Nice conditions to Europe on Sunday (4/21-4/22)

On Saturday night, X-FM made a long broadcast of music and requests while announcing a phone number. It was the best that I've heard X-FM in a year or two, but a lot of those difficulties were probably because of my antenna mast collapse. Still, the signal was excellent for the duration of the broadcast, and it was great to be able to sit back and enjoy the show.

I was curious about just how well the signal was getting out & I started checking SDRs around the world. The X-FM signal ranged from barely audible to very good at these locations (in no particular order): SW England; Rio Grande da Serra, Brazil; Bjargtangar, Iceland; Kongfjord, Norway; Carlow, Ireland; Wrexham, Wales (carrier); Anasco, Puerto Rico; Maui, HI; & Bonaire SDR. I didn't stay up for the sign off to see if the signal made it into New Zealand, Australia, or Japan, but maybe?

On Sunday, conditions were good and European pirates were broadcasting during the greyline propagation hours. Nice combination! Here are a few loggings via my own receiver:

Mustang Radio: 6265, 4/21, ca. 2324+ Shoutout, I think to BLW in Alabama, who turned in. Into Lynyrd Skynyrd “Sweet Home Alabama” and I think he said hi to me over part of the song. Depeche Mode “People Are People” & Blondie “Call Me.” Thanks to Radio Star & me for logging it on HFU, thanks to everyone for reports. There were some stretches of instrumental music and a string of pre-recorded Mustang Radio IDs at the end of the program  

Radio Voyager: 6950, 4/21, 2310+ Pink Floyd “Us and Them,” then a jazz song with lots of improvisational piano. An announcement or ID by a woman, then a male computer voice with the Radio Voyager e-mail address. A song with a woman singer, maybe Motown or soul?  

Blue Moon Radio: 6850, 4/21, 2314+ The signal was very weak but audible. I could hear music throughout, without many problems of deep fading. But aside from the signal being too weak for me to know the words, I just didn’t know any of the songs. HF Underground DXer Skipmuck heard a lot of the songs and mentioned that they were being played on a loop. My guess is that was just for the night and that it switched back to live programming this morning. I checked the Twente web receiver the next day and listened to the station again. One thing from listening on Twente is that your music levels sound good, but the mic levels are really weak. Even though the signal is very good in the Netherlands, I had to turn the audio output up about the whole way to be able to understand the announcer. The operator said he's using "25 watts and a half wave dipole. Over the past few days we have received reports from throughout Europe, Scandinavia, Ukraine, Russia, and east coast of USA."