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Author Topic: MW season conclusion  (Read 3973 times)

Offline Jari Finland

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MW season conclusion
« on: May 02, 2017, 1220 UTC »
2016-2017 solar activity continued downward trend, but it feels that season did not completely fulfill my overtly high expectations. (as if ever...) There were some excellent openings that followed the established 28-day cycle. However, between the peaks there were several miserable weeks with a lot of aurora and serious geomagnetic disturbances. At no point were there conditions like 1997, when transatlantic stations were booming all night long every night for a week or two. Peaks were high, ebbs were abyssmal.

As solar activity is expected to continue to the bottom towards 2018-2019, the expectations for next season couldn't possibly be higher, bringing even more disappointments. As Samuel Beckett famously said, fail again, fail better!  8)

That said, during the good conditions of season 2016-2017, as short as they may have been (1-2 nights in row), the quality and depth was very good if not even excellent.

I have always been lazy to send reception reports, but still I somehow managed to collect 40 new NA stations this season. What is even more remarkable, I verified 7 new US states. This is a number I haven't achieved since I was listening in Lapland the last time, and that was around 1995. I even logged my very first "real" graveyard station, 1240 WJMC Rice Lake WI. (CBG Gander doesn't count  ;) ) Difference between Lapland and Southern Finland is significant, so I can only be very happy for this successful season.

Also this season proved me something I had suspected all along: as the European megawatt stations have closed down, there is a lot of free space on dial and successful MW dxing is possible even in semi-urban surroundings. While preparing for this season in our local club we concentrated in lowering the noise level as much as possible, which is not so easy in modern environment. Frequencies 1490-1540 are still unusable thanks to unidentified interference from the direction of 550 metres NA wire. The more or less questionable resistor and grounding system that makes the wire a beverage antenna either works or doesn't. At the very least the grounding attempt didn't cause harm.  

In addition to North America, the big thing to me was India on MW. Already early in autumn around September I noticed that common All India Radio stations had a nice signal with a 600 metres 80 degrees Asia wire. In the same time I discovered All India Radio online reporting form that I used very actively during this season. Result: 29 AIR transmitting sites verified, all with a local id, and several logged stations still not answered. All India Radio Spectrum Manager even sent postal qsls for online reports, in the extreme case 6 transmitting sites confirmed in one card. Fabulous!

I still could send follow-up reports, if I bother. Funny enough, with Perseus and bandwith recordings the problem is no more how to listen to station. The problem is how to find a cooperative contact at the station. I can only thank and respect those people for example at Relevant Radio, who keep confirming reports one after another.

MW qsls 2016-2017:

EU
1395 Sea Breeze, Goor.
1602 KBC Harlingen.
549 Spirit Radio, Carrickroe.
630 BBC 3 Counties Radio.
765 BBC Essex.

AS
279 Turkmen Radio Watan, Asqabat.
1269 Radio Asia, Abu Dhabi.
801 AIR Jabalpur.
576 AIR Aleppuzha.
594 AIR Kolkata.
954 AIR Najibabad.
1143 AIR Rohtak.
1242 AIR Varanasi.
1386 AIR Gwalior.
1305 AIR Parbhani.
990 AIR Jammu.
1287 AIR Panaji.
765 AIR Dharwad.
1206 AIR Bhawanipatna.
918 AIR Suratgarh.
1017 AIR Chennai.
963 AIR Jalgaon.
1350 R Kashmir, Kupwara.
648 AIR Indore.
1395 AIR Bikaner.
747 AIR Lucknow.
873 AIR Jalandhar.
846 AIR Ahmedabad.
927 AIR Vishakhapatnam.
1296 AIR Darbhanga.
1314 AIR Bhuj.
1197 AIR Tirunelveli.
936 AIR Tiruchirappalli.
891 AIR Rampur.
621 AIR Patna.
1143 Fishery R Station, Kaohsiung.

OC
891 5AN Adelaide.

NA
1140 CHRB High River AB.
950 CKNB Campbellton NB.
1270 WXYT Detroit MI.
1360 KPXQ Glendale AZ.
1390 WLCM Holt-Lansing MI.
1250 CHSM Steinbach MB.
640 CFMJ Richmond Hill ON.
660 KEYZ Williston ND.
950 WWJ Detroit MI.
980 CHRF Montreal QC.
1180 WHAM Rochester NY.
1280 WWTC Minneapolis MN.
970 WDAY Fargo ND.
1370 WFEA Machester NH.
1330 WLOL Minneapolis MN.
1310 CIWW Ottawa ON.
1310 WIBA Madison WI.
1380 KLIZ Brainerd MN.
1360 KSCJ Sioux City IA.
1200 KFNW West Fargo ND.
1300 KGLO Mason City IA.
1430 KEZW Aurora-Denver CO.
790 WAXY South Miami FL.
980 KKMS Richfield MN.
700 WLW Cincinnati OH.
1420 WOC Davenport IA.
1320 KOZY Grand Rapids MN.
590 VOCM St.John's NL.
710 CKVO Clarenville NL.
1290 WZTI Milwaukee WI.
1360 WDRC Hartford CT.
750 WSB Atlanta GA.
820 WBAP Ft.Worth TX.
1140 CBI Sydney NS.
990 CBW Winnipeg MB.
640 CBN St.John's NL.
750 CBGY Bonavista Bay NL.
920 WHJJ Providence RI.
1430 WNSW Newark NJ.

CA
700 NBC St.Vincent (Fup 2008, now off the air.)
1540 R Bahamas.

SA
610 R Itatiaia, Belo Horizonte.
750 RCR Caracas.
790 R Mitre, Buenos Aires.
1140 R Panamericana, Girardot.

If I forgot something, then I forgot. :P
« Last Edit: May 05, 2017, 1617 UTC by Jari Finland »

Offline MDK2

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Re: MW season conclusion
« Reply #1 on: May 02, 2017, 1316 UTC »
1430 KEZW Aurora-Denver, CO. I can literally see that tower from my bedroom window at night, when the beacons are on.

All of this is very impressive, not least because of the effort taken to copy these stations.  ;D
Denver, CO.
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eQSLs appreciated wickerjennie at gmail

Offline Jari Finland

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Re: MW season conclusion
« Reply #2 on: May 02, 2017, 1406 UTC »
http://www.teknokekko.fi/dx/na/1430_KEZW_170117_0650.mp3

It could be stronger, but I don't complain. :)

Offline MDK2

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Re: MW season conclusion
« Reply #3 on: May 02, 2017, 1613 UTC »
I wouldn't complain either. That's a great copy, considering the power and the distance.
Denver, CO.
SDRPlay RSPdx & RSP2pro, Airspy Discovery HF+, Icom IC-7100, Grundig Satellit 750, Realistic DX-300, Tecsun PL-600.
MLA-30 active loop, G5RV dipole.
eQSLs appreciated wickerjennie at gmail

Offline pinto vortando

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Re: MW season conclusion
« Reply #4 on: May 03, 2017, 2225 UTC »
Nice catch on WLCM 1390...  located near Lansing MI only about 60 miles from my QTH and most of the time cannot receive it here.
Das Radiobunker somewhere in Michigan

Offline Jari Finland

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Re: MW season conclusion
« Reply #5 on: May 05, 2017, 1609 UTC »
WLCM 1390

Regional channels are nice when East Coast understands to fade away later in the morning. :)

http://www.teknokekko.fi/dx/na/1390_WLCM_041216_0600.mp3

Offline Looking-Glass

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Re: MW season conclusion
« Reply #6 on: May 19, 2017, 0832 UTC »
891KHz 5AN in Adelaide, South Australia was a very good catch, one of the high power national network running 50Kw. 

5AN comes in here all night and into the morning and at times is 10KHz to 15KHz wide.

Likewise the Asian loggings, really nice ones there, hard for me to hear due to many high powered Australian and New Zealand stations. ;)
Condobolin, NSW.

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Offline Chanter

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Re: MW season conclusion
« Reply #7 on: May 22, 2017, 0024 UTC »
I am impressed!  :) 

How on earth did you get CBW in Winnipeg to QSL?  I've been waiting on a reply for literal years.  Maybe I should e-mail a follow-up, as my initial letter went in the physical post? 
Madison, WI, U.S.A. 
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QSL's appreciated 

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RNW forever.

Offline Jari Finland

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Re: MW season conclusion
« Reply #8 on: June 03, 2017, 2220 UTC »
How on earth did you get CBW in Winnipeg to QSL?  I've been waiting on a reply for literal years.  Maybe I should e-mail a follow-up, as my initial letter went in the physical post? 

I don't know... I just printed a letter and mailed it to CBC Engineering to address given in WRTH.