Wow, where to start? Even though I was only doing live DXing with a tiny
5" FSL antenna the conditions were so astonishing that there's no real way to
write a report that would do justice to the exceptional Asian propagation.
Thanks to Colin and Nick for their earlier detailed reports-- but I'm beginning
to understand Nick's predicament as he attempts to write an accurate TP-DXing
report in the face of an onslaught of unusual TP-DX on certain days.
Anyway, a tiny 5" antenna (designed to provide some DXing fun during air
travel) ended up tracking down 10 Asian TP's at S9+ levels at this mediocre
inland location-- including two stations (639-CNR1 and 738-BEL2) which had
never been received at such strong levels previously (on any antenna). The
ionospheric floodgates kicked into high gear just after 1400, as a Chinese
propagation wave pounded into the low and middle band with serious force,
turning several of the frequencies into China Vs. Korea snarls. The Japanese
big guns did manage potent signals at times, but didn't seem to share in the
exceptional Asian mainland propagation.
Predawn Asian propagation was very good, no doubt related to the unusually
good TA-DX results reported by the Victoria DXers a few hours earlier. At 1030
both 603 and 657 were already hitting S7 peaks, enough to barely break through
the neighbor's RFI noise. A decision was made to deploy to the local park for
noise-free DXing at 1330-- but this time only taking along the 5" Frequent
Flyer FSL antenna for an "acid test." The variable cap in this tiny model had
recently been upgraded-- and it was time for it to demonstrate its TP-DXing
effectiveness at this tough location before an overseas trip next week.
At the local Sam Peach park (5 blocks away) the Asian signals seemed
fairly routine right up until 1400, except that 738-BEL2 was already shutting
down the Frisco splatter as early as 1345. 603 and 657 had their usual mixes of
Korean and Chinese signals around 1405, but the CRI stations on 963, 1017 and
1044 were quite a bit stronger than usual. The first really exceptional signal
to show up was 639-CNR1, which came out of nowhere to blast in at S9+ over the
KFI splatter around 1414. 603-HLSA then really started kicking its Chinese
co-channel down into the noise around 1418 with another S9+ signal, followed by
an awesome S9+ signal from 738-BEL2 around 1423. During this time other Chinese
signals started showing up all over the low and middle band, with 756-CNR1,
936-Anhui, 963-CRI, 1017-CRI, 1035-CNR1 and 1044-CRI all managing fair to good
audio on the ridiculously small antenna. It was a wild scramble to record
decent audio from these up and down Chinese signals, which
seem to have a talent for timing their dives just when the record button was
pushed. Despite this quite a few good recordings were made because of the
exceptional propagation-- which resulted in the wackiest and wildest session
here in many years.
603 HLSA Hwaseong, S. Korea Korean pop music at S9 level at 1418 with the
soft-voiced female host. Chinese co-channel gets in a weak signal during quiet
time https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/iu1w0v8vt9ml7xl0rk6qwer6tmzz7idc
639 CNR1 Chinese Synchros Male Chinese speech blasting in at S9+ at 1414;
best signal ever here (on any antenna)
https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/dmfrbme9gg4scr14e9k6jvitbvu49boi
738 BEL2 Penghu, Taiwan Female Chinese speech pounding in at S9+ at 1423;
best signal ever here (on any antenna)
https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/xiztany04c4qnquo452pq5ch2oskrl6q
738 BEL2 + HLKG Female Chinese and female Korean speech in a classic S9+
snarl at 1410-- a pretty representative signal for a totally wacky session
https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/8gmcx8wg3g8dv9rdw31sbt22zbtkoaso
756 CNR1 Chinese Synchros Hollow-sounding male Chinese speech and interval
music with echo effect at 1418
https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/pnlmh3mwpgb0l40tikenkq2bpz3zzrqf
963 CRI Huaduan, China CRI Russian service with female announcer at good
level around 1426
https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/ip8ijs72d17vkbp2f7e41za2h6sluui6
1017 CRI Changchun, China CRI Korean service at good level at 1412
https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/bxdsl1h1zf9aji15psj2cr0tckwvns8g
73 and Good DX,
Gary DeBock (in Puyallup, WA, USA)
7.5" loopstick CC Skywave SSB Ultralight +
5 inch "Frequent Flyer" FSL (the India, Bangladesh, Mongolia and Cambodia model)
DXing at Sam Peach Park in the Puyallup Valley
.
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