[IRCA] DXpedition to Masset 24 - 30 March 2017

[Volodya S <canswl@xxxxxxxxx>]

     I just returned from a one week visit to my DX cottage near Masset, BC
on magical Haida Gwaii, off the north west coast of North America.  My
cottage is located on the ocean, and is 70 km due south of Ketchikan, AK,
the nearest city to my QTH.  On this visit, I started with my usual ALA 100
LN permanently mounted in a large diameter aimed NE/SW, and my favourite
antenna, the 750â+ BOG aimed to the NW.  After several days, and especially
when a large geomagnetic storm hit, favouring signals to the south (ie
Australia/NZ), I also added my DKAZ aimed at the east coast of Australia,
and a due north mini-Beverage of about 450â in length, in case there were
any Euro openings.  Conditions were definitely challenging, owing to the
solar conditions.   Nonetheless, it was fun hearing 4MK 1026 from Australia
at armchair level during the peak of the storms.  My receiver set up, are 2
Perseus SDRs, with one dedicated exclusively to Mestor (timed recordings of
the entire MW and LW band), while the other is for live DXing.  An AOR
7030+ receiver is also used, primarily to record interesting programs (like
the several Indonesians on the tropical bands).    As always, lots of fun,
especially with the near zero noise floor.  Now, if I could just get
internet access!   Having just returned from  Masset, please let me know if
there are any errors or omissions/corrections.  Returning home this time
was a 3 day journey, leaving Thursday afternoon to catch the overnight
ferry to the mainland, then another full day and night on the same ferry
coming down to the north tip of Vancouver Island at Port Hardy, and another
6+ hour drive home to the opposite end of the island to Victoria!  73,
Walt Salmaniw, Victoria, BC







AUSTRALIA 1008, 1454-, 4TAB Radio Tab Mar 27 Briefly at fair/good level
with racing play by play, then faded. (Salmaniw,Masset, BC)



AUSTRALIA 1233, 1400-, 2NC Mar 27 What an amazing morning.  One of those,
'what happened to my antenna?'.  Almost total absence of the normal TPs.
Instead, DU is present, but not super strong.  There are some unusual
stations, such as 1233, which I don't usually associate with DU with ABC
fanfare and news.  Good reception. (Salmaniw,Masset, BC)



AUSTRALIA 1296, 1405-, 6RN Mar 27 In parallel to just mentioned 1233, so
it's likely an ABC station.  There's also another station cochannel,
though, so either 4RPH, Brisbane or Newstalk, Hamilton NZ.
(Salmaniw,Masset, BC)



AUSTRALIA 1611, 1417-, Vision Radio Network Mar 29 More returning to
'normal' conditions with predominantly Asian conditions, ecept that all 4
antennas seemed to be close to identical in receiving signals this
morning.  It's as if there was a scatter service for the signals.  No one
antenna was 'best' across the spectrum.  They all worked rather well.
Today was the best X-band opening.  Audio on most of the channels.  1611
had it's usual number of stations, all off frequency.  1610.896 (fair
strength), 1610.930 (fairly strong), 1610.983 (weaker), then a smudge
between 1610.994 to 1611.004...presumably a number of stations thre,
1611.013, and 1611.023 (medium strength).  Mostly English talk, so I'm
assuming Vision Radio Network here, was the dominant station(s).
(Salmaniw,Masset, BC)



CHINA 1017, 1557-, CRI Mar 26 Clearly a language service at first with
excellent levels, then faded, but at end of program, I could clearly hear
'CRI' given a number of times.  PAL only lists Jilin with CRI programming
and in Korean, but only between 11:00 to 15:00 UTC.  Off by an hour here.
Interesting that there was nothing over the 16:00 TOH, though!   Time pips
and presumed ID not until 16:00:50 UTC.  A bit late!. (Salmaniw,Masset, BC)





 GUAM 801, 1438-, KTWG Mar 27 I initially thought this to be Rhema with C&W
style inspirational music.  Fair level.  The bands are best (what there is
of them) in the lower half.  Japan is very modestly present with the first
tier stations only (594, 693,747, 828, etc).  A weird morning! Rechecking a
few minutes later, at 14:44 and very nice signal now.  Same genre music.
One of the strongest stations of the morning from DU.  I went back and
listened again to 801 at up to 15:00 UTC.  At the TOH, a child gives an ID
in American accented English.  I now believe this is the 10 kW KTWG in
Agana, Guam, rather than Rhema.  I went back to the Perseus overnight TOH
wav files.  First het noted at 09:00.  I see LSS at Agana is about 08:30.
First weak audio noted at 11:00, and better each hour until 14:00 when
reception is very good.  At 13:58, they mentioned 'Through the Bible'
program, and then a PSA about being a good Mom (limitingTV time, and not
screaming at your kids, etc.). Everything with American accented English.
Excellent reception through that hour, but not one voice announcement,
unfortunately until 15:00, when reception was starting to fall off.  Thanks
to Chuck Hutton for confirming my suspicion. (Salmaniw,Masset, BC)





ICELAND 189, 0501-, Rikisutvarpid Ras 1 Mar 26 Very nice reception
tonight.  Once again, nothing to write home about with European stations on
MW.  Briefly heard 1215 Absolute Radio last night, but gone when I
rechecked, and Iceland was heard also at poor to fair level.  Much stronger
tonight, but interesting, nothing on MW.  Only using my ALA 100 aimed
NE/SW, as the NW BOG is pointing in the wrong direction!. (Salmaniw,Masset,
BC)





JAPAN 774, 1528-, JOUB Mar 26 Excellent reception with, I thought initially
was an Arabic lesson, but by 15:29 in Brazilian Portuguese for sure.  Not
listed in the January 2017 PAL, which indicates English lessons until 15:20
s/off.  Nope, not this Sunday!  A bit earlier, plenty of cochannels.  Very
powerful, absolutely armchair copy.  Sign off at 15:35 today.  A Mandarin
speaker came up at 15:36:20.  Hubei RGD is who is usually found here.
(Salmaniw,Masset, BC)



JAPAN 1026, 1432-, Multiple stations Mar 29 Whereas the last 2 days was
dominated by 4MK, today the Japanese have returned in strength.  There are
31 transmitters listed in PAL for NHK 1 network here, all with 0.1 kW.
Good to very good reception.  However, I could still hear a little English
cochannel, with a phone number and the same kind of programming as 4MK, so
presumably still them cochannel, although much weaker.  Listening again,
I'm quite certain I'm hearing an ID for DZAR and the Sonshine Radio
Network, but will need to confirm this (a Filipino, 25 kW from Quezon City,
Metro Manila, Philippines). (Salmaniw,Masset, BC)



JAPAN 1440, 1616-, JOWF  STV Mar 26 Armchair copy, with very weak cochannel
(domestic presumed, although could be AFN Korea).  What caught my eye, was
the young YL DJ mentioning, 'Dobryi vechir' twice, which means good evening
in Ukrainian, and likely other Slavic languages.  Interesting!.
(Salmaniw,Masset, BC)



JAPAN 1440, 1601-, JOWF (STV) Mar 25 Checking this frequency for the
American Korea AFN station(s).  Nothing definite heard, but a very strong
Japanese station with 'All night Nippon' clearly heard at armchair copy.
Presumably JOWF from Sapporo, Hokkaido with 50 kW.  I can weakly hear
cochannels, but I'm not able to tell whether these are domestic, or other
TP stations. (Salmaniw,Masset, BC)



JAPAN 1575, 1100-, AFN Mar 28 Interesting, as I hear 2 AFN feeds, not in
sync, but both with news.  No local IDs.  The dominant one, 'You're
listening to AFN', then what sounded like 'KPR news'.  The other feed is
almost 20 seconds later.  Could make out 'worldwide' when they started the
news there.  Presumably the dominant one is Misawa, while the other one has
to be either Iwakuni or Sasebo.  Not often both are heard simultaneously.
(Salmaniw,Masset, BC)







NORTH KOREA 765, 1423-, KCBS Mar 26 I was hearing one of the Japanese on
frequency at fair to good level, when a cochannel male came on with
strident speaking, which I am assuming should be North Korea.  By the time
I checked for // frequencies, Japan came back at very good level.
(Salmaniw,Masset, BC)



NORTH KOREA 1584, 1409-, Bubble jammer Mar 25 Very well heard with bubble
jammer.  Only heard on my NW BOG, and not on the ALA 100 (aimed NE/SW).
NHK 1 network also heard, often at good levels (100 w only).  Is this North
Korea, possibly?  On checking for //, I'm also hearing probable KBS 1 with
1 kW.  Interesting channel!  Both Chris Kadjek, and Mauno Ritola confirm
it's North Korea, likely jamming the Chinese transmitter in Harbin.
Thanks, fellas!. (Salmaniw,Masset, BC)



PHILIPPINES 684, 1405-, Unid Mar 30 Not sure who this is that dominates the
frequency over the Japanese this morning.  Quite certainly Tagalog (or
maybe Bahasa?).  Hopefully my ToH recording will solve the mystery.  3
Filipino stations are listed (DYEZ, DWJJ, and DZCV) and a single RRI
Mataram.  By 14:14, China replaced the Japanese and ?Filipino station.
(Salmaniw,Masset, BC)



PHILIPPINES 990, 1439-,  Mar 29 Almost certainly a Filipino station here,
but suffering from a lot of adjacent splatter.  2 cochannels, but the
dominant had that typical style of a Filipino station.  I was expecting to
hear JORK (an NHK 1 station in Kochi), but no sign of that one.  I don't
think it's a domestic, either, as most of North America is well into
daylight.  Suffering from splatter from 999 and 1000.  3 Filipino stations
listed.  I'm seeing a number of carriers with 989.999 the strongest,
999.004, .009, and .016 as well. (Salmaniw,Masset, BC)



PHILIPPINES 1062, 1455-, DZEC Radio Agila Mar 30 Good reception with
Filipino talk, into EZL female vocal.  On the waterfall, I'm seeing 7
transmitters:  1061.991, 1061.992, 1061.995, 1062.000 (strongest),
1062.002, 1062.005 and 1062.007 (also strong).  , with the strongest being
the one closest to nominal.  Of course, as usual (!), signal faded down do
almost nothing before the TOH.  I'm assuming DZEC, as it fits most closely
to the format. (Salmaniw,Masset, BC)





SOUTH KOREA 1062, 1605-, KBS 1 Je-il Radio Mar 26 Very powerful signal.
Korea, again, is coming in very well this morning.  I do note a 1 kHz tone
in the background. (Salmaniw,Masset, BC)



SOUTH KOREA 1386, 1611-, HLAM Mar 26 Not sure who's on 1386 at this time,
playing David Bowie.   Ah, it's MBC // to 900.  Good to very good levels.
(Salmaniw,Masset, BC)





UNID 1269, 1423-, Unid Mar 27 2 cochannels here.  The first, weaker, is on
1269.000, while there's another, off channel, on 1269.099 kHz.  Possibly
the Filipino?. (Salmaniw,Masset, BC)



UNITED KINGDOM 1215, 0512-, Absolute Radio Mar 27 Finally, some audio!
Fairly good reception with modern vocal.  Best heard on my N mini-Beverage,
but the ALA (NE/SW) is decent, too.  Nothing on my NW Beverage as would be
expected.  A quick bandscan:  1053, presumed TalkSport with fair audio,
hets on 999 (?COPE), 909 (RNE or BBC Radio 5).  Slim pickings, but it's
something!  Funny that 189 Iceland was not propagating beyond a het
tonight. (Salmaniw,Masset, BC)





USA? 990, 1424-, Unid Mar 30 I'm hearing 2 stations cochannel.  One is in
Tagalog, with many mentions of Filipino, but also about US politics.  This
is the dominant station, whereas there's also a cochannel Spanish speaker.
The latter, presumably is domestic, but is the first as well (likely), but
who might they be,if so?  Strong at times.  Checked back at 14:52 to hear
an ID as, 'Comedy 990', so this one must be KTHH in Albany OR with listed
power of only 250 w day, and 9 w at night!  They faded quickly to be
replaced by the usual Spanish speaker, and cochannel Filipino.
(Salmaniw,Masset, BC)
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