[HCDX]: brief summary of DX on Cape Cod trip, 6-10 JUL 1999

[WA1ION@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

I (and the rest of my family) spent several days at
East Harwich, MA on Cape Cod.  We all did usual
tourist activities including the beach, shopping,
and dining out.  I also managed a bit of DX.  This
note just contains a few quick observations: a
comprehensive report will be issued later.

The band conditions notes may be of interest to
the Grayland, WA DXpedition crew and also to
Bruce Conti, who recently DXed from Florida.

The best time to listen was undoubtedly from one
half hour before local sunset to 2 hours after
sunset.  This corresponds roughly to a 2345 UTC
start time and 0215 UTC end time.

Low frequencies on the MW band proved more useful
than the higher end of the dial.  The best opening
was from 0000 to 0100 UTC on 10 JUL when four
Brazilians (600, 620, 690, and 760) were logged
at good strength.  Surprisingly, on several
evenings, northern European low-banders such
as Ireland-567, UK-693, and Netherlands-747
were very strong.  

Madeira Islands on 603 made an appearance.
Usual blasters such as the various Canary
Islands, Spain, and Morocco low-band signals
boomed in around sunset but tended to submerge
into domestic slop after 0200 UTC.  The same
was true of Venezuelans and the Caribbean
splits (535, 555, 705): initially good, but in
the "dumper" later in the evening.  Cubans
weren't that strong.  

PJB-800 was buried by the Canadians.  The
Atlantic Canada stations were huge: even CBNA-600
St. Anthony, NF was good, easily overriding
more common CKCL, WICC, and Latin Americans.
CKGA-650 Gander held its own against Antena
Dos and WSM.  CBL-vacated 740 is now firmly
the property of CHCM, with occasional hints
of WJIB and Cuba well under.  Other CBC-network
vacated channels are 690 and 940.  690 has
a Brazil / Anguilla mix at sunset; later
on Brazil drops out and Colombia and Cuba fade
in, though Anguilla's preaching stays dominant
overall.  On 940, WIPR-PR, 2 Venezuelans, Colombia
and the religious domestics (WADV, WKGM) mix it
up in the early evening.  Cuba, Mexico, and WINZ
(FL) join in later.

I used two slopers off the tops of ~ 20 m tall
pitch pine trees at the E. Harwich house.  One
sloper was aimed 75 degrees for southern Europe
and the other 165 degrees for the Caribbean.
A 100 m wire on the ground was aimed at 100 degrees.
It didn't exhibit much directionality and it was
used mostly as a noise-reducing ground radial.
A inverted triangular K9AY loop of 8.5 m per side
was tested briefly.  Nulls of New York City stations
were achievable, but generally phasing the two slopers
gave the deepest "pest" nulls.  All logs were made
on a Drake R8A receiver.

It's good to see Al Merriman's lively and informative
antenna comments on the E-mail lists once again.

73 / good DX to all ... Mark

----------------------------------

Mark Connelly - Billerica, MA, USA
e-mail: WA1ION@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
homepage: http://members.aol.com/~MarkWA1ION/weblink.htm


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