Hey All,
I just returned from a Dxpedtion in the town of Gosonold on Cuttyhunk Island , Buzzard's Bay , MA.
Since Island life is really laid back , so was the logging . Highlights from 9/1/21 through 9/3/21, no particular order.
Gear: Sangean ATS 803 A , single tuned crystal set ( R.S. 28-177 coil but with air variable) , hand held scanners, home brew ferrite tuner /coupler, misc small goodies, 400 ft "D.O.G" antenna ( "Dipole - On- Ground "), 40 ft HF end fed, , etc, etc.
640 CMLA /R. Progresso Cuba copied before full darkness, but beat up by local /regional WPRO 630.
8503 NMG /New Orleans Wefax
6095 USB bootleg maritime net, OM swearing like a sailor (hi).
10, 15 WWV
11780 R Amazonas/ R Nacional Brazil
5025 R. Rebelde Cuba
6000 R. Havana (in full daylight ! )
US MW kind of a mess. Pile ups on the long DX frequencies . Open to Eastern of US half (or a bit less) ie only GA to TN to IL arc.
Only one HF broadcast each on 16, 19 or 22 M. Beyond dead any higher in frequency.
Ham :20 M. 40 M (even in daylight). Both open to Eastern 1/2 half of US , especially on CW.
NO audio off any Transatlantic Broadcast Dx, but copied a few aligned beat notes (FWIW) :
198 BBC, 639 Senegal, 837 Senegal, 954 Spain, 1044 Morocco,1107 Spain. Basically - LW b'cast was dead (or gone !) and MW b'cast was extremely poor (near dead) to the Afroeuro .Also US MW opened up MUCH sooner than expected ,crushing what little Afro Euro action that could have been had . I have had trans Atlantic MW and LW very good at times in years past, but not on this round
.
Crystal set DX : the usual 50 Kw suspects from around the NE 1/3 or so of the U.S.
7 KC lightning / "Tweeks" / "Natural Radio" copied ( confirmed at 700 miles and maybe a out LOT further to thousands of miles) by a pair of NICE Hi Z "crystal " earphones in series ,shorted by 1 M bleed pot. RF input by one leg of D.O.G. antenna onto each side of pot .
Notice to Mariners on VHF marine channel 22A. Not heard this one in 15 or 20 years !
Also the owner of the Bed and Breakfast were I stayed (who I've known for many years ) gave me a Trans Oceanic Royal 300-1. It didn't work on the island , but I cleaned up battery holder at home and VIOLA - a working T/O ! So I went down there with one HF rig and came home with TWO !
Very late Wednesday / Thursday ( 9/1, 9/2) impacts from Ida : TORRENTS of rain - around 5 " in 5 hours . Gusts 45 to 55 (estimated). Waterspout 3 miles to our East over ocean .2nd water spout 12 miles East over ocean. Tornado at Falmouth , Cape Cod MA 6 or 10 mi Northeast. Vicious cloud to ground white lightning on Island and Northward into Buzzard's Bay.Yet ALL three day light hours were nice - cloudy/dry -or- sunny /dry.
Ate lots of seafood , fairly warm water ocean swimming , relaxing , long walks with wife, etc. Took night trip on boat going back to New Bedford.
GREAT trip, REALLY needed it !
K
Topic: DXpedition to Cuttyhunk Island, MA (Read 786 times)
