Was up almost two hours before dawn again and and was greeted with
conditions that were better than May 29. The band below 1200 was
virtually full of hets with a handful of them in audio. I spent quite
a bit of time, early, with 765. It was Australian and originated in
Brisbane. I think it was a syndicated show, with the male host
interviewing a female singer. It was either 5CC in Port Lincoln or
2EC in Bega and both are new for me. Possibly some internet work will
tumble an answer. I heard them on both the 313E and the E100.
After that, it was pretty much off to the races. Like the first
morning, both 774 and 1287 were in as Japanese (on the E100) in the
pre-dawn hour. They and hets on 1566 and 1575 were long gone by dawn.
I also had a fat het on 1323 which was likely the Chinese in Russian.
It never made audio while I was sitting there.
Before dawn, I also invested a great deal of time on 657 which was in
at a fair level. I hung there through 1200 UT hoping to ID Southern
Star in Wellington and nail a new country, but the probable ID and
brief news cast were just too muffled to catch more than three or
four words (DRAT!). However, well after dawn, 963 was in and clearly
parallel to 657, so both were Southern Star. 963 Christchurch is a
brand new station for me, too. I had paralleled 567 RN Wellington
with 756 RN Auckland to count as New Zealand on the E100 a few
minutes before I caught the Southern Star parallel.
At dawn itself, I paralleled 612 and 702 as ABCs Metropolitan Service
in Brisbane and Sydney, though neither quite made it to the E100.
The big surprise of the morning was Radio Tahiti on 738. Yesterday
this channel had been a DU, but at 1203 UT Radio Tahiti was walking
tall. It came in as well on the E100 as it did on the 313E.
As dawn began to wind down, I hit the potential Hawaiians again, and
this time was rewarded: The preacher that I was hearing on 760
yesterday was clearly KGU as I heard both a "KGU Christian Talk" and
an ad for a local church at 1256.... and the business/news
programming that I heard yesterday morning on 670 hung in there until
it IDed as KPUA at 1300. Both were almost as good on the E100 as they
were on the 313E. Many thanks to Patrick, Bruce and Kaz for the
tuning tips for Hawaii. I'm going to keep trying for the others.
So, I think that I got three new countries this morning: New Zealand,
Tahiti and Hawaii. Frankly, I forgot to check the IRCA list to see if
Hawaii is a separate radio country.... it is on most lists.
A couple of other thoughts: I was messing around with the SW antenna
during daylight hours yesterday. It is the most Southwesterly I've
ever used here. Being only 150 feet long, the property is easily wide
enough to crank it around to 230 degrees (the best that I've ever
done before was probably 250 degrees.) 230 puts it aimed at the
waters between New Zealand and Australia with the backside pointed at
Vancouver, Victoria and Seattle. During the daytime yesterday, I was
consistently putting 40 dB of null on Victoria on 900... sometimes
even 45 dB. With 890 being pretty open and 40 dB of null on 900, no
wonder that the E100 heard the two DUs on 891 yesterday so darn well.
The E100 is clearly my digital Ultralight of choice for split
frequency work. It is the only digital one (I think) that tunes in
one kilohertz increments. Quite a few of my loggings this morning
were accomplished by sliding one or even two kilohertz off-channel.
I'll be working with the National SRF-39 more from Orcas Island,
because I think that it is a good DX machine, but right now, I'm so
busy logging that I'm sticking with the E100. The modified
DT-200VX... with Guy's IF filter mod and my external antenna port is
not quite as good as the E100 AND it cannot tune in 1 kHz. steps
(only 9 or 10). Its a fine Ultralight radio for domestic work, but
not for Trans-Oceanic DXing.
Once again, Ultralighting took a average morning and made it special!
John B.
Reporting live from the Westport, WA Library. A sandwich and a Coke
were $14.00 at the Local Tavern!
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