European Free Radio Report from Dunlo, PA, USA, 28 Jan. 2007

[Dave Valko]

Mystery R. wasn't on but I could hear a signal from Pirate Music 6878 and Monaco 6235 was booming in at S-10, so I decided to go up to the remote site to listen this morning. Conditions were quiet. Not one static crash. That's one of the few nice things about Winter!! It was somewhat fady. Overall, the conditions were poor to fair at best, relatively speaking. It took longer to prepare and drive up to the site. And since there was nearly a foot of snow on the ground, it took longer to lay out the BOG through the woods.

RX: JRC NRD-535D
ANT: 315' Beverage (BOG) at 50°
QTH: Pennsylvania State Game Lands #26
Duration: 0705-1010 UTC
Solar Indices: S.F. = 81 A Index = 3 K Index = 2 (1 at 0918 check) No storms.
WX: Cloudy with a few flurries, slowly falling temp, 27° F. (-2° C.)

6409.93 Just a weak carrier at 0707 but no audio. Bad QRM from UTEs nearby. Doubt this was a station, but... (28 Jan.)

No sign of Mystery R. either last evening or this morning. (28 Jan.)

6878 Pirate Music (Power FM relay??) 0713 Dance mx. Sounded like a very short jingle w/M voice at 0724. Fady signal w/slop QRM from rel. stn on 6855. Still there at 0750 check but no stronger. (28 Jan.)

6300 R. National Saharaui is now here from 0700-0900. First heard yesterday pre-2200 UTC. Strong signal. Will make it tough for pirates around this freq before 0900. Not to mention the fact Cuba has a very strong spur here before 0700. (28 Jan.)

5725 Orion R. 0739 organ Polka mx cutting in and out w/one good buzz as well!!!! Wasn't there 3 minutes earlier. Nice clear signal peaking at S-4!!! Getting a little weaker and fady by 0751. Percy Faith at 0800. Signal even worse by 0803 live opening ID anmnt by John. Into remake of "I Walk the Line". Later, 0837 anmnt w/ment of Holland but much weaker and freq drifting up to 5725.08. Then up to 5725.11 by 0857. 0902 Polka and another anmnt by John. Up to 5725.14. Off at 0917 check. Not a bad freq but noisier than 48 meters and some UTE QRM from below. (28 Jan.)

6305.02 UNID. Definitely someone here at 0748. A bit of extremely weak mx at 0749 amid the slop QRM from Algeria. (28 Jan.) Jari had an UNID. here too in the ALI FRB

6280.03 R. Merlin Int. 0754 sounded kind of like a Dance/Rap song, then M w/UK-accent ID voice-over anmnt at 0755 and another ID about 30 seconds later. Intermittent UTE QRM. 0826 no UTE but SSB traffic QRM. Unrec. Rock song. Next song started at 0830. Too weak. More Rock mx at 0842 check, but again no better. 0844 M anncr briefly but impossible to copy, then more Rock mx. Still going past 0930. Freq steady. (28 Jan.)

6326.08 R. Paardenkracht 0759 voice-over ID anmnt by M as: "Good morning. This is station Paardenkracht from the Netherlands. Paardenkracht, from central...music ??". Peppy instru. Pop song at 0804. 0807-0809 sounded like an old Dutch or German Pop song. 0810-0812 "Mr Tambourine Man" by the Byrds. 0812-0813 "Proud Mary" by CCR. S-3 signal at this time. 0815-0820 "Mickey" by Toni Basil. 0820 "I Was Made for Loving You" by Kiss. 0832 M "Good morning, you're listening to station 'The Paardenkracht' from the Netherlands. Good morning...". Then mention of Europe. The anmnt continued in what sounded like GM. E-mail addr given phonetically and repeated (thanks!!). Ended w/another ID "This is station Paardenkracht ...Europe". Back to mx. Still in at 0923 and 0935 checks. The strongest station on the band this morning. (28 Jan.)

6244.87 Crazy Wave R. Definite mx here at 0809 when UTE stopped. 0809:45 possible M anncr but UTE started again. Still there at 0822 check but so where the UTEs. Clear briefly at 0824 but just too weak. Still in at 0836 and past 0900. (28 Jan.) Thanks uk DXer for ID.

6525.24 Sparks R. Definite carrier here at 0849. Sounded like mx at 0850. Definitely getting mx at 0859 but there was SSB traffic nearby causing QRM. Thought this was Ramona at first. (28 Jan.) ID per uk DXer.

6299.95 Sounded like a carrier here at 0914 but can't determine if its a stn or not. Still in at 0936. (28 Jan.)

6215.76 King SW Only a carrier here at 0926. Too much slop QRM from 6214.18 Argentina. King SW is a really difficult stn to hear on this side of the Big Pond. (28 Jan.)

6210 Bogusman Sounded like someone here at 0927 w/poss. M anncr but entirely too weak. Carrier still noted at 0938. Quite fady making it seem like it wasn't even there at times. (28 Jan.) ID per uk DXer.

6304.78 Antonio R. Carrier and mx at 0931 and 0933. Just too weak and too late in the morning. Drifted down to 6304.72 by 0940, and down to 6304.69 by 0951. (28 Jan.) ID per uk DXer

6239.69 JRRI Carrier on at 0937 and a bit of mx at 0942 but too late also. Very weak mx at 0950 check, and again at 1005. This used to be the strongest signal and always the last to fade. Now it seems just a shell of its former self!! (28 Jan.)

6275 Laser Hot Hits Popped up here at 0940. Sounded like some audio at 0944. Maybe just a little weaker than JRRI but close to equal. (28 Jan.) per uk DXer

6300.09 UNID. Big open carrier at 0943 peaking at S-4!!! Went off at 0945. Back on at 0946. Could here 6299.96 carrier when this was off. Off again at 0948. Shadowman testing or tuning up?? There was an OC abt the same strength on 6225 at abt 0951, but it went off too. So I wonder if it and this were the same xmtr. (28 Jan.)

6295 R. North Pole Found a carrier here at 0957 but wasn't there 1 min. earlier. Sounded like mx at 1000. (28 Jan.) ID per uk DXer.

6309.58 R. Scirocco Definitely open carrier here at 0959 briefly. Back at 1001. Could just barely confirm mx at 1003, and even a little better by 1004. No chance for ID though. (28 Jan.) Thanks to uk DXer for ID.

Even though conditions weren't great, I'm actually surprised it was as good as it was. Latin Americans were doing very well the evening before which usually indicates disturbed conditions and consequently very poor European reception. Most of the signals this morning were difficult, but it was nice to hear at least 14 stations!!

One more logging from home...

15070.27 Cupid R. 1451-1605 Weak signal not really strong enough to recognize songs, but at 1601 the signal sudden picked up out of nowhere and I did recognize a more recent Pop song (don't know the title or artist). 1603 song anmnt and gave web address, but unfortunately it was fading out. The voice didn't really sound like Rinus though. He appeared to go off at 1605. Rinus stated he was only running 250 watts. (28 Jan.)

That's all for this time.

[sciroccoam]

Dave Valko

Hi dave thanks for the logs
Greetings Jarno radio Scirocco
(pictures are comming this week)

[Bycross Radio]

Its nice to see Sparks got over there - he had only thrown seven watts together in his shed!

[Guest]

Thanks for the logs. I woke up a little after 0900 & checked the radio for about 20 minutes. I missed Orion (checked the freq. after s/off) and didn't have audio on any of the carriers. Most of the carriers that I had were probably utes, not pirates. I had a decent carrier on 6401 and 6300. I assumed that 6401 was WMR, although Dave didn't log it, so maybe it wasn't? From reading Dave's logs, it looks like I listened a bit too early or too late for most of what he heard. The same thing happened to me for North American pirates this weekend--haven't heard a thing despite being at the radio for a few hours!

Oh yeah, my one nonpirate log that might be of interest is hearing KBC with a strong signal on 6255 yesterday afternoon.

Have a great weekend!
Andrew

[Guest]

Hey Dave

Great day for me now
who would have known that I would reach you with only 7watts
This is a great thing for me
using a trown together tx with el84's sending out just 7 watt
working with a dipool 2x9 meters horizontal en the last 2 meters vertical
at a amazing hight of 4 meters meaning that the ends of the dipool are just 2 meters above ground
realy amazing and realy LPAM

All the best to you and thanks for the report

[JoJo]

Hello Dave,

many thanks or the logs, much appreciated.