Logs from Newfoundland, March 3-8. Great fun Saturday!

[newfoundland dxer]

Hi everyone:

It was a very interesting and enjoyable weekend.

Conditions Saturday night were among the best I have ever seen. Borderhunter was booming in here, Spaceman was quite clear, and Black Arrow and Northcoast were clear enough for positive IDs. Signals were so good that it seemed like a record number of US listeners were in Iann's chat. It was great fun for me to be able to compare results live with Dave Valko, JonM in Georgia and others. My friend, Outhouse Radio, also dropped by, and many Europeans stayed up very late to enjoy the great dx conditions. Signal reports were flying back and forth accross the ocean in record numbers. Thanks to all the ops, and listeners, who made it such an enjoyable evening!

At one point, I was switching back and forth between Outhouse and Borderhunter, and I couldn't help noticing how many similarities they have. Both obviously really enjoy broadcasting, and gettings reports from listeners, and it comes through clearly in their voices and laughter. They really have fun, and are a lot of fun to listen to.

I was extemely excited about Sunday morning, and actually woke up before my clock went off at 5:00 local (this is something I never do!) I saw shocked, however, to find that conditions had changed completely in just six hours. The noise level had gone way up, signal strengths had gone way down, and even Borderhunter and Scotland were very weak. I waited until FRSH started, and even their signal was poor. Sunday evening, I managed to hear Spaceman again on 76m, but 48m was completely dead. I could only detect a carrier from Scotland on 6210!

Hopefully, I will get at least one more good Sunday morning before that "window" closes for the summer.

Tuesday, March 2
6925,0u . 0144-0201 . Wolverine Radio (US), songs about Monday, ID at 0150, suffering from s9 local rfi, cutting in and out, Wolverine's signal was s7-s9 during the rfi cutouts

Wednesday, March 3
6925,0 . . 0038-0102 . Channel Z (US), sixth anniversary show, 34342
4025,0 . . 0102-0120 . Laser Hot Hits, barely audible music and talk, 14341

Friday, March 5
6925,0u . 0028-0125 . Outhouse Radio (US), good music (AC/DC and other hard rock), ID, not great conditions, 24342
6326,0 . . 2124-2128 . Radio Spaceman, greetings to listener in Spain, ID, BTO "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet", c/d or complete sudden fade out 2128, 34443
6220,0 . . 2135-2140 . Mystery Radio, ID, dance music, 33442, ute QRM
4025,0 . . 2140-2145 . Laser Hot Hits, barely audible music and talk
846,0 . . . 2146-2213 . Radio North (tent), Johnny Cash "I Walk the Line", more country, no announcements heard, 22442, QRM from 50 kW Boston station on 850 which got stronger and stronger, used intermediate filter (not strong enough for narrow filter)
6925,7 . . 2221-2231 . UNID (US?), barely audible music, no details
6925,0u . 2245-2257 . Outhouse Radio (US), Asian? style music, AC/DC "Shoot to Thrill", distinctive Outhouse laughter and talk, ID, "Shake a Leg", Asian? style music as before, 34342
5110,0 . . 2301-0025 . "Pirate Forum", live from the Winterfest SWL meeting in Kulpsville, US via WBCQ. Audio was barely understandable at best, cut in and out at times for minutes, could not hear any questions from the audience. Unfortunately, from what I could hear, they only promoted the frn and pro-frn sites while ignoring others. Also totally ignored European pirates, except a brief comment from Andy Walker that could not be heard. 44443

Saturday, March 6
6945,0 . . 0030-0038 . UNID (US?), very short clips from "The Simpsons" TV show, apparently random, 34442
6930,0 . . 0040-0105 . UNID (US?), presumably the same station as earlier on 6945, more of the same type of Simpson's clips, included some of my favourites such as "Bad Cop" (only played once on TV, deleted from the repeats), and Mo's polygraph test, better signal, 44443
15065,1 . 1552-1600 . Radio Scotland Int., very weak music and talk, no details possible, ID via Iann's chat,
13875,7 . 1600-1604 . Best of Britan, barely audible music on peaks, ID via Iann's chat.
15069,9 . 1604-1610 . Radio Black Arrow, mostly barely audible, but a couple decent peaks, dance music, I think, ID via Iann's chat.
15071v . . 1820-1826 . Radio Fox 48, very weak music fading in and out, ID via Iann's chat.
15065,1 . 1826-1853 . Radio Black Arrow, music, ID and email 1850, 24342
7610,0 . . 1902-1915 . Radio Amica, long talk by man in Italian, mentions of Amica, dance music, 24342
3900,0 . . 1944-2130 . Radio Spaceman. very weak at first, improved dramatically as sunset approached, up to 34443 by 2045, with Warren Zeven "Werewolves of London", ID, greetings, (Also heard by JonM in Georgia, USA who was in Iann's chat. It is very rare for a pirate to make it into the US on this band, due to the loud ham traffic, especially as far south as Georgia).
6220,0 . . 1949-1953 . Mystery Radio, pop music, "laughter" ID, 44433
6210,7 . . 2013-2019 . Radio Spaceshuttle Int. (tent), barely audible music, mixing with a second station by 2019, which became louder and drowned RSI
6209,9 . . 2019-2042 . UNID, "It's All Too Beautiful", apparently continuous music, no ID heard.
6374,9 . . 2125-2330 . Radio Black Arrow, music "Goin Up the Country", ID, 24342
6210,0 . . 2206-0017 . Radio Borderhunter, on with polka, ID, lots of greetings, 34342 until 2230, then 44443 when he switched to a new antenna, dance music, talking about how difficult it was to change the antenna in the dark. Reception was so clear, I posted on the US site, HF Underground (www.hfunderground.com/board). BH was heard by many other listeners all over North America.
6400,0 . . 2237-2246 . Radio Northcoast, CCR "Bad Moon on the Rise", ID, 33432, ute QRM
6325,0 . . 2310-2318 . Radio Northcoast, "Little Green Bag", greetiings, ID, 24442
6875,1 . . 2359-0005 . The Crystal Ship (US), very weak rock music, one song sounded like Rush (Geddy Lee's distinctive voice), but I did not recognize the song. Not a bad signal, but lots of noise on this frequency, ID via email, 24341

Sunday, March 7
1720,0 . . 0053-0058 . Relmus Radio, tried a brief high power test, but mw was very noisy. I could easily zero beat his carrier, but heard only a few traces of music, ID via Iann's chat
6855.0u . 0045-0130 . Outhouse Radio (US), great guitar song (Hendrix, I think), several AC/DC songs, talk and laughter from Outhouse. Great show, but reception was spoiled by a AM carrier on 6855.3, which put a bad tone on Outhouse. (No doubt deliberate interference from one of the nastier US pirates. This happens regularly.), 33442
6925,0u . 0132-0140 . WMOM (US), synthesizer music, ID, unnown songs, 34443
6950,0u . 0202-0210 . WTCR (US), pop music, ID, 44443
6210,0 . . 0828-0915 . Borderhunter Radio, very weak music and talk, ID via Iann's chat.
6310,0 . . 0834-0840 . Radio Malaisy, very weak dance music, ID via Iann;s chat
6324,9 . . 0848-0900 . Radio Northcoast, continuous, very weak music, ID via Iann's chat
7685,2 . . 0901-0910 . Polaris Radio, weak music and talk, ID via Iann's chat
6400,1 . . 0915-0925 . Radio Scotland Int., weak music, but a little stronger than other signals, could almost identify the music, ID via Iann's chat
7600,0 . . 1052-1055 . Free Radio Service Holland, even FRSH could not break through the noise clearly, unknown song, usual interval signal, 34342
9300,6 . . 1055-1100 . FRSH, interval signal, song, ID, time check, weaker than 7600, 24341
3940,0 . . 2026-0002 . Radio Spaceman, lots of great music, IDs, greetings, much weaker signal than last night, but surprisingly little ham QRM, 34342

Cheers, Terry

Receivers: JRC NRD-525 & Yaesu-Musen FRG-7
Antenna: 75 m long wire, 30 m from house
QTH: Conception Bay South, Newfoundland, Canada

Abbreviations and references:
(US) = United States
IS = Interval Signal
u = usb (upper side band)
L = lsb (lower side band)
v = variable
tent = tentative
pos = possible
QRM = interference
QSO = conversation
ham = licensed radio amateur operator
c/d = close down (transmitter off)
op = operator
othr = over the horizon radar
rfi = radio frequency interference (noise caused by electrical sparking, usually in power lines)
Iann's chat = http://www.easyshopdiscountzone.com/rad ... e/english/

[Glowbug]

Hi Terry,

Conditions this last weekend have been just as good/odd on this side of the country... like WWV down in the noise, yet a 200mW PHiFER beacon a couple hundred Km from their towers was even moving the S-meter at my QTH


Cheers!

[BoBritain]

Hi Terry,

Thanks for the very detailed and enjoyable log and notes - you certainly make an effort!

Glad you just about managed to hear something from us. Must beef up the power on 21mb as only running 10 Watts doesn't quite do the job.

Bob

[Ray Lalleu]

Hello Terry,

I read your last logs carefully, specially for the night of Friday 5 to Saturday 6 :

<quote>
6945,0 . . 0030-0038 . UNID (US?), very short clips from "The Simpsons" TV show, apparently random, 34442
6930,0 . . 0040-0105 . UNID (US?), presumably the same station as earlier on 6945, more of the same type of Simpson's clips, included some of my favourites such as "Bad Cop" (only played once on TV, deleted from the repeats), and Mo's polygraph test, better signal, 44443
</quote>

No, I was not listening at that time. But I probably heard the same station on Monday 8 around 23 UTC, on 6955 kHz AM mode. It seemed at times mixed with a second station with music, and stuck amidst SSB channels. Apart of some music, the highlights were (about 23.12) maybe an ad for "radio T-shirts" with "brand new design", also "offshore" mentionned, and (about 23.23) a 10 minute sketch with man, woman and child, with the words "hundred dollars" and "news on radio-TV". Then, the signal was getting weaker and the audio was soon lost.

I didn't realize at that time, but what I heard (hardly) was probably a Simpson's clip. Nothing looking like that on FRN logs. I think this is a US station, and I'm a bit far from there. US listeners are maybe in the skip zone, and maybe you are at the right distance? I will try again (2 or 3 good weeks with more openings expected on 6.9MHz in the evenings).

Cheers,

Ray

[Caroline]

Hi Terry,

really very interesting logs from you!

Go on so, best!!!

All the best for you,
Caroline.

[Dave Valko]

Terry, it was interesting how conditions were so different between us on Sunday morning. Yes, it certainly wasn't as good as Saturday night, but Sunday morning was still on the good side of fair here in PA. Its a shame you're still having noise problems.

Looks like we're in for a lot of static noise this weekend as a storm is going to be hanging around the east coast. Lets hope we have good conditions again. I think I'll be able to visit Ianns chat for a longer time. Maybe we can do some more comparisons.

[newfoundland dxer]

Thanks for your nice replies guys.

Nice to see you again Glowbug! It's been a while. BoB, that is good news. I would love to log you 21 MHz.

Dave, I'm hoping this weekend is good too. If we have conditions anywhere close to last Saturday, I am sure it will be fun.

Ray: I'm not sure that it was the same station. The Simpsons clips that I heard were very short (most were about 5 seconds, some were up to 15 seconds). Because of the mention of the "new T-shirt", I strongly suspect that it was WBNY that you heard (Bunny has a new shirt and he has been promoting it everywhere). As well, American sites show a log for "The Voice of Next Thursday" around 2250 on 6955. This program is relayed by WBNY.

One person that I don't thank enough is Iann, who provides such a great service to the pirate community by his website and pirate chat. Thanks Iann!

Cheers, Terry