[HCDX]: DX & antenna testing

[WA1ION@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Thursday night equipment-testing session at Pebble Beach
(Penzance Road) Rockport, MA (GC = 70.60 W / 42.636 N)

This is a site that is a bit more "tweaked up" for Latin
American reception than nearby Granite Pier (which is
superior to Europe).  I probably should have gone to the
pier because South American and Caribbean DX was still
rather sluggish, as has been the recent trend.

The BBL-1 loop using the K9AY system worked very well
in nulling stations off the back, without using additional
phasing.  Most of the null quality tests were done pre-
sunset on signals that were primarily groundwave.  The
loop was aimed on about a 110 / 290 degree axis (in hopes of
African and Brazilian DX).  Stations near the 290 degree
bearing included those in the Manchester, NH area (WGIR-610,
WFEA-1370) and in the MA Merrimack Valley (WCCM-800,
WCAP-980).  These could be nulled better than 30 dB with
the adjustment of Vactrol resistance.  Fitchburg, MA (1280)
and Schenectady, NY (810), also off the back of the cardioid,
were nulled far below the co-channel stations (Maine-1280
and NB - 810).  A tolerable amount of reduction (maybe 15
dB) could be imposed on WRKO-680 (bearing about 260 degrees);
this allowed Spain-684 to come through fairly well.  To null
stations more than 30 degrees off the axis of the loop,
conventional phasing of the loop against an active whip
was still necessary.

DX heard:

27 MAY, 2330-2359 UTC: unID-939.93 (maybe domestic ?),
Morocco-1053, Canaries-Spain-1179, Spain-1359, St. Pierre-1375,
Algeria-1550, Spain-1134, Spain-1152

28 MAY, 0000-0059 UTC: Algeria-1422, Spain-1485, Kuwait o/u
UK-1548, Spain-1575 o/possible AA station, Spain-1584 o/
Ceuta-1583.6 het, unID-1593 bits of string music (maybe
Egypt), Venezuela-1110, Croatia-1134. Venezuela-1140,
Bermuda-1160, Colombia-1170, unID-1170.4

28 MAY, 0100-0138 UTC: UK-1215 o/Spain, unID-1209.73,
Spain-1107, unID-1100 mellow pops mixed w/ WTAM & HJAT
(perhaps ZDK), Venezuelan on 940 with Valencia mentions
o/ probable Puerto Rico, Spain-684 good, Netherlands-747,
Azores-836, Spain-1044

On the drive home, a strong 1529.5 het against WSAI was
presumed to be the usual VOA Sao Tome "warm up" pre-sign-
on test-tone sequence.  WINZ-940 Miami came up to a good
strength on the Route 128 (Annisquam River) bridge in
Gloucester. 

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