Friday, November 17, 2017

Logbook 16 - 17 November 2017


Reception of WRMI in Okeechobee, Florida has been remarkably good over the past two consecutive days. And as we head into the winter months, the window should improve for reception of other stations in the Americas.

As for WRMI, the grey-line window for their transmission on 9.955 kHz appears to propagate best  from around 22.30 up until 23.40 UTC, at least as far as Kuala Lumpur is concerned.  Consequently I have been able to catch the broadcasts of Famagusta Gazette Radio, Voice of the Report of the Week, Las Noches con Mirka and PCJ Radio.

FIRST DAY
Famagusta Gazette Radio was logged between 22.50 till 23.00 UTC. Initially at 22.50 UTC reception rated a SINPO of 25442 -- weak to fair signal, clear and audible content despite atmospheric noise. In the short ten minutes of their broadcast, I heard two classic rock songs from Bad Finger "If You Want It" and The Beatles  "Something", this was followed by Jeff White making a WRMI station ID.

Voice of the Report of the Week was monitored from 23.00 till 23.30 UTC. At 23.00 UTC reception rated a SINPO of 25442 -- weak to fair signal, clear and audible content despite atmospheric noise. By 23.15 UTC, signal was breaking even with noise and barely audible -- 15221. After 23.30 UTC, signal was too noisy to distinguish content, although audio feed was still present. Despite this shortcoming, I heard VORW host John comment on how Thanksgiving is celebrated in the US and music requests which induded The Who  "Circles", Talking Heads "Road to Nowhere" and  a few other tracks before the show was buried in static.

SECOND DAY
Las Noches con Mirka was received from 22.40 till 23.00 UTC. Transmission rated a SINPO of 35343 -- fair signal strength and clear audio which remained so until this programme of Cuban, Caribbean and Spanish language songs ended at the top of the hour with Jeff White's announcement of WRMI ID.

PCJ Radio was received from 23.00 up until 22.35 UTC. While clarity of content was lacking a bit, as the grey-line between Miami and Kuala Lumpur was just beginning to close. I did manage to detect mention of a 'special' PCJ broadcast, an interview with a former PCJ announcer -- my guess is Tom Meier, a couple of light jazz tunes and the Eddie Startz signature song "A Nice Cup of Tea". Overall, from 23.00 till 23.10 UTC, SINPO rated 35343 -- fair signal strength and clear audio. Ten minutes into the broadcast, reception gradually deteriorated with increased atmospheric noise to 24222. By 23.30 UTC, audio and atmospheric noise were mixing at equal strength, making content difficult to decipher.

HERE's an idea of how WRMI sounded at around 23.00 UTC.


RX: Tecsun S-2000 ANT; 1/4 wave aerial erected to a height over 10 meters QTR: Kuala Lumpur

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