** CANADA. 242-MCW kHz, Jan 31 at 0744 UT, ND beacon dash and XC, which is 500 watts from Cranbrook BC; undermixing with FS, which is really on 245 from Sioux Falls SD, a regular.
263-MCW kHz, Jan 31 at 0747 UT, dash and YGK, 230-watt NDB from Kingston, Ontario; presumably this tho copied as YMK, one dit off.
341-MCW kHz, Jan 31 at 0754 UT, dash and ZLP, mixing with my local EI Enid, and its #1 competitor OIN in Oberlin, Kansas. ZLP is 40 watts from Toronto - Meadowvale, Ontario, and per dxinfocentre.com ``to be decommissioned 2021-02-25``; pleased to have caught in time. Distancefromto goes to a Meadowvale beyond Ottawa, not Toronto; distance from Toronto is 1764 km = 1096 stmi or 27.4 miles per watt (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR)
** CHINA [non?]. 11590, Jan 31 at 1602, Chinese; in this case not sure if RFA via TINIAN as sked this hour daily, or CNR1 jammer (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR)
** CUBA. 6060, Jan 31 at 0515, RHC English is on again via frequency reactivated last night; maybe starts at 0500 for English? If not Spanish earlier.
5040, 6000, 6060, 6100, 6145 or 9700, Sunday January 31 at 0803 when I am unfortunately still awake, all RHCs are off when Esperanto is supposed to air on one of them. (However, SW Radiogram has just started on WRMIs 5850 & 7730). Something`s always wrong at RHC.
15140 // weaker 11760, Sun Jan 31 at 1602, this airing of Esperanto is starting a bit late with themesong and sign-on (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR)
** CUBA. 13496, 13564, 13632 S9, 13768 S9, 13837, 13906 all approx., Jan 31 at 1518, FMish RHC spurblobs out of 13700-AM, with reconfirmed F# tones; approx. 68-kHz intervals, the fringe ones JBA traces. Something`s always wrong at RHC (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR)
** CUBA. 15700, Jan 31 at 1558, CRI English relay with discussion ending just in time as `The World Today`, rather than a 5-minute language-lesson buffer; S9+30, somewhat distorted and JBA F# tone like on the 13 MHz spurs. Mod stops by 1600 but carrier stays on a while. Something`s always wrong at RadioCuba (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR)
** U S A. 1230 kHz, Jan 31 at 0738-0742 UT, concentrated continuous listening to my R75 with E-W longwire for any sign of the KCUP Toledo Oregon DX test, but nothing. That`s enough for me, but I have already heard it via remotes over a megameter away. Some guys were going to record the entire 8 hours and sift for it later; beyond me. Fleshing out my previous report starting two hours before the official test:
It so happens that there is a KiwiSDR in Newport OR, which city-to-city is only 6 miles from Toledo. Near-local quality KCUP it uppix but still with QRM audible under.
Surprised to be hearing Xmasmx! That`s the kind of thing out-of-season DX testers sometimes employ since it stands out sorethumbly. Could this be an intentional prélude to the test, or would KCUP really be playing that for local audience a month+ later?
0409: ``This is K-Cup``; ``O Little Town of Bethlehem``
0414: ``K-cup`` 2-syllable ID; ``I`ll Be Home for Xmas``
0418: ``O, Tannenbaum`` in German
0421: ``K-Cup``, PSA about adoption
0424: ``White Xmas``
0426: ``Favourite Things``
0428: ``I Want a Hippopotamus for Xmas``
0431: ``Silent Nite``
0433: ID about enjoying something
0442: ``K-Cup``, heart & stroke PSA; ``Lifestyles of the Central Oregon Coast``
0448: ``We Three Kings``
0600 again listening on local remote as DX test officially starts, robo-announced as such, Morse ID as VVV DE KCUP with repetitions.
At 0601 I switch to one of the KiwiSDRs in Northern Utah, labeled as: ``© bluebison.net Northern Utah SDR KiwiSDR #1 Corinne, Utah U.S.A. (TCI-530 Omni) Corinne, Utah | Grid: DN31uo, ASL: 1310, [map]``. The map link shows its G.C. as: 41-35-24 N / 112-16-12 W, or decimally: 41.59 / -112.27. I have not tried to compute exact distance with G.C. but city-to-city and distancefromto.net worx out to 632.58 statute miles. This is the one I checked earlier during Xmasmx with no go.
Now I *am* hearing KCUP over a megameter away, tuning LSB = USB mode:
0601: Morse ID, sweeps
0602.5: phone-off-hook, upward sweeps
0606: 1 kHz tone
0647: another final check into Utah: upward sweeps, 0650 tone.
Simultaneously have local Newport SDR still running, and easily compared and confirmed as //, tho hardly necessary after copying definite KCUP Morse ID in Utah. BTW, about 3 other further-flung DXers were also running Newport on 1230! But not this Corinne.
At first I was reluctant to try Corinne as it might be too close to the UT on 1230 in Murray, KJJC in the greater SLC market, but not a problem. Murray is SE of SLC; Corinne is quite further north, 30 miles from Idaho. For this path, Corinne #1 is at optimum distance, not too far, but not too close still to qualify as real DX.
Meanwhile I have also checked several other possible remotes, to find no KCUP or not funxioning: in CO, TX, AZ, HI, NZ. I was about to try VE6JY in Alberta but Malwarebytes blox, claiming possible trojan. Don Moman thinx it`s OK anyway, and any malware would have had to come from Kiwinet updates.
At 0615 UT I try Prince George BC`s VE7AV remote, and there is KCUP: beeps going upward // Newport; 0618 CCI in Korean! That would be intervening KWYZ in Everett WA; 0620 tone; distance city-to-city 644 miles with no G.C. provided by this remote.
FCC shows G.C. for KCUP:
44° 37' 52.00" N Latitude 44.631111
123° 56' 40.00" W Longitude -123.944444
Here`s the latest notification about the test, including grafik of the ``Cup`` logo: https://groups.io/g/IRCA/message/16676 Under the rules, as an NRC member, I could claim a new graveyard record distance for KCUP beyond Tim Hall`s standing one, except I am sure others heard it further, even without a remote. I would however like a QSL for picking it up in BC and UT (Glenn Hauser, OK, WOR)
This report dispatched at 1904 UT January 31
