European Free Radio Report from Dunlo, PA, USA, 18 Feb. 2007

[Dave Valko]

Not much to report this time as conditions were horrible this Sunday morning. However I apparently logged my first Greek pirate Saturday evening!!

15070.12 Cupid R. 1258-1308:41*, Hard Rock mx then Rinus in DT at 1300 followed by EG ID w/freqs 6210 and 15070 at 1302. Said was going to make a "DX Program" on 19 mb. Into instru. mx at 1302. 1304 acknowledged my MSN report w/thanks, then said was closing down and gave e-mail addr. Acknowledged an e-mail from "George". 1307 closedown anmnt and "We Love the Pirate Stations", canned EG ID and off at 1308:41. Fairly good w/moderate QSB. Was drifting a bit. 750 watts. (17 Feb.)

15070.19 Cupid R. *1404:33-1616+, Suddenly on w/instru. mx. Signal abt the same as at 1300, fady. 1410 ID w/ment of "DX Program", etc. More anmnts at 1412, ID, freq, ment of "I found it" referring to something Rinus had lost!! cupidradio@hotmail.com e-mail addr. 1413 canned FR ID anmnt including e-mail and snail mail addresses. 1415 Pop song. 1419 jingle "You're listening to the secret world of pirate radio...", then more mx. 1419 "Coming Around Again" by Carly Simon. Better by 1423 and down to 15070.17. 1427 ID, ment of USA, e-mail, wx in the Netherlands 8 degrees, wished everyone good wx. Faded back down by 1430. 1453 ID, freq as 15070 kcs. Acknowledged many e-mail reports from Rich D'Angelo and John Fisher among others. Peaking nicely at 1456. Faded down again and barely there by 1532, but then came back up. Phone # given. Back up to 15070.19 by 1545. 1558 "I Think We're Along Now" by Tiffany, then "We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel. Still going when the MD ran out at 1616 during "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" by Culture Club. Can't imagine what this 750 watt signal will sound like when the solar flux and A index go back up!! (17 Feb.)

6310 R. Odyssey 2158 some sort of Pop/Dance song at t/in. 2201 very short voice-over anmnt by M in Greek w/what sounded like a ment of Odyssey. Unfortunately there was a brief burst of local buzzing noise at the exact same time!! Dead-air or just low audio. Into "The Look" by Roxette to 2204, dead-air, and off. Came back on w/OC for abt a minute from 2205-2206 and gone. Surprisingly fairly strong!! I just wish I would've been on the freq earlier. Still, very pleased to hear this new one!!! (17 Feb.)

18 February 2007: Awoke around 0615 and checked the WWV geomagnetic indices/forecast and checked the band. The data looked OK but the only indicator of conditions was Monaco peaking at only S-8. No sign of Mystery R. or anyone else. Since it was the warmest Sunday morning in the last few weeks, I decided to drive up to the remote listening site anyway. It was snowing fairly heavily and the roads weren't plowed. It was really difficult laying out the BOG through the hip-deep snow. It took about 15 minutes when it ordinarily takes about 5 minutes!! Guess I need some snowshoes!! Band conditions were awful. It was very quiet but signals just weren't propagating.

RX: JRC NRD-535D
ANT: 315' Beverage (BOG) at 50° +/-
QTH: Pennsylvania State Game Lands #26
Duration: 0720-0820 UTC
Solar Indices: S.F. = 75 A Index = 7 K Index = 0 No storms.
WX: Moderate snow, chilly temp, 16° F. (-9° C.)

6300 No sign of R. Nacional Saharaui here or anywhere else this morning. Hope they stay out of the 48 mb. (18 Feb.)

Apparently had spurs on 6240, 6208.3 and 6205.

5724.9 Orion R. (tent.) Just a weak carrier at 0735. Wasn't there at 0733. Poss. mx at 0737. Carrier barely detectable at 0742 and not hrd at all after 0750. (18 Feb.)

6300 Just a weak carrier here at 0806. Wonder if someone was here. (18 Feb.)

Back at home;

6264.88 R. Bonofox?? Just a weak carrier here at 0846. Not noted out at the SGLs remote site. (18 Feb.)

6300 Hrd this again and sounded like there may have been mx at 0851. Right at threshold audio strength. Someone here at this time?? (18 Feb.)

And that's all there is. It looked like the solar cycle had reached its low and was already back on the increase in December, but now it looks like its back down at the bottom again. Some predictions I've seen said the low was reached last year, but I've seen others saying the bottom would come this month. Too much fluctuation to know for sure just yet.

[Ray Lalleu]

About your UNID on 6264.88 : not Bonofox.

Bonofox was on 6265.7 about 8 to 9 UTC.