Well it's been a while, since my last blog, and it's May Day Bank Holiday, giving me a time to catch up.
Now that the dust has settled on the football front, you would think I would be flat DX-ing. It's not that I haven't tried, last weekend I tried to install my Blake FM8 antenna, and in a small lapse of concentration, I dropped the antenna and snapped the centre boom in half, I also managed to cut my wrist in the process. As you can imagine, I was annoyed and gutted, as this was at the final stage of fitting!
So I order another Blake FM8 that's landed this Saturday, and yes, just my luck it's arrived damaged in transit, however it's not a surprise, as they shipped in just in a hessian sack! So, no antenna, however I have to say Blake themselves have superb customer services, I emailed "Paul Blake" at 6pm, just to report the damaged, and he personally emailed back to apologize, saying that it was shipped out in error, without being packed properly. I believe you can only tell how good a company is, by how well they respond to problems, "Well Done Blake".
The family has been catching up on films and TV, my wife and I have been watching series five of "Fringe", we also have been enjoying "The Voice"and "Playhouse Presents". On the film front my lads loved "Forest Gump" and have also watched "Robocop 1 & 2"
Yesterday we watched my all time favorite musical "Jesus Christ Superstar", I've been waiting for this to be released on Blu Ray for sometime, and it's best I have ever seen the film. My eldest son seemed to absorb the film, as I briefly explained what was happening in between songs, he really liked the song "I Don't Know How To Love Him". Although I had a Catholic up bringing, and I no longer believe in religion, the story of Jesus has to be the best stories in ever, and JCS still moves me today. While we were watching JCS, we all had the wind sucked out of us by "Ted Neeley" performance on "Gethsemane", when it finished, I looked at my wife and we knew it was one of those moments. Have a look at his magical clip via You Tube below
If you managed to compose your after that, I was watching "Breakfast" on BBC 1 this morning and stumbled across a really interesting artist named " Lindsey Stirling", in a nutshell she is an American, plays the Violin, and fuses Classical Music with Modern Dance Music "Trip Hop" and ballet and dance, she also has a big following on "You Tube", have a listen, this lady has got something going on, have a look at this fun video "Moon Trance", it's a bit of a spoof of "Michael Jackson's Thriller", so it's fun on the eyes, having played some samples on Amazon, I will be purchasing this album, and no doubt will be appearing on my next edition of "Retro Nouveau"
Well, as promised a round up on my visit to Wembley Stadium for the Blue Square Premier League Play Offs. Being thats it's now old news,my side Newport County won promotion to League two, but more on that, as I tell you about my perfect weekend.
So, part of the plan to visit Wembley was to take my two lads to London, so they could do some site seeing. Both had never been to London, my youngest couldn't wait to see Big Ben and the London Eye. We set off from Stourport on Severn, Worcs around 07.30am and after some 130miles approx arrived at Stanmore Underground Station Car Park at 09.30am. Being that it was Sunday, parking was cheap, a crazy £1.50p for all day!
We then purchased tube tickets from Zone 5 to Zone 1, it's worth pointing out that Kids travel for free if under 10 years old.. Both my kids were really excited as we travelled down Jubilee Line to Westsminster, and it was great to see big smiles on both faces as they got to see Big Ben, and the London Eye, we even walked over Westminster Bridge, which was really hard, due to tourists taking photo's.
Well we didn't stop then, a quick meal at MacDonalds then off to Buckingham Place, this was a bit of a disappointment, as there was a guards parade inside, and it was totally packed out. Next we went to Piccadilly Circle, then Oxford Street for a very quick look in HMV megastore, then back on the tube to Wembley. My kids loved it, it was a shame it was a flying visit, but we plan to all go back, with more of a plan, rather than a trolly dash!
After walking around outside Wembley we stop at a Ice Cream van that was outside Wembley Arena, it made myself laugh, the Ice Cream seller couldn't stop praising both Wrexham and Newport Supporters, saying we are so friendly, it reminds himself of being back home in Turkey.
So fast forward, and we are now in the Stadium, the first thing I noticed was the poor turn out from the Newport Supporters, with only 16,000 ish Wembley and Wrexham bringing 10,000 we where really outnumbered, not that it bothered me. One of the downsides to the play off were, only five days notice and it's also on May Day Bank Holiday and a price rise from £36.00 to over £40.00p on a ticket, I'm pretty sure this was the reason for the low attendance, I know of people would just couldn't arranged the time off due to short notice, or they had a plannned holiday booked.
The match itself was a nervous affair, Wrexham missing a number of chances, and with thankfully Newport's keeper playing a blinder. It wasn't to the until 87 minute that Newport broke the deadlock, with Christian Jolley managing to get a yard on Wrexham defence, to be honest it was when substitute Arron O'Conner came on that made the difference, Wrexham defence,with all there experience, simply tired, and lucky for Newport, there two forwards where just to fast, which resulted in the 2nd goal from Arron O'Conner. Yes, it was smash and grab win for Newport, and it's not very often a goal keeper gets awared man of the match! Newport's keeper Lenny Pidgeley had an outstanding match, and that just shows you how hard Wrexham tried.
I can tell you, I was simply on cloud 9, when 1st when in, you don't get carried away, then when the second came, every Newport Supporter went crazy, I am still buzzing 5 days later! Having followed the club through thick and thin, I still have to pinch myself, we are back into the football league, some 25 years later. And to think, Newport County will now appear on FIFA 14!
I feel I should also say a thank you to both parties of fans, no trouble, fighting etc that I was aware of, a perfect day if you are a Newport fan. My heart does go out to my fellow Welshmen, Wrexham.... I am pretty sure that you will be up in the football league soon, don't give up hope!
The following day, my phone rang with congratulation messages via text and facebook. Being that it was a Bank Holiday, we had a family picnic at Holt Near Worcester, yes...it's really was a perfect weekend.
My next blog will be back to normal, less football...honestly! And more of a general mix of comments on music,film radio and life.
I will leave you with a 30 second video clip, taken by myself at Wembley while in the crowd, as all the Newport Fans Celebrate. Just click on the link below.
Yes, indeed...Wembley again! I have to pinch myself, that I am off the Wembley for the 2nd time, as my football team Newport County have made it the Conference play off finals after beating Grimsby Town today. And just to add to the excitement, it will be a all Wales final, as Newport County take on Wrexham for that final promotion spot. Of course I can't wait, but I will admit, I'm going to be really nervous on the day.
So now I have got that off my chest, you may have noticed a few changes to the Music And Wires Site. As you can see, I'm starting to get to grips on how to get things working. So I have added DX Robot and HF propagation gadgets for all the DXer's.
As some of you may be aware, I've been a pretty active member of the British DX Club for a number of years, and occasionally I have written the odd article or equipment review. You can now view all my articles via a PDF download.
The Medium Wave DX conditions haven't been up to much (Last Months Logs Below), so it's given me more time to do household tasks, painting and mowing the lawn. I have also decided to back track on using Mixcloud for Retro Nouveau. It's seems that most people like to use this service these days, so why not ? Speaking of which Retro Nouveau 3 is now available for download (Click on links Below) or have a listen on Mixcloud. Feel free to post some comments.
Now that we are into FM season, I am really missing the fact I don't have my FM Beam up anyone. Although I am planning on erecting a simple dipole, so I can capture some Sporadic E's, and get to play with the new SDR dongle a bit more.
We will just have to wait and see how time pans out, as I want to do as much as possible (Don't we all) I am really behind on doing some planned articles for the BDXC, so I need also sort that out. I want to try and make a new MW antenna design that was posted on SkywavesMW via Mark Davies of Anglesea (Where have Gone Mark?). Try and make a small wooden cabinet for my Blunkpunt Car Radio.....I doubt all of this will be done, but I will give it a go.
With a bit of luck, I will be reporting back on my visit to Wembley next week. So as promised here are last months MW TA Logs, also a special thanks to Chrissy Brand for the mention of my logs in her superb section in "Radio User".
73's
Damien
930 06.02 CFBC,St Johns,NB, ID “93 CFBC” 211 23/04 DER
1130 06.00 WBBR,New York,
“Bloomberg News” 222 21/04 DER
1370 06.06 WDEA,Ellsworth,ME ID at end of news 212 23/04 DER
1390 06.04 WEGP,Presque Island,ME, ID after adverts 111 23/04 DER
1400 06.02 CBC,Gander,NL “CBC News” 111 23/04 DER
1430 06.03 WENE,Endicott,NY. Sports chat 111 23/04 DER
1510 06.36 WUFC,Boston, NBC Sports Radio 323 28/03 DER
1520 06.44 WVOZ,San Juan,PR, Religious Preecing in SS ID “RadioVoz” 232 28/03 DER
1520 07.01 WWKB,Buffalo,NY. NBC News on the Hour 221 21/04 DER
1560 06.38 WQEW,New York, Radio Disney, Great Signal Back To
Back Mx 333 28/03 DER
1570 06.35 CJLV,Laval,QC Back To Back MX, ID in FF 212 28/03 DER
1600 06.32 WUNR,Brookline,MA ID in SS, LSB 211 28/03 DER
1620 06.30 WNRP,Gulf Breeze,FL. AM 1620 your “Coast to
Coast Staion” 211 21/04 DER
1620 06.30 Radio Rebelde Cuba, Big Organ Theme and
ID 212 23/04 DER
1650 06.41 CINA,Mississagna, Radio Seena. Asian pop mx 323 20/04 DER
1660 06.05 WCNZ,Marco Island, FL ID during back to back
MX 323 28/03 DER
1670 05.41 CJEU,Gatineau,QC. Usual mix of FF music 211 21/04 DER
1700 06.02 KVNS,Brownsville,TX
“Fox Sport Radio” Very weak! 101 21/04 DER
It's does make me worry sometimes...What type of world do we really live in ?
I will admit, I have found the remarks about Margaret Thatcher recent passing pretty awful, how bad can human behavior get? Parties to celebrate her death...Honestly..Is it me ? As you can gather, I think this lack of respect is terrible, and it dosen't stop, only yesterday I recieved a email from a t shirt company, advertising "I Hate Margaret Thatcher" t shirts!, I of course deleted it.Really what is wrong with the world.
Now, you may think I am into politics, and Margaret Thatcher Fan. Well, I'm not really into politics, like many people, I have stopped voting. Margaret Thatcher is did amazing things that people take for granted, she also got a lot of things wrong, I loved her spirit, and "Anne Robinson" really reminds me of her, without a doubt she put Britain first, unlike the past and current governments.
RIP Margaret Thatcher....You where a great leader.
So whats next.....O..North Korea........What a crazy world....Enough Said!
It's been a while since my last blog and we all seem to be over of winter colds at last, the TA MW radio has been really quiet, and now that we are in mid spring (Thats a joke hear in the UK) conditions will not be so good. I'm pretty please with my 1st serious season of TA MW loggings, and as promised on my last blog, I will include last months logs at the end.
I have managed to get my £11.99p USB radio dongle working via SDR software, it's not a simply task, and I found the solution on how to install the drivers in this month "Radio User". It looks like the dongle can tune from 52Mhz up to 1Ghz, with a gap somewhere. And now, the MW season is over, I will be playing with a bit more, so I hope to report back my findings soon.
Now a quick update, we went to see Eric Johnson in concert (Be was amazing at times, and at times I got bored, but overall a pretty good gig), Took the Kids to see the "The Croods" very good family entertainment, and we watched the Blu ray of Moulin Rogue, yes we are still going with the musicals! On a sad note, Rubens, the light Indian Curry stall in Merry Hill Shopping has left! I'm gutted, and I will really miss, their Chille Noodle and Chille Chicken Curry.
On the Football front, my side Newport County have made it the to the Conference Play Off Semi Finals, so I may be a few games off going to Wembley again...Up the County.
Before I sign off, hear are the links to Retro Nouveau 2. I hope you enjoyed the music, again you will find this months offering, a real mixed bag of goodies.Again,I suggest you listen first, then checkout the track listing after, it's simply more fun then! Please feel free to comment.
What could I possibly mean? Don't mention the R word! Well, thats certainly not radio, it is Rugby of course!
Having lived in England for 7 years now, the Wales Vs England Rugby match is a big affair in the "Read" household, with Wales winning the 6 Six nations it was a great day to be Welsh.
Things on the radio front have been very up and down of late, and although we haven't enjoyed the needle bending conditions of early September 2012, there have been quite a few fellow DXers managing to recieve new signals, the answer really is to keep plugging away listening. As usual I will post a full list of my TA MW logs on my blog at the end of the month.
As you may be aware in past post, family film nights have becoming quite a regular affair, we recently watched a film "battleship"over 4 school nights, generally in 30 to 45 minutes a night. I have to say, that I love it when the whole family spends and shares a film together.
We have now on to the action movies at the moment, and Terminator 1,2 and 3 has been viewed, my lads loved them, I had to laugh....My oldest Son said to myself the day after watching Terminator 2, "Dad.. I think Arnold Swarchenegger is the best actor in the world", I chuckled and told him to keep that thought to himself! Tomorrow it's back to musicials, a film that I'm not sure if I am going to like "Rock Of Ages", I worry, as I grew up during the 1980's Hair Metal Period, so I'm am expecting some classic's to be murdered, I just hope it's not as bad as "Mama Mia".
You may have noticed that it's been a while, since my last blog, well that been because I been thinking of doing something different.... Anyone who know's myself, will be aware that I have been a music lover all my life, and I have amassed a pretty large collection of music of the years, so listening to music has always been a big part of my life.
It is for that reason alone, I have decided to share my passion with yourself, as from this point in time I will be posting a monthly music download named "Retro Nouveau".
In short it will be a selection of old and new songs from many years of listening. The Musical Podcast will be roughly a one hour long, and will feature many different styles and genres of music. I am hoping that it will perhaps help lead you to you discover a new artist, so whatever you age, give it a go!
Can I suggest you listen to the music first, then download the track listing after, that way it's a surprise.
Simply just click on this link to downloadRetro Nouveau
I realised I could have done this via a service called "Cloudmix" that also runs on Facebook, but I simply prefer to be in total control, sharing music is a personal thing for myself, so I'm not so keen on going global with facebook.
Before I sign off tonight, if you enjoy any of the music played, and would like to hear more, just leave a comment on this blog.
It's funny, when your older. And in my case, it's easy to take simple things for granted. As you may have read in previous blogs, my wife and I have been getting my two children into musicals.
We watched "West Side Story" and couple of weeks ago, and I commented that both my children enjoyed it. What surprised myself, that some two weeks on, my lads have been singing songs from "West Side Story" around the house, we have had the finger clicking to the "When Your A Jet..."
Last week we showed them "Hairspray", my word...they loved it!, my youngest son has played it over and over....."Good Morning Baltimore!"
This leads me to last Sunday, we watched a normal kids based filmed, Walt Disneys "John Carter", fifthteen minutes in, my youngest says "When are they going to Sing!! lol.
It's really made me realise that, kids minds are like sponges, and it's easy to take these small things for granted. The good news, I have plenty of musicals up my sleeve for them, up next is another monster hit "Grease".
I recently had a weeks break from MW TA listening, for my own sanity really, but you will be pleased to know, I am back on the horse now. Like all hobbies, I find you need to step back from time to time.
I also found this out when I used to play the drums, something I haven't mentioned before in my blog. I used to play the drums for 20 years, based around Newport.
It's something I do miss, however I reached a point in my life when my family were more important to me, and sadly moving to a different part of Wales, travelling up and down the M4 corridor just to practice and not giging enough, resulted in me leaving my long time band "The Rob Flectcher Band"
I did try to few adverts for bands, but nothing ever came about, so in the end the drums and cymbals were sold off to pay some outstanding bills. At the time, I know some of my mates couldn't quite believe it, but life moves on, and I have had some fantastic memories of great gigs, and helping with song writing and producing the band demo's (Thats for another day)
For a change today, I'm going to be the star! Todays music/video is a live video of myself on the drums over ten years ago at Bristol, with a track called "Who's to Blame"
Well, I hope it wasn't to painful if you decided to take a listen!
Before I sign off here is this months MW TA logs for March 2012
73's
Damien
59000.35VOCM, St Johns, ID afterweather32311/02 DER
93001.31CFBC, St Johns, Back to Back ,ID “93..CFBC”22211/02 DER
95005.59CKNB, Cambleton, NB, ID on the hour22224/02 DER
101007.02CFRB,Toronto, ID “News Talk 10 10”22211/02 DER
102007.00WURN,Kendall, FL. Very Weak ID On Hour,
Spanish Chat11108/02 DER
113001.01WBBR,New York, Bloomberg ID, Sports PX33311/02 DER
114007.00WQBA,Miami, FL ID on hour22204/02 DER
114001.04CBC-1, Sydney,NS ID after news,and PX ID22211/02 DER
118006.00Radio Rebelde,Cuba. Usual hourly ID with big organ
theme,USB11124/02 DER
119005.30WLIB, New York, ID good signal, QRM at my QTH from
1215Khz31126/02 DER
125007.00CHSM, Steinbach,MB. Very weak ID on hour11106/02 DER
129007.00WJNO, West Palm Beach, ID On Hour23208/02 DER
131001.00CIWW, Ottawa. ID band on the hour “This is CIWW”
11111/02 DER
132007.02WLQY, HollywoodFL, Managed to get ID,live help of
Skywaves11116/02 DER
132006.02YVMP, Radio Apolo, Turemo Venezuela, Jingle On the Hour22223/02 DER
133004.01WRCA, Waltham, ML, ID just past thehourLSB21126/02 DER
136007.03WMOB, Mobile,AL Really good signal, ID on the hour32204/02 DER
136006.06 WDRC,Hartford. ID after weather21207/02 DER
138007.19WABH,Bath, NY, ID during Back to back Country
Music 11104/02 DER
139006.00WEGP,Presque Isle,ME. ID on Hour21112/02 DER
140006.02CBG,Gander NL, “CBC News”22212/02 DER
143007.01WENE,Endicott,NYSports Talk11111/02 DER
144002.57WRED, Westbrook,MESports ID as “The Big Jam” a nightmare to ID22316/02
DER
147007.00WWNN, Pompano Beach,FLAmazing signal strength S9!33308/02 DER
150007.00WFED, Washington, NY ID on hour22204/02 DER
151007.59 WUFC, Boston, just caught the end of religious
program22201/02 DER
151007.33WLAC,Nashville,TNID before sports news22204/02 DER
152008.00WWKB, Buffulo. ID on hour before “NBC News”22201/02 DER
152006.30WVOZ, Radio Voz,PTR, Mixing with WWKB21123/02 DER
153007.00WCKY, Cininatti,OH. ID afer the “Overcomer” show21204/02 DER
154007.00KXEL, Waterloo, IA .ID on hour21104/02 DER
154007.00CHIN,Toronto,ON, Mixing with KXEL,reference to
Toronti news 11104/02 DER
155006.00Radio Rebelde,Cuba. Usual hourly ID with big organ
theme,USB11123/02 DER
156007.00WQEW,Radio Disney, New York, ID on hour 22204/02 DER
161007.00University Network, Caribbean Beacon, Usual
Religious output33325/02 DER
162007.00Radio Rebelde,Cuba. Usual hourly ID with big organ
theme33301/02 DER
163007.00WRDW, Augusta, GA ID on the hour just before news 11103/02 DER
163007.00KCJJ, Iowa City,IA Good Signal ID on hour33304/02 DER
164007.00WTNI, Biloxi, MS. Super Bowl Highlights11104/02 DER
165006.00CJRS, Montreal,ON ID on hour “Radio Shalom” ID22201/02 DER
166007.30KRZI, WacoTX. Advert for ESPN Radio22231/01 DER
166001.01WGIT, Camuy,PR Phone in show in SS11102/01 DER
166006.00WBCN, Charlotte,NCID on the hour11105/02 DER
166007.00WCNZ,Marco Island, ID “The Avenue” Mixing
with others11113/02 DER
167007.04CJEU, Gatineau, QC. ID as “Radio Enfant” Children
singing songs33301/02 DER
167007.00WPLA, Drybranch,GAID on hour Sports11106/02 DER
168007.30KRJO, MonroeLA, Carrying “Bloomberg News” Good
Signal33331/01 DER
168006.01WOKB, Winter Gardens, ID on the hour 22203/02 DER
169007.01WMLB, Avondale Estate,GA. Brief ID on hour21123/02 DER
169007.00WPTX, Lexington Park, MD ID was “the News station WPTX”21204/02 DER
169007.00CHTO, Toronto, ON.22204/02 DER
170007.33WJCC, Miami Springs . SS phone in.22201/02 DER
170007.31KVNS, Brownsville,TXAd’s For Fox Sports11111/02 DER
