRM from Boomerang just below but no audio noted. Went off at 0905:19. Obviously this stn reported by Achim. (16 Oct.)

6310.04 UNID. On the air at 0829:12, just 2 seconds after Boomerang!! Some fairly decent brief peaks but never could detect any audio. Lost after 0902. (16 Oct.)

6205.09 R. Scotland Int. Signal up at 0845:57. Getting some mx at 0849. Couldn't recognize any songs and just faded into the image mess after 0912. ID per ukDXer blog. (16 Oct.)

6220 R. Borderhunter Could tell exactly when he came on as there was some SSB traffic on the freq, but seemed as early as 0858. Did hear some mx but no anmnts. Lost in the images after 0907. (16 Oct.)

6295.04 Free R. Victoria On the air at 0739:50 w/OC on 6295.19. Mx on at 0743. Canned ID jingle at 0745. Oldie at 0748. Sounded like canned e-mail annmnt at 0752 but UTE QRM. A little weaker than Geronimo. Just getting hammered but the UTEs here. Down to 6295.03 by 0820. Tnx ukDXer log. (16 Oct.)

6420.02 R. Universe Signal on at 0742:26, and mx almost immediately. Songs were right at the threshold of recognizability. Seemed like a Dance song at 0755 w/fast beat. Faded quite a bit after that. Still going past 0900. Probably best at 0745. Very heavy quick fading. Had to shift the passband to free it from the UTE above. Tnx ukDXer log. (16 Oct.)

6985.06 R. Waves Int. Already on at 0700 when I started recording and on 6984.92 at that time. Weak but could hear the mx from time to time. Anmnt at 0702 and again at 0750. Could definitely tell it was C&W mx at 0755 on peak. Then dropped back down. SSB traffic around 0720 for a few minutes. 6985.09 at 0830. Really no chance for a good solid logging. (16 Oct.)


Sorry I wasn't able to get this report out sooner. It takes some time to generate a report, and spare time during the week is very limited.

Take care!!

[JoJo]

Hello Dave,

welcome back thanks for the report, much appreciated.

[Radio Scotland]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the report!
Not the best report, but hey..it's only october! Hope conditions improved next couple of months.

Greetings, Albert R. Scotland.

[Radio Universe]

Thanks for the log Dave!
Always good to be received in the USA with this power

All the best from Holland,

Radio Universe.

[Dave Valko]

Thanks!! Its always a pleasure to tune in.

Hope conditions are good the rest of the season. It looks promising. Should be fun.