Friday 23 July 2021

 

 Nicaragua TV double-hop

YNFA-302 Channel 2 Managua 

YNFA-304 Channel 4 Managua

                 Channel 3 Matagalpa


A 4-hour long double-hop sporadic E-skip event on July 22, 2021 brought TV signals from Nicaragua into Canada. Channel 2 Managua was first noted at 3:01 p.m. EDT. This was followed by the stronger Channel 4 Managua at 3:15 p.m. with a Multinoticias logo. Later the station returned to its usual '4' logo. YNFA-304 was in colour at times. A new catch, 1 kW Channel 3 Matagalpa was seen at 4:34 p.m. This repeater station was // to channel 4. The Nicaraguan signals managed to stick around until ~ 7 pm.

Seen here is a recording of Channel 4 Managua. This video uses frame-stacking, which although causes motion blur, increases the sharpness of still objects. The audio change partway through is a result of changing from NFM to WFM.









Thursday 15 July 2021

 Colombia TV double-hop

5JA-5166 Channel 4 Santa Marta + 

5JA-8295 Channel 3 Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta +

5J...          Channel 3 Monteria


A long lasting double-hop sporadic E-skip event on July 13, 2021, that also brought in TV from Dominicana and FM from Puerto Rico, allowed reception of Colombia on channels 3 and 4 from here in Canada. The first sign of Colombia came at 4:24 p.m. EDT with relog Channel 4 Caracol Te Ve in Santa Marta. This continued until 5:09 p.m. when a new catch was seen, Channel 3 Caracol Te Ve in Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (near Valledupar) // to Channel 4. Later on at 6:38 p.m., another new catch on Channel 3 with Telecaribe in Monteria. The Colombian opening lasted well over 2 hours.

Seen here are recordings of Channel 4 Santa Marta and Channel 3 Monteria.







 Puerto Rico FM into Canada !


WRTU-FM 89.7 San Juan at 1,891 miles on July 13, 2021


On July 13 during a double-hop E-skip event where Dominicana and Colombia were coming in on lowband TV, Puerto Rico appeared on the FM dial at 5:08 p.m. EDT, a new FM country for me (#8). The recording below begins at 5:27 p.m. Unfortunately my antenna switch wasn't pushed over completely, so the signal was about 10 dB lower than it could of been. Amazing strength for double-hop. Midpoint was in the Atlantic Ocean. 

Also received was an unID Spanish station on 97.1. No matches could be found in Puerto Rico, so Dominicana is suspected. 



Friday 9 July 2021


 Trans-Atlantic FM DX into Ontario !

87.7 Azores confirmed - 2,816 mile double-hop

It took some investigation, podcasts, and a mix-up with Azores vs. Portugal time zones, but I managed to confirm reception of 87.7 RTP-3 Ponta Delgada, Azores (Pico de Barrosa xmtr) here in Grimsby, ON at 6:38-6:40 p.m. EDT July 8th. Top-of-the-band skip to Newfoundland was in at the time.

According to the schedule, the program 'Indiegente' was on at the time. (The podcast was found here : https://www.rtp.pt/play/p257/e556841/indiegente ). Recorded here are the few snippets of reception followed by clips from a podcast of the program.

My QTH is Grimsby, Ontario, Canada. Receiver : Icom R-8600 w/SDR Console. Antenna : CM-3671. no preamp.  
Update : As far as I know, this is officially a new North American FM DX record!
Note : The blank recording has been fixed.