Don Moore

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Super Radio Popayan 1070 -- HJKK Pitalito 1280 -- Radio Calima.

DXing in Medellin

February 5-11, 2016

MEDELLIN BANDSCAN

We only had five days in Medellin and we stayed in an AirBnB apartment right in the central city. So I didn't even try to DX. And I almost forgot to make SDR recordings to get the local stations. On the last evening there I made four top-of-hour recordings at 2256, 2356, 0056 and 0257. And I scheduled several more for overnight and the next morning. But Microsoft had other ideas and rebooted the laptop overnight. So I'm not able to say which stations are on all night or what time sign-ons are.

But I was able to get a good picture of the local MW band. Even though these are local stations the audio varies from crystal-clear to down-in-the-noise. We were in a fourth floor apartment of a six story building surrounded by other similar buildings. So there was a lot of attenuation of the weaker stations.

590 W Radio (Medellin) - At 2256 with promos and ads, Colombian National Anthem at 2258, and then ID and into nx (Medellin 10 Feb 2016 2256). Later with local Medellin ID and later into a Cat Stevens song. (Medellin 11 Feb 2016 0056) This is an adult contemproary station group in the Caracol chain. Programming comes from Bogota. On all four SDR recordings the local Medellin IDs are at 57 minutes. Will have to check for this time on other W Radio frequencies on my other recordings.

670 Antena Dos (Medellin) - RCN net ID followed by Promo for upcoming futbol game with Antena Dos ID. Then anthem and into sports (Medellin 10 Feb 2016 2256).

710 - Radio Red (Medellin) - Radio Red is a station group in the RCN chain that features tropical music. I believe all programming comes from Bogota but local IDs are inserted. For example, here's an ID with 710 frequency (Medellin 11 Feb 2016 0257).

750 - Caracol (Medellin) - Relay of main network station from Bogota.

790 - Munera Eastman Radio (Medellin) - This is a new station in Medellin. The Radio Munera website indicates that programming is variety talk with a lot of sports. Heard here with a complete ID. Note that after the ID they announce the following program with the disclaimer that it is the responsibility of the program producer. It appears that at least some of the programming is brokered. (Medellin 11 Feb 2016 0056)

830 Q'Hubo Radio (Medellin) Listed as Radio Reloj but appears to be carrying Q'Hubo Radio. Heard with romantic mx and this ID with a Q'Hubo Radio jingle including the frequency followed by the announcer giving the time in "Q'Hubo Radio 830 AM Radio Reloj. After a song there was another jingle and ID with both names used.(Medellin 11 Feb 2016 0056)

870 - Vida AM (Medellin) - Religious programming. Heard here with website promo and full local ID. Uses slogan "la radio que llena tu vida" (the radio that fills your life). Also announces 24H. (Medellin 10 Feb 2016 2356). At some hours heard with prayers at others with magazine-talk programming. Lots of mentions of local places in my small sample of SDR recordings so it appears to be mostly or all local programming.

910 - La Voz del Rio Grande (Medellin) - Carrying Todelar national program from Bogota on all four SDR recordings (2256, 2356, 0056, 0257). At 2302 they went into news from the Voice of America. They were also ending a VOA news item at 2356 so it appears they carry VOA the entire hour.

940 Frecuencia U (Medellin) - This is a cultural station run the Universidad de Medellin. Heard here with long string of promotional announcements with IDs followed by intro to program Estila Ya hosted by Javier Botero. Wonder if a relation of the famous artist Fernando Botero who came from Medellin. (Medellin 11 Feb 2016 0056).

990 RCN (Medellin) Relay of main network. (Medellin 11 Feb 2016 0056).

1020 - Emisora Claridad (Medellin) - Romantic mx, ID at hour, then into "Mundo Deportivo" program at 2300 (Medellin 10 Feb 2016 2256). At 0056-0105 w/ current events program. Didn't stop for IDs. (Medellin 11 Feb 2016 0056). At 0256 with light instrumental music followed by Todelar network and station ID then into a talk program (Medellin 11 Feb 2016 0257).

1050 - Radio Unica (Medellin) - Had a lot of local noise affecting this frequency. Heard at 2256, 2356, and 0056 with Spanish pop music and the same canned Todelar and station ID (Medellin 11 Feb 2016 0056). At 0257 there was a non-stop radio preacher.

1080 La Voz de la Nostalgia (Medellin) Old Latin romantic mx, promos for upcoming concerts then ID with slogan La Voz de los Exitos. ALso this promo for their website followed by station jingle. Strong signal. (Medellin 11 Feb 2016 0056)

1110 - Radio Boliviariana (Medellin) - Instrumental mx followed by this ID and program intro for a program on usage of the Spanish language. (Medellin 11 Feb 2016 0056)

1140 Radio Paisa (Medellin) - Staion belongs to the RCN network. As this long ID string shows, station is still using the Radio Paisa ID but also the La Cariñosa brand/slogan. Also lots of RCN mentions. Wonder if they are in the process of rebranding this as La Cariñosa or if they intend to blend it with the old ID. Paisa is the nickname for people from this region. There is a strong local identity to the word and it would be foolish to give up this slogan. (Medellin 11 Feb 2016 0056)

1170 - Radio Nutibara (Medellin) - Station and Todelar ID followed by promos for Todelar programs and ads. (Medellin 11 Feb 2016 0056)

1200.17 - La Voz de la Raza (Medellin) - Promo for futbol coverage and ID then into ranchera mx. For futbol uses slogan La Voz de Futbol Antioqueiño. Two more IDs at 0102 (Medellin 11 Feb 2016 0056).

1230 - Un Minuto De Dios (Medellin) - Religious station with lighter programming and occasional short IDs (Medellin 11 Feb 2016 0257).

1259.98 - Radio Autentica (Medellin) - Local station of this religious network. I heard all local programming, or at least there were announcements with mentions of Medellin neighborhoods around the top of the hour. Heard here with religious-pop music followed by ID and slogan "más poder ... más musica ... más radio de la verdad" (Medellin 11 Feb 2016 0056).

1290 - La Voz de las Estrellas (Medellin) - Pop music and this ID at 0003. (Medellin 10 Feb 2016 2356). Same thing with this ID at three minutes after the hour. (Medellin 11 Feb 2016 0056).

1320 Radio Maria - Relaying main station in Bogota. Very non-religious jazz music at 2356 followed by network ID giving call-sign and frequency of station in Barranquilla (Medellin 10 Feb 2016 2356). Classical music with ID, time pips, and ID for main station in Bogota. Medellin 11 Feb 2016 0056).

1350 - Ondas de la Montaña (Medellin) - Ad string followed by complete ID grandiosely announcing that they were broadcasting for the entire planet. This was followed by an anmt about required service in the military or national police for all young men and then a long promo for their news programming that never mentioned the station name. Then this anmt and ID, although I'm not sure just what the "two marks" they refer to are. Into traditional type guitar/vocal ballads. (Medellin 10 Feb 2016 2256) Different canned ID at 2357 also followed by the national service anmt. Then ID and program intro where someone screwed up as the intro was played twice. (Medellin 10 Feb 2016 2356) Futbol game play-by-play later (Medellin 11 Feb 2016 0056 and 0257).

1380 - Nuestro Señora del Encuentro Radio (Medellin) - Non-stop prayers and religious music (Medellin 10 Feb 2016 2256). Religious mx followed by IDs and program intro mostly IDing as "N S E Radio".(Medellin 10 Feb 2016 2356) At 0056 they again went through the top-of-hour with prayers and music. At 0301 they paused for the same canned ID as at 0001. (Medellin 11 Feb 2016 0056 and 0257).

1410 - Emisora Cultural Universidad de Antioquia - Instrumental music then string of announcements including promo for program Armonia, time check two minutes slow, promo for a music festival, and a second station ID. Their website this station was founded in 1933 and was the first university radio station in Colombia. (Medellin 11 Feb 2016 0056).

1440 Colmundo Radio (Medellin) - Relay of network programming from Bogota. (Medellin 11 Feb 2016 0056) and (Medellin 11 Feb 2016 0257).

1470 - Radio Popular (Medellin) - Radio Popular is the listed ID but I didn't hear any on my four SDR recordings. They just featured pop music and ads and lots of dead air. On one there is three and a half minutes of dead air after a song before they came back on in mid-song. I don't think I've ever heard anything so sloppy. (Medellin 10 Feb 2256 and 2356 - And - 11 Feb 2016 0056 and 0257)

1530 - Yeshu'a La Voz de Jesus Cristo (Medellin) - Non-stop sermon from 0056-0105. (Medellin 11 Feb 2016 0056). Later at 0257 anmts about religious events interspersed with religious mx and followed by this ID with fequency (Medellin 11 Feb 2016 0257).

1560 - Santa Maria de la Paz Radio (Medellin) - Religious station heard here with end of program La Iglesia Ayer Hoy y Siempre with IDs and frequency at 0056. (Medellin 11 Feb 2016 0056).

1590 - BBN (Envigado) - Strong signal at 2256 with end of religious pgm that must have been canned or relay as they gave a phone number "en Chicago". Followed by this (promo for their chat channel and ID with frequency and then into news. (Medellin 10 Feb 2016 2256) barely audible at 0257 (Medellin 11 Feb 2016 0257).

DXing in the Eje Cafetero

January 28 - February 5, 2016

The Eje Cafetero, or Coffee Region, is the three small central departments of Caldas, Risralda, and Quindio. It's probably the most turistic part of Colombia. The first four days we stayed at a rural finca hotel - the Finca Hotel El Meson - just west of the city of Armenia. The last four days were at a similar place just outside the small town of Salento in northern Quindio. Both were excellant places for DXing, especially the second. I made a lot of long SDR recordings at both locations. For the moment, here's a bandscan focusing on local stations and what can be heard in the daytime. I've started working on the DX on those recordings and hope to start getting some samples of that up soon.

720 - Transmisora Quindio (Armenia) - Complete station ID followed by anmt for conserving water. Then station jingle and promo announcement (Armenia Jan 29 1756 UTC).

770 - RCN (Bogota) - Weak signal during the daytime. Listed 100 kW. (Armenia Jan 29 1756 UTC).

800 Radio Ciudad Milagro (Armenia) - Got this short ID at 1704. Otherwise just non-stop music during both my 1700 and 1800 top-of-hour SDR recordings. (Armenia Jan 29 1656 and 1756 UTC).

840 - Radio Robledo (Cartago) - News program with this station ID and RCN network ID. Station is affiliate of RCN network (Armenia Jan 29 1756 UTC).

950 - Caracol (Pereira) - Local ads followed by Caracol network news (Armenia Jan 29 1756 UTC).

1020 - RCN (Pereira) - Local ads followed by RCN network news (Armenia Jan 29 1756 UTC).

1022.7 UNID - Carrier here at 1700 and 1800 29 Jan 2016.

1040 - La Voz de Armenia (Armenia) - Heard with ID with website that also mentions the station was founded in 1936. Followed by string of ID/announcements about the importance of water followed by intro to feature on the 50th anniversary of the formation of Quindio Departent in 1966 (Armenia Jan 29 1756 UTC).

1060 Colombia - RCN (Manizales) - Network ID and programming. Mixing with at least two other stations on frequency plus an off-freqency one on 1060.300 at 0100 on Feb 05. Surprising not better considering how close I was to Manizales. ************ DAYTIME *************

1150 - Caracol (Armenia) Ads followed by Local ID with frequency then into news magazine type program on climate change (Armenia Jan 29 1756 UTC).

1240 - RCN (Armenia) - RCN sports and local RCN ID with frequency followed by network news (Armenia Jan 29 1756 UTC).

1330 - Antena Dos (Pereira) Daytime recordings 1656-1706 and 1756-1806 had non-stop interviews.

1400 - La Cariñosa (Calarca) - Local anmts/ads and ID with frequency (Armenia Jan 29 1756 UTC).

1550 - Vida Radio (Calarca) - String of local anmts with several Vida IDs on this religious station in the Vida network. This long clip ends with a very jazzy Vida station song (Armenia Jan 29 1756 UTC).

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DXing in Cali

January 14-28, 2016

CALI BANDSCAN

In Cali we had a very nice apartment on the sixth floor of an eleven floor building so it was hard to get much besides the local stations and some of those weren't heard as well as I would have liked. This first section is a listing of stations heard from the Cali metro area. Most of the medium wave stations in Cali belong to one of the large radio networks in Cali. In least in numbers, Todelar is particularly dominate on the medium wave band with five stations. Further down are some DX loggings of stations elsewhere in Colombia plus Peru, Ecuador, and Panama.

The following frequencies were off the air on SDR recordings made at 0457 UTC on January 25 and January 27: 780, 940, 1160, 1350 1500, 1550. Stations on the following frequencies were heard at both times as well as at 0757 UTC on January 25th so are presumed to be 24 hours: 580 620 700 820 860 900 980 1030 1080 1110 1200 1230 1260 1290 1470

580 - Radio Nacional de Colombia - Relay of the main station in Bogota. This ID gives the calls and frequencies of some FM outlets in several cities. At 0457 25 January they were playing classical music. That was followed by this ID which mentioned the Cali location and frequency. They they went into a program of lively Colombian music ... quite a change from the classical!

620 - Colmundo Radio - Seems to be a mix of local programming, as in this ID with local news, and network programming.

700 - W Radio - A Caracol network station relaying the main W Radio from Bogota. Sometimes IDs as La W and sometimes as W Radio. Here's a string of program promotionsal announcements with both IDs.

780 - La Voz del Valle - This is one of the oldest stations, if not the oldest, in Cali. It used 6095 SW for many years. I believe I logged it there in the early 1970s. It's been part of the Todelar network for many years. Here's a long mid-afternoon recording with lots of great IDs and program promos. Here's a morning program promo.

820 - Caracol - Relay of the main station in Bogota as in this clip.

860 - Voces de Occidente - Local RCN-owned station in Buga, about 60 kilometers north of Cali. Several IDs here and the reception gets better a little ways in.

900.25 - La Voz de Cali - This is listed as La Voz de Cali but all I hear is relays of the main Todelar network in Bogota, such as in this top-of-hour ID.

940.80 - Radio Calima - Another Todelar station. Note that they are well off frequency. This is a tropical music station as heard here with ID and La Tropical de Cali slogan. Also here with the morning ID announcement after customary playing of the national anthem at 0500 local time (1000 UTC).

980 - RCN - Relay of national station from Bogota as in this short clip.

1030 - Antena Dos - A mix of music and sports programming as here with local ID and sports news. Also relays major sporting events from the national station, as is being promoted here.

1050 - Radio Palmira - Palmira is a small city about 32 kilometers east of Cali. Heard here with promotional announcements with several IDs. Also weak here with several IDs. I'm in a west-facing apartment so the signals from this are blocked by the building.

1080 - Radio Eco - A music station in the Todelar network. Here's a clip promoting their morning program of Colombian music. Around 0800 heard with promo for the Todelar Cali website listing all the local stations and then followed by a good local ID.

1110 - Q'Hubo Radio -A music station in the Caracol network. Noted here with morning ID announcement.

1160 - Radio Unica - Heard here with 1000 UTC sign-on. They come on with a short station song which is followed by an ID announcement and then into the national anthem.

1200 - Radio Red Station in the RCN network. Heard here with local ID and programming.

1230 - Radio Calidad - Another station in the RCN network heard here IDs going into news. Also here with IDs and into phone-in program. I used to hear these guys in the early 1980s when I lived in Honduras. I always liked the name. Calidad means quality but it is also sort of a pun since it contains the city name.

1260 - Radio Maria - This Catholic station doesn't ID a lot but caught them here with an ID and promo for their website.

1290 - Radio Viva - Spanish pop music station heard here with string of IDs and into news and here with ID with web promo and jingle

1320 - Radio Luna - This is the Todelar station in nearby Palmira heard here with Todelar and station ID.

1350 - Armonia - This religious station has lots of strong preaching even going over the top of the hour without any kind of ID or pause. Here's one time they were heard with IDs and promotional announcements.

1470.05 - Radio Huellas - This religious station knows how to confuse DXers. This ID says "In Panama, we listen to Radio Huellas 1470 Cali Colombia." I assume they've gotten some listener letters from Panama. But if you only heard the first part of that you wouldn't know what it was. Also heard here identifying as Huellas Internacional.

1500 - Radio Sonora - The Cali affiliate of the station that interviewed me in Popayan. Here are their top-of-hour IDs and another string here. On Jan 27 noted coming on in mid-song at 0958.

1549.75 - Emisora Revivir en Cristo - Off-frequency religious station that likes to play long sermons which on several of my SDR recordings go over the top of the hour without any stop. And IDs are hard to get as even when they do break at the top of the hour for announcements they sometimes don't ID. But I got this one. They are part of the Huellas group (see 1470). Once I heard a mention of Huellas but no ID for Revivir.

Some Cali Radio Station Websites

Todelar Cali - Local website lists all the Cali stations plus several in other cities.
W Radio - Map of all their station locations.
Radio Huellas ... Radio Viva ... Radio Sonora Cali ... Radio Maria ... Caracol 820 Cali ... Radio Palmira ... Voces de Occidente, Buga

CALI DX LOGS

Stations are in Colombia except where noted otherwise

1150 RCN - Station here with RCN network programming 1000 Jan 27. Presume Neiva.

1240 - Unidentified PERU - Station with non-stop Peruvian music dominating the frequency during my 0957-1004 SDR recording. Unfortunately no ID.

1250 - Emisoras ABC - This one will stretch your DX listening skills but the station name is at four seconds in and is followed by the frequncy and city name (Barranquilla).

1250 Ondas Carchenses - ECUADOR - Tulcan - Mixing with Emisoras ABC and at least one other station. Picked out this time check and ID then into romantic music.

1280 - Caracol - Caracol network programming at 1000 Jan 27. Presume it to be Caracol in Pasto.

1300 - Oxigeno Radio Listed as an Oxigeno outlet of Caracol in Pereira but heard here with just the callsign ID and mentions of Caracol at 1000 Jan 27

1309.71 - La Voz de la Patria Celestial Religious programming and ID. ID also includes slogan Radio Cristiana. Jan 27 at 1000. Second ID here. This station is a very old station that was originally named La Voz de la Patria (The Voice of the Fatherland) until around 1995 when it was purchased by a church and celestial was added to the name.

1320 - Radio Continental - ECUADOR Ambato - On top of the frequency at 1002 on Jan 27 with this ID.

1340 - RCN - RCN network nx and ID at 1000 Jan 27. Presume this to be the Pasto station.

1350 TeleRadio - ECUADOR - Guayaquil in with ID and news at 1000 on Jan 27. Local Armonia Radio not on yet.

1380 RCN Tunja Network programming and RCN ID at 1000 Jan 27.

1400 Caracol - Station here with Caracol news at 1000 on Jan 27. Not sure which of the several stations are affiliated with Caracol.

1410 Radio Universidad de Antioquia ID and classical music of this Medellin station at 1000 on Jan 27.

1426.200 UNIDENTIFIED Carrier with very weak audio here. Frequency very unsteady, wobbling +/- 30 Hz over a few seconds. At 1000 January 27.

1430 Radio Futura - ECUADOR - Quito station heard with local ads and station IDs

1450 Colmundo Radio ID and into news at 1000 January 27. This would be the Medellin station. Will get a good local recording when I'm in Medellin in a few weeks.

1460 - La Cariñosa The RCN station in Pasto heard over two or three other stations at 1000 January 27.

1510 - HD2IOA - ECUADOR - If you used to listen to shortwave you may remember the time station from Guayaquil, Ecuador. Here's . their still active medium wave frequency logged at 1000 on Jan 27.

1530 - Ecos del Pacifico - Something heard weakly here during the daytime. Suspect Ecos del Pacifico in Guapi about 100 kilometers west of Cali.

** 1540 - Radio TurboMix - PERU - Some real DX here. Noted Peruvian music at 1000 UTC followed by a mention of Cutervo - the town featured in my 1989 PWBR article on Peruvian radio. Recording includes ID as TurboMix AM with frequency and mentions of Cajamarca and Peru.

1560 Radio Adventista de Panama - PANAMA Heard at 0958 - 1005 on Jan 27 w/ religious music and anmts about events in Panama (City) and Colon. Unfortunately no IDs. Mixing with an unidentified Catholic station in Colombia, probably Santa Maria de la Paz Radio from Medellin.

1580 - Caracol Sincelejo - Presumed the station with Caracol news at 1000 Jan 27. Mixing w/ Verdad Radio Bogota.

Click on photos to see full size

DXing in Popayan

January 11-14, 2016

In Popayan I visited two radio stations. First I had a very nice visit at Radio 1040. I chatted with the manager and the news director and then they had one of the announers record this interview with me for use in the news magazine program later in the day. Popayan is a beautiful colonial city and they want to further develop their tourism industry. It just happened that I visited the station on the 479th anniversary of the founding of Popayan ... an event the city was celebrating all day. I left with some business cards and station logo refrigerator magnets.

The next day I stopped by the local outlet of the Super Radio network. The manager gave me a couple business cards but didn't invite me in. He seemed to be busy. I also walked over to the address given in the 2016 WRTH for the local CARACOL network station (Calle 5A 11-25) but found that they had moved.

POPAYAN BANDSCAN

Our hotel room wasn't suitable for DXing but I did make a top-of-hour SDR recording of the four local stations. Most of the broadcast activity in Popayan is on the FM dial.

1040 - Radio Mil Cuarenta - Good signal downtown but unfortunately no IDs on my one SDR recording.

1070 - Super Radio Popayan - Strong signal as in this clip of Local IDs and announcements

1330 - Caracol Network - Relay of main station in Bogota. Here's an ID.

1370 - RCN Network - Relay of main station in Bogota.

Click on photos to see full size

DXing in San Agustin

January 8 to 10, 2016

San Agustin, at the southern end of Huila Department is the location of some of the most famous pre-Columbian ruins in Colombia. We had a cabin in a small complex on the edge of town (see San Agustin Blog. I hung the PA0RDT and made a number of SDR recordings of the MW band. I hope to get a few loggings and recordings added here soon. I also checked longwave a few times but didn't have any luck. There are some aeronautical beacons for Colmbia listed in longwave. There was some noise and going all battery didn't help.

San Agustin is a deep valley along the upper Magdalena River. During the day there was only one local station with any kind of signal at all - HJKK on 1280 kHz in nearby Pitalito. A few other frequenies had barely audible signals (and that using DX equipment). Medium wave just doesn't propagate well in these mountains. Years ago that was why stations supplemented medium wave with shortwave. But shortwave has been replaced with FM and there were several local FM stations.

DXing in Pasto

January 2 to 7, 2016

There wasn't much time for DX related activities in Pasto as we were busy with carnival activities. (See the Pasto blog.) We had an interior room in a hotel in the center of town so DX wasn't possible anyway. But one evening I did make three top-of-hour SDR recordings so I could check out the local MW scene.

PASTO BANDSCAN

740 - Ecos del Pasto - Very well heard as in this great ID followed by ad for the Festival de Cuy . This is one of the oldest stations in Pasto. Here's their website.

780 - Radio Viva - Very weak as in this ID. I can't imagine this is the 5 kW listed in the 2016 WRTH. Here's the Radio Viva website.

920 - Radio HSB - This frequency was Ondas del Mayo for many years. I heard them while in Ecuador in 1997. They are now part of the Sonora network and IDing as HSB Radio as in this long ID and promo that includes jingles for the Sonora network, HSB Radio ID and 920 frequency, a promo for the Diario del Sur newspaper and finally into the Colombian national anthem. According to an article I found the station was purchased by the newspaper and has been renamed. Their website indicates that they are currently using just 10 kW but plan to increase that to the original 30 kW. Given the current depressed economic situation in Colombia I suspect that won't happen soon.

1010 - La Voz de Galeras - That's the listed station ID but in my three recordings the only ID was this Todelar network ID . I couldn't find a specific website for the station but did come across this article about the history of the station.

1040 - ColMundo Radio - Listed as 15 kW but not that strong in downtown Pasto. As in this ID, they use the slogan La Cadena de la Responsibilidad. I think they are just relaying the national network ... nothing local heard.

1130 - Oxigeno Radio - The Caracol network's music station. Got this local ID with slogans.

1280 Caracol Pasto Relay Not as strong as 1130 this was just a relay of the main network. Here's a network ID

1340 - RCN (Radio Cadena Nacional) - This is just a relay of the main network out of Bogota. Heard here with top of hour ID and national anthem. .

1460 - La Cariñosa - RCN owned national music station chain. Heard here with sexy jingle, promo for news on the 1340 frequency, and then La Cariñosa ID with frequency

Bit of an aside here but back in 1984 there was an unlicensed shortwave station (Radio Lux) operating from Guachucal, a small town not far from. The frequency was somewhere in the 7 MHz range. I think it was originally reported by either Henrik Klemetz in Colombia or Juan Codina in Peru. I heard it in Honduras but I don't know if it was heard outside Latin America. I came across this History of Guachucal and it includes some information on the station.

The Traveling DX Shack

January 4, 2016

So ... what to take to DX on the road for two months?

Receivers: The primary receiver is my Afedri SDR-Net, which I use with the HDSDR software. I also brought along my Eton Traveller III portable.

Laptop: This is part of the DX shack. Mine has a 14 inch screen which is large enough to comfortably use with HDSDR. It runs Windows 7 so I have Dexpot installed to give me four virtual desktops. That makes it easier to switch between the receiver and the web browsers. I'm waiting until I return home to upgrade to Windows 10. I didn't want to chance anything going wrong before I left on this trip.

Antennas: For SDR recording I brought my PA0RDT Mini-Whip Antenna. I have both a wall-wart and a battery pack (8 AA) to power it with. In hopes of doing a few evenings or mornings of real-time DXing I also brought my old Radio West ferrite loop which I purchased in 1978. I have coils to use it on LW, MW, and the SW tropical bands. It was in Honduras with me for three years (1982-1984) and has gone along on trips to Venezuela (12/94 to 01/95), Ecuador (10/97 to 11/97), Mexico (11/01), and Nicaragua (09/07). I recently purchased one of Gerry Thomas's excellant Quantum loops but decided to give the Radio West loop more spin. Originally I thought about bringing along a spool of 150 meters of thin wire for a BOG. I used that with success when I was in the countryside outside Medellin six years ago. In the end I decided there would be too few (if any) opportunities to use it. I did throw in a short length of wire (about 7 meters) as a backup antenna.

Coax: I brought three lengths - a one meter length with PL-259 connectors and two and eight meter lengths of quality TV coax. I figured that I could always buy more TV coax if needed. (Although what I've seen in a couple discount stores has looked very low quality.)

Adapters: Wouldn't it be nice if everything were the same? The Mini-whip uses BNC, the Afedri takes SMA, and the Loop has RCA. And my cables are PL-259 and F. So I have multiple of everything I need to make the various conversions.

Headphones and Earbuds: I brought my 30 year old Yaesu YH-77 headphones plus several pairs of earbuds.

References: No books or papers. Everything is electronic on the laptop. I also saved some resources to my phone so that I can look at them while DXing without having to switch to a different desktop view.