Bahia DXpedition
March 3-10, 2007

by Rocco Cotroneo

Morro de São Paulo, an island 100 km. off Salvador de Bahia

rx: AOR7030+ antennas: Wellbrook K9AY + 100mt BOG E-W

Once again I had the opportunity to use a friend's small cottage, on a 150 mt hill not far from the beach, for a exciting week of mediumwave dxing. Conditions of terrain there do not allow long wires or beverages in a straight direction, so I opted for a classical K9AY configuration, with the upper point on a tree, about 6 meters from ground.

It was a excellent choice in a situation where various beamings are necessary and nulling of strong Brazilian stations from south-east is important. A simple 100mt Beverage-on-ground was also used for Africa. Interestingly the wire received early signals from Africa better than the K9AY, when local qrm was low, only to succumb later.

The location is electrically quiet and only solar power 12v energy is used in the cottage. It's a little precarious to charge batteries and laptop during many hours and thru cigar lighter plugs, but it works.

Conditions were very good. Transatlantic signals were regularly coming in from about 2000 UTC (17 local time), about one hour before local sunset. Magic time here is 2000-2200, when Far East, Middle East, Africa signals reach their best levels (and they all use the same frequencies). Strongest EU stations, especially from Spain and France, are regular all night long.

Highlights of the week are the five Far East stations from Taiwan and China, with good signals at greyline hour. All of them almost antipodal distances, 11.000 kms and more from here.

A few African stations are new for me, as Nigeria on 638, Angola on 1134 and especially Reunion on 666.

A lot of Arabic speaking stations are not listed here. Hugely dominants for hours, mostly from Algeria, Iran, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, they are too difficult to ID for me. Next time I'll take a fast checking parallel list...

South America offered a good number of Venezuela and Colombia stations, but most robust signals for a couple of nights came in from the Caribbean region, Cuba and Dominican Republic. I also have a tentative Martinique on 1310, apparently reactivated after many years. Most US loggings are from the East Coast, particularly from New York area. Canada came in on 740, while a local powerhouse was off. X-band signals were not as strong as low frequencies ones, so I did not care much about them.

Europe

621 3/3 2120 SPAIN RNE1 synchos
657 9/3 2140 ITALY Rai Radio 1 synchros //1062
945 4/3 2130 FRANCE France Info, Toulouse
981 3/3 2100 GREECE Era Sports, Athens
1044 3/3 2105 GREECE Macedonia 1, Thessaloniki
1062 9/3 2140 ITALY Rai Radio 1 synchros //657
1107 9/3 2120 SERBIA Radio Beograd
1152 9/3 2130 ROMANIA Romania Actualitata
1179 7/3 2225 SPAIN SER synchros
1179 9/3 2125 SWEDEN Radio Sweden Int. in Swedish
1206 6/3 2210 FRANCE France Info, Bordeaux
1214.8 6/3 2208 ALBANIA China Radio Int. Serbian?
1215 6/3 2240 RUSSIA Voice of Russia. Kaliningrad
1224 3/3 2200 BULGARIA Vidin
1278 7/3 2210 FRANCE Radio Blue, Selestat
1296 4/3 2120 SPAIN Cope synchros
1305 7/3 2110 SPAIN RNE synchros
1314 8/3 2040 ROMANIA Romania Actualitata Classical mx
1386 5/3 2200 LITHUANIA China R. International px in English, om+yl talk, Chinese lessons, full id. No trace of Guinea this night.
1394.84 5/3 2100 ALBANIA TWR
1395 5/3 2210 HOLLAND Big L Radio pops
1404.02 3/3 2108 GREECE Era // 981
1467 3/3 2115 FRANCE TWR Roumoules Arabic
1548 3/3 1950 MOLDOVA Voice of Russia, Grigoriopol. Strong in Slavic language. The most regular EU here in Brazil at sunset.

Asia

1098 2100 4/3 TAIWAN R. Free Asia Id in EE and Chinese. Strong signal at times. I could not find this fq on RFA website, but it should be the Taiwan tx. Again 9/3 at 2030, but not sounding Chinese.
1134 9/3 2100 CHINA CNR1 Incredibly huge signal at TOH, I forgot to check parallels
1377 7/3 2110 CHINA CNR1 //4800 Fair.
1503 8/3 2110 TAIWAN WYFR Religious in EE
1557 3/3 2005 TAIWAN WYFR Religious in EE. Both frequencies were not as regular here as in Rio de Janeiro during January and February this year. Couldn't check parallel among them.
1566 6/3 2005 INDIA AIR Nagpur // 9425

Middle East

567 6/3 2130 SYRIA Damascus, //783
765 6/3 2120 SAUDI ARABIA, //1512. Koran. This could be a low power tx.
783 6/3 2132 SYRIA Damascus Always dominant on Mauritania
954 4/3 2035 QATAR QBS Arabic, huge signal, regular
1106.78 4/3 2030 UNID Arabic, Koran. Could be the Egypian Voice of Arabs tx drifting. A common het here in Brazil at sunset.
1170 5/3 0220 UAE, Radio Sawa Arabic, nx, overloading all Braz stations with great signal
1224 4/3 1945 IRAN VOIRI Px in Arabic. Always the first TA carrier and then first audio during my staying here, up to 2 hours before local sunset. Strong and stable at times.
1233 4/3 2007 CYPRUS Trans World Radio nx in Arabic. 7/3 2215 s/off
1323 6/3 2240 CYPRUS BBCWS nx in English
1332 8/3 2110 IRAN Irib (pres.) Light music
1377 3/3 2105 ARMENIA TWR in Arabic, s/off with traditional IS
1413 9/3 2005 OMAN BBC News in English
1494 6/3 2235 JORDANIA R. Jordan Regular here
1503 6/3 2240 IRAN Irib 1
1512 6/3 2100 SAUDI ARABIA Jeddah Koran
1521 6/3 2105 SAUDI ARABIA BSKSA
1539 3/3 2105 UAE, Aap Ki Dunyaa. Mx, int'l news and ids in Urdu. Strong.
1548 5/3 1955 KUWAIT R.Sawa, Arabic, pops
1575 6/3 2100 UAE Radio Farda All night long here
1593 8/3 2035 KUWAIT Voice of America Kurdish px

Africa

531 6/3 2340 ALGERIA Chaine 1 Arabic
558 6/3 2335 BOTSWANA R. Botswana Rare fq. //531, 1215
567 3/3 2225 SOUTH AFRICA Cape Talk Talk in English. Regular all night long
576 6/3 2108 SOUTH AFRICA R.Metro, Meyerton (pres.) Phone-in in English. (thanks to Gary Deacon for listening the clip)
638 6/3 2148 NIGERIA Katabu (pres.) First time for this rare off frequency stn. Local language (hausa?)
648 7/3 2040 BOTSWANA Radio Botswana //558
666 7/3 2030 REUNION Radio Reunion om+yl in French, mx, local news at 2030. At 2220 qrm from unid African station with music. The end of a 9 years hunting!
873 4/3 2055 BOTSWANA R. Botswana //972
909 1945 4/3 BOTSWANA Voice of America News in EE. 0300 10/3 s/on.
909 9/3 2055 UGANDA UBC (tent.) Talk in local language, I suspect Uganda because of the 2100 s/off with anthem (not recorded unfortunately). Alternative could be a early s/off of a Nigerian station.
936 4/3 2050 MOROCCO RTM Tanger Koran //999
945.02 4/3 2055 ANGOLA Radio Nacional, Mulenvos Local language. Also 5/3 0245
1026 7/3 2220 MOZAMBIQUE Em. Prov. de Manica Portuguese, mx and talk
1053.11 4/3 2120 LYBIA Radio Jamahiriyah
1107 10/3 0220 KENIA KBS Maralal (pres.) Music and talk in VV
1134.02 7/3 2100 ANGOLA Em. Prov. de Bengo, Mulenvos (pres.) Signal fading in at 2000, abrupt s/off at 2300 with no id. First time for me and hrd only this night. PP, local mx, national news at 2200.
1179 4/3 1955 MOZAMBIQUE Em. Prov. de Zambezia mx, national news in PP at 2000
1206 5/3 2010 MOZAMBIQUE Em. Prov. de Inhambane network news in PP
1251 6/3 2215 LYBIA Voice of Africa Arabic, yl. Good audio, this one usually is just a huge carrier.
1305 10/3 0210 KENIA KBS Wajir //1386
1377 6/3 2230 TANZANIA Radio Free Africa mx, swahili, not as regular as a few years ago.
1386 10/3 0210 KENIA KBS Maralal //1305. At same hour also a strong open carrier on 1233, that could be from KBS Marsabit.
1386.16 3/3 2215 GUINEA Radio Rural, Labe going up and down nominal frequency.
1431 3/3 2010 DJIBOUTI Radio Sawa. Regular, often w/pops and overloading Braz stations on 1430
1449 7/3 2110 LYBIA Voice of Africa
1484.53 4/3 2040 ANGOLA Em. Prov. do Kuanza-Sul in Portuguese. Not as strong and regular as in past years.
1485 8/3 2030 ASCENSION ISLAND BBC World Service
1539 6/3 1940 DJIBOUTI RTD, //4780 mixed with the dominant UAE station

Americas

530 7/3 0115 Radio Vision Cristiana, Turks & Caicos Spanish
550 7/3 0650 Mundial, Caracas, Venezuela, news, Chavez speech in Buenos Aires.
555 7/3 0130 ZIZ, St. Kitts and Nevis
570 7/3 0527 Radio Reloj, Cuba
610 7/3 0610 Radio Centro 6-10, Cantaura, Venezuela
640 8/3 0400 Radio Guadeloupe, Point-a-Pitre talk in French
650 7/3 0340 RCN Antena 2, Bogotà, Colombia "Emisora 2, la unica cadena deportiva de Colombia".
650 7/3 0330 Radio Universal, S.to Domingo, adv on sports
660 7/3 0430 WFAN, New York NY sports
670 7/3 0440 Radio Rebelde, Cuba "R. Rebelde Cadena Nacional" id.
680 7/3 0355 WRKO Boston MA (tnx to Mark Connelly)
680 9/3 0430 WCBM Baltimore MD Ads for Maryland.
710 10/3 0205 WOR, New York
710 7/3 0435 Radio Rebelde, Cuba "R. Rebelde para Cuba y para el mundo"
730 7/3 0655 Inspirational 7-30, Trinidad & Tobago Religious, preacher
730 7/3 0700 Radio Lider, Bogotà, Colombia "Cadena Melodia de Colombia" "Radio Lider, siempre contigo".
740 8/3 0200 Radio Caronì, Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela. Local Sociedade da Bahia was off.
740 8/3 0130 CHWO Toronto, Canada Oldies
770 7/3 0535 Radio Nacional, Valencia, Venezuela (pres.), political talk
770 7/3 0540 RCN Bogotà, Colombia
790 9/3 0340 WNIS Norfolk VA Ads, id
800 3/3 2350 TWR Bonaire in English
880 7/3 0600 R.Venezuela 880, Ciudad Guayana. List of stations "Circuito Radio Venezuela".
880 10/3 0055 WCBS New York
960 7/3 0705 Radio Reloj, Cuba
970 9/3 0415 WMAD, New York
970 9/3 0357 Mundial 970, Barcelona, Venezuela
980 7/3 0550 RCN Cali, Colombia //770
1090 4/3 0845 Union Radio, Caracas, Venezuela
1180 4/3 0820 Radio Martì FL Regular
1180 5/3 0510 R. Rebelde, Cuba Strong echo effect, due to different tx on the frequency
1190 5/3 0210 WLIB New York NY
1280 4/3 0835 Caracol, Colombia (pres.Pasto tx) nx
1290 6/3 0745 Puerto Cabello, Venezuela
1310 5/3 0140 R.Martinique (pres.) Reactivated? Talk in French, just a couple of minutes
1340 6/3 0840 La Carinosa 13-40, Bogotà, Colombia
1420 5/3 0505 R. Marabina, Maracaibo, Venezuela
1430 5/3 0225 R.Bahia, Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela
1500 6/3 0730 WTWP Washington DC
1520 6/3 0735 WWKB Buffalo NY
1540 5/3 0200 ZNS1 Nassau, Bahamas
1580 5/3 0410 Candela, Colombia mx and "Candela" jingle
1600 9/3 0600 WWRL, New York
1620 4/3 0000 WHDP Virgin Islands BBC news; 6/3 0000 in Spanish "Esta es Radio Republica", program for Cuba.
1640 .02 4/3 0755 WTNI Biloxi MS Espn Radio, the most regular x-bander of the week
1640 3/3 2330 Juventus Don Bosco, Dominican Republic
1660 5/3 2355 WWRU Jersey City NJ Korean
1680 3/3 2340 WLAA Winter Garden FL Religious in SS
1690 3/3 2340 WMLB Avondale Estates GA Piano sonata

(published on April 6, 2007)