Report from Dunlo, PA, USA, 31 October 2010

[Dave Valko]

31 OCTOBER 2010: Awoke just before 0600 UTC. It was unusual in that I was getting a readable signal from 4026 LHH, the best in quite some time, but only a weak carrier from 7610 Amica. Nothing anywhere else. It appeared the MUF was low, but according to the propagation data, it was up to 7 mhz. Figured it might turn out to be a good morning on the fact that LHH was coming in so well. Conditions ended up being fair. Quick fades and some really nice peaks on some stations. The Sun has been a bit active with a couple small Sunspot groups in the last week making the Solar Flux pop up into the 80's. I could tell the window is opening wider. Stations were staying in past 0900. Heard over a dozen stations, so it was worth the effort going out.

RX: Microtelecom Perseus SDR with ARR preamp.
ANT: 315' Beverage (BOG) at 55°.
QTH: Pennsylvania State Game Lands #26
Duration: 0650-0925 UTC
Solar Indices: Solar Flux = 85 A Index =3 K Index = 2 No storms although there were a few spikes in the preceeding few hours.
WX: Clear to partly cloudy. Dropping into the low 40's F. (low down to 6°
C.)


No sign of Amica 7610 at the start and only a strange wideband noise peaking in strength on the freq. (31 Oct.)

4026 LHH 0652 Mx at first t/in. Bluesy Rock mx at 0713 recheck. Song anmnt at 0716, laser shooting SFX, and more anmnts. 0721 1973 song anmnt and ment of freq, "Laser" jingle, then more anmnts, and back to mx. Noisy signal, but not as fady as the higher freqs. (31 Oct.)

5799.57 FRSH 0853 slow Rock/Pop song. Usual "Close Encounters" IS and fanfare routine at 0856. SFX. Anmnts at 0900. (31 Oct.)

5810.12 R. Centraal 0744 good w/Pop song. 0735 "Don"t Fear the Reaper" by BOC. 0739:25 nice ID about 80% readable, then into remake of "Hush". Excellent at 0742 on peak. "0747 "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Sknyrd. Then went off abruptly in mid-song at 0748:28 unfortunately. Fuzzy carrier, not distinct. Strong sidebands. Audio a little choppy too. (per Ricks blog. Tnx!!) (31 Oct.)

5818 Orion R. Big signal popped up here at 0752. Signal didn't look like the one that was on 5810.12. C&W mx started at 0753:24. 0802 Percy Faith. Canned ID 0803, then "Off Shore Echos" magazine ad. John w/live tlk in DT and EG w/ID over whistling song then. 0808 greetings and rpt acknowledgments. 0827 "One Night in Bangkok" by Murray Head. 0833 GM e-mail anmnt, then live anmnts. 0847 canned ad for AM Forum. Not much in the way of audio by 0912, and barely a signal there at 0925. Nasty machine gun UTE QRM from time to time. (31 Oct.)

5826.03 R. Decibel Mx at 0713. Audible again w/mx at 0736. And on peaks after 0739. Song heavy on the drums at 0749. 0750-0755 short widely spaced anmnts including ID at 0750:50 sounding like "...studio of R. Decibel, Holland". Ment of "...closing down..." at 0754:55, then did exactly so at 0755:10. Had it been just a little stronger or not as fady, would have been much more readable. (per Ianns blog). (31 Oct.)

5834.98 R. Powerliner Same on sometime between 0816 and 0830. Anmnt over mx at 0830. Definite ment of shortwave. Some unrecog. mx weakly, then at 0837:40 simple ID "R. Powerline International from the Netherlands". Could then hear mx, but it was just too weak. Sounded like a Dance beat at 0854. Hardly a signal there by 0912. Surprised to get the ID. Seemed the voice modulation was higher than the mx. (31 Oct.)

6005 FRSH apparently via Germany 0859 mx, then 0900 brief anmnt, and into FRSH history pgm at 0902. Could only recognize the anncrs. Way too much slop QRM from none other than WYFR on 6000. They've ruined more DX reception over the years than any other station. (31 Oct.)

6200 Starlight R. Pop song w/W vcl at 0735, then 0736-0737 deep-voiced M anncr w/possible ID at beginning. Could have been in DT. Seemed like soft Dutch songs. Another anmnt at 0743:30 w/possible ID as "You're listening to R...." and ment of "...dot com" and definite ID as "Starlight R." at 0743:50. Stronger at 0756-0758 and song sounding familiar, but can't recall the title. A few anmnts at 0814, but impossible to copy as it was fading. gradually faded more but looked like it was still there by 0912. Getting a het from a carrier on 6201.5 which was easily notched out. Couldn't do anything about the machine gun UTE that would burst every so often. (31 Oct.)

6209.97 LHH 0735 audible but just below readability threshold. 0750 laser SFX and M w/brief song anmnt. At 0750:38, the FRSH carrier came on 6210.08. FRSH went off at 0810:06 leaving this in the clear once again. More anmnts at 0814 and later at 0837. Decent peak at 0839 during unrec. Pop song. 0841 anmnt again w/laser SFX. Never got any better. Would lose sync during occas. annoying static crashes. (31 Oct.)

6210.08 FRSH Signal came on at 0750:38 and "Clocks" by Coldplay started at 0752:19 to 0757. 0757 full ID w/freqs by M. Mx again then went off at 0810:06. Readable. Just about fair. (31 Oct.)

6220 R. Geronimo Came on at 0900:30. Someone here at 0904, but too weak to get any audio. Couldn't detect any audio until definite mx at 0909 to 0912. Too late in the morning. Some SSB Traffic QRM from 6219. (31 Oct.)

6254.8 R. Telstar South (pres.) 0735 mx audible once the intermittant UTE stopped, then brief unreadable anmnt. UTE started back up at 0736:58, and when it went off at 30 seconds later R. Telstar South was gone. Maybe it was testing for the later xmsn. ukDXer heard it at 1220. Tnx ukDXer blog. (31 Oct.)

6265 FRSH (tent.) Came on sometime between 0849 and 0852. Really nasty wide buzz saw UTE QRM until it went off at 0854. Could have been strains of mx, but nothing definitive. Carrier was still there at 0912. (31 Oct.)

6309.95 R. Pluto Couldn't tell when it really came on but it was there at 0750. Got a little stronger around 0755 and may have had some audio in the next 2 minutes, but not 100% sure. Never did get any positive audio and the signal went off at 0815:02. Also hrd QRM from UTE and occas. SSB traffic just above. ID per Ricks blog. (31 Oct.)

6325.53 R. Merlin Int. 0735 Pop mx. 0739 diabolical voice, laser SFX similar to LHH, then "The Wanderer" by Dion. 0742 usual W anncr. 0748 W anncr again, then M w/echo ID, and back to mx. Caught ID by W at 0758. Just a tad better at 0825, more oldies. 0826:50 short anmnt heavy on the echo. Had QRM from a UTE just above. The notch was just too narrow to cut it out completely. Then another pulsing UTE started on 6327 at 0858 totally wiping out the signal. (31 Oct.)

6380.86 R. Sonic 0735 "Working 9 to 5" by Dolly Parton and voice over ID and e-mail anmnt w/Internet rpt acknowledgement. 0738-0742 "Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel" by Tavaras. Unbelieveable humongous signal briefly at 0742!! Then dropped way down oddly enough. 0750 "Macarena" and rapid voice over anmnts again w/ID "?? Netherland, shortwave R. Sonic...". 0759 "Going to Ibiza" by The Venga Boys w/anncr singing along briefly!! Audio off in mid-song at 0804:32, then signal gone at 0804:44. Really stunned how good this was for the first 8 minutes. If there hadn't been any fading, would have been simply incredible. (31 Oct.)

6515 R. Face de Blatte signal came on at 0900:26. Although the signal seemed strong enough, and there may have been very brief audio, I couldn't be 100% sure as there was some slop-over QRM from UTE WLO in Mobile AL on 6219 LSB and what sounded like a jammed Asian broadcaster on 6518. (31 Oct.)

6553.32 R. Rainbow Did indeed have a very weak carrier here as early as 0823 and after. Absolutely no chance to hear anything substantial. Too weak and too late. But it was there per "Radio Caroline Int." on the Czech/Polish/German border. (31 Oct.)

6952.96 R. Jan Van Gent?? Just a weak carrier here at 0821. UTE QRM about a min later just above. (31 Oct.)

6959.98 Atlantic R. Unrec. Pop mx w/W vcl 0657. 0700 canned tlk from like a movie "relax, sit back...", then lively 1950's Pop song. Really nice peak at 0704. Leslie Stevens with the "Route 66 Oldies Show". Nice song and show anmnt at 0707. Fady signal. (31 Oct.)

7600.49 FRSH 0914 tlk abt the FRSH story. Of course this was a little better than 5799.6. (31 Oct.)

7610.07 R. Amica Finally coming in good at 0722 ID by W ending anmnt and into Dance mx. (31 Oct.)

No sign of RWI on any freqs.

A nice showing this morning. Expected to hear more stations in the
6200-6325 range. Seems stations are speading out across the bands. Have a good week.

[Joe K]

Hi Dave,

Long time no hear, thanks for the report on 5810khz
Glad you can receive my signal, had to switch off TX quite abruptly something came up and would of liked to stay on air longer
Never mind maybe next weekend, will try and improve my carrier, I am still using the PLL I built.

Thanks again

Joe - Central Radio International (UK)

[Andy Richards]

Great set of logs Dave,I especially liked this comment;


"Way too much slop QRM from none other than WYFR on 6000. They've ruined more DX reception over the years than any other station."


Too true.............



Andy Richards.

[JoJo]

Hello Dave, thanks for the log much appreciated