Pirate Report from Dunlo, PA, USA, 3 January 2010

[Dave Valko]

First of all, I want to wish everyone the very best for 2010!! May the new year bring us better propagation conditions, stronger signals, and quieter interference-free reception!!

1 JANUARY 2010: I was disappointed when I checked the bands when I awoke. Amica was weak, LHH’s carrier was barely there, and Mystery R. was blasted out by Cuba. The propagation maps actually looked better than it has lately. There was only a 5 mhz MUF over the North Atlantic and the Auroral Zone was weak. That and the fact it was New Years Day were the only factors in my desicion to give it a try up at the remote site. Conditions were pretty bad and activity was low. There was a good deal of very quick QSB and the static QRN was really high with a lot of crashes. Don’t know why as there weren’t any thunderstorms anywhere near us. Florida was about the closest. By 0900 it was evident conditions weren’t going to improve and stations just weren’t going to come on the air, so I packed it in.

RX: Microtelecom Perseus SDR with ARR preamp.
ANT: 315' Beverage (BOG) at 50°.
QTH: Pennsylvania State Game Lands #26
Duration: 0705-0905 UTC
Solar Indices: Solar Flux = 80 A Index = 1 K Index = 0 No storms.
WX: Cloudy with freezing drizzle. Around 31° F. (0° C.)

4025 LHH 0711 mx but rather weak. M anncr but hopelessly unreadable. Back to mx at 0719. Didn't stay with it. Very fady. Off the air at 0803 check. (1 Jan)

5815.03 Orion R. 0756 audio on w/Jazzy instru. song. 0803 "Music Box Dancer" then morning greetings and greetings to Merlin and Tina, and New Year greetings. 0813 live "Take a Chance on Me". 0822 Dance version of "Sonny", then another Abba song "Does Your Mother Know". Fairly decent signal at start but weakening by 0815. Fady. Horrible machine gun UTE here w/bursts quite often. (1 Jan)

6220 Mystery R. 0713 mx by Madonna underneath a very strong Cuba. Fady and sometimes over Cuba. 0723 more Dance mx. 0724 usual canned jingle; Howling, W w/ID, Michael Jackson, then back to Dance mx. Finally in the clear at 0739 check. (1 Jan)

6280.24 R. Merlin Int. (pres.) Signal here at 0830. May have had bits of audio once or twice. Much too weak, fady, and a lot of static QRN. (1 Jan)

6400.64 Weekend Music R. (pres.) Already on. 0716 Pop mx. Seemed to drop down by 0730 and barely audible. Strange that this was so weak. Usually its one of the strongest stations. Maybe the hoax WMR?? Thought it was R. Shadow (by the freq) at first. (1 Jan)

6870 Pirate Music 0710 pretty decent strength but no audio. Still no audio by 0855. (1 Jan)

7610.06 R. Amica 0706 Dance mx, 0708 short canned ID by M w/ment of SW, back to mx. Good. (1 Jan)

Disappointed for New Years Day. Hopefully we’ll get one good day Sunday before the holiday season is officially over.


3 JANUARY 2010: From the DX QSL Net propagation web page, the MUF looked to be the best its been in a very long time. It was a minimum of 6 mhz across the Atlantic (no 5 mhz at all) and the Auroral zone wasn't overly dense. However the solar indices didn't look as good. The solar flux was a moderate 78, but the A was bottomed out at 0 and the K was elevated to 2. Indeed, the X-Ray flux had a number of high spikes since about 0000 UTC. Since the weather was too dangerous to go out to the remote site (around -16 C degrees with about a 25-45 kph wind), I didn't venture out. Propagation conditions observed at home seemed poor to fair. Although I did get some audio from 4025 LHH at first, Mystery R., Amica, and Pirate Music were all weak. I could only muster a small spike from 5815 Orion. So, despite the favorable MUF, conditions didn't look good. (3 Jan)

6220 Mystery R. 0755-0855 Dance and Pop mx w/usual IDs. Recognized "Can't Fight This Feeling" by REO Speedwagon. Not very strong. No sign of Cuba. (3 Jan)

6305 A weak signal here at 0852. Just no chance. (3 Jan) Nobody reported anything here, so I guess it was nothing.

7610.05 R. Amica 0755 tlk by same W as usual, then into Dance mx. Barely any audio by 0858 check. Was getting some lcl random ticking noise which the NB eliminated. (3 Jan)

[JoJo]

Hello Dave, Happy New Year and thanks for the log