25-27 Nov. 2011 Loggings from Dunlo, PA, USA

[Dave Valko]

15090 USB Fox 48 Canned repeating IDs w/e-mail by M at 1244:45, and canned e-mail anmnt at 1246:40. Again 1249:30. Gone at 1256. Weak and fady. Best at t/in. Just a short test when I got on Ianns chat. Mike said 100 watts + (25 Nov.)

15008.05 R. Trans Europe On as early as 1253. Getting some mx at 1255. Almost strong enough at 1257 to recognize songs. Peak at 1259:30 and 1300:10. WWV splattering overtop at 1300. Anmnt by W at 1301:30 to s/off. Just too weak to copy. Off at 1302:40. (25 Nov.)

15008.06 R. Trans Eruope Testing here again at 1240. Sounded like a W tlking to 1241, then mx. 1246:10 brief peak, then dropped back down. Went off at 1251:00. Was right around threshold. Said was using a G5RV 15.5 meters long. (26 Nov.)

15090.15 USB Fox 48 Hrd here w/good signal. "Daddy Cool" by Bony M at 1240. 1247 "Calling America" by ELO. Switched over to AM at 1249:20 or so. Went back to USB at 1252:20. Just weak audio in AM. Had faded by the time he resumed in USB. ID at 1255:00. ID 1258:15. Getting stronger again by 1305. Played Rolling Stones, Cat Stevens, Prince, AC/DC. Went to AM again at 1319:30. Sounded like an ID then at 1321, then went off at 1322:00. (26 Nov.)

15090 USB R. Shadow On here after Fox went off at 1322 and heard oldies including "Oh Donna" at 1327. 1331:25 jingle ID "You are listening to R. Shadow (by M) ?? on shortwave (by W)...America ?? (by M)". Into "All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down" by Dwight Yoakam from 1331 until he went off at 1335:58. Said was 90 watts. Testing new atenna tuner with 48 mb ant. (26 Nov.)

Got some very nice e-QSL's in the last week from R. Scotland Int., R. Fox 48, R. Pluto, and Mike R. Tnx!! (26 Nov.)

27 November 2011: At home, there was almost nothing from 6970, barely any audio from 4015 LHH, and only a carrier from 6200 Orang Utan. Probably should have returned to bed, and would have if the weather wasn't pleasant. Poor conditions. Quick fading. Signal levels just weren’t that strong. The only factor that looked like it would have affected conditions was the S1 solar radiation storms. There was a 7 Mhz MUF over Iceland. Pretty uneventful outing. No problems encountered.

RX: Microtelecom Perseus SDR with ARR preamp.
ANT: 315' Beverage (BOG) at 50°.
QTH: Pennsylvania State Game Lands #26
Duration: 0700-0915 UTC
Solar Indices: Solar Flux = 133, A Index = 4, K Index = 1 X-ray Flux = B3 S1 solar radiation storms.
WX: Partly cloudy and starry. Warm, mid 40’s F.

4015 LHH 0700 end of Pop song, then live anmnts by M w/ID, and back to mx
w/unrecog. Pop song. Not very strong and occas. losing sync. (27 Nov.)

5820.04 Orion R. 0758 OC. 0759:22 Polka started. 0800 GM ID/e-mail/mailing addr, then Percy Faith. 0850 still doing pretty well but all other stns in the mud. John w/live anmnts at 0852, and Christmas mx!! 0900 "Its Not Unusual" by Tom Jones, then "Ticket to Ride" by The Beatles. 0905 canned ID and more mx. 0909:30 live ID and ment of Saxonia. Odd that this would still be coming in when other stns had faded out (except the UK ones). (27 Nov.)

6045 R. Iceman via Wertactal Huge signal at 0900 on the air. 0903 end of song then live ID, freq, "Netherlands" QTH, and contact info over Percy Faith. Nice Dutch song, then 0909 anmnts saying they got a lot of reception reports and acknowledged reports. IDs. Great signal obviously. (27 Nov.)

6200 R. Orang Utan Right on freq this time. Mx at start w/SSB traffic QRM. QRM from het on 6199.84 also. 0713 "Drivers Seat" by Sniff-n-the-Tears. Canned ID jingles at 0716:00. Not very strong, fady. 0725 "Sandstorm" by Darude. 0726:50 to 0727:55 anmnt. 0729 Pepperbox and ID anmnts, good morning to yours truly "in the USA" 0730:05. Peak at 0731. Into "Love Is King" by ELO. Really nice at 0754, 0754:50 clear anmnt w/greetings to Rainier and Dr. Tim, ID. 0757:00 jingle. (27 Nov.)

6214.75 King Shortwave On the air at 0805:10 on 6214.93, then 15 seconds later quickly moved up to 6215.75 and back down to 6214.75. So definitely not a crystal controlled xmtr. Drifted up to 6214.94 by 0910. Only bits of mx on rare peaks early on. Had to shift the passband up to avoid the UTE on 6213. Tnx to ukDXer, and Irish Paul blogs. (27 Nov.)

6220.21 R. Merlin Int. 0700 "Brass in Pocket" by The Pretenders. 0706-0709 "Highway Star" by Deep Purple. 0709:30 canned jingle/anmnts. Into Dance song. Poss. anmnt at 0717:15. Dance mx at 0807. Just below readability threshold. Audio seemed a little muffled. (27 Nov.)

6260.02 UNID. Big OC on at 0812:48. Some SSB bleedover from 6257. Gone at 0821:53. Wonder if this was the same stn that was on 6304.91 just 6 minutes earlier. No buzzing though. Same strength. (27 Nov.)

6282 R. Shadow Came on the air at 0731:38. Mx finally started 0739:07. Poss. weak anmnt 0741:40. Nice brief peak at 0749 but didn't recognize the song. 0756 "Radar Love". Flutes in song at 0831. Sounded like a canned anmnt at 0832. Still visible when I stopped recording at 0910. Really too weak. Severe UTE QRM from 6281. (27 Nov.)

6304.91 UNID. OC slowly rising up here at 0743:50, then went off, and popped back on at 0745:07. Mx start 0747:45. 0748 distorted audio. Stopped it at 0749:30. Occasional buzzing the entire time like a bad audio connection. Tried a little more mx at 0800:45. Started next song at 0801:50 then audio gone again. Up w/audio briefly at 0804:05 but still distorted. A little more mx just before it went off at 0806:50. SSB QRM. Operator, if you'd like an MP3 audio file, please contact me. (27 Nov.)

6325 Misti R. Signal on at 08:19:00 and immediately had instru. guitar mx. Machine gun UTE blasting it out at 0825-0829. Mx on brief peak at 0831. Couple peaks to 0846, but that was about it. Went off at 0909:53. Had to narrow the bandwidth and offset the passband to avoid the heavy UTE QRM from 6327. Tnx ukDXer and Ricks blog. (27 Nov.)

6930.05 Irish Music R. Came on at 0855:15 then mx started just seconds later. Live M anncr at 0857, but mainly uncopiable. 0903 anmnt then into mx. Poor conditions made it difficult. (27 Nov.)

6960 R. Geronimo Shortwave Signal up at 0827:40. Audio up at 0833:22 "Fanfare for the Common Man" by ELP. Deadair, then 0836 live ID, jingle, then another ID w/mailing addr and e-mail addr. Into "Freebird" by Lynyrd Sknyrd at 0840. 0845:20 M anncr, ment of Geronimo Shortwave and e-mail addr. Better than LHH. 0851 ID anmnt amid SSB traffic QRM at this time. Had to notch out a signal on 6959.81. Really picked up nicely briefly at 0849 w/David Bowie. "Don't Fear the Reaper" by BOC at 0906. Tough time of it with the het just below, the SSB traffic, and the machine gun UTE. (27 Nov.)

6970 LHH Just a weak signal w/barely any audio at 0704 t/in. Up out of the noise floor w/mx by 0709, then right back down. Unreadable anmnt at 0725. Then losing sync and dropping down into the noise floor completely. 0755 starting to come back w/"Laser Goes DX" pgm segment w/poss. e-mail addr at 0758. Mentioned "Dutch Pirate" at 0759. Played recording of an ad at 0801. 0803:50 pgm and stn ID. Played R. Caroline recording at 0806. Full ID w/freqs at 0810 (gave old 75 mb freq), then jingle and back to mx. Machine gun UTE roaming this area picking off the stns here. (27 Nov.)

6285 RWI Signal came on at 0712:43 on 6986.4 and immediately moved 6287. At 0715:35 it moved down slowly and finally settled on 6985 at 0716:05. Just strong enough to get a little audio (sounded like M tlk) at 0726. Had drifted down to 6984.87 by 0800. Simply not chance for this. (27 Nov.)

At home...

15010.08 R. Trans Europe Audio just barely coming through at 1354. Sounded like an anmnt at 1356 but could’ve been vcl in song. Thought hrd M anncr at 1359. Went off at 1400:15. (27 Nov.)

15010.15 USB R. Fox 48 Hrd again w/Dance mx around 1338, went to AM mode briefly (audio just barely coming through), then back to USB. Usual jingle ID and e-mail at 1349, then off. (27 Nov.)

[JoJo]

Hello Dave; thanks again for the log, much appreciated. Indeed first xmas song was played

[Dave Scott]

Thanks for the logging Dave. Glad you managed to catch us.
73's Dave (Geronimo SW)