Quick report from Howe Bay, PEI, Brent Taylor, Niel Wolfish, Bruce Conti and myself giving the first impressions. We're not suffering effects from Hurricane Sandy, nice waves out on the ocean and blustery winds, but not abnormal for this time of year.
Brent has already logged 9 provinces in less than half an hour (he'll never hear the 10th, which is PEI, because it has no AM stations anymore). As I mentioned, we've been awash in TAs, starting a couple of hours before sunset, and lasting until European sunrise, though the peak has seemed to be within an hour or two of our sunset. 1215 carrier was noted as late as 0915UT the second morning. But, for much of the time, there are many channels that you can just sit on, and different stations will fade in and out. This is not like the TPs at home, either in quantity or in strength. I'm a bit like the deer in the headlights, trying to make sense of it all, while the others are mining the more exotic minutiae, hohumming their way through stuff about which I'm chortling away with glee. However, I did snag Iran on 1575 within a short time of our setting up the first antenna, so haven't been totally unhelpful. The night of the 27th did seem a bit more middle Eastern for longer, while the 28th and 29th seemed more European to me, though had a Middle Eastern tilt at the top of the band before sunset. Spaniards are everywhere, but that doesn't mean that something else might not fade up on any given channel. Morning TPs have not been too successful so far. The first morning was not successful at all, but that was before adding an FLG100 amplifier to the antenna. Yesterday morning (29th) we had carriers that seemed to be Australian by their frequency signature (1116 for example), but our first antenna, a corner fed loop, was set up to null the US Eastern seaboard, and also does a pretty good job of nulling eastern Australia. So yesterday, we set up an ALA100 which also nulled the Eastern seaboard, but provided a better lobe to Australia as well as to Brazil and southern Africa. Of course, this morning was Asian, with just the slightest traces of audio on 774 at the peak of sunrise enhancement at 1032UT. But last night, while I struggled with the "easy" TAs, Brent and Niel were starting to work the Latins using the ALA100, and of course, Globo on 1220 was heard by all, so the ALA100 has paid for the minimal effort in setting it up, and the phasers have already been set on stun, using it and the corner fed. (Bruce came equipped with a corner fed crossed pair of antennas, phasing unit and all, so has been self sufficient; the Canadians have had a more gradual approach to antenna construction) More as it happens...actual loggings also to follow. best wishes, Nick -- Nick Hall-Patch Victoria, BC Canada _______________________________________________ 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]
