King´s Village DX-Station February: Radio Chaski Urubamba, Peru 5980

A new station in South America is always a challenging DX-target. When I got the information that a new Peruvian on 5980  was heard by TN (Sweden) in January I did some IQ-recordings with my SDR-IQ at home where the local man made noise is pretty bad. I did got something which I first thought to be the Brazilian on the frequency. Later on I was told that it was not active now, so this could have been R Chaski as well. I heard some speech before 23 UTC. Unfortunately I deleted the IQ-recording later on. In February I did some recordings around 2230-2300 utc and indeed there was a religious “bible reading” programme which later on was identified to be a daily (mon-fri) Bible programme of Radio Chaski. And finally when I realized to make a recording at about 01 UTC the closing announcement of the station was heard. Later on around 0100 there was the whole closing ceremony with the ID (with an instrumental version of a religious hymn also known in Finland – in English “What a Friend we have in Jesus”) and some speech & music until the c/d 0107. Later in March it seems the station has done something to the closing ceremonies (or the clock) as it seems to be closing down around 01.00…01.01 and it is audible not so long after the interfering big stations on the frequency. The IQ-analysis in March shows the carriers of the stations on the channels: Radio Chaski starting the evening transmissions after 22 utc (sometimes around 2210-2215 later on around 22 which is 17 utc), after 2300 BBC until 2400 and after 00 usually CRI (and another station´s carrier) and finally after 01 R Chaski for a while until the close down. A picture of the analysis below (on March 4-5). Thank´s to Bruce Maddux of the organization behind the station for a  picture of the transmitter and a view to Urubamba from the antennas of the station.

Best wishes & Thanks to the personnel of Radio Chaski Peru !

73s TK

King´s Village DX-Station January: R. Cultural del Táchira 1190

Sometimes on some frequencies the situation changes - previously dominating stations just fades away making room to new ones. Usually this is due to the new transmitters or antennas, sometimes it just happens. Anyway the situation on 1190 changed a bit in January. During conditions to Orinoco - Colombia, usually it is the Colombian Radio Cordillera here or sometimes Puerto Rico. But at least at my QTH during January and February the Táchira station has been dominating the channel pretty often. Something has been changed here as well - maybe the station started 24 h transmissions now. According to the station (thanks Pekka-PEH for info and the studio picture from the engineer at the station, Mr. Ramirez Chacon). He tells us also that the power is just now 4 kW and normally 12 kW. The transmitter is a Nautel XLR-12. Usually the station announces "La Cultural, Potencia Radial del Táchira" although it has several variations of the announcement.  Although the web page seems to be under construction, you can listen to the program just activating the page: http://www.radioculturaldeltachira.com/home/

Lets see if conditions are still favouring this one or should we get the usual change towards the Andies when the Peruvian above the nominal will be heard as often after the spring equinox.

Saludos Cordiales y Gracias a Sr. Ramirez Chacon & La Cultural del Táchira!

King´s Village DX-Station December: Radio Cucú San Jose Costa Rica

In November-December a Latin American station below the 1200 kHz channel was noted and it seems the split was a new one or I had not noted it anyway earlier. Finally when I got some audio it seemed there was a Spanish station with talk programming around 06-07 UTC and there was indeed some IDs at around 6 and 7 UTC. When I first listened to the clips it all sounded something like "Radio U" which was something like (maybe) "U Radio" from Ecuador. However, when HK checked the clips he immediatly answered to me "it is Cucú Radio"! Well, I had been looking only to the lists of South America and did not think it could be from Costa Rica as if I remember right I have never got anything from Costa Rica on medium waves ! Anyhow, the id seems to be "Radio Cu Cú - tu Radio"!

Since then the station seems to be there fairly often at least with the carrier visible (and some sudio also in January). This is a bit hard channel during good conditions as there a other stations usually also and La Voz de la Raza from Colombia on 1200.17 makes sometimes a big het here. Cucú has been on 1199.880 so LSB has to be used when listening to it.
Thank You Henrik once again for the work with this one. The station seems to have a web-page but unfortunately the audio stream is not working.

Saludos a Radio Cucú San José!

73,TK

King´s Village DX Special Station of the Holiday Season

Bergern Kringkaster LKE/LLE 1314 kHz

These were indeed interesting test transmissions organized by local radio hams and enthusiasts (check the link below). It was not that easy to hear in Finland and indeed almost impossible at my King´s Village DX-QTH 100 kms to the East of Helsinki. That´s because all my antennas pick up too much other interfering stations and Romania was on the top of the pile almost always.

However using my urban-DX-equipments (ALA100 3x7 meters + SDR-IQ) at home I was able to capture at least something although the local noise seems to be increasing al the time. The first attempt to hear the tests were on November 25 during the first transmissions. As the noise was high I tried to pick up a Morse-code ID but probably there were any as I could not hear these although the signal was clearly visible on 1313.995. It seems the carrier frequency was very stable after a one minute warm up (drifting only about 1 Hz at the beginning). Later on in Decemeber I made some recordings and when the Morse IDs were on they could make it through the local noise also! Also in December 26th the Piano-instrumental interval signal was captured. The distance to the TX was about 1065 kilometers. I think Bjarne Melde in Kongsfjord was the longest distance DXer to catch the station.

When playing a bit with Audacity-audio tool I found that almost all noise could be filtered away using the softwares noise filtering. You can compare the results by listening the clip below: first the original Morse-ID starting with "VVV..." and then a part of the clip filtered. And indeed by looking the software´s screen capture.You could also "read the code" as well. The clip from the box can be listened to by clicking this:

1314_Morse-ID

 Thank You Bergen Kringkaster/LA1ASK and Svenn Martinsen for these interesting tests and QSL! According to him the power was 120 watts with a vertical Comrod / Tjøstheim of 15 meters.

73,TK

Hi! My ALA100-antenna seems to be on fire (1st Jan. 2013 00.03 local time - 22.03 UTC)!
73,TK

PS: You can check what is happening and how winter / spring / summer is developing at the nearest market place of the King´s Village QTH (20 kms from the QTH) at Lovisa (Lovisa Town Hall Square) by clicking this: http://www.loviisansanomat.net/kamera.php

Happy Winter Solstice -If Tomorrow Never Comes?

The bad predictions seems to be partly true when visiting the King´s Village QTH last night:

First of all the MW-band was almost totally down with all signals down (even the local St Peterburg powerhorses) by about -60....-80 dB! Maybe the geomagnetic field is going to reverse and the ionosphere will be gone forever ? Furthermore there was an accumulation of white stuff from the Heaven - now covering everything (40 cm deep). OK - the last item was snow and actually because of the snow my LWOG-BOG was cut right from the beginning of the wire - only about 1 meter left. This was fixed soon after some walk in deep snow...

But the Sun is gone for several days now (photos could be taken using the flash anyway) - How do we know it will rise tomorrow at all ?

As was written in some of the apocalyptic literature the "Land will be Frozen". It seems to be true anyway with the current temperatures down to about -20 centigrades...

Update will come tomorrow, if ...

I wish all readers a Happy Winter Solstice (21 Dec. 11.12 UTC)!

73, TK


UPDATE 22 Dec:
Soon after Noon I could see the light! The clouds went almost away and the sun was "almost" there, not very high as the day was the shortest of the year - but it is there anyway.

King's Village DX-Station November: DZMM Manila 630

DZMM 630

In Southern Finland this year has been rather poor to Asia after some better conditions in September & October. However one day in the beginning of November was a bit better to the Philippines and I was a able to "listen live" a new catch for me: 630 DZMM Manila with its typical news and information programs. At the same time a couple of others were noted as well like 1160.9, 1314, 1350 and 1530. It seems by the way that the Manila station on 1242 is now on a higher offset: 1242.12.
DZMM 630 was audible only a while as the European QRM became too heavy on this channel. Anyway it was nice to get a new one from the Philippines after a while. It seems we have about a dozen to twenty stations "easily" audible during good propagation conditions even in the Southern part of Finland.

A hidden antenna - ready to go

Finally I was able to erect my Far East wire just prior to some new snow (accumulating now to about 10 cm). So it is nice to check if there are going to be any better conditions later on. The first snow with very heavy wind was noted at the QTH on November 30 (with no more than 4-5 electricity power downs of 1-4 hours each). The wire (about 300 metres @ 50 degrees) is now safely (?) under the snow, hopefully the small animals will not find it soon either. It seems this wire has better S/N compared to my delta-Flag/KAZ (with FLG100 amp.). That was noted when checked it by listening to a few Papua-NG stations on 90 mb: 3260, 3315, 3365 & 3385 were all audible at their s/on around 20.00 utc (Dec 3rd).

73,TK

King´s Village DX-Station October: Radio Z-1 Guayaquil Ecuador 1400

October this year was one of the worst dx-wise as the conditions were quite poor most of the month and improved only in the end of the month. There was, however an opening with some stations from Latin America on October 5th in the beginning of the month.
One of the stations on 1400 from South America is Radio Z-1 Guayaquil Ecuador. The dominant from the L.A. is usually from Peru - Super Radio Callao on 1400 (1399.996) but thanks to the offset of Radio Z-1 (it has been on 1399.94 several years) Z1 is audible also, sometimes with rather good strength. That was the case also on Oct. 5th this year.
A typical situation on 1400 can be seen on this picture showing the carriers of Z1, Radio Callao, Emissora Mariana Bogota  and CBC among others (SDR-radio IQ-analysis 11 Nov.2012).

Saludos a Radio Z1 !

73,TK

King´s Village DX-Station September: Radio Comas 1300

I have tried Radio Comas since a few years but only some tentative observations have been made during the local sunrise when BBC 1296 has always been transmitting on DRM and blocking the channel very effectively. Now in September as the channel is "free" again it was possible to hear Radio Comas Lima during a pretty good opening to Peru (on Sept. 28th). At the same time about a dozen common peruvians were heard as well, some of them with quite good signal as this one although it seemed there was another Andian station on the channel as well. Unfortunately no other new stations were identified although an intensive investigations were made also by Henrik Klemetz - Thank You HK! One of the UNIDs were on 1330 (a few Herz below) with an "ID" and s/off at around 04.10 utc (Sept. 28th).
Radio Comas was very easy on short waves back in 1990´s - the picture shows the building of Radio Comas (received with a written QSL in 1997).
73,TK

Testing in two QTHs

At the end of October I finally tested how the new electricity network works at my "Northern QTH" at Haapavesi near the geografical center of Finland. The local electric distributer has finally took away all the open wires (like a big 20 kV wire around the antenna area) and it really means that the power line noise is gone at the QTH! Only one insulator was found on the ground! I hoped they would have left the piles but of course that was not the case - these piles would have been nice masts for long beverage antennas (directed to the NNE @17 degrees). I made some listening tests using a temporary LWOG (250 meters @ 80 degr.) and noted some SEA / FE stations like the big Japanese and a few from the Philippines (on October 19th) like DWXI 1314 (& 1350, 1530).

 At the King´s Village QTH I had to take my LWOG away (waiting the plowing at the area) and installed a delta FLAG using FLG100 units. I works OK, however I prefer LWOG/BOGs as the seems to be more sensitive to low-angle signals. The FLAG works best on SW and could be used on MW as well but it is not as effective for Far East. I have to compare it to the LWOG when I can but the wire again. The fields seems to be very wet now after big amounts of rain.


73,TK

Peru gone - Birds are back!

After some power downs during the last weekend - no IQ-recordings to check (although some Latin cx had been observed in Scandinavia) - the birds are back in the area while K´s have been up to 6-7 and geomagnetic field is reverberating. Could the geomagnetic storms affects to their navigation system of geese? Maybe so.

Anyway after the first impact, an interesting opening to Japan (Oninawa and Southern Japan) was noted on October 8th when two NHK2:s were noted: JOLB 1017 (which is rather easy catch) and NHK2 1125 from Okinawa (& sev.other low power stations). And almost nothing else from the Far East ; later on a few of the powerhouse JO´s were coming through as well as very powerfull HL`s on 1134 and 972. Let´s hope something can be heard later this & next week although there seems to be three CH´s coming to face to the Earth and some potential sunspots as well.
73,TK

Birds gone - Peru is back!

At least the majority of those 300.000 geese left my DX-QTH last week, hopefully they did not touch my lwog-bog antenna, hi.
And it seems finally about a week ago (28th Sept.) conditions to Latin America improved a bit with a nice opening to Peru (& some Colombians etc as well). I have heard there has been some dx-openings also after that but can check my IQ-recordings only next week. An example of the most powerfull Peruvians can be found above (a short video, photos thanks to J.Tulla).
73s TK

The Latest Research of Propagation

The latest propagation research has revealed a new theory of the last months bad conditions especially in South Eastern Finland: there has been a lot of birds in the air lately - mostly around my QTH King´s Village no more than at least 300.000 - 400.000 geese has been calculated landing and trying to navigate to the winter areas. So you can image the situation in this area, alone in one part of (very near my QTH) Lovisa - 150.000 geese has been seen. Also at my DX-cottage , several mornings the big noise of the gaggles has been heard prior the best Trans-Atlantic dx time! Let´s hope the wind will turn and let them go towards to the NW-Europe again!
73,tk

King´s Village DX-Station August: Radio Andina 1390

Bienvenidos Bolivia (photo TNX J.Tulla)!

As we ended last seasons presentation with Bolivia so it is nice to start with a new Bolivian Radio Andina Pongo K´sa, Dept. Cochabamba Bolivia on 1390 kHz.
In fact quite a few Bolivians were noted in Finland (and Sweden) during April through the summer to August. And it seems really we have forgotten to check Latin American Andian stations during the summer. Of course one reason at least to me is the lightning season which can damage our antennas and receivers. Especially unattended SDR-recording systems are in Danger.
Thanks to MKA who activated his home-QTH with good antennas the number of logged Bolivians has grown significantly recently. As far as I know at least 1300, 1390, 1520.05, 1540, 1550, 1580.5 are a few of the most commmon channels which have been open during the summertime. And in fact Southern Finland (not to speak about Southern Sweden) is one of the best place to hear these signals during the summer time.
Thanks to Henrik Klemetz many, like this one has been checked and identified. And HK also organized "old-fashined real" QSL-cards from the station via Rogildo Fontenelle Aragão who has been working in Cochabamba for some time. And thanks to the station's Sr. Victor Pacheco who has signed the cards.

Saludos a Radio Andina y Muchas gracias a Sr. Victor Pacheco y Sr. Rogildo Fontenelle Aragão!

Starting the New Season - Looking to the East

The season has started with sporadic Dxing with two SDR-Iqs recording every now and then. Because of thundering weather it has been more or less sporadic until these days of September. When looking to the East (photo) the planning of the LWOG-BOG is now going on. However Dxing Asia (with the LWOG at about 45 degrees) has to start first with a temporary wire as the plowing in the field is expected some time in Sept or October.

So far the best Trans-Atlantic DX was noted on 24 August with a couple of Bolivians (1390, 1520.05 and 1540) and a few from Peru like Arequipa on 1440 (and presumably on 1540). A big thanks to Henrik Klemetz for help with these! Later on some Argentinians have been noted as well like those on 1630 (San José now on 1629.83 and Diagonal 1629.98) and Guaraní AM 1650 (now moving up being at around 1650.12 in the beginning of Sept.). Finally got the ID of Radio Santa Mauro Brasil on 1540.415 (thanks to MKA who alerted me about the full ID at 0301 on Sept. 2nd. This is a very usual station on the offset but hard to get an ID as it usually plays non stop music before the c/d.
When trying my LWOG just recently I found a few Japanese with decent signal already with 2 meters wire and booming later on when I got about 250 m wire on the ground. I forgot to check the attn of Perseus so the recording started to clip soon around 18 utc. Let´s see if something more from the East can be found – I have to take the wire off soon before the plowing starts.
I wish you all a happy autumnal equinox on Sept 22nd!

By the way it seems there is a big correlation between Apples and DX-conditions: when you get a lot of apples the cx are worse (like this year)!

73 TK

PS: Added some new clips to the Box-section.

PUDXK Summer Meeting 2012

Once again a part of the PUDXK-team spent some time during a brief summer meeting - this time only one night on July 26th-27th at the Kungsboele QTH. This time MKA, JSN, MR, LN and TK were discussing about the current trends in DXing (including "how to identify a rare station"). In fact some rare catches of the last season were identified - at least some nice catches of LN including Honduras on 1320 and an Aussie on 1305. Some live DXing were also tried at least by JSN and MR at night but with not very good results "live". Using remote RXs (the Perseus-network) there were some signs of new stations including a Peruvian (presumed) on 4810. Looking at the photo reveals the team looking to the West and concentrating to listen to a remote RX at MKAs QTH at Hämeenlinna where some Bolivians were noted - this night at least 1580 was heard, but probably some other stations as well.

The meeting celebrated also 27th of July - this is a date of "seven sleepyheads" in Finland. This date suits well to the PUDXK-team as the original team constists of seven members (JPR, JVA, TUA, MR, JSN, MKA & TK). As the team will be about 10 years old next year we have to start the planning of the big celebration soon!

Good food was also in an important part of the meeting. This time we had a nice soup to start with by LN (starting the preparation in teh photo) and the main dish included a traditional smoked salmon. This time we had a "King´s Road Salmon" (the fish was smoked beforehand and carried carefully about 130 kilometres along the historical Kings´s Road - this time from a Village "Bemböle" to "Kungsböle"). Maybe more of this recipe later on. Unfortunately there is no more an "official King´s Road" page; however something about this ancient route can be found at this page
73,TK

Happy Summer Solstice!

King´s Village DX wishes You a Happy Summer Solstice 2012 with some "Midsummer Roses & Flowers of Wild Strawberries at King´s Village QTH - 21 June 2012". So from this date - gradually - we will get more and more darkness which means for us MW-DXers that the new DX-Season is coming sooner or later! 73,TK

King´s Village DX-Station May: Radio El Fuego del Espiritu Santo

Late spring favours usually stations from the La Plata area, Bolivia and Southern Peru. Also this year it is nice to make a Bolivian station as a station of the month. This year it was really interesting to get signals from a few (for me) new stations like this one "Radio El Fuego del Espiritu Santo" on 1580.5 kHz (1580.483). Thanks to this offset station has been audible quite often before sign off usually around 02 UTC. And like many times before Henrik Klemetz made a big job to take a contact to the station and soon the station also verified to Nordic listerners by email. Thank you HK for you great enthusiasm! Thank You also for the station logo - it seems the station has not a web-page of their own, although the organization behind the station has one. At least in Finland MTM was probably first to log the station already in 2008 at a LEM-dxpedition - but it was a surprise that it has been so widely heard this spring in Norway, Sweden and Finland. HK found out that Pastor Lima is in charge of the station and the station is part of CESI at El Alto, Centro para el Entrenamiento de Sembradores de Iglesias (cesi.pastoral.cl). The staff is doing their job without pay. They are offering their time and skills to make the gospel accessible to the local audience. The station covers La Paz and neightbouring Oruro department. The email from the station pointed out: "but whoever listens to me will live in safetyand be at ease, without fear of harm" (Proverbs 1:33). Muchas Gracias y Saludos a Radio El Fuego del Espiritu Santo! 73,TK

King´s Village DX-Station April: Radio 41, San José, Uruguay

April dx-conditions turns often southwards - this time quite a few good openings to South America were noted to Uruguay, Argentina, Bolivia and Southern Peru. However I missed also quite a few of them due to the electric power cuts at the cottage. On April 21st however, a number of stations from Uruguay and Argentina were noted. Uruguay was noted at least on 1360, 1370 (should be the Montevideo station), 1410 (ID), 1470 (presumed to be former very common Cristal), 1510 (CW57 ID), 1540.01 (could be Patria), 1560 (should be Maldonado) and two stations on 1580 (unfortunately no ID - although HK checked the recording, but only mentions of "Republica oriental del Uruguay" was noted). This station, CW41 Radio 41 is not the hardest to get, being fairly common and thus a good indicator of propagation. The station suffers often QRM from a Brazilian (nowadays Cultura Ipú seems to be a dominant here). CW41 is slighly below the nominal frequency at around 1359.99. Also CW41 can be listened (like more and more Latins nowadays) via the web page:http://www.radio41.com.uy/ There is also a lot of information on their web-pages. Amnong other news there was a news about the "Milk Expo" at Nueva Helvecia (Uruguay has a number of interesting names of towns!). So let´s have a glass of fresh milk! Saludos a Radio 41 CW41! 73,TK

King´s Village DX-Station March: Radio Iracema Ipu Brazil 1360

Sometimes a station starts to dominate a channel previously dominated by another stations. This seems to have happened with a few Brazilians from CE and Ipú. On 1360 the most common station from L.A. has been the Lima station La Nueva Q FM and from Brazil usually either Bandeirantes or R Cultura, Paulo Afonso, BA. But this spring suddenly it seems the Ipú station Rádio Iracema has been heard quite easily, slightly below the nominal frequency (around 1359.988). Another station from Ipú has been noted also quite often on 1520 kHz. So it is a pleasure to announce Radio Iracema as a DX-Station of March 2012! The station has a webpage with online audio as well - very nice to listen to! 73 TK