Ben Dangerfield in Greece, 1997 Subject: Comments re Greek trip Back home from Greece on 3-10 so looks like I missed some good openings. Had a fine DX location. Our hotel was by a beach on the Aegean Sea about 20 miles east of Athens and there was a balcony outside our room. An on and off buzz typical of most hotels wasn't too much of a problem as it didn't hit all frequencies. I used my pocket Sony SW1 enhanced considerably by my new KIWA pocket loop. Checked Rome 846 to see was the matter and found it on schedule, // to other Radio 2 stations in the evening and to 900 after midnight. However, it must be on reduced power as it was weaker than all the rest, and it was not audible during the day even though others at similar distances, such as Solt-540 and Cluj-1152 were good all day. Another puzzle for me was where were the Libyans? I expected semi-local signals daytime from such biggies as Tobruk-648, Benghazi-675, and El Beida-1125, based on the huge signals from Egyptians at similar distances, but I couldn't find these stations day or night. There was a weak Albanian on 648, a fairly strong AA on 675 which seemed to be in Israel [Palestinian], and nothing on 1125 [days] except an unlisted Greek. Not even sure about El Beida-1251. Nothing days, and at night the Hungarian dominates. An AA speaker behind but not sure which. Also, as at Newfoundland, I had trouble IDing any Iraq stations, no surprise. Not much from Western Europe at night, but lots of stations in East Europe and the Mid East. VOA-Kuwait 1548 and U.A.E.-1476 were both very strong. No luck with NA stations in the wee hours, but only tried once. Needed sleep. I'm doing a band scan but limiting it to mid-day reception which I think will be more interesting because of the long distances heard with the SW1 and loop. 531 ISRAEL Jersalem, 770 miles, fair, in Hebrew 540 HUNGARY Solt, 620 miles, good, classical music 549 SAUDI ARABIA Qurayyat, about 900 miles, Good, in AA 549 YUGOSLAVIA Pristina, 400 miles, weak 558 TURKEY Denizli, 275 miles, Good signal, // 1017 & 927 558 ROMANIA Tirgu Jiu, 490 miles, weak 576 BULGARIA Vidin, 430 miles, Fair 576 ISRAEL Tel Aviv, 700 miles, Fair, multilingual 594 BULGARIA Pleven, 400 miles, Good 594 TURKEY Malataya, 780 miles, weak 603 CYPRUS Nicosia, 550 miles, Fair, in Greek 603 EGYPT Barnis, 625 miles, Weak, in AA 612 JORDAN Amman, 800 miles, weak, in AA 621 EGYPT Batrah, 580 miles, very good, AA 630 ROMANIA Timisoara, 550 miles,fair 630 SYRIA Tarsus, 650 miles, weak, in AA 639 CYPRUS Lady's Mile, 550 miles, weak, BBC 648 ALBANIA Kukes, 330 miles, weak 657 ISRAEL Tel Aviv, 700 miles, good, in Hebrew // 1206 666 GREECE Athens, 20 miles, local, all classical music. [Sometimes at night the Syrian is on top] 675 ISRAEL Jericho ? Palestinian tentative. 770 miles, good, in AA. Nothing I heard sounded like an ID for Benghazi, Libya. Has been a het at night. 684 YUGOSLAVIA Belgrade, 500 miles, good 693 CYPRUS Nicosia, 550 miles, weak, in Greek 702 TURKEY Catalca, 330 miles, almost semi-local. Turkish, but I think I heard them in FF at night unless Monte Carlo had gone on top. 711 EGYPT Tanta, 590 miles, good, in AA 720 CYPRUS Lady's Mile, 550 miles, weak, BBC 729 GREECE Athens, 20 miles, strongest local, splatters to each side 747 BULGARIA Petric, 250 miles, good 756 ROMANIA Lugoj, 550 miles, fair 774 EGYPT Abis, 575 miles, almost semi-local, in AA 783 SYRIA Tartus, 660 miles, fair, in AA 792 GREECE Kavalla [VOA and Greek], 220 miles, semi-local 801 JORDAN Ajlun, 800 miles, fair, in AA 810 MACEDONIA Skopje, 310 miles, good 819 EGYPT Batra, 580 miles, very good, in AA 828 BULGARIA Shumen-Sofia, 330-390 miles, good. Syrian het at night. 855 ROMANIA Bucharest, 470 miles, good 864 EGYPT Santah, 600 miles, very good, Koran all the time 873 LEBANON Beirut, 690 miles, weak, AA. Sounds off frequency 873 BULGARIA Stara Zagora, 330 miles, weak 891 TURKEY Antalya, 350 miles, weak 909 ALBANIA Gjirokaster, 230 miles, weak 927 TURKEY Izmir, 175 miles, fair, // 1017, 558 927 GREECE Zakynthos, 175 miles, fair 945 GREECE Larissa, 150 miles, weak 954 CRETE,GREECE Heraklion, 185 miles, semi-local 963 BULGARIA Shumen-Sofia, 330-390 miles, fair 963 CYPRUS Nicosia, 550 miles, weak, in Greek 981 GREECE Megara, 35 miles, local. Sometimes // 1386 1017 TURKEY Mundanya, 350 miles, fair, // 927, 558 1017 BULGARIA Vidin, 430 miles, weak 1026 ISRAEL Tel Aviv, 700 miles, weak, in AA 1044 GREECE Thessaloniki, 210 miles, good 1053 ROMANIA Iasi, 670 miles, fair 1080 GREECE Orestiada, 285 miles, fair 1089 ALBANIA Durres, 320 miles, weak.Does sometimes do Islamic music. 1098 CYPRUS Yeni Iskele, 570 miles, weak, in Turkish 1107 EGYPT Batrah, 580 miles, fair, in AA 1125 GREECE Unid. Poor modulation but loud. 1134 CROATIA Zadar, 670 miles, weak until mid-afternoon. 1152 ROMANIA Cluj, 600 miles, weak to fair 1161 BULGARIA, Stara Zagora, 340 miles, fair to good 1179 GREECE Thessaloniki, 210 miles, very good 1197 EGYPT Alexandria, 550 miles, fair, lots of pop, AA 1206 ISRAEL Haifa, 700 miles, weak, Hebrew // 657 1224 BULGARIA Vidin, 430 miles, fair 1260 RHODES,GREECE-VOA, 265 miles, good 1278 GREECE Florina, 245 miles, fair 1296 BULGARIA Kardzali, 275 miles, fair 1314 GREECE Tripolis, 85 miles, good 1386 GREECE Athens, 20 miles, local, Greek music, Not good nights. 1404 GREECE Komotini, 235 miles, almost semi-local 1485 GREECE Patras, 122 miles, fair 1494 RHODES-GREECE, 275 miles, good 1512 CRETE-GREECE Chania, 200 miles, good 1584 GREECE Athens, 20 miles? local but weak. 1602 GREECE Kavalla, 160 miles, weak Again, that's mid-day reception for the above, say 1030 to 1330 local time. After 1430 local all signals grow so it's hard to tell when ground wave gives way to sky wave. Ben Dangerfield, now back in good old Wallingford.