Ron Gitschier DX Visit to Rockport, MA - 1 JUN 2001

Granite Pier - Rockport, MA, USA (GC= 70.622 W / 42.667 N)
1 June to (UTC) 2 June, 2001

(Includes pictures below)

 

*** COMMENTS ***

The Rockport, MA DX outing on 1 JUN featured a visit by Ron Gitschier. Ron, a former Lowell, MA resident presently in the Navy and stationed in FL, had a good time listening to the Transatlantics, some of which (675, 1206, et al.) got quite loud considering that it was 3 weeks before the longest day of the year. Ron's friend Bob and Boston Area DXpedition regular Bruce Conti also participated in the Granite Pier get-together.

Ron's comments follow:

Subject: Rockport, MA DX Extravaganza

I wanted to publicly thank Mark Connelly and Bruce Conti for spending the time to indoctrinate me (and a non-DXer friend) in the finer points of Transatlantic and Latin American DXing and portable antennae and Drake R8 communications receivers.

I found the site with no difficulty having seen Mark's website with directions. Bruce had a Quad loop and Mark had a different sort of phased loop, the proper terms escape my mind at the moment. I learned a bit on how phasing is achieved as it related to some work I was doing on the ship with electric controls. Reading about it and then seeing it in action really helped me grasp the phasing concept a lot better.

My friend of about 30 years, Bob Geoffroy and I were very impressed with the results of Mark and Bruce's bandscans and ability to phase out stations. We heard Algeria, Croatia, Spain, UK, Venezuela, and so forth. My friend used to listen to AM DX in the 70s mostly of Top 40 stations mostly throughout the Northeast so was already familiar with AM DXing (along with being an over the road truck driver).

Bruce brought along sample copies of Popular Communications Magazine (thank you very much!) and had I realized the temperatures, I would have brought a keg of hot coffee or cocoa and a parka as I soon found out that I'm no longer climatized for my native New England.... We talked shop and twisted the dials for about 4 hours, dusk on into the night. We arrived at Bob's home in Manchester, NH after midnight and mighty tired but all the richer from the experience. Thank you Mark and Bruce for taking the time out to 'show up the ropes'. I hope that I can perhaps lure you gents (and others) to the beach near my place at Naval Station Mayport, (Jacksonville) FL for some salt water path bandscanning. Tank tops, shorts and flip flops usually are the uniform of the day for DXing there.

With Gratitude, Ron Gitschier - Boston Harbor, MA - Outbound.

=====

Report from Mark Connelly - Times / dates = UTC / 2001

Drake R8A; cardioid antenna array with Superphaser-1 phasing unit, 1.8 m X 1.8 m broadband loop, homebrew active whip

*** TRANSATLANTIC DX ***

549 | ALGERIA | Chaine 1, Les Trembles, JUN 2 0200 - a cappella Arabic vocal, then time pips followed by news.

567 | IRELAND | RTE R.1, Tullamore, JUN 2 0120 - in-studio discussion program in English; fair.

639 | SPAIN | RNE R.1, La Coruna, JUN 2 0116 - man with Spanish talkshow; to good peak.

675 | NETHERLANDS | R. 10, Lopik, JUN 2 0131 - "When I Need You" by Leo Sayer, a couple of words in Dutch, then "Surfer Girl" by the Beach Boys; fair to good with WRKO phased.

693.65 | AZORES | RDP, Santa Barbara | JUN 2 0113 - woman in Portuguese; fair.

747 | NETHERLANDS | Flevoland, JUN 2 0202 - Dutch talk, piano music; fair.

774 | SPAIN | RNE R.1 synchros, JUN 2 0100 - woman in Spanish, Radio Nacional Espana mention; to fair peak.

1134 | CROATIA | Hrvatski R., Zadar, JUN 2 0107 - jazz, Slav talk; good.

1206 | FRANCE | France Bleu, Bordeaux, JUN 2 0031 - to loud peak with US disco oldie.

1530 | SAO TOME E PRINCIPE (t)| VOA Relay, Pinheira, JUN 1 2323 - 1 kHz test tone in mix with WDJZ and WVBF. Only heard with cardioid array set for eastern pick-up. This station often runs such tone tests when not on regular programming.

1583.64 | CEUTA | RadiOle, JUN 1 2321 - bits of talk and music noted at pre-sunset fade-up.

1602 | SPAIN | EI or SER | JUN 1 2320 - first TA pre-sunset fade-in with bits of Spanish talk and het against WUNR.

 

Pictures from 1 JUN 2001 (to 2 JUN UTC) DX get-Together

Click on thumbnail for larger version of an image

All photographs by Mark Connelly using Agfa 1680 digital camera



Ron Gitschier at Rockport

Bruce Conti and Ron Gitschier

 


  • Main page: WEB LINKS