LOG: Rowley, MA Mini-DXpedition

[wa1ion@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Mark Connelly)]

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I had sent this out to hard-core on 10 JUL, but a day later it 
still hadn't shown up in my return mail, so here's try #2:

BADX Mini-DXpedition to Rowley, MA: 15 JUL 1997
comments by Mark Connelly - WA1ION

A four-member contingent of the Boston Area DXers (BADX) went out 
to the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge at the east end of
Stackyard Road in Rowley, MA.  The area is a large salt marsh
separated from the open Atlantic by a narrow barrier beach (Plum
Island).  In the past, wires up to Beverage length have been
installed here successfully.  Low tide makes the air smell "fishy",
but it's the best time to string out antennas.  This time around, 
the two main wires used were approximately 600 ft. (182 m) to the 
east and 400 ft. (122 m) to the south.  An RL-1 remotely-tuned loop 
and two other shorter wire aerials were also used.  The DXers who 
participated were Tom Beaton, Mark Connelly, Bruce Conti, and Gary 
Thorburn.  Some of us had fortified ourselves for the outing by 
consuming massive amounts of seafood at the Clam Box in nearby 
Ipswich just prior to venturing into the salt marsh.  The weather 
at the time was relatively cool (for July) and quite humid with 
overcast and sometimes foggy / drizzly conditions.  Not too far to 
the west of us there was a transition zone between the cool moist 
ocean air and a much warmer (and also humid) air mass.  This led to 
thunderstorms over CT and western MA: the static from these storms 
was an impediment to reception most of the time.  The DXer group 
arrived at the site between 7 and 8 p.m. EDT, set up antennas, and 
got into actual DXing from 8 to 10 p.m. EDT / 15 JUL (= 0000 to 
0200 UTC / 16 JUL).  It was interesting to me to note what was 
coming in as I'd been quite active over the previous week from 
Harwich, MA on Cape Cod.  The Rowley site is better for Europe 
than for South America and the Caribbean, nonetheless Bruce found
R. Barcelona from Venezuela competing with WTIC on 1080.  Somebody 
in Spanish wasn't too far behind WBBR-1130: Venezuela has been 
heard on that channel before.  The first foreign DX signals that 
popped up just before sunset were Algeria-1544, Spain-1044, and 
Mauritania-1349.  As the evening progressed, it was apparent that 
it was not going to be a night to hear anything rare.  Static and 
strong domestic short skip - both characteristic of summer - made 
DX a challenge.  Since Gary was relatively new to international 
MW DXing, I set things up so that his receiver could be fed from 
an I.C.E. active splitter after my phasing unit and regenerative 
tuner.  His Drake R8A could also be switched to a random wire for 
bandscanning.  I set up the phasing unit / regen. box combo on 
selected Trans-Atlantics and told him to tune to the frequency of 
interest.  Among stations that came in reasonably well (by summer 
standards) were the UK Talk Radio outlets on 1053 and 1089, Virgin 
Radio (UK) on 1215, VOA Kuwait - 1548, Germany-1422, Azores-836,
Switzerland-765, Algeria - 891 & 1544, and Netherlands-1395.  I 
had spotty reception of Norway-1314 through blistering CKEC-1320
splash and at about 0130 UTC, there was a hint of some high-band
Middle East dawn enhancement on the east wire.  Saudi Arabia on
1512 showed up with a fat carrier (but light audio that was severely
challenged by WNRB slop), Kuwait-1548 peaked nicely, and there
were carrier glimpses from the Iranians on 1386 and 1566.  Just 
before 0200 UTC, the Saudi-1521 carrier came on and it was massive,
blowing WWKB out of the water on the east wire.  What I found
interesting was how poorly low-band Spaniards were doing compared
to the excellent hour-after-sunset signals that they had put in
on Cape Cod a week earlier.  Usual RNE big guns such as 585, 684,
774, and 855 were quite weak at the Rowley site that evening -
this time the UK stations (882, 909, 1053, 1089, 1215) were the
better performers.  I didn't take formal log details on this
trip because I'd heard everything on Rockport and Cape Cod outings
over the previous two weeks.  I was more interested in the flow of
conversation, ideas, and information that only a group DXpedition
can provide.  I'm sure that Tom, Bruce, and Gary will have their
own accounts of the Summer '97 "DX / Clams" outing.