DXING AT OKAINS BAY 13-20 APRIL 2013
Steven Greenyer, Timaru DXing at Okains Bay, Banks Peninsula.
Saturday: the13th, after setting up the EWE to NA, 200m wire to SA and the whip, an assorted mix of South Americans started coming in around 0500 none overly strong with the Peruvians on 1470 and 1570 the most dominant. X band was pretty dead with 1620 WDHP the best.
Sunday: South Americans came in around 0400 but signals were not very strong and nothing of note was heard.
Monday: Things picked up and just after 0400 many South Americans including
Brazil and Argentina made appearances until around 0700 when a few weak K calls popped up.
Tuesday: an unusual day with South Americans on most frequencies but signals dropped in and out very quickly, later on in the evening X Band to California opened at good levels; unlike previous years Mexicans were noticeable by their absence. The predicted solar disturbance may have been one of the reasons for this day behaving as it did.
Wednesday: was a wet day and noise levels were up in the late afternoon, however after 0500 signals picked up and Peruvians dominated, with some frequencies being well up while others had almost nothing on them. While some Latin signals stayed in, USA mainland and Hawaii dominated later in the evening although nothing out of the ordinary was heard.
Thursday: characterised by high levels of splash from NZ and a general absence of South American signals. What did occur was that individual stations would come up at a reasonable level while nothing could be heard at all on adjacent frequencies, what did appear was also quite diverse, ranging from one Oregon station to a Brazilian.
Friday: the opposite of Thursday with South American signals in at 0330,
predominantly Peru with Brazil 940 being particularly strong and lasting for almost two hours, enough time to jump on the website and send an email. Unfortunately the early evening was almost dead.
Compared to last year, when Paul Aronsen, Arthur de Maine and I were DXing a
fortnight earlier, South American MW signals were much better and fewer Yanks heard. Conditions were very changeable, apart from Peru; stations in widely varied locations would come up but without any consistency, such as hearing Brazil but little or no signals from Argentina while the only USA station audible at the time was from Oregon. Interesting is the domination of Peruvian signals – a number of years ago the band would be full of Colombians, at this time they were a rarity. I guess that is what makes MW such an interesting band to DX. Finally while we had limited cell and internet coverage the ability to go on line and compare notes and look up data on stations is a positive addition.
Bryan comments: It was interesting to compare MW conditions here in the north with what Steven was hearing at the same time. As he noted, reception was widespread – I would not normally expect to hear Toronto at this time of year, and certainly not on the same night as Brazil is coming in.
OKAINS BAY MW TRAIL 13 – 20 APRIL
Steven Greenyer with Palstar R30A , EWE to North America, 200m longwire to South America, and 9 metre vertical squid pole.
580 USA KMJ Fresno CA advert 0920 for Fresno gun store wanting to buy.
580 PERU Radio Maria good 0912 fm/ann ID “Escuchar Radio Maria”.
700 UNID LATIN good signal SS announcing “Super Radio” 0647, Choirs Relig?
820 BRASIL? Brief good appearance of PP 0757, presumed Radio Jornal 50kw.
860 MEXICO La Poderosa fair vocals 0947.
940 BRAZIL “Super” Rio de Janeiro 0513, sounded religious at times full id at 9 past
the hour, strong signal S9 at times, heard most days.
1040 HAWAII KLHT Honolulu weak 0847, religious format.
1060 MEXICO Radio Educacion ID w/AM and SW frequencies 0702.
1110 MEXICO Radio Red fm/ann 0906 with ident then into vocals good sig
1120 USA KPNW Eugene OR ID “News Radio 1120 KPNW Eugene” 0529 good.
1130 PERU “Cadena Radial Internacional Bacan” 0757, nx 0805 then announced multi freqs and locations.
1150 UNID LATIN at 0554 with mentions of Peru.
1180 USA Radio Marti at 0507, consistently strong signal every night
1190 COLOMBIA Todelar Network IDs at 0757.
1200 USA WOAI San Antonio TX id “News Radio 1200 WOAI” at 0907.
1220 ARGENTINA? Radio Dos presumed the one mixing with Brasil 0530.
1220 BRAZIL Radio Globo fair mixed with Argentina 0526.
1280 BRAZIL Radio Tupi several nights good 0517 in PP spoken programme.
NEW ZEALAND DX TIMES PAGE 31 MAY 2013
1290 PERU Unidentified with time check at 0533 and mentions of Peru.
1330 UNID LATIN at 0430 on 3 days with EE vocal, Elvis, Streisand. Mixed SS.
1340 PERU Radio Alegria w/Andean mx 0537 ID ‘Radio Alegria mas compania”.
1360 PERU “La Nueva Q “ good signal with vocals 0507.
1400 BRAZIL Radio Rio de Janeiro presumed the one here with Portuguese 0506.
1400 PERU Radio Callao, ID “Super Radio Callao” 0500.
1420 HAWAII KKEA Honolulu ESPN sports 0915.
1460 HAWAII KHRA Honolulu EE talk 0718 about Korean Top 40, into KK 0730.
1470 PERU “Radio Capital Lima” ident 0520.
1520 USA KOKC Oklahoma at 0531, only yank present at this time talk on Boston
bombing, ID “News talk 1520 KOKC” 0603 into Red Eye Radio program.
1570 PERU Radio La Nueva along w/1470 Peruvian, the dominant South Americans
1620 US VIRGIN ISLANDS WDHP w/BBC World Service, ID on the hour 0700.
1620 CUBA Radio Rebelde at 0420, sounded like political speech, What else?
1640 USA KDIA Vallejo CA with program about Albert Schweitzer & Christian
perspective on Boston bombing 0845.
1650 USA KFOX Torrence CA talk in Korean 0900.
1670 USA KHPY Moreno Valley CA good SS religious 0708.
1680 USA KGED Fresno CA Advert 0647 for the most affordable underground
survival shelter, was this a coincidence or opportunist on day of bombing.
1690 USA? very strong SS 0940 w/mentions of San Francisco & Puerto Rico. (Almost certainly KFSG. BC)
