Hi Mark, Thanks to Nick and Bruce for their excellent descriptions of the challenges that we face in tracking down Cental and South American DX here in the Northwest. Speaking for the wild ocean cliff / FSL antenna contingent of the TP-DXing group, I've noticed that on certain relatively-open frequencies like 530 and 1610 stations from the Caribbean can be received at good strength during auroral conditions after our local sunset, but both domestic QRM and propagation are almost always against any one of us that wishes to try for South American or Central American stations. The station bearings are almost always close to the bearings of domestic pests, and ocean cliff operations are most successful when the cliffs attenuate signals from those troublesome bearings. This type of cliff-provided F/B ratio is critical for the performance of the figure-8 pattern FSL antenna to be competitive in transoceanic DXing. Another important factor is that ocean cliff operations are usually scheduled around local sunrise, when the chances of tracking down long-range DU-DX are the greatest. Propagation to Central and South America is long gone by this time. These Highway 101 ocean cliff turnouts are also dicey locations, usually subject to wacky weather and wacky visitors (non-DXers, that is). Scheduling one of these ocean cliff visits after local sunset (when propagation to Central and South America might be theoretically possible, although unlikely because of domestic QRM and ocean cliff filtering) would probably make you the center of attraction for certain bizarre and unsavory individuals-- at the peak time of their congregation. These particular individuals are unlikely to allow you to concentrate on your "wishful thinking" type of DX search without full receiving full explanations of what you are doing at the site, what is that bizarre contraption on the white pipes, do you want to share some of their "stuff," etc. So, Mark, maybe now you can understand a little of what we are up against? 73, Gary DeBock (in Puyallup, WA)
----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Connelly via IRCA" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, March 23, 2015 7:00:28 PM Subject: Re: [IRCA] Puyallup, WA Twisted Propagation for 3-23 On 3/23/2015 19:00, Mark Connelly via CIRCA wrote: For the past week here on the East Coast we have been milking a rather productive auroral "cow" while the discourse from out west tends to be one gloomy lack-of-TP's posting after the next. Is Latin America from out there - other than pest Mexicans / Cubans - a total non-starter? I seem to remember '70s era logs of West Coast South America from West Coast North America. Chile, Peru, Ecuador, and western Colombia had some representation. Central America - admittedly aided by splits that aren't there anymore - was reported almost as much as from the midwest and east. Even some reports of Brazil and eastern Caribbean region stations - DX more often associated with eastern US / Canada - wasn't completely off the table. The Pacific Northwest (to some extent combined with CA, AZ, etc.) has more active DXers with more different bags of tricks - ultralights / FSL's, SDR's / QDFA and Wellbrook arrays, and so on - than the (at best) half dozen reasonably active DXers in New England, NY, and NJ. Yet where are the Latin American logs? Is it "all about the TP's - the TP's - no Latins" (to echo that massively overplayed "all about the bass" song)? TA's of course are always a big interest around here. During this aurora only a handful of stations (e.g. Algeria 549, Canaries 621, Mauritania 783, Sao Tome 1530) have reasonably beefy signals. Boring, yes BUT South Americans are SCREAMING in as they had not done for months, so no one in the northeast is throwing up the hands or hanging up the headphones. So as one who has only DX'ed from the West Coast for two weeks in 1991 (business trip to HP in Mountain View, CA), what's the deal on Latin America from the West Coast? Certainly harder than from coastal NJ, MA, ME, PEI, NS, and NL (or even Scotland and Finland it would seem), but impossible? There are a lot of big gun DXers in BC, WA, OR, etc. with serious and varied expertise, motivation, and technological power tools of all sorts at their disposal. DXpeditions seem to be done more often out there - Grayland, Haida Gwaii, Rockworks, et al. I have to wonder if there are times of the year when sunset or dawn greylines ever vector signals from Valparaiso, Chile or Lima, Peru into that area? Those cities were certainly well represented when Richard Wood was DXing from Hawaii but, of course, those were shorter and easier routes to that part of the Pacific. Would hearing those South Americans be easier from Alaska (away from the mainland US / Mexican rabble) better than from closer sites along the US West Coast, just as hearing Uruguay and Argentina is easier from Newfoundland than from the Carolinas - lower pest levels trumping longer path lengths? Sometime I may go on the Topband list and posit the same questions regarding 160-m ham activity from the western US / Canada to South America. _______________________________________________ IRCA mailing list [email protected] http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca _______________________________________________ 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] _______________________________________________ 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]
