By Stu Forsyth
Easter did not coincide with the school holidays in New Zealand this year, and so
those who had come to Tiwai in previous years were not all able to do so. However, Ray Crawford, Stu Forsyth, Arthur De Maine and Paul Aronsen gathered on Wednesday, April 20th at the Tiwai house. They were joined a day later by Steven Greenyer.
Conditions were different to the previous two years. Latins would normally appear at around 0415 with Radio Corporación (1380), CPN (1470), WDHP (1620) normally the first in followed by the Bahamas 1540. One afternoon however, we were listening at 0315! There was not the abundance of Colombian and Mexican stations as heard in 2003 and 2004, but Venezualans, Ecuadorians and Peruvians were present. The evenings would often begin promisingly enough, but signals tended to drop at around 0700. They also had an auroral
feel to them – rising and falling – going from the strength of a local to nothing in a matter of seconds. Some good catches were made (see trail).
Socially the week was a great success. We missed old friends (where were you Sutton and David?), magnificent Bluff oysters featured on the menu, many old stories were told or retold and we savoured, what is probably this year, the end of an era.
Ray and Stu moved on to Paul Ormandy’s crib at Waianakarua for the nights of
Wednesday 27th and Thursday 28th. They say that good things come to those who wait, and this was certainly the case in DX terms. Conditions peaked, Paul Ormandy fiddled with his aerials during the day and the signals flowed in during the night. David Headland joined the party and could not believe what he was hearing.
Once again there were virtually no Colombians to be heard. The same could be said for Ecuadorians and Venezualans. However, there were Chilean and Peruvian stations across the band – yet – it was not one, but two nights when Uruguayans and Argentinians were heard all over the place. It was like shooting fish in a barrel – what to log next! As you will see from the trail there was some exotic DX. These were the best Latin nights experienced in this country for a very long time and it was a thrill to be a part of it. Thanks to Paul Aronsen for organising the Tiwai house and to Paul Ormandy for the
use of his crib at Waianakarua.
TIWAI TRAIL
kHz UTC Country, Station, Programme & Reception Details and Date
153 1905 RUSSIA. V noisy in RR. TY 21/4
162 1910 FRANCE. Fair/ poor, but a lot of noise. TY 21/4
180 1924 TURKEY. (Presumed Turkey as the talk didn’t sound Russian). Fair with talk.
580 0520 PERU, R MarÌa. Vocals and talk, id at 0525. Fair TY 23/4
639 1843 AUSTRALIA, 5CK. Fair with mx and ID – ABC South Australia and Broken
Hill. TY 21/4
650 0930 COLOMBIA, HJKH. RCN Antena 2, Bogot·. Fair with good mx. TY 21/4
660 0801 COLOMBIA, R. Autentic·. Hrd at fair strength with ID. TY 20/4
730 0719 PERU, RPP. Excellent with ‘primera missa del Papa’. TY 20/4
750 0446 ECUADOR, HCRC2, R.Caravana. Fair/ good, mixed with nx of the new Pope
and ads for whisky. Ids as R Nacionales and R Caravana. TY 20/4
770 0650 COLOMBIA, RCN. English pops. Good. TY 23/4
780 0734 BRAZIL, R.Pampa. Fair at best with relig. talk. ‘AttenÁ„o Porto Alegre’ axmnt
at 0802. TY 23/4
780 0550 PERU, R Victoria //1250. Good with religious talk in SS. TY 23/4
790 0730 PERU, OAX2I, RPP . Good // 730. News in SS. TY 25/4
820 0825 USA, WBAP. Fair with Texas travel news. TY 20/4
820 0529 USA, KGNW. Fair with religious talk. TY 22/4
828 1853 AUSTRALIA, 3GI. Vg with prgm on health foods. ID ‘ABC Victoria’. TY 21/4
840 0858 COLOMBIA, HJKK. Good with good ids and talk in SS. TY 21/4
850 0805 PERU, RN del Per
