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.
WAE used to be one of my favourite contests. I even have their special plaque (Stations who have been in the Top-Ten/Top-Six list for at least five times can apply for a special plaque.) and I finally won Europe on SSB part in 2001 (@OG1F). I have also won the RTTY leg something like 20 years ago.
This weekend conditions looked quite good. I had anyway a lack of motivation to operate much: I was using my Microham keyer to work Perseids on 2 meters and also our big tower has to be pointed to East to get correct direction for VHF-yagis at the top (with separate rotator). But anyway few qsos were made:
Call: OH1F
Operator(s): OH1NOA
Station: OH1F
Class: Single Op HP
QTH:
Operating Time (hrs): 1
Summary:
Band QSOs QTCs Mults
————————-
80: 4 0 3
40: 1 10 1
20: 5 10 5
15: 28 35 15
10: 0 0 0
————————-
Total: 38 55 55 Total Score = 5,115
Club: Contest Club Finland
Comments:
Condx sounded quite good and activity low (30 min of CQ on 15m resulted about 10
qsos).
We will see if I’ll make any qsos in SSB or RTTY parts.
Friday produced some new QSLs:
BBC Radio Leeds 774 kHz
F/up report and quickly I got an email from the morning DJ Johnny I’Anson, who wrote: “…confirm that was me who you heard all the way across in Finland – how exciting, some people can’t even pick us up here in West Yorkshire, so the fact you can is technological magic!”
WBMJ San Juan PR 1190 kHz
This English Puerto Rican is not the most common one. I believe that I heard it only once during the last season. Dalan Decker, Programming Director replied to my f/up report in 2 days.
HJNL La Cariñosa, Manizales 1450 kHz
1450 is not the easiest of SA channels, but La Cariñosa is audible sometimes. Jaime Sánchez Restrepo, Director Artístico Manizales replied to my f/up report.
Last night I was at my listening QTH and did even some “live” DXing. A and K indexes are quite low and so mediumwaves opened to Americas. Propagation was quite funny. Just after midnight UTC I heard the most common Canadians like VOCM 590, CJYQ 930 and CBG 1400 with some easy CAs (1660, 1280). Then just before 0200 the band opened to Venezuela and Colombia. And then in the sunrise few strong Brasilians were heard (I don’t have La Plata/Bra antenna) with Radio Rubí, Rafael Castillo, Matanza BA, Argentina on 1670. Unfortunately VEN/CLM stations were not new for me. There were some interesting possible new catches but all unindentified.
Log:
British Isles
1566 11.8. 0200- G: BBC R Bristol. Own programme and local id: programme was “the best of community station Ujima Radio 98FM”.
North America
590 11.8. 0020- CAN: VOCM St. John’s NL.
1400 11.8. 0010- CAN: CBG Gander NL.
Central America
1280 11.8. 0202- PTR: WCMN Arecibo PR. Very strong.
South America
1070 11.8. 0158- VEN: YVMA R Mundial Zulia, Maracaibo.
1190 11.8. 0200- CLM: HJCV R Cordillera, Bogotá. Good Todelar IDs
1300 11.8. 0155- VEN: YVNS Radio Reloj, Maracaibo. “Exitos, solo exitos en Radio Reloj 1300” [1299.983]. TIK
1340 11.8. 0158- CLM: HJFB Amor Estereo, Bogota.
1430 11.8. 0200- CLM: HJKU 1430 AM, Bogotá. “14-30 AM Radio”. At 0228 Brasilian was heard (probably RB2).
1500 11.8. 0225- PRU: OBX4I Radio Santa Rosa, Lima. [1499.828]. 1570 possibly Carraviz with poor audio. New split [1469.761] played More Than Words by Extreme.
1520 11.8. 0155- CLM: HJLI Libertad, Bogotá. Fading with WVOZ.
1670 11.8. 0229- ARG: Radio Rubí, Rafael Castillo, Matanza BA. Weak signal with 290 degrees antenna but ID heard.
The nicest suprise last February for me was to hear PJD-2 The Voice of St.Maarten, Philipsburg 1300 kHz with a good signal and excellent station ID: “This PJD-2 radio celebrating 40 years …”. You can listen to MP3-file here: 1300kHz PJD-2 The Voice of St.Maarten, Philipsburg 260213 0059.
I sent an email to the station and also sent a Facebook message but until today I didn’t get replay. But now MarieClaire, marketing manager, sent me a brief message on Facebook:
Sint Maarten is quite new DX-country. Until 2010 it was a part of Netherlands Antilles, but now it is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The northern part of the same island is “Saint-Martin”, a part of France.
I made a PDF-file with all my DX-loggings (excl. FM) between 01.09.2012-30.06.2013. The file has also TIK/K temporary QTH loggings and PETA1-pedition log.
Radio Free Asia Tinian Island 12140 kHz
RFA was quick! I emailed them on Thursday and on Wednesday QSL arrived via snail mail! QSL from Oceania is always nice. In the photo above is also a QSL card from CRI French service, which arrived today too.
Radio 538 891 kHz
This Dutch station is quite easy to hear here, but I don’t remember if I ever have sent a reception report to them. Now they replied in one day to my Dutch email.
Last weekend I decided to activate my old “home QTH” and pulled up a 80 meter dipole to the flagpole. Flagpole is perhaps 7-8 meters tall and the lower part of dipole’s wires were maybe one meter above the ground level. By using FT1000D’s tuner I got it to tune on every band. Unfortunately it didn’t work very well on 15 and 10 meters. I was on about 7 hrs (of 12) and worked exactly 400 qsos, so I think that around 600 qsos would have been possible after full time operation. But having Sauna and some beers (and listening to BC stations) took their tolls.
Call: OH1NOA
Operator(s): OH1NOA
Station: OH1NOA
Class: CW Only LP
QTH: Kyläsaari
Operating Time (hrs): 7
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Mults
—————————
160: 0 0 0
80: 68 0 31
40: 114 0 42
20: 163 0 47
15: 32 0 22
10: 23 0 17
—————————
Total: 400 0 159 Total Score = 63,600
== My EUHFC history ==
I noticed from the old results that in 1996 I worked from same QTH 486 qsos in mixed mode class. That time I had all band vertical which would have been nice also this time. In 1997 @OH1AF I finished 3rd in the mixed mode HP class but next year I won the same class (@OH1AF) – my only victory in EUHFC. That time 1042 qsos was enough to win this contest. In 2002 I operated in CW HP class and finished second behind OH2UA @OH0B. In 2003 I returned to CW/SSB HP and I was 3rd behind YT1AD and UY5QQ. Next year OH0B won again and I was 5th. After years of absence I returned in 2010, this time in CW low power class (my amplifier was broken). I finished second behind 9A3VM, I remember that I lost after log checking – difference was only 20 qsos or 6 mults to 9A3VM. In 2011 I was 9th in CW HP class but only 39 kpts behind the winner.
