Normally 730 is dominated by the Paraguay station Radio Cardinal, Asunción. Concepto AM has been logged in Finland a couple of times before it was heard again during LEM345 in late February 2015. Even though no definite ID was heard a commercial containing an address in Gregorio Laferrere, BA nailed the station’s identity. A short confirmation was received recently. This frequency also host other “LP”-stations such as the Uruguay station Radio Continental, Montevideo, which is a difficult one, as well as three Argentinians belonging to R Nacional not to forget the more common Chile station R Cooperativa in Valparaíso. Worth while to check this channel in other words.
Surprisingly enough XEKQ Tropicalísima 13-50 faded up with a nice ID during one of the very few poor NA openings during the LEM357 pedition last October. This station is the most commonly heard Mexican on 1350 nowadays. For decades after signing on in 1940, XEQK was known as the time-signal station “La Hora Exacta”. In the late 90´s the station added also music to it’s time format. Mika Mäkeläinen (MTM) was the first one in Finland to log this station in 1995. My mp3 audio was confirmed by a short Facebook message without signature.
This logging was perhaps the best during the LEM354 pedition to Lemmenjoki in late February 2015. The best openings towards Paraguay I have ever experienced since 1963 occured on February 24-25, 2015 with strong signals already around 23 UTC from most of the dominant Argentinians. Around 0030 UTC a station emerged on 750 with commercials. I immediately checked 870 and found that it was not the same program as R Nacional, Buenos Aires on 870. At this time Nacional Córdoba 750 and 870 should be carrying the same “La Radio Pública” programming. My first thought was that it must be AM 750 in Lomas del Zamora, BA. In one of the commercials on 750, however, a clear email address was given as .prg! The commercial was for an attorney business in Asunción. Despite the absence of an ID the case was clear, it was La Voz Policía Nacional! My report was confirmed by Nidia Paredes Bernal, Directora. Big thanks to Henrik Klemetz!
On October 23, 2015 R Nacional in San Salvador de Jujuy was logged in Lemmenjoki carrying programming // 750 Córdoba and 870 Buenos Aires. No local ID but this is the only listed Nacional on 790. The conditions at the time of reception were selectively towards the North Western parts of Argentina. Hence, the channel dominant R Mitre BA was very weak. A Facebook message confirmed my reception.
LRH203 AM990 has been logged in Finland before, but it is definitely not the easiest catch on the EU-channel 990. LR4 R Splendid (common in the early days on shortwaves) was the Argentinian that was heard by several Finnish DXers between 2000-2010. According to my knowledge Splendid has been absent in Finnish logs since then for what ever reason it can be. Since there are no stations listed on 990 in Uruguay or Paraguay (nor in Chile), Splendid and AM990 Formosa are the only possibilities to search for during cx towards the southern part of South America. During the mediocre LEM357 pedition AM990 was fading up around 05 UTC on October 23 in the middle of a proton storm. Luckily, the cx at this date favored stations from the Northwestern and Northern parts of Argentina but not the greater Buenos Aires area. A clear ID “AM990 la radio de Formosa” followed by a commercial for “Banco Formosa” was heard before the SS stations in Spain and other EU-stations took over the frequency. AM990 was logged also by JPR last spring on March 8. A nice e verification via FB signed by Hector Sanchez, Locutor, was promptly received. Gracias Hector!
During the LEM357-pedition some weeks ago the conditions were mediocre overall. Coronal holes one after another and at the end of expedition an increased proton level made trans-Atlantic propagation lousy. On Friday, October 23 around 05 UTC, in the “middle” of a minor proton storm, we found the band more or less empty with the exception of weak La Plata signals, especially on the lower part of the band. Because the band was so clean even many of these signals were readable. We found that the cx favored stations from the Northern and Northwestern corner of Argentina. One of the stations identified was LW8 Radio San Salvador de Jujuy on 630, a frequency almost always giving only the Buenos Aires station R Rivadavia during La Plata cx. Now, at 0501 UTC a clear ID was noted “LW8 Radio San Salvador de Jujuy 630 kcs, oficinas en Horacio Guzmán 496 en Radio Visión Jujuy…”. This was indeed a big surprise. Pertti Äyräs heard LW8 probably for the first time in Finland on October 16, 2014, almost exactly on year earlier.
My report was rapidly verified by Rodrigo Martearena, Jefe Comercial y Marketing, Radio Visión Jujuy. Mil gracias Rodrigo. This becasme my QSL # 160 from Argentina!
Late evening February 24 and all night February 25, 2015 have proved to be may be the best opening towards Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay I have ever experienced in Lemmenjoki. On 1560 I noted a bunch of stations emerging around 23 UTC on February 24. Argentinian LT11 R General Francisco Ramírez and Uruguayian CW51 R Maldonado, two stations typically dominating this frequency during La Plata openings, were equally strong. Some fade in and outs was provided by Brazilian R Povo Pombal. The interesing thing was that simultaneously a strong interfering howl was noted, indicating a strong carrier nearby. It took me some time to realize, after extending the frequency range of the Perseus, that there actually was a very strong peak but no audio on the split 1560.792, i.e., severely off! I followed this frequency between 23 and 2330 UTC and was lucky to observe the emergence of an SS audio that culminated in a real surprise. The station’s locutor kindly announced at 2327 UTC: “En la frequencia 1560 kilohertz, desde Vichadero, Rivera, Uruguay, transmíte CV156 R Vichadero”!
After a lot of Googling I got in touch with Mario Raúl Coitiño who confirmed my submitted mp3 audio and who has been working at the station since 1978 and is presently in charge of the program “Actualidades” aired several days a week 2130 to 2300 local time. Raúl is 58 and kindly sent me a lot of chats and a nice photo of his family. He also noted, that the station is obligated to carry their legal ID every 15 minutes because of air traffic regulations for traffic in and out of the local airport nearby! Radio Vichaderos owner and director is José Enrique Mariño. This is one of the more surprising logings I have made during the last years! If the station remains this far off 1560 it should be a fairly easy catch for the Nordic DXers during the next season.
Thanks HK and JPR for listening to my mp3!
This surprise was noted in Lemmenjoki during LEM354 in late evenings on February 24 and 26, 2015. The station appeared as the first one on 960 on February 24 with an ID “CW96 La Radio de la Família, para todo la regíón centro del país”. Some ten minutes later the dominant La Plata station Argentinian R Nacional, Mendoza occupied the frequency for several hours together with R Sao Paulo and R Difusora de Alagoas, Maceió, the Brazilians being relatively weak with heavy fadings. R Yí was probably noted for the first time in Finland this date but also logged by Jari Ruohomäki in the same QTH on March 4, 2015 (which happened to be on my 65th birthday!!). A short FB message confirmed by reception of Radio Yí yesterday.
The Uruguay station R Oriental in Montevideo is normally blocking 770 during cx towards the La Plata regi0n. During LEM354 , however, Argentinian Cooperativa together with an unidentified Brazilian (most probably R Atalaia de Sergipe) was occupying the frequency. Cooperativa was logged previously in Finland by Jari Ruohomäki in December 2012 also in Lemmenjoki. My report was confirmed via FB.
Las 40 on 1450, has been heard a handful times in the Nordic countries. Probably the first logging in Finland was made during the LEM243 expedition (JEÖ&PÄ) in February 2007. I noticed the station again during LEM354 on February 24. No sign of the channels ARG dominant R El Sol, Quilmes, BA at that time. Las 40 carried Argentinian folklore programming and the identity was nailed by the YL ID “Música Argentina, AM Las 40, Folclórica de Argentina”.
Thanks to Henrik Klemetz, I rapidly got a confirmation from Andy Peredes, owner of the FM station Radio Activa San Juan on 88.7 FM and at the same time working at Las 40. Andy tells that the station´s effective power presently is 7 kW which is one explanation that the station has been heard recently (WRTH2015 lists the power to 1/0,25 kW!). Andy also mentions, that the station started it’s transmissions on April 2, 2001 on both 140 and FM 105.1. Andy is married and has two daughters aged 10 and 4. He included some 40 pictures of the station, of the city and of his family. Muchisimas gracias por su amabilidad Andy!
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