Report from Dunlo, PA, USA for 6 March 2011

[Dave Valko]

6 March 2011: Not a thing was heard when I awoke. I had to rely on the propagation data alone. I was surprised to see the Solar Flux was a whopping 135. The A index was fairly low though. The Auroral zone was weak and far to the north. What was really shocking was the MUF. It was a high 9 mhz between Iceland and Greenland with higher values outward. Haven't seen it even close to that high at night in years. Everything looked favorable. It ended up being rather poor however. Signal strengths just weren't that strong. QSB was fairly quick with short-term peaks only a few seconds long. There was no long period fading except for the gradual morning fade-out. It was also a little noisy obvously from the storms along the east coast. After last Sunday morning, this morning was a disappointment. Fortunately there was a break in the rain, so I didn't get that wet when laying out the antenna. It was foggy and misty. It was raining when I left.

RX: Microtelecom Perseus SDR with ARR preamp.
ANT: 315' Beverage (BOG) at 50°.
QTH: Pennsylvania State Game Lands #26
Duration: 0650-0950 UTC
Solar Indices: Solar Flux = 135 A Index = 5 K Index = 1 No storms. X-Ray flux was B6.
WX: Cloudy and foggy, misty, and rain. Around 45° F. (7° C.)


4026 LHH 0659 found back on on the air on this freq. Rock mx. 0703 anmnts. Dance song and song anmnts again at 0707 w/ID, then Punk-like song. 0710 ID at end of song and chatter. Sounded like songs from the 80's and didn't recog. any. Pretty steady signal and not much fading. A bit noisy. (6 March)


5800 Geronimo Shortwave Came on the air at 0904:46 amid the machine gun UTE hammering away. Sounded like canned anmnts at 0912 and into what sounded like Rock mx. Live anmnts at 0916 w/ment of "station", and gave mailing addr: "...P.O. Box 101-145 998?? Eisenach, Germany (repeated)...". Back to mx and apparent voice-over tlk after 0919. Faded and not strong enough for audio at 0932 return. (6 March)


5810.23 Free R. Victoria On the air at 0818:50. Sounded like the audio started exactly 6 minutes later w/"Bus Stop" by The Hollies. Some sort of canned anmnt at 0828:45. Just too weak to copy. Couldn't hear anything after that, but then an anmnt was noted at 0846:45 followed by audible mx for about a half minute. Was he having modulation trouble or just peak?? Barely getting above the noise by 0900. Looked like it went off at 0934:34. (6 March)


5820.03 Orion R. Signal on at 0750:50. Mx start 0752:32. Mx from "The Blues Brothers". Percy Faith, then breaking away from routine by going into a live anmnt w/greetings to myself (thanks!!) and R. Tina, and started the show w/"You Really Got Me" by The Kinks at 0803. "Off Shore Echos" ad, canned ID anmnt, and more mx. AM Forum promo. Couple songs and more live anmnts at 0817 but getting difficult to copy. Briefly thanked someone at 0826. "Schools Out" by Alice Cooper at 0829. 0835 "Popcorn" and more live anmnts w/ID and ment of 48 mb, ment R. Saxonia on 6255. "She's Not There" at 0842. Gradually fading and getting difficult by 0900. Not much audio by 0920 but could still hear an anmnt. Had to change the laptop battery then and when I returned at 0932, Orion R. was gone. (6 March)


5994.76 R. Bravo Sierra (tent.) Looked like it came on at 0835:30. Of course it was impossible with R. Australia on 5995. But could see the signal spike above the R.A. slop. Looked like it was still there well after 0900. Could only see the signal w/500 khz bandwidth. (6 March)


6150 R. 6150 No chance for this with the Brazilian R. Record here. ID at 0831. (6 March)


6200.02 R. Orang Utan Came on 5 seconds after Bulgaria went off at 0730:30. Very weak mx then. Slightly stronger at 0735 and recog. operators voice in brief anmnt. Sounded like an ID at 0739. More anmnts at 0807, and again at 0809 at end of what sounded like the song "What is Love" by Haddaway. SSB traffic started right at the best peaks at 0812. Dropped way down and lost all audio. Machine gun UTE QRM after 0846. Mostly in the noise floor by 0900. Still barely visible when I quit at 0950. Drifted slightly up to 6200.05. (6 March)


6209.98 LHH 0719 a little signal showing up, not quite at audio threshold. 0726 end of song and the anmnts. Just able to get ID during anmnts at 0730. Laser shooting jingle at 0740, then "Baby Come Back" by Player at 0741 followed by "Abracadabra" by Steve Miller. Pink Floyd at 0921 during the strongest peak of the evening. UTE QRM from 400 hz above. (6 March)


6214.59 King Shortwave?? Already there at 0719 on 6214.56. Entirely too weak, but getting close to audio threshold at 0730 peaks. FRSH splattering over on it later. It was still visible and up to 6214.78 by 0922. Looked like it was gone at 0932. (Unid. in Ricks radio blog, and reported as King Shortwave in Achims blog) (6 March)


6221.01 FRSH Big signal on at 0751:56. 0752:57 sudden audio start in middle of the pgm and stopped, then usual opening Rock song and "Close Encounters" IS routine w/jingles, etc. Full ID w/time, date and last weeks freqs given. Of course this was a repeat of the 3rd part in the anniversary pgm. Strong and 100% copy, and the best signal on the bands this morning. Was still in and readable when I bugged out at 0950. (6 March)


6240 CWR (tent.) Signal on the air at 0916:40. No chance as it was much too weak. Either faded out completely or went off by 0932. (6 March)


6260.14 FRSH On the air at 0837:23. Definite mx at 0840. Right at audio threshold. Definite anmnt at 0858:10 while 6221 was playing mx. So NOT parallel at this time. Still a little audio at 0902. Started out on 6260.14 and drifted down to 6260.06 by 0903. 0906:20 anmnts w/ment of "records" and "...Febrauary ?? 1998, FRS Holland" ID. Still was not parallel. Couldn't tell whether it was or wasn't after 0919 as I couldn't get any audio. Down to 6260.03 by 0950. Really fady. A relay or the stns xmtr?? (6 March)


6282 R. Shadow Came on the air at 0721:21. Not very strong. Some ext. weak mx from 0725, similar to last week. Lucky to recog. the flute melody on "Do That To Me One More Time" by Captain & Tennille at 0740. The UTE QRM from 6281 was just awful. Kept knocking it out of sync. Between the QRM, QRN, and QSB, it was just impossible. The signal was still visible, although just barely, when I left at 0950. (6 March)


6291.08 R. Scotland Int. On at 0936:56. Certainly sounded like mx at 0944, but UTE QRM from 6289 made it tough. Don't think there was any audio before that as the signal seemed strong enough on peaks and nothing was heard. R. Scotland Int. per ukDXer. (6 March)


6299.81 R. Altrex Signal came on at 0759:44. "Sylvia's Mother" by Dr. Hook at 0809-0812. Definitely anmnt at 0815. Dropped down after that and was only visible on the display. Could still see the little spike rising above the noise floor every once in a while by the time I quit at 0950. Drifted down to 6299.75. Very weak. Lucky to get any audio at all really. (6 March)


6301.26 R. Sonic Saw the signal come on the air here at 0832:55, but moved up to 6310.39 just 20 seconds later at 0833:15. No audio of course. (6 March)


6304.76 UNID. Came on at 0821:47. Getting a little stronger around 0826 but still not enough for audio. So basically just a blip on the screen. Went off at 0833:35. About the same strength as Misti R. above. Freq didn't vary at all. Was there someone here?? (6 March)


6306.44 Misti R. Signal came on at 0807:05. Nowhere near audio level and getting SSB traffic QRM that was almost right on top of it. Almost nothing by 0830 but could just see it rising above the noise floor every once in a while. The little spike was still showing up for the next half hour and seemed to finally go off at 0901:40. (tnx to the blogs for ID) (6 March)


6309.98 R. Pink Panther (tent.) Wasn't there at 0922, but was visible at 0932 when I resumed recording. Too weak and too late. Looked like the signal spike was still rising above the noise floor on rare occasions up to 0947:02, but didn't see it after that. Must have gone off then. ID per ukDXer. (6 March)


6310.39 R. Sonic Came up here from 6301.26 at 0833:15. Then moved up to 6320.5 two minutes later at 0835:18. Again no audio. When he moved to this freq, there was a lot of SSB traffic on either side. So maybe he noticed it also and moved up to 6320.5. (6 March)


6320.50 R. Sonic Could see the signal move up the band from 6310.39 at 0835:20. Must've tuned up the xmtr a little better at 0837:50 as the signal got suddenly stronger, then mx started about 7 seconds later followed by the signal level dying down. Didn't look like a typical fade. Seemed operator produced. Was pretty nice there for about 10 seconds. 0840 brief ID anmnt, then back to mx. Mx audible on a few peaks in the next 2 min., then it faded way down. Drifted up to 6320.55 by the time he went off at 0854:16. (Unid. in Ricks Pirate Radio Blog) R. Sonic at 0840 (per Iann) (6 March)


6325 R. Pink Panther (pres.) Something here right from the start of the recording at 0719, ext. weak. Definitely mx on brief peak at 0729:15. Except for a few peaks around 0733 w/poss. audio, that was it. Looked like there may have still been a signal on at 0855. Really fady signal, in the mud on second and almost audible the next. UTE QRM from 6327. (6 March)


6374.59 R. Underground (tent.) Came on at 0916:58 on 6374.59, quickly moved down to 6374.52 and back up to 6374.59 at 0917:33. Must have waited for R. Sonic to go off. Little spikes rising above the noise floor every so often and not even close to getting any audio. Still there at 0950 when I quit. ID per Iann, Irish Paul, and Achim. (6 March)


6375.54 R. Sonic On the move once again. Watched him move up here after vacating 6320.55 at 0854:17. Although it seemed a little stronger than 6320.5, it was still too weak. Went off the air for good this time at 0912:10. (ID per ukDXer) (6 March)


6944.93 Mike R. Signal came on at 0720:39 and weak instru. mx at 0724. Into Love is a Battlefield" by Pat Benatar at 0727 w/ID jingles at the beginning. 0732 "Walking on Sunshine" by Katrina and the Waves. 0736:00 canned IDs followed by "The Power of Love" by Huey Lewis. 0740 canned ID jingles over "Owner of a Lonely Heart", then next song. Other songs by Blondie, Hot Chocolate, Queen, The Animals. 0754 "Man of Action" and live anmnts. Weak signal for a while, then picked up a bit after 0808. SSB traffic QRM from 6946 after 0746. 0823 anmnt w/ment of 6950, then changed freq up to 6950 at 0824:12. (6 March)


6950.03 Mike R. Moved here at 0824 and immediately anmnts over "Gimme Gimme Gimme" by Abba. Then ID jingle. Continued w/more although a weaker signal. Decent peaks at 0846 and 0848 w/remake or live version of "Baker Street" by Gerry Rafferty. 0851 live anmnts w/IDs and e-mail and tlk abt reception conditons in Holland and the UK. "I Was Made for Loving You" by Kiss at 0855. Went off at 0943:15. (6 March)


6959.83 Atlantic R. Just at audio threshold for about the first half hour. Doors at 0736. "Janie's Got a Gun" by Aerosmith at 0748. Then faded down just below audibility threshold until 0831 when there was another peak for about a min. Then nothing again until 0905 "Don't Come Around Here No More" by Tom Petty followed by "Angel is a Centerfold" by J. Geils, then Hootie and the Blowfish. No more substantial audio. Was getting some SSB QRM for a while after 0900, and OC at 0919. (6 March)

[JoJo]

Hello Dave,

thanks again for the report. I am glad you copied the greetings.
cheers, John

[Dave Scott]

Thanks for the logging, really pleased you heard us!

Dave Scott
Geronimo SW

[Mike Radio]

[size=150][/size]
Thanks Dave for the report. Test on 13.900 is coming up this spring.

Greetings Mike