2012 CMMC DXpedition
Roll Over Marconi - Invasion of the PerseusChatham, Massachusetts (41° 42.232' N, 69° 58.843' W)
Introduction by Bruce Conti
This was the second of what will hopefully be an annual winter event at the Chatham Marconi Maritime Center (CMMC) on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Thanks to Chris Black who did all the preliminary legwork in reserving the CMMC and having a Delta antenna ready for us, and to Bob Ryder of the CMMC who opened the Marconi operations building for us and hung around while we did our thing. After a few final adjustments including a slight redirecting of the Delta and adding a Connelly inline RF amp, we were all up and running. In addition I rolled out a few hundred feet of wire on the ground for phasing, but it really didn't make much difference once the DX started rolling in at this outstanding and historic location.
It was an interesting proving ground with Perseus SDR receivers in full force, and test of a mini SuperLoop setup. Bill Kretschmer evaluated Perseus and Excalibur SDR receivers in action as he was considering an upgrade to SDR technology. Steve Wood ran his Perseus out of the box for the very first time. Chris Black and Mark Connelly assisted Steve with loading the software and getting started, and that was basically the last we heard from Steve for the remainder of the evening as he explored all the exciting Perseus features. Meanwhile, Roy Barstow was testing his new mobile mini SuperLoop and Perseus configuration out in the parking lot, and with Mark Connelly's help got it up and running.
Transatlantic signals were coming in by 2000 UTC. Tropical DX was essentially nil except for a couple 'regulars' noted before wrapping things up in the 2300 hour. Overall some nice catches for a three-hour tour. Concluding commentaries follow the logs. All times UTC, January 7, 2012.The DXers and their Equipment
Roy Barstow and Mark Connelly WA1ION; Perseus, 12 x 15-ft micro-SuperLoop peak 60°, null 240°.
Chris Black N1CP; Perseus, 20-ft terminated Delta at 60°.
Bruce Conti; Excalibur, MWDX-5, 20-ft terminated Delta phased with 250-ft wire on ground/100-ft radial.
Marc DeLorenzo; NRD-525, 20-ft terminated Delta at 60°.
Bill Kretschmer N2KNL; Icom 746Pro transceiver, 20-ft terminated Delta at 60°.
Dario Monferini, PlayDX; post-DXpedition feedback.
Steve Wood; Perseus, 250-ft wire on ground at 60°/240° with 100-ft ground radial.
DXpedition Logbook
162 FRANCE France Inter, Allouis 2200 - Top of the hour theme, man with "il et vingt-trois heures" then two men in discussion in French. Good. [Black]
171 MOROCCO R.Mediterranee Internationale, Nador 2200 - Man in Arabic with news segments punctuated by fanfares. Good. [Black]
183 GERMANY Europe 1, Felsberg 2258 - Pop music and man in French. Heavy local interference. Fair. [Black]
189 ICELAND Rikisútvarpid, Gufuskálar 2258 - Teletalk in Icelandic then vocal ballad. Heavy local interference. Fair. [Black]
252 ALGERIA R.Algerienne, Tipaza 2300 - Top of the hour pips and man and woman joking around in French. Heavy local interference. Fair. [Black]
531 SPAIN RNE5 synchros 2101 - Parallel 1107 with woman in Spanish; poor. [Connelly]
549 ALGERIA Chaîne 1, Les Trembles 2100 - Parallel weaker 531 Arabic music, top of the hour pips (5 regular and last shorter and higher pitch) then man with ID, theme music and then woman in Arabic. Very good. [Black]
576 GERMANY SWR Cont. Ra, Baden-Wurttemberg 2200 - Short classical snip, then man in German with ID and continuing talk with many Deutschland mentions. This station scheduled to go off January 8, so got it just in time. Good. [Black] 2201 - Man in German.; poor. [Connelly]
595 MOROCCO SNRT Oujda 2200 - Carrier in 590 WEZE slop, not much showing for audio (and not much on 594). [Connelly]
603 FRANCE France Info, Tramoyes 2300 - Man and woman in French, France Info ID and fanfare music; over Spain. [Connelly]
603 SPAIN RNE5 synchros 2100 - Pips, theme, and man with "Radio Nacional de España, informativos" ID over weaker France Info theme. Very good. [Black]
612 MOROCCO SNRT Sebaa-Aioun 2200 - Bits of Arabic vocal; poor. [Connelly]
621 CANARY ISLANDS//SPAIN RNE1 synchros 2102 - Parallel 774 with sports shouting or political speech by man; in WZON slop. [Connelly]
630 GERMANY VOR Braunschweig-Cremlingen 2059 - VOR with man in Russian, fanfare pips (4-1 longer) then man in Russian with time check and "Golos Rossii." Over WPRO. Good. [Black] 2100 - Five pips last one longer under WPRO too weak to ID language. [Barstow]
639 SPAIN RNE1 La Coruña et al. 2030 - Fair with fútbol match in Spanish; noticeable echo effect. [DeLorenzo] 2100 - Man and woman in Spanish through four minutes of clip, appeared to be ending a program or commentary. No ID noted. Good. [Black]
684 SPAIN RNE1 Sevilla 2033 - Fair with news in Spanish. [DeLorenzo]
693 UNITED KINGDOM BBC Radio 5, Droitwich et al. 2034 - Fair with news by man and woman, "Five Live" ID noted. [DeLorenzo] 2100 - Man and woman asking listeners when they have been caught naked in public. Gave phone number. BBC Five Live ID at 2102. Very good. [Black]
The Marconi Wireless WCC operations building, home of the CMMC museum, and a radio operators display in the museum.
702 FRANCE RMC-Info, Le Col de La Madonne 2036 - Presumed this with woman in French at good level. [DeLorenzo]
711 FRANCE France Info, Rennes 2040 - Fair; apparent football match in French. Male doing play-by-play and female adding color commentary. [DeLorenzo] 2100 - Man in French with "vingt-deux heures" time check and France Info theme music. Very good. [Black]
711.05 WESTERN SAHARA SNRT Laayoune 2100 - Carrier only. [Black]
720 CANARY ISLANDS RNE5 Finca España 2100 - Top of the hour pips and theme music, man with "Radio Nacional de España, informativos" then woman in Spanish. Good. [Black]
738 SPAIN RNE1 Barcelona 2102 - Parallel 774 with sports shouting or political speech by man; in CHCM and CFZM slop. [Connelly]
747 NETHERLANDS Radio 5, Zeewolde 2100 - Top of the hour time pips, woman in Dutch with news. Fair-good. [Black]
756 GERMANY Deutschlandfunk, Braunschweig & Ravensburg 2100 - Pips, man in German. Fair-good. [Black]
774 SPAIN RNE1 synchros 2055 - Good with news by man and woman in Spanish. Definitely giving sports scores at 2057. [DeLorenzo] 2100 - Man and woman in Spanish through four minutes of clip, appeared to be ending a program or commentary. No ID noted. Good. [Black]
783 MAURITANIA R.Mauritanie, Nouakchott 2059 - Woman in apparent teletalk with another woman in Arabic. Arabic music fill to top of the hour then man in Arabic with presumed ID. 2101 very weak Arabic music under, possibly Syria. Fair-good. [Black] 2120 - Good with man chanting in African-accented Arabic and guitar-like plucking. Clearly parallel to 7245 kHz. [DeLorenzo]
792 FRANCE France Info, Limoges 2100 - Man in French with "vingt-deux heures" time check and France Info theme music. Fair. [Black]
819 SPAIN R.Euskadi, San Sebastián 2101 - Tentative; sounded like fast Spanish talk fading in through 820 WNYC slop. [Conti]
828 GERMANY NDR Hannover 2200 - Very weak threshold audio and light bouncy classical top of the hour theme music clearly parallel 783 under Mauritania. Interestingly EMWG shows 783 as MDR Info and 828 as NDR Info. Poor. [Black] 2200 - Had to tune to 827.3 for best audio. Some musical notes then a woman talking and more musical notes, unknown language. [Barstow] MDR Info relays news on the hour over NDR Info, so it is OK. [Monferini]
837 CANARY ISLANDS//SPAIN COPE synchros 2023 - Fair with fútbol match in Spanish parallel to 999 kHz. [DeLorenzo] 2100 - Parallel 999 Spanish 'fútbol' announcer under France Info. Fair. [Black]
837 FRANCE France Info, Nancy 2100 - Over COPE; France Info fanfare into news. [Conti] 2100 - Man in French with "vingt-deux heures" time check and France Info theme music. Good. [Black] 2127 - Fair with man and woman in French over Spain. [DeLorenzo]
855 SPAIN RNE1 Murcia et al. 2100 - Man and woman in Spanish through four minutes of clip, appeared to be ending a program or commentary. No ID noted. Fair-good. [Black] 2130 - Excellent; fútbol match in Spanish. Play-by-play by male and color commentary by female. Perhaps this is a trend in Europe now a la Suzan Waldman on the NY Yankee Radio Network. [DeLorenzo]
864 FRANCE France Bleu, Villebon-sur-Yvette 2130 - Good; France Bleu jingle into a French reggae song. [Conti] 2135 - Good with pop music, man in French briefly, jingle and more pop music. [DeLorenzo] 2200 - Top of the hour theme and man with "il et vingt-trois heures" then woman with France Bleu mentions and pop music. Fair. [Black] Correct name is France Bleu 107.1 naturally news on the hour are same as Radio France Bleu. [Monferini]
873 SPAIN SER synchros 2201 - Parallel 1080, 1116 with fast Spanish talk by man. [Connelly]
880 VENEZUELA R.Venezuela, two sites 2300 - Under WCBS; merengue music, Venezuela 880 slogan. [Conti]
882 UNITED KINGDOM BBC R.Wales, Washford et al. 2141 - Good ending light music and into discussion between man and woman. [DeLorenzo] 2200 - Man with "...BBC Radio Wales" ID. Poor. [Black] 2200 - Fair, over Spain; "This is... on BBC Radio Wales, tonight's program is dedicated..." [Conti]
891 unID 2207 - Strong open carrier; Algeria likely. [Conti]
DXing the 'old-fashioned' way, one station at a time: Marc Delorenzo with the NRD-525, and Bill Kretschmer with the Icom 746 Pro.
900 CUBA R.Progreso, San Germán 2300 - Signature chime with time check well under domestics. What sounded like Koranic vocals heard earlier likely from Saudi Arabia. [Conti]
909 UNITED KINGDOM BBC Radio 5 synchros 2100 - Man and woman asking listeners when they have been caught naked in public. Gave phone number. BBC Five Live ID at 2102. Good. [Black] 2147 - Excellent with teletalk and noticeable echo effect. Best signal ever from this one! [DeLorenzo] 2200 - Good, slight synchro echo; talk show host says, "Have a good weekend" into news, "On digital and online, this is BBC Radio, Five Live" and 10 o'clock time check. [Conti]
936 IRAN IRIB R.Iran, Urumiyeh 2201 - Man in presumed Farsi. Poor. [Black] 2210 - Fair; Middle Eastern music parallel 1503 kHz. [Conti] 2211 - Discussion between two men in presumed Farsi - per tip from Bruce. [DeLorenzo]
936 SPAIN RNE5 synchros 2300 - Poor; familiar fanfare and news intro barely making it through whatever else was on the frequency. [Conti]
945 FRANCE France Info, Toulouse 2222 - Good; man in French playing audio clips of football highlights from earlier in the day. [DeLorenzo]
954 CZECH REPUBLIC Ceský rozhlas synchros 2300 - Poor; signing off with instrumental orchestra national anthem through the hour. [Conti]
954 SPAIN Onda Cero, Madrid 2201 - Man in Spanish; good, birdie on about 956 notched. [Connelly]
963 FINLAND Radio 86, Pori 2059 - CRI program with Chinese orchestral music; mixing with apparent Spain. [Connelly]
963 TUNISIA RTT Tunis 2200 - Koranic vocal through two other stations; Tunisia likely. [Conti] 2201 - Arabic vocal; over two talkers, one of which was Spain. [Connelly]
972 GERMANY NDR Info, Hamburg 2310 - Fading in strong with pop music, just before we wrapped it up for the night. [Conti]
981 ALGERIA Chaîne 2, Algiers 2100 - Top of the hour pips and woman in French. Heavy 980 WCAP interference. Poor. [Black] 2100 - Poor in 980 WCAP slop; time marker, announcement, and fanfare into news. [Conti]
999 MOLDOVA VOR Maiac 2058 - A series of five second tones five seconds apart in advance of 2100 sign on. Top of the hour pips (3-1) then man in Russian with greeting, fanfare and news segments. [Black] 2100 - Good, over COPE Spain; open carrier, then time marker on the hour and "Golos Rossii, Novosto" into news. [Conti] 2300 - "Golos Rossii" ID. EMWG shows VOR World Service this time. Fighting with Spain. Fair-good. [Black] 2300 "Golos Rossii" ID, chimes, then signal disappeared into the muck. [Conti]
999 SPAIN COPE Madrid 2019 - Fair with fútbol match in Spanish; second TA noted underneath - probably Moldova per others. Heard more than an hour before local sunset. [DeLorenzo] 2100 - Parallel 837, "fútbol" announcing under/over Moldova. Fair. [Black] 2200 - Over Moldova; sports commentary in Spanish. [Conti]
1008 NETHERLANDS GrootNieuwsradio, Zeewolde 2101 - Man in Dutch then piano music. Heavy 1010 WINS slop. Poor. [Black] 2258 - Poor in heavy 1010 WINS slop; English vocal with piano accompaniment, quick ID on the hour, and more music. [Conti]
1026 SPAIN SER synchros 2202 - Fast Spanish talk parallel 1080; through WBZ slop. [Connelly]
1035 PORTUGAL Star FM, Belmonte 2301 - Had to really dig this out of heavy 1030 WBZ analog slop; Star FM jingle into pop music. [Conti]
1044 SPAIN SER San Sebastián & Valladolid 2200 - Through 1030 WBZ HD digital noise; time marker and sports talk parallel 873, 1080, 1116, and 1584 kHz. [Conti]
1053 UNITED KINGDOM TalkSport synchros 2100 - Man with news. Poor-fair. [Black]
1062 ITALY Rai Radiouno synchros 2100 - Male and female in Italian. 2201 - Woman in Italian. Fair. [Black] 2225 - Good on fade in with synchro echo; talk in Italian. [Conti] 2257 - Fair; light music, woman in Italian with apparent signoff announcement, brief test tone and carrier cut at 2301. [DeLorenzo] 2300 - Fair; usual sign-off with test tones, off at 2301 UTC. [Conti]
1071 IRAN IRIB R.Maaref, Qom 2201 - Muslim chanting; poor to fair. [Connelly]
1080 SPAIN SER synchros 2100 - Fair under WTIC with time pips then into news. A minute ago they were on top the channel. [Barstow] 2100 - Parallel 1026; top of the hour pips then exuberant man in Spanish. Good. [Black] 2100 - Good over WTIC; many "once" mentions apparently talking about what's coming up at 11, heard "once" mentions again at 2200, parallel 1116 and 1485 kHz. [Conti]
1089 UNITED KINGDOM TalkSport synchros 2100 - Man with news and promos. Gave weather report for Scotland. Het from 1088 Angola and splat from 1090 WILD Boston. Poor-fair. [Black] 2307 - Good with teletalk. [DeLorenzo]
1098 SPAIN RNE5 synchros 2100 - Pips, RN theme and man with "Radio Nacional de España, informativos" ID. Poor-fair. [Black] 2300 - Good over unID; time marker, "Son las doce de la noche..." time check, "Radio Nacional de España, 24 horas..." parallel 1107 and 1125 kHz. [Conti]
Navy operators are frozen in time as Steve Wood figures out the high tech Perseus, while Mark Connelly checks signal strength with Chris Black at his Perseus station.
1107 SPAIN RNE5 synchros 2100 - Pips, RN theme and man with "Radio Nacional de España, informativos" ID. Poor-fair. [Black] 2200 - Good, synchro echo; "Radio Nacional de España, Informativos," parallel 1125 kHz. [Conti] 2313 - Fair; man in Spanish, music bridge, woman with news or feature in Spanish. [DeLorenzo]
1116 ITALY Rai Radiouno synchros 2301 - Caught a clear sign-off test tone under SER Spain. [Conti]
1116 SPAIN SER synchros 2100 - Parallel 1026; top of the hour pips then exuberant man in Spanish. Poor-fair. [Black] 2300 - "Cadena Ser... deportes" promo, time marker, and vocal leading into sports program, "Muy buenas noches..." [Conti]
1125 SPAIN RNE5 synchros 2100 - Pips, RN theme and man with "Radio Nacional de España, informativos" ID. Good. [Black] 2202 - Mixing with another station. Madeira? [Barstow] 2300 - Fair; significant synchro echo between stations. [Conti]
1134 CROATIA Hrvatske Radio, Zadar 2159 - Pips (two long and last longer) then man with "Hrvatske radio" ID and fanfare. Then news in Croatian by woman. Good. [Black] 2259 - Good; choral national anthem, then signature time marker and Hrvatske Radio ID with fanfare into news. [Conti] 2319 - Excellent with news in English. [DeLorenzo]
1134 SPAIN COPE synchros 2100 - Parallel 1143; man in rapid Spanish over weaker Croatia. Fair-good. [Black]
1143 KALININGRAD VOR Bolshakovo 2100 - "Golos Rossii Radyo" then fanfare and time pips (3-3). Fighting with Spain. Poor-fair. [Black] 2100 - Fair; "Golos Rossii, Radyo," chimes and time marker. [Conti]
1143 SPAIN COPE synchros 2100 - Parallel 1134; man in rapid Spanish. Poor-fair. [Black]
1152 ROMANIA România Actualitati, Cluj 2130 - Fair, over Spain; discussion between a man and sing-songy woman parallel 1179 and a weak 1332 kHz. [Conti]
1152 SPAIN RNE5 synchros 2101 - News by man and woman in Spanish; poor. USB used to dodge WWDJ but notch was also needed to take out local birdie on approx. 1153.8 kHz. [Connelly]
1179 CANARY ISLANDS//SPAIN SER synchros 2100 - Parallel 1116; top of the hour pips then exuberant man in Spanish. Heavy interference from 1170. Poor. [Black]
1179 ROMANIA R.România Actualitati, Galbeni-Bacau et al. 2300 - Orchestral vocal, top of the hour time pips and man in Romanian. Fair. [Black] 2300 - Good; nostalgic orchestra vocal, R.România Actualitati ID, time marker with time check into news. [Conti]
1188 IRAN IRIB R.Payam, Tehran 2300 - Top of the hour signature ascending tones, man in Farsi. Poor-fair. [Black] 2300 - Fair; signature ascending notes into news. [Conti]
1197 SPAIN Euskadi Irratia, Vitoria 2058 - Poor; bumper music leading up to news, parallel 1386 and 1476 kHz. [Conti]
1206 FRANCE France Info, Bordeaux 2100 - Man in French with "vingt-deux heures" time check and France Info theme music. Very good. [Black]
1215 KALININGRAD VOR Bolshakovo 2059 - Voice of Russia world service female announcer giving frequencies and web address under Absolute Radio. Poor. [Black] 2059 - Woman in English with internet and email addresses, then off - leaving Absolute Radio and COPE Spain. [Conti]
1215 SPAIN COPE synchros 2100 - Man in rapid Spanish fighting with Absolute Radio. Good. [Black] 2101 - Man with sport-related shouting/fast talk; briefly over UK. [Connelly]
1215 UNITED KINGDOM Absolute Radio synchros 2056 - Good; Elton John "The Bitch Is Back," Absolute classic rock promo into ad string. [Conti] 2100 - Rock music, ads and promos with Absolute Radio IDs, fighting with COPE Spain. Very good. [Black]
1242 FRANCE France Info, Marseille 2200 - France Info fanfare music, French talk; barely over the WBUR slop. [Connelly]
1251 LIBYA R.Libya, Tripoli 2201 - Arabic news by man; poor. [Connelly]
1269 GERMANY Deutschlandfunk, Neumunster 2158 - Man with news in German and Deutschlandfunk mention. Fair. [Black] 2200 - Through 1270 CJCB slop; news in German parallel 1422 kHz. [Conti]
1287 SPAIN SER synchros 2201 - Poor in WRNI slop; talk parallel 1044, 1080, etc. [Conti]
1296 UNITED KINGDOM Radio XL, Langley Mill 2059 - Asian music, 2100 man with news. 2200 Man with "This is Radio XL" and into news and sports. Poor-fair. [Black] 2200 - Fair; "On digital and 1296 AM, this is Radio XL" into news/sport report. [Conti] 2203 - To a good peak; mentioned a number, 212702500 then into weather. [Barstow]
1305 IRAN IRIB Bushehr 2100 - Carrier noted at ~1305.1 per mwoffset list. [Black]
1305 SPAIN RNE5 synchros 2100 - Pips, RN theme and man with "Radio Nacional de España, informativos" ID. Fair-good. [Black] 2100 - Spain and another unknown with 3 pips at top of the hour. Maybe another Spain? [Barstow] 2100 - Over unID; loud synchro echo with one-second delay between stations; "Radio Nacional de España... Nacional de España... Informativos... Informativos." [Conti]
1305 unID 2215 - Someone here with rock music in an unID language. One of the Spaniards I guess. [DeLorenzo]
1314 SPAIN RNE5 synchros 2100 - Pips, RN theme and man with "Radio Nacional de España, informativos" ID. Fair. [Black]
1314 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES R.Farda, Al Dhabbaya 2157 - Presumed this with Middle Eastern music and man in apparent Farsi. Time pips apparently from Spain cutting through at 2200. [DeLorenzo]
1323 GERMANY VOR Wachenbrunn 2158 - Man and woman in Russian, top of the hour pips (4). Fair. [Black] 2200 - Good; "Golos Rossii" ID and loud time marker. [Conti]
1332 IRAN R.Tehran, Tehran 2200 - Men in telephone talk. Poor-fair. [Black] 2200 - Good; telephone talk with brief instrumental interlude. [Conti] 2201 - Sounded like a call in talk show - man and a woman in unknown language. [Barstow]
1341 NORTHERN IRELAND BBC R.Ulster, Lisnagarvey 2100 - Irish music. Man with BBC R.Ulster ID then woman with news. Heavy interference from ESPN Radio 1340 and other domestics. 2300 - Nostalgic male vocal ballad. "This is BBC Radio Ulster." Fair-good. [Black] 2300 - Good; nostalgia, "On 92 and 95 FM, and 1341 medium wave, this is BBC Radio Ulster" into BBC news. [Conti]
1368 UNITED KINGDOM Manx Radio, Foxdale 2301 - Presumed this with news in English during a break in 1370 WFEA slop. [Conti]
1377 FRANCE France Info, Lille 2125 - Good; talk parallel 945, 1206, 1224, 1494, and 1557 kHz. [Conti] 2200 - Man in French with "vingt-deux heures" time check and France Info theme music. Fair-good. [Black]
1394.85 ALBANIA TWR Fllakë 2029 - Fair; contact info and one cycle of TWR interval signal. [Conti] 2100 - Strong carrier and threshold audio only. [Black]
Vintage WCC sign on display in the museum, and Bruce Conti dares to show up with a non-Perseus SDR, DXing with an Excalibur.
1413 SPAIN RNE5 synchros 2100 - Pips, RN theme and man with "Radio Nacional de España, informativos" ID. Very good. [Black] 2300 - Good; time marker and check, fanfare, "Radio Nacional de España, 24 horas..." parallel 855 and 1305 kHz. [Conti]
1422 GERMANY Deutschlandfunk, Heusweiler 2059 - Techno modern music then man with "Deutschlandfunk" ID and news items in German. Fair-good. [Black] 2300 - Good, over unID; "Deutschlandfunk" and time marker into news. [Conti]
1431 DJIBOUTI R.Sawa, Arta 2100 - "Radio Sawa" ID and Middle Eastern pop music. Heavy 1430 WKOX slop. Poor. [Black] 2100 - Fair in 1430 WKOX slop; R.Sawa ID, contemporary music. [Conti-NH]
1440 LUXEMBOURG RTL Marnach 2100 - RCI theme and man with "Ici Radio Chine International," then relay of CRI with woman in French. Fair-good. [Black] 2300 - Over/under WRED; web address and ID in English, "This is CRI... Beijing" and news in English from "China Radio International." [Conti]
1457.8 ALBANIA CRI Fllakë 2040 - Measured 1457.864 kHz in a het party with 1458.000 and 1458.004 kHz. [Conti]
1458 UNITED KINGDOM Sunrise Radio, Brookmans Park 2100 - Sunrise Radio jingle ID, man and woman with news, and ad spots with phone numbers, London mentions, punctuated with fanfares. Poor-fair. [Black]
1467 FRANCE TWR Roumoules 2100 - Ethnic music then woman in presumed Kabyle per EMWG. Good. [Black] 2259 - Good; end of Arabic program, one cycle of TWR interval signal, then momentarily off for antenna pattern change, "Good evening and welcome to TransWorld Radio UK, broadcasting on 1467 kilohertz..." into "Saturday broadcast of Rendezvous." [Conti]
1476 SPAIN Euskadi Irratia, Biribilondo 2233 - Good; female vocal parallel 1386 kHz. Het on high side noted strongest at 2100 likely from Iran. [Conti]
1485 SPAIN SER synchros 2200 - Good; talk with "once" time checks parallel 1080 and 1116 kHz. [Conti]
1494 CORSICA France Bleu, Bastia 2101 - French talk by man was not parallel 1206; to fair peak. [Connelly] 2302 - Urban contemporary/dance music, not parallel 864 France Bleu or any of the France Info frequencies. Potential ERA Greece parallels not found either. [Conti] In fact France Bleu Frequenza Mora, Bastia is not in parallel with France Bleu. [Monferini]
1503 IRAN IRIB R.Iran, Bushehr 2100 - Fanfare then piano flourish and man in Farsi and more middle eastern sounding music. Fair. [Black] 2258 - Good; setar with percussion, man in Farsi. [Conti]
1503 SPAIN RNE5 La Línea de Concepción & Piñeira 2200 - Significant synchro echo indicating reception of both stations, fading up over Iran; time marker and fanfare into news. [Conti]
1521 SAUDI ARABIA BSKSA Duba 1938 - As usual, the first TA to produce audio, nearly two hours before local sunset. Fair with Arabic teletalk. [DeLorenzo] 2100 - Arabic music, theme music and man in Arabic with news items. Very good. [Black]
1530 ROMANIA R.România Actualitati, Mahmudia & Mihaileni 2258 - Under WCKY; nostalgic orchestra vocal, time marker and ID into news parallel 1179 kHz. [Conti] 2300 - Time pips under WCKY; parallel 1152 and 1179 kHz. [Barstow]
1530 SAO TOME E PRINCIPE Pinheira 2100 - Yankee Doodle under WVBF and others. [Barstow] 2159 - Woman with VOA promo, then man on the hour with "This is the Voice of America, Washington DC signing off" and gave info for times and frequencies. Good. [Black] 2200 - Good; "This is the Voice of America, Washington DC, signing off," and postal address for program schedule. [Conti]
1539 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES VOA Al Dhabbaya 2159 - Fair; contemporary Middle Eastern vocal, fanfare with presumed ID in unID language, then news in English. [Conti] 2200 - News in English; in fair. [Barstow] 1548 MOLDOVA VOR Grigoriopol 2059 - Light jazz music filler to the hour, then woman in Italian ending program. Then into Serbian program. Fair-good. [Black] 2100 - Over/under BBC R.Bristol; Serbian program. [Conti]
1548 UNITED KINGDOM BBC R.Bristol, Mangotsfield 2200 - Fanfare music into BBC news at 10 o'clock. Good then buried in the mix. [Barstow] 2200 - "Stand by for BBC news and weather," then woman with FM and on-line mention and man with "BBC Radio Bristol" ID, then double fanfare and time check (ten o'clock). Fair. [Black] 2200 - Over Moldova and Kuwait mix; "Across the west on FM, DAB, and online, BBC Radio Bristol" with fanfare, then "BBC news at 10 o'clock." [Conti]
1557 FRANCE France Info, Fontbonne 2100 - Man in French with "vingt-deux heures" time check and France Info theme music. Very good. [Black] 2300 - Excellent; France Info ID, fanfare into le journal. [Conti]
1575 ITALY Rai Radiouno synchros 2300 - Sign-off test tones under R.Farda. Poor. [Black] 2300 - Under R.Farda; sign-off test tones. [Conti]
1575 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES R.Farda, Al Dhabiya 2259 - Female vocal, top of the hour announcement and woman in Arabic with news. Fair. [Black] 2300 - Good over Italy; R.Farda ID into news parallel 1314 kHz. [Conti]
1584 SPAIN SER synchros 2100 - Parallel 1026; top of the hour pips then exuberant man in Spanish. Fair. [Black] 2100 - Good; talk over music bed, parallel 1116 and 1485 kHz. [Conti]
1584 ITALY Rai Radiouno, Terni 2300 - Sign-off test tones only. Poor. [Black] 2300 - Under Spain and 1590 WARV slop; sign-off test tones. [Conti]
1602 SPAIN R.Vitoria, Vitoria 2200 - Woman with "Euskadi Irratia Radio Vitoria" ID then alternating man and woman with news in Spanish. Fair-good. [Black]
A not so mini SuperLoop mounted on Roy Barstow's truck. That's Roy standing outside the truck while Mark Connelly works inside. (The Marconi hotel building is in the background.)
Roy Barstow
First off nice to see other DXers at a good DX site. Also nice to know my mobile setup is working fine as about everything heard inside I also received outside with a 12 by 15-ft loop and Perseus. Thanks to Mark Connelly for helping me out with antenna set-up and computer work. Mark and I were picking up a buzz maybe from the outside lanterns in the parking lot at times. I did not list all my captures, only the new ones for me and some others.
Marc DeLorenzo
All things considered, I was pleasantly surprised. Nothing extraordinary heard but a few awesome signals from some of the regulars: 855 RNE and 909 BBC were "best ever" signals for me. Only new one for me was 1062 Italy thanks to a tip from Bruce. And a huge thanks to Mark C for loaning us his amplifier!Steve Wood
Everything I received has been mentioned by others. I really spent most of the time putting the new Perseus thru its maiden run. A lot of the listening I did was on the shortwave bands, nothing out of the ordinary was heard. I'm still working on familiarizing myself with the overall operation of the receiver.
Chris Black N1CP
Well, so ends our second annual Chatham event. I hope everybody had fun. We keep getting better each time we role in like the circus and then disappear into the night! And it was great that everybody got to participate. I would give the TAs a solid C+. I took a look at my totals from last year (99 logs from 36 countries) and compared to this year (80 logs from 26 countries). Of course the cycle is moving up, there was definitely more noise this year, and the south was AWL. I was pleased that we managed to work around all the local building (or power line?) QRM and get what we did. I will try to get down again with my 'hot and sour' radio and see if I can get a better fix on the sources of the QRM.
Internet Connections
Visit the CMMC website at www.chathammarconi.org to learn about the history of the Marconi Wireless WCC site. Consider supporting CMMC preservation and education efforts by becoming a member.
Check out the 2011 CMMC DXpedition report at www.bamlog.com/cmmcdxped.htm for more photos and background information from the inaugural event.
See http://home.comcast.net/~dxlab/pictures/micro_superloop.htm for a Mark Connelly micro SuperLoop design drawing.
73 and Good DX!
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