I had been wondering if a trip to Grayland was really worth it for
me. I'd be using the same antenna (the Wellbrook Array) as at our
home on Orcas Island, and there, I look up the Strait of Georgia at
Japan and the Koreas. Just how much better could Grayland be for
Asians? That is not an idle question, since going to Grayland, for
me, is about a 6 hour combination of a ferry ride and lots of
driving. Well, I got the two-ALA-100 Array set up in the rain on
Monday afternoon and fired it up at 1200 UTC, 2 hours before dawn on
Tuesday morning. My radio happened to be sitting on 1188 as it came
on and there was FEBC, Seoul, a very rare visitor on Orcas and it was
LOUD. From there, I bounced down to 531 and found JOQG, NHK1 Morioka,
which is usually at or just above murmur level on Orcas. It, too, was
LOUD. That pretty well defined the morning. L*O*T*S*A Japanese and
South Koreans doing well, too. Is it worth all the hassle of coming
to Grayland? Oh, yes!!!
DXable conditions lasted until after 1440, more than 30 minutes after
dawn and the last Big Gun JJs lost audio a full hour after dawn. Over
all, things were just noticeably louder here, significantly louder
and a lot of murmur level channels or seemingly open channels on
Orcas were at or near arm-chair quality at Grayland.
It really was a "Japanese morning" and I ended up with 25 positively
IDed JJ stations, mostly through parallels. Most of the 25 were old
NHK friends or a few of the stronger commercial stations that are
also very commonly heard. The more interesting catches:
540 NHK1 Synchros, rarely heard
648 JOIG NHK1 Toyama, rarely heard
729 JOCK, NHK 1 Nagoya
837 JOQK NHK1 Niigata presumed
846 NHK1 Synchros
909 JOCB, NHK2 Nagoya over presumed Tianjin
936 JONF Miyazaki + repeaters. This was probably the catch of the
morning and was only IDed by the fact that it was clearly JJ and had
echos. It is the only JJ multi-transmitter net on that frequency.
Well over Anhui at 1425.
1008 JONR Osaka
1017 JOLB NHK2 Fukuoka over CNR KK Service
1179 JOOR Osaka
1197 JOWL Ashikawa //1440. This used to be stronger than 1440, but
has been unheard this year. Was fairly weak this AM
OTHER LOGGINGS OF NOTE:
548.99 Rarely heard Voice of Vietnam 2 was coming in very nicely at
1400. Its 30 years ago this year that I heard a WHOLE LOT of
Vietnamese. Some things you just don't forget. Was very nice to hear them.
936 Anhui RGD took over from the JJ station after 1425 and was
running a mixture of CC talk and EE business-oriented PSAs.
1170 Radio Korea International owned this frequency all morning,
wiping out strongman KPUG, Bellingham, WA.
1134 KBS Haminjok Bangsong, Kimpo. One People Radio may be
directional to the North. It dominated this frequency, usually owned
by JOQR, Tokyo
I also found time to check one last time the effectiveness of the
Kchibo D96L against the Murata-ed E100 this morning. On frequencies
ending in 1, 2, 8 or 9, there is just no contest: The D96L would have
the DX plus a loud het from the adjacent USA station, the Murata E100
would have only the DX. Every time. So, the bullet-proof nature of
the D96L will let me DX in the overloaded cess pool of nearby
Vancouver, when I'm on Orcas, but on the Coast, the Murata-ed E100
(or Crane) rules!
I should add that I only noted three North Koreans, for some reason,
and just six Chinese. It really was a Japanese morning. I look
forward to my compatriots reports. Was it a JJ morning for them, too.
Two more mornings on this trip!
John B.
WinRadio 313e + Ultralights
Wellbrook Phased Arrays, SW and NW
Grayland, WA, USA
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