Bolivia

[Ron - Calif.]

BOLIVIA. July 12 with better than normal summertime
reception.

5952.42, Radio Pio Doce, 0131-0156 and 0209-0230*. Pop
LA songs; brief sports coverage with sound of the crowd in the
background; 0228 usual sign off format with very distinctive
whistling “Colonel Bogey March” (commonly known as the
River Kwai March); along with clear IDs; followed by chimes
till off. Even with the normal summertime QRN (static), had
very respectable reception. This sign off format is still one of
my favorites, my audio of which is at  https://goo.gl/82GTaA  .

6024.95, presumed Red Patria Nueva with actual audio, which
is a rare event for me; normally only an open carrier can be
heard here; 0232-0239 with EZL pop songs; poor.

6134.82, R. Santa Cruz went off at 0204*; after playing their
usual "Santa Cruz" song; not as strong as Radio Pio Doce.

[Pigmeat]

I always found that a quarter wave vertical made a real difference in hearing those S. American stations roll in at dusk. Just use the positive side of half wave dipole as the vertical element and lay the negative on the ground as a radial. It seems to pull them in about a half-hour/45 minutes earlier than with other antennas. The vertical element can have a slight slope if you don't have the full height, it doesn't seem to make a difference.

Now that the neighbors have cut their tree down, I'm getting ready to set one up for listening to pirates. I call them an upright L. I don't know what the antenna books call them? I swiped the idea from a QRP site early in the last decade. If you want to use one to transmit, raise the feed point to about 7 feet off the ground and stretch the counterpoise out to a post or a bush so it's not touching the ground. The feed point at that height is 50 ohms, give or take a few ohms. With the raised feed point and three more counterpoises, it becomes a 1/4 wave raised ground plane antenna and functions at maximum potential. I don't have the room, so it's only going to get the one. From experience that does the job for listening purposes.