This morning was the first of three sunrise DXing sessions planned for the ~440 ft. high "Rockworks 4" cliff, south of Cannon Beach, Oregon.
Chuck Hutton (Seattle) and I met at the very foggy cliff side pullout at 1215 UTC (5:15 a.m. local), in anticipation of strengthening DU / TP medium wave signals as the 1345 sunrise approached. We each battled our own antenna gremlins as we sought to get settled and start recording DX to our hard drives via Perseus SDR receivers. Once Chuck got his Flag loop antenna wires readjusted and the weighted concrete bases for the masts in place, it looked to be about 15 ft. X 12 ft. in size. It was hard to tell for sure in the dense, night time fog, though! I'm using another variation on the SUV-top loop I used very successfully last November at the same Rockworks 4 location. This morning I had a Flag configuration of approx. 8 ft. X 7 ft., with a Wellbrook FLG100LN module and a remote, transformer-based termination resistance (Mark Connelly's design). On the advice of Andy Ikin of Wellbrook, I used the DC interface box from a ALA1530S+, which has an additional 9db gain. I also have an additional Wellbrook preamp of 12-15db gain to use if needed (small Flag loops are not very sensitive). Unfortunately I was only getting about 10db of nulling to the east, at the best setting of the remote termination control. I don't know if something's wrong with my wiring, or if the Flag's performance was totally screwed up from the vehicle's metal body and/or Chuck's nearby Flag loop. TP signal levels were also very low, unlike November's sterling DX when I was using a ALA100M (bi-directional) head unit for a smaller 4.5 ft. X 6 ft. loop. Neither Chuck nor I found any DX worth noting; only a few "big guns" were in, such as 738 Tahiti, 972 HLCA, and 1566 HLAZ. Perhaps there's something of interest lurking on our hard drives yet to be found, but I think conditions were basically mediocre. The weather on the Oregon coast is getting better by the minute, and sunny skies and mid 60s F. are in the forecast for tomorrow. This afternoon I'm switching my antenna back to the ALA100M bi-directional loop setup, and hoping for better results tomorrow. I trust we can get the DX conditions "fully warmed up" in time for Gary DeBock's arrival in a few days (after Chuck and I return home, unfortunately). If I remember to take some photos tomorrow at the cliff before we head back down to sea level, I'll take some photos of our antenna setups. 73, Guy Atkins Puyallup, WA DXing at Rockworks 4 cliff, Oregon coast<https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Nehalem,+OR&hl=en&ll=45.743559,-123.9583&spn=0.000555,0.001206&sll=44.145447,-120.583402&sspn=4.643208,9.876709&oq=nehalem&t=h&hnear=Nehalem,+Tillamook+County,+Oregon&z=20&layer=c&cbll=45.743611,-123.958434&panoid=NGo3mctKj0XXvu528NQzEQ&cbp=12,172.4,,0,0> _______________________________________________ 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]
