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556. Radio Merkurs 1485 kHz
Merkurs can be heard every night here in Finland with its strange music format. Just last week I heard them playing Finnish Schlager from 1980s! Raimonds Kreicbergs replied in 4 days to my email. Suprisingly I found out that this is actually my first Latvian station. I have Radio Riga confirmed, but it was USSR back then!

557. KBS World Radio, Gimje 9515 kHz
KBS replied via snail mail with QSL-card (pictured), programme schedule and an old-fashioned reception report form/aerogram.

558. WJCC Miami Springs FL 1700 kHz
GM Alex Saint Surin replied to my f/up report and told that they will mention my reception in their programme!

559. WDAY Fargo ND
QSL from North Dakota is always nice. Stephen Tschida, Production Manager replied and told that their power has been increased from 5 to 10 kW. In his long replay Stephen also writes: WDAY receives letters like yours several times a year, and since we celebrated our 91st anniversary last May, you can imagine how voluminous our file is where we archive those cards and letters. Granted, we have not been getting QSL cards for 90 years, but we do have some dating back to the 1970’s. Most have arrived from Finland, andn also from your neighbors around that part of the Arctic Circle. I have personally become quite familiar with your hobby, from the detailed descriptions of how your fellow DXer’s spend their vacation time for weeks on end, and the equipment that they use. It’s always a pleasure to hear from you folks.

560. WIPR San Juan PR “Maxima 940” 940 kHz
WIPR is quite common Puerto Rican station here. I got answer via Facebook, where Joel E. Rivera, Vicepresidente de Radio wrote a nice replay message to confirm my reception. The 6th QSLed PR this year.

561. VOAR Mount Pearl NL 1210 kHz
This is one of the most common Canadians here although frequency is very bad because of Absolute Radio on 1215. CE R. Brian Matthews replied to my f/up report.

562. KDKA Pittsburgh PA 1020 kHz
Classic station! CE Vic Pasquarelli replied in a week with short email.

555. HCDE2 UCSG Radio, Guayaquil 1190 kHz
Last November I noticed very good propagation to Ecuador and heard my first MW-Ecuador-stations UCSG Radio 1190 and Teleradio 1350. Now finally I got replay from UCSG via Facebook. If I understood correctly, they would like to talk with me via Skype. With my Spanish, it sounds mission impossible.

From Sunday to Wednesday I had my “unmanned station” on. The first identified station from the files was ZNS1 Radio Bahamas, Nassau on 1540 kHz! It was the first time I heard the Bahamas. Same night (19th) probably PJD2 was on 1300 kHz (a bit below) and UNID male in English on 560 kHz (Guyana? as it didn’t sound as WGAN). Next nights some usual suspects from CAN/USA: 590&620 VOCM, 640 CBN, 790 VOWR, 930 CJYQ (peaking S9+15dB on 21st), 1130 WBBR, 1140 CBI, 1190 WLIB (the biggest suprise) and 1400 CBG. Mostly propagation was to Colombia with lots of fading and weak signals. New one for me was HJED Caracol, Cali on 820 kHz. Others the worth of mentioning were 930 HJCS La Voz de Bogotá and 1400 HJKM Emisora Mariana, Bogotá.

A flow of QSL to my follow-up reports, mostly thanks for v/s information I got from Ykä, YK.

543. HJIP BBN, Envigado 1590 kHz
This religious Colombian is much less frequent here than Radio Maria 10 kcs below. They replied to my f/up with a short email.

544. HJAK La Voz de la Patria, Barranquilla 1310 kHz
This is easy to recognize as it is on split frequency 1309.7 kHz. Not very common anyway and 1310 has few other Colombians plus Venezuelan station too. They replied via Facebook.

545. YVMD Radio Venezuela “Mara Ritmo” 900 kHz
When condx are to Venezuela, this Mara Ritmo has been quite common on 900 kHz. Usually I hear them sending lottery numbers! They replied via Facebook.

546.-550. VOCM St. John’s NL 590 kHz, CKCM Grand Falls NL 620 kHz, CKGA Gander NL 650 kHz, CKVO Clarenville NL 710 kHz and CHCM Maryston NL 740 kHz
These are among the most common NA stations here in Finland. Last December I heard local ads from each of these, but failed to get any reply via email or Facebook. But now Programme Director Richard King confirmed my reception. He commented each clip I sent and wrote eg: 620 kHz mentioned Stroud’s Auto, which airs on that station. (It is actually my voice on that commercial) . Thanks Richard (and YK for v/s info)!

551. HIAJ Radio Amanecer, San Francisco de Macorís de Bogotá 1060 kHz
Amanecer used to be quite common on 1570 kHz but it is not heard there anymore. In the end of December 2012 I managed to hear them on 1060 kHz which more rare frequency. There was quite nice propagation peak that time – heard also etc. WJNO West Palm Beach FL same time. HIAJ replied to my f/up with a short email message. This is my first QSL from Dominican Republic!

552. CBNA St. Anthony NL 600 kHz
This is quite common station to hear but maybe not so common to hear with local ID. Terry Brett replied to f/up with PDF-QSL.

553. CJOB Winnipeg MB 680 kHz
This is easy catch in Lappland. Here in South it needs better than average condx as WRKO Boston MA and CFTR Toronto ON are in the frequency. V/s Scott Pettigrew made some kind of record: QSL in one minute!

554. WLOL Minneapolis MN 1330 kHz
WLOL broadcasts Relevant Radio -programme. I heard it only once last winter, WRCA is usually dominating. Rose M Schauer, Donor Listener Relations Manager replied quickly to my email. This is my 150th QSL from North America (Canada, USA).

542. Radio Sighet 1404 kHz
I heard Romanian regional radio Radio Sighet in the afternoon in last December. I didn’t get replay to my email but now to my f/up via Facebook was answered in 3 minutes! They wrote that I was listening to Ukrainian programme which is for Ukrainian speaking minority in Maramureș County. According to Wikipedia Maramureș has 31,234 Ukrainian inhabitans which is 6.77 % of all population. Hungarian minority is even a bit larger (7.53 %).

539. YVTW Radio Alegría, Chivacoa 1020 kHz
1020 is nowadays a bit rare SA channel, but I managed to hear Alegria last year in November. Juan Pablo Planas replied in 10 days.

540. Asian Sound Radio 963 kHz
The most common Asian UK station on 963 is Buzz Radio (ex-Buzz Asia), but sometimes Asian Sound Radio pops up. I got an answer on Facebook.

541. CJLV Laval QC 1570 kHz
CJLV replied to my f/up that clip is “inaudible”. I sent them another clip from January and “JPaul” wrote me quickly back: Oui c’est bien notre station que vous avez capté , C’est étonnant que les ondes traversent l’océan. merci de nous écouté.

Thursday and Friday nights had poor propagation on Mediumwaves. So far the most interesting station I found has been Egypt on 1476 kHz. Last night band opened to Venezuela and Colombia around 0200 UTC. Signals were quite weak and many stations were sending football. 1190 YVZD R Cultural del Táchira, San Cristóbal and 1380 YVNG Ondas del Mar, Puerto Cabello were identified.

Top news on FM is that MSO heard Big 92.7 FM from India in the 1st of August on 92.7 MHz! New all time FM country for Finland.

537. RNE1 Asturias, Oviedo 729 kHz
Iberia (Portugal & Spain) has been the most difficult DX continent to QSL for me. Last winter I sent maybe 25 reports (few emails bounced back) to Spain and got 2 QSLs after I got a good v/s-info from the DX friend. Now I have been fupping Spanish stations which I heard last December eve and even got one answer! Asturias replied in one day via email:
Efectivamente: se trata del primer boletín informativo de la mañana (07,25 hora local de España) Las locutoras son Luz de la Fuente y Cristina Fernández.
Gracias por haber contactado con nosotros.

538. Clyde2 1152 kHz
Last winter I noticed that I don’t have QSL from Clyde 2 (ex- Radio Clyde) which is very easy to hear winter time. Back then I didn’t get any replay. Today I first sent two emails which both bounced back. Then I decided to try Facebook. For my suprise Alan Edwards confirmed my report in 11 minutes! My 10th UK/IRL-QSL on mediumwaves in 2013.

Solar indexes are not very promising. Currently I have my “cold station” recording mediumwaves and I will check files on Sunday. Visual aurora borealis few hundred kilometres North last night doesn’t sound like the best possible situation …

536. France Bleu Elsass 1278 kHz
This local programme is easy to hear and I think that they send local announcements all day. It was a bit difficult to find a good email address to them but I was lucky with f/up and Pierre Nuss replied to my email in one day. I am still looking for QSL of France Bleu 107.1 Paris 864 kHz. Last winter I heard also France Info Lyon 603 kHz with local programme but no reply either.

Nice QSL-rate continues:

531. WFAN New York NY 660 kHz
Another email QSL from f/up round. V/s was Eric Spitz. This is my 150th QSL in 2013.

532. Radio Rubí, Rafael Castillo, Matanza BA 1670 kHz
Radio Rubí is new Argentinian MW station, which was heard in Finland on May for the first time. I managed to hear Rubi last weekend at my radio-QTH – even with my antenna pointed to Central America, so station has nice signal. Thanks for a tip from Jim Solatie, I received confirmation via Facebook from Pablo Ruben Herrera. My first MW-QSL from Argentina.

533. WOR New York NY 710 kHz
Another Newyorker and perhaps a bit more rare than WFAN. Suprisingly they quickly replied to my Facebook-mail.

534. NHK World Radio Japan, Yamata 9750 kHz
Few weeks ago I noticed that I don’t have QSL from Radio Japan. Alhtough I have the QSL of NSB Tokyo from year 1984! I sent a reception report to Radio Japan via their web site and today I received nice QSL-card and programme schedule by post.

535. BBC Radio nan Gaidheal 990 kHz
This is not very rare winter time here in Pori. But it was the first station I recorded after installing improved longwire last December. I think that I didn’t send a reception report to RnG back then. Now Marie NicAoidh / Marie MacKay, Neach-Taic / Team Assistant replied to my email in 8 minutes! This station sends also local news of Aberdeen but as it is only RnG station on MW, it doesn’t give you “new station”. Station to watch next winter is BBC Scotland 585 kHz – not very rare but I didn’t manage to catch “SW News” (sent at 0655, 0750, 1254 and 1654).

My follow up round continues:

530. WCRN Worcester MA 830 kHz
I heard WCRN in December and probably in January too. Tony Chavez confirmed my report in 5 minutes by short email message. An hour later Chris Thompson, General Sales Manager also sent a confirmation email.

Few new QSLs have arrived. Now the consecutive number tells the number of stations confirmed by SDXL Rank rules.

528. CIWW Ottawa ON 1310 kHz
On last season I could hear CIWW 1310 quite often with “13-10 News” slogan. Suprisingly they replied to my f/up for my reception of December very quickly. V/s was Jonathan McGill (News Anchor, Editor and Reporter) who wrote: It is amazing how you were able to pick up the radio transmission. Perhaps the atmosphere was clear that evening and the signal was able to travel far!

529. Ukrainske Radio UR3 “Kultura” 1431 kHz
I sent a f/up report for this station as I didn’t have Ukrainian national radio Home Service confirmed. I have a QSL from Radio Kiev on Shortwaves – that time Kiev was still a part of Soviet Union. Now they mailed me a printed QSL-card in 12 days.