2004 Boston Area DXers “DX Clams” DXpedition
Granite Pier – Rockport, MA, USA
Local: 22 JUL 2004 / UTC: 22-23 JUL 2004
Accounts of
the activity:
Bruce Conti: The annual Boston Area DXers
"DX Clams" DXpedition on July 22/23 was fun as always, a rare
opportunity to showcase antennas, equipment, and talk shop. The group meets once every summer for a clam
dinner followed by DXing from Granite Pier in Rockport, Massachusetts,
overlooking the Atlantic. Overall
conditions were down although still not bad for mid-summer. Most notably absent were Latin American
signals with Canada dominant when US signals were phase-nulled out, for example
750 kHz had CBGY in clear with WSB nulled out, no sign of YVKS. Normally this would be an indicator of a
good northern latitude transatlantic opening, but nothing really
materialized. However it could be a
sign of things to come as the current solar cycle is finally winding down and
MW DX conditions typically improve dramatically during August.
Mark Connelly: The
2004 Boston Area DXers "Clams" gathering was a good time as
usual. Before the Granite Pier DX
festivities, Gary Thorburn and I met for dinner at Woodman's Restaurant in
Essex, MA. The clams were excellent, of
course. By 7 p.m., five of us - Bruce Conti and friend Winnie Morales, Chris
Black, Gary Thorburn, and I - assembled at the pier site in
Rockport. Much of the time was spent in
conversation, setting up and testing antennas and receivers, picture taking,
and chatting with some of the locals who were out there to take in the sea view
on a pleasant late afternoon. As sunset
came, some actual DXing commenced.
Conditions weren't as good as they'd been on my solo visit to the same
site three weeks earlier, but some of the more common transatlantics were
heard. Static wasn't too bad
considering the time of year. I tried
out the Micro-Ewe antenna design for the first time; subsequent tests have
shown even better cardioid pattern results with a "Micro-Flag"
design. DXers attending this annual
event (and the occasional South Shore version in OCT/NOV) often bring out some
new antenna, accessory, or receiver idea.
These get-togethers are always fun, even when conditions aren't the
best.
Mark Connelly,
WA1ION: Drake R8A, 2 x 5 m "Micro-Ewe" with 20 dB
amplifier. <[email protected]>
Bruce Conti: Drake
R8B, MWDX-5, 9-m vertical whip, broadband loop. <[email protected]>
531 ALGERIA Chaîne
1, Ain-El-Beida JUL 23 0050 -
Parallel 153, 549, 890.98 with Arabic music; poor. [Connelly-MA]
549 ALGERIA Chaîne
1, Les Trembles JUL 23 0050 -
Parallel 890.98 with Arabic music; fair. [Connelly-MA]
585 SPAIN RNE1
Madrid JUL 23 0020 - Poor; bits of talk
in Spanish, the low end of the band poor overall. [Conti-MA] JUL 23 0048 - Parallel 1107 with a woman in
Spanish; fair. [Connelly-MA]
603 FRANCE Lyon JUL 23 0052 - Parallel
1206 with "Jammin'" by Bob Marley; fair. [Connelly-MA]
621 CANARY
ISLANDS // SPAIN RNE1
synchros, Santa Cruz de Tenerife et al.
JUL 23 0048 - Parallel 639 with Spanish; fair through WZON slop.
[Connelly-MA]
639 SPAIN RNE1
La Coruña JUL 23 0047 - Woman in
Spanish; fair through CBN slop. [Connelly-MA]
684 SPAIN RNE1
Sevilla JUL 23 0053 - Parallel 585,
774, et al. with "Yesterday" by the Beatles; good, getting by WRKO.
[Connelly-MA]
774 SPAIN RNE1
synchros JUL 23 0053 - Parallel 684
with "Yesterday" by the Beatles; fair. [Connelly-MA]
783 MAURITANIA R.Mauritanie,
Nouakchott JUL 23 0045 - Parallel 4845
with fast Arabic talk; fair to good. [Connelly-MA]
890.98 ALGERIA Chaîne
1, Algiers JUL 23 0043 - Group
Arabic vocal and orchestra; good. [Connelly-MA]
945 FRANCE Toulouse
JUL 23 0055 - Parallel 1206 with piano jazz; fair. [Connelly-MA]
999 SPAIN COPE
Madrid JUL 23 0056 - Parallel 1296 with
man and woman in Spanish; fair. [Connelly-MA]
1107 SPAIN RNE5
synchros JUL 23 0041 - Spanish talk
with echo; fair. [Connelly-MA]
1134 CROATIA Hrvatski
R., Zadar JUL 23 0040 - Slavic talk
by man; fair. [Connelly-MA]
1169 unID
JUL 23 0022 - Maybe the Iranian moved from 1171? Bits of audio and het against WFPB.
[Connelly-MA]
1206 FRANCE Bordeaux
JUL 23 0027 - Good; French pop vocal. [Conti-MA] JUL 23 0038 - French talk, tropical music;
good. [Connelly-MA]
1296 SPAIN COPE
Valencia JUL 23 0056 - Parallel 999
with a man and woman in Spanish; poor to fair. [Connelly-MA]
1359 SPAIN RNE
Arganda JUL 23 0030 - Spanish news;
fair. [Connelly-MA] JUL 23 0115 - Good;
two men in Spanish, loud het against 1360 kHz. [Conti-MA]
1377 FRANCE Lille
JUL 23 0108 - Poor to good, widely variable signal; music parallel a now
strong 1206 signal. [Conti-MA]
1413 SPAIN RNE5
synchros JUL 23 0105 - Good; man in
Spanish, synchro echo. [Conti-MA]
1422 GERMANY DLF
Heusweiler JUL 23 0056 - Fair; flute
instrumental parallel 6190, over an unID station likely Algeria. [Conti-MA]
1431 DJIBOUTI R.Sawa,
Arta JUL 23 0053 - Good; R&B vocal,
announcement, then an Arabic almost Bollywood-like pop vocal. [Conti-MA]
1557 FRANCE Nice
JUL 23 0005 - Music parallel 1206; fair. [Connelly-MA]
1584 CEUTA RadiOlé,
Ceuta JUL 23 0001 - Fair, improving to
good; the first transatlantic signal noted as local sunset approached.
[Conti-MA]
More pictures on Bruce Conti's site
Links to previous DXpedition reports on Worldwide DXpedition page