Friends, Got back from Grayland last night. I was able to download at the Local Bar and Grill on Friday and Saturday noons, but had problems (that I did not realize) uploading. So, I've pasted and edited my uploads into a four day narrative that also includes the more interesting loggings. The full set of loggings has been sent to the bulletin.
For those of you tracking Trans-Pacific conditions, the brief description would be Thursday AM, Oct 25: LOUSY Friday AM, Oct 26: Better, but still poor, with more Chinese Saturday AM: Oct 27: Worse, but not as lousy as Thursday Sunday AM: Much better.... not great, but GOOD. I was hoping for a lot of low level audio, since I find that most useful when doing antenna testing... the main purpose for my trip. I should be more careful what I wish for.... Here is the narrative: Wednesday, October 24 was my travel day from Orcas Island to Grayland. Rain, some fog and numerous accidents in Seattle forced me to divert widely around the metropolitan area, and take an additional ferry to get to Grayland. A normal 6 hour trip became a low stress eight plus hours. The travel delay and early sunset meant that I only had time to get up the standard BOGs: westerly 600' and the NW 800 footer. THURSDAY, OCT 25 Given the conditions that I found Thursday AM, I probably should have just waited until Thursday to hang any wire at all. Thursday AM was the least interesting, least productive morning of DX that I've had here in several years. From the way that the band was behaving, I'd guess that there was some kind of solar disturbance. I DXed periodically from 1130 until 1530.... Going back to bed twice in disgust. A number of DUs were in most of the morning, at just above threshold levels... 531, 549, 612, 702, 1116, 1512 and 1548. None ever got to really listenable levels, but they hung around a long time. All of the usual Japanese were there, though usually at their late October poor levels. Once in a while, one of the Big Guns would pop up for 10 minutes or so, before dropping off to fair/poor levels. The Chinese were almost totally absent, with 963 and 1206 kHz. being notable exceptions. The only two bright spots were a really good log, early (1300UT) of 738 Taiwan Fisheries, parallel a much worse 1143 and CNR1 639, very late (1500 UT). I've heard them both a number of times before, but they were still the class of the field for Thursday morning, October 25. Thursday, the 25th, was a beautiful sunny day at the beach and I had great fun putting up both Guy Atkins and my own beta Wellbrook Phased Arrays ready for some more serious Beta testing on Friday morning and, I sincerely hoped, a load of great DX. FRIDAY, OCT 26 I DXed from 1130 until 1615UTC with somewhat better results than Thursday and a pot full of antenna testing. Overall conditions still seemed sub-par, but a good deal better than the abysmal conditions of yesterday Thursday AM. The Aussie Big Guns were in at 1130 and more or less stayed in until things FINALLY shut down after 1600. (sunrise = 1445UT) The larger Japanese were there, along with some of the second and third line stations, though levels were generally sub-par. The Koreans were back for the most part, though not too strong and there were quite a few more CCs around, though still quite low level. The more interesting loggings included: 648 The Russian transmitter near Vladivostok was in nicely this morning, running a VOA program until TOH @ 1400, then they either slewed the antenna away from NAm or left the air, as after 1400 there was only threshold audio on the frequency. 990 JORK in Kochi was dominating that frequency for a while. Also QSLed long ago, but a relatively rare visitor. 531 was a mix of at least two, maybe three DUs for quite a while before 4KZ dominated at dawn. Unneeded, again, but fun to listen to at a decent level. Crime Stoppers PSA, local Toyota dealer's commercial, nautical weather and sea conditions for the area 783 8AL Alice Springs, very tentative this, late in max dawn at fair level, initially, fading to nothing just before 1500. Could be Access Radio, Wellington, but heard no other Kiwis on this DXpedition. I hung on every word and every note, like an IDIOT, rather than trying to // from 120 meters. I'll be looking tomorrow morning, but... Will send a tentative report with CD. I might add that the music program was several songs by a female "lounge singer," which doesn't sound that much like Alice Springs to me, but even less Wellington. Definite DU, both by DFing and by language. Hummmmm. At noon on Friday, Patrick Martin and Dave Williams showed up for a delightful lunch and afternoon radio jam session. We had lunch at the Local Bar and Grill and I was able to upload the partial "Report #1" and download two days worth of messages. It was comforting to know that other DXers in the region were experiencing similar (semi-lousy but improving) conditions. SATURDAY, OCT 27: If you look in the DXers' dictionary under "mediocre conditions," you'll see a picture of me at Grayland this weekend. The Japanese are clearly beginning to fade out about an hour or more before dawn enhancement kicks in, so they are "mere shadows of their former selves" at dawn. This morning, the few DUs that have been present the past two days were even more modest, though a few made it to poor levels of audio. The Chinese were beginning to reappear in some numbers, but there still were many "usual suspect" stations that were either still totally missing or were mired in the mud of unintelligibility (936, 927, for instance.) The silver lining in this weekend for me was the fact that I was there primarily for final Beta testing of the Wellbrook array and I wanted a lot of very low level audio for test purposes. "Be careful what you wish for........" SUNDAY, OCT. 28 Finally, decent, not great but DECENT, TP conditions. Most of the usual East Asian suspects were there and sometimes at excellent levels. Even 4QD-1548, Emerald, Queensland was bombing in just after dawn. The Japanese continued to peak well before dawn and nowhere near their levels of mid and late September . But, they were there! The still disturbed but improved conditions brought me two very nice catches: 549 OKINAWA JOAP NHK1, Naha , Oct 28 1250 - Stumbled on this running a national sporting event soon after turning on the radio. Fair to good at first, rapidly fading back into the mumble mix. Happily, the play-by-play announcer was very distinctive and I could follow the signal until TOH. The // on 594 was ever so much better. Really happy with this one, after a minimum of 16 years of trying. Report going out tomorrow! (JB-G'land WA) 801 AUSTRALIA 4QY, Cairns (prob.) , Oct 28 1520 - 30 minutes after dawn, caught an Aussie talk show just above threshold level. There are three Aussies listed. 2RF is Radio Italia; 5RM, Berri appears to be an Oldies` station. 4QY would be my first guess, anyway,since Q'landers often dominate late at Grayland. However, this talk program was similar but NOT // to 4QD-1548. Subsequent i-net research indicates that the two stations are in different subgroups of ABC Local Radio, so this is certainly a possibility. New for me and worth a report with CD. (JB-G'land WA) I DXed until 1545, an hour after sun-up and then had to roll em up and head back inland into the fourth nice sunny day in a row. Totals for the 4-day weekend: Japan: 31 stations, China: 21, Australia: 11, South Korea: 6, North Korea: 4 and one station each in Okinawa, Taiwan, Thailand, Russia and the Philippines. With our annual migration back to our winter home in Oklahoma coming up in two weeks, that closes out my DXpeditioning out here for another year and what a great one it has been! John B. _______________________________________________ IRCA mailing list [email protected] http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: [email protected]
