Re: [IRCA] Norfolk Island in the 1566 Maze?

2018-04-21 Thread Gary DeBock 
Hi Mark,

<<< Gary, how many signals could be heard at high noon local (i.e. groundwave) 
with the most sensitivity you could throw at it?

In Newfoundland, the DXpedition group managed NYC, Bermuda, and Azores at noon: 
all in excess of 1000 miles / 1600 km. When some skip got in the mix (NOV/DEC), 
the former Norway blaster (1314) and UK (1215) were basically 'round-the-clock 
signals.
Back when Turks and Caicos 530 was big power, it could be heard here on Cape 
Cod all day at about 1400 miles / 2000 km.

Mark Connelly, WA1ION
South Yarmouth, MA >>>

I'm afraid that the high noon situation in the Pacific is a little different, 
Mark. The distances are greater, and there was an added distraction during this 
trip that made daytime DXing somewhat awkward to attempt.

630-Radio Cook Islands in Rarotonga (2.5 kW) was 164 miles to the south, and of 
course it was easy to receive it an S7 level throughout the daytime hours. The 
next closest MW station was 540-2AP in Apia, Western Samoa (5 kW) 866 miles to 
the west, which failed to manage even a carrier until just before local sunset. 
After that it was 846-Kiribati in Christmas Island (10 kW) at 1443 miles to the 
north, which was also a no-show in the daytime, without even a carrier until 
sunset was approaching. I think that your Atlantic-area daytime DX distances 
were probably noted during somewhat favorable autumn or winter propagation, but 
currently the South Pacific is in somewhat of a transition period between 
summer and autumn, and conditions didn't seem to be optimal for long range 
daytime DX.

The other distraction that I mentioned earlier is that my wife is a snorkeling 
fanatic, and we had to carefully balance the vacation time between DXing and 
snorkeling. Fortunately, both are awesome in Aitutaki. Since this was an 
anniversary trip to celebrate out first meeting 38 years ago, and since I was 
already making out like a bandit in the sunrise DXing sessions (with 
Bangladesh, Mongolia and Cambodia), attempting to DX around local noon would 
probably have been pushing my luck a little too far.

Gary

> On April 21, 2018 at 7:57 PM Mark Connelly via IRCA  
> wrote:
>
>
> ___
> IRCA mailing list
> IRCA@hard-core-dx.com
> 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: irca@hard-core-dx.com
>

> On April 21, 2018 at 7:57 PM Mark Connelly  wrote:
>
>
>
> <<
> In the Cook Islands there never was a problem with transoceanic DX being too 
> weak-- the problem was that it was too strong
> >>
>
> Gary, how many signals could be heard at high noon local (i.e. groundwave) 
> with the most sensitivity you could throw at it?
>
> In Newfoundland, the DXpedition group managed NYC, Bermuda, and Azores at 
> noon: all in excess of 1000 miles / 1600 km. When some skip got in the mix 
> (NOV/DEC), the former Norway blaster (1314) and UK (1215) were basically 
> 'round-the-clock signals.
>
> Back when Turks and Caicos 530 was big power, it could be heard here on Cape 
> Cod all day at about 1400 miles / 2000 km.
>
> Mark Connelly, WA1ION
> South Yarmouth, MA
___
IRCA mailing list
IRCA@hard-core-dx.com
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: irca@hard-core-dx.com

Re: [IRCA] Norfolk Island in the 1566 Maze?

2018-04-21 Thread Mark Connelly via IRCA 
--- Begin Message ---

 <<
In the Cook Islands there never was a problem with transoceanic DX being too 
weak-- the problem was that it was too strong
 >>

Gary, how many signals could be heard at high noon local (i.e. groundwave) with 
the most sensitivity you could throw at it?

In Newfoundland, the DXpedition group managed NYC, Bermuda, and Azores at noon: 
all in excess of 1000 miles / 1600 km.  When some skip got in the mix 
(NOV/DEC), the former Norway blaster (1314) and UK (1215) were basically 
'round-the-clock signals.

Back when Turks and Caicos 530 was big power, it could be heard here on Cape 
Cod all day at about 1400 miles / 2000 km.

Mark Connelly, WA1ION
South Yarmouth, MA
--- End Message ---
___
IRCA mailing list
IRCA@hard-core-dx.com
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: irca@hard-core-dx.com

Re: [IRCA] Norfolk Island in the 1566 Maze?

2018-04-20 Thread Gary DeBock 
Thanks for the detailed info on 1566-Norfolk Island, Theo. No wonder the 
station is a real challenge for anyone to track down at long range.

With both Norfolk Island and the Indian big gun on the frequency 1566 got a lot 
of attention during my Cook Island trip, but most of it was wasted on 3NE. Two 
other DU English co-channels would occasionally give 3NE some competition (as 
in the MP3, but impossible to sort out), along with HLAZ's Chinese and another 
foreign language station that didn't seem Chinese (possibly Nagpur). Hindsight 
is 20/20-- if I had known that Norfolk Island was running RNZ it would have 
been easy to check a parallel during the MP3 recording to nail it down.

Gary

> On April 20, 2018 at 8:39 AM Theo  wrote:
>
>
> Gary:
>
> As Tony Ward from Toronto mentioned last week, Norfolk runs RNZ National
> overnight (supposedly till 1930 UT so way after your reception period).
>
> And no, World TV has never activated 1566 in Wellington which they
> picked up at auction a couple of years back.  The planned power has
> always been listed at a strange 15.3/15.8 kW depending on the source of
> the information.
>
> I checked with the Kiwi SDR near Nelson at ~1520 UT and what appeared to
> be 3NE was dominant, with talk about the Commonwealth and NZ... not sure
> why... but it wasn't // with RNZ Nat/567. Someone else was really weak
> and scratchy underneath; I didn't attempt to figure whether it could be
> Norfolk or ABC Gympie in Queensland.
>
> Theo
>
> On 20/04/2018 1:58 AM, Gary DeBock wrote:
> > In the Cook Islands there never was a problem with transoceanic DX being 
> > too weak-- the problem was that it was too strong, and from too many areas 
> > at the same time. In this 1566 kHz MP3 recorded at 1641 UTC on April 12th 
> > the Oz mega-pest 3NE is apparently in a fade, but that only seems to bring 
> > in a couple of other DU English stations in an S9 mix (along with a third 
> > station, apparently in Chinese). Does anyone know what Norfolk Island's 
> > current format is, and does anyone know if the new 3 kW (Chinese?) station 
> > is now broadcasting in Wellington? This MP3 apparently features two 
> > government-type programs (RNZ and/or ABC) mixing together, with the third 
> > station in apparent Chinese in the background (don't know if this would be 
> > HLAZ, or the new Wellington?). Can anybody sort out this zoo? 
> > https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/hysvrh4f7i8u16f3740ch5azam0iervx
> >
> >
> > Gary DeBock (DXing in Aitutaki, Cook Islands)
> >
> >
>
> ___
> IRCA mailing list
> IRCA@hard-core-dx.com
> 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: irca@hard-core-dx.com
>
___
IRCA mailing list
IRCA@hard-core-dx.com
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: irca@hard-core-dx.com

Re: [IRCA] Norfolk Island in the 1566 Maze?

2018-04-20 Thread Theo 

Gary:

As Tony Ward from Toronto mentioned last week, Norfolk runs RNZ National 
overnight (supposedly till 1930 UT so way after your reception period).


And no, World TV has never activated 1566 in Wellington which they 
picked up at auction a couple of years back.  The planned power has 
always been listed at a strange 15.3/15.8 kW depending on the source of 
the information.


I checked with the Kiwi SDR near Nelson at ~1520 UT and what appeared to 
be 3NE was dominant, with talk about the Commonwealth and NZ... not sure 
why... but it wasn't // with RNZ Nat/567. Someone else was really weak 
and scratchy underneath; I didn't attempt to figure whether it could be 
Norfolk or ABC Gympie in Queensland.


Theo

On 20/04/2018 1:58 AM, Gary DeBock wrote:

In the Cook Islands there never was a problem with transoceanic DX being too 
weak-- the problem was that it was too strong, and from too many areas at the 
same time. In this 1566 kHz MP3 recorded at 1641 UTC on April 12th the Oz 
mega-pest 3NE is apparently in a fade, but that only seems to bring in a couple 
of other DU English stations in an S9 mix (along with a third station, 
apparently in Chinese). Does anyone know what Norfolk Island's current format 
is, and does anyone know if the new 3 kW (Chinese?) station is now broadcasting 
in Wellington? This MP3 apparently features two government-type programs (RNZ 
and/or ABC) mixing together, with the third station in apparent Chinese in the 
background (don't know if this would be HLAZ, or the new Wellington?). Can 
anybody sort out this zoo?  
https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/hysvrh4f7i8u16f3740ch5azam0iervx


Gary DeBock (DXing in Aitutaki, Cook Islands)




___
IRCA mailing list
IRCA@hard-core-dx.com
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: irca@hard-core-dx.com