Re: [IRCA] Kona, Hawaii Ultralight DXpedition-- North Korean Stations

[Gary DeBock <d1028gary@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks for your comments and information, Chris! 

<<<  In addition to the TOH IDs at :30 (obviously because the DPRK is a half-hour time zone a half hour behind South Korea), they usually air a half-hour ID as well, with significant period of silence before the station ID, though no time pips.   >>>

That's interesting. After multiple recordings of 657 here at home I was aware of the 3+1 time pips and ID's on the half hour, but not the ID's at the top of the hour. Of course it might be helpful to know some Korean in order to recognize the ID's :-)

<<<   Your reception is better than heard in South Korea due to the lack of jammers that are quite the pest. 621 was always a pretty hard catch for me with the South Korean jammer (which was of the silence/slight buzz type). The transmitter of that station has never been good anyway, but it was also further up the coast too and likely aimed at Japan since it plays Japanese programming early in the daytime.   >>>

The 621 transmitter did have a buzzing sound similar to 60 cycle hum, but a pretty potent signal on most nights. Since I understand conversational Japanese it seemed to me like the announcers were pretty robotic. I never noticed any jammer on the frequency, but 621 was a real zoo in Kona, with the exotic Radio Tuvalu holding the frequency until around 0800, when NHK1, China and the Voice of Korea would derail it, and fight it out among themselves.

<<<  And 801 was broadcasting on 802-805 for the longest time to avoid the South Korean jammer, not to mention it was drifting, as can be seen on the SDR images I had previously posted of it. I am surprised of the jammer you posted on there. Either the power has been boosted, or this proves that it really is a powerful jammer, which I hadn't expected. You're hearing the jammer in Hwaseong.   >>>

Thanks. The 801 jammer showed up about half of the time, in an irregular pattern. Although the audio format was similar to the old 1053 beehive, there were pauses in between the beehive audio, and sometimes the "bees" took a break, or went QRT. I also noticed an 819 jammer similar to a video game zapper, but it never had the power to seriously challenge the monster KCBS signal.

<<<    And for your logs, please note your typo on 819. This is the flagship station of the KCBS network, not Pyongyang BS.   >>>

Yes, I know that now. I'm not surprised that it is the KCBS "flagship," since only a handful of other TP signals were in the same league (the NHK2 stations on 747 and 774, and 981-CNR1).

Gary 
   
           
    
> On December 23, 2017 at 4:04 PM Chris Kadlec <beaglebass@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> 
>  As expected, great share, Gary!
> 
> In addition to the TOH IDs at :30 (obviously because the DPRK is a half-hour time zone a half hour behind South Korea), they usually air a half-hour ID as well, with significant period of silence before the station ID, though no time pips.
> 
> Your reception is better than heard in South Korea due to the lack of jammers that are quite the pest. 621 was always a pretty hard catch for me with the South Korean jammer (which was of the silence/slight buzz type). The transmitter of that station has never been good anyway, but it was also further up the coast too and likely aimed at Japan since it plays Japanese programming early in the daytime. And 801 was broadcasting on 802-805 for the longest time to avoid the South Korean jammer, not to mention it was drifting, as can be seen on the SDR images I had previously posted of it. I am surprised of the jammer you posted on there. Either the power has been boosted, or this proves that it really is a powerful jammer, which I hadn't expected. You're hearing the jammer in Hwaseong.
> 
> And for your logs, please note your typo on 819. This is the flagship station of the KCBS network, not Pyongyang BS.
> 
> -Chris Kadlec
> http://www.beaglebass.com/dx/seoul/
> 
> 
> 
> From: Gary DeBock <d1028gary@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: "America, Mailing" <irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [IRCA] Kona, Hawaii Ultralight DXpedition-- North Korean
> 	Stations
> 
> The 5-day trip to warm and (usually) sunny Kona, Hawaii has wrapped up, and now I've returned with a huge number of obscure TP-DX recordings made with a 5 inch (127mm) TSA-friendly FSL antenna (also known as the "Frequent Flyer" model). This antenna was specifically designed to pass quickly and easily through airports, and provide gain roughly similar to that of a 4 foot (1.3m) air core box loop.
> 
> 
> December propagation in Kona was a stark change from what was observed during a 4-day trip to Kona with identical gear in April. In April the Pacific island DU's on 540, 558, 621, 1017, 1098 and 1440 had no Asian competition from 0700-1030 UTC, and could pound in at awesome strength all alone on their frequencies during those hours. By contrast, during this week's Hawaii trip the Asian TP's started pestering the Pacific island DU's as early as 0730, and usually drowned most of them out by 0830. The only exceptions were the new 846-Kiribati from Christmas Island, its 1440-Kiribati parallel (although with a 19-second delay between the two, with Christmas Island lagging), and 1098-Marshalls. Overwhelming signals from Japan, North Korean and China were usually all over the band by 0900 UTC, with the second-tier Asians sounding like big gun TP's do on the west coast. The 5 inch FSL did a great job in providing gain to record many exotic MP3's at good levels, but the "side effect" 
>  was piling up a huge number of obscure TP recordings (including wild TP snarls), and the necessity to "record first, and report later."
> 
> 
> In an attempt to provide some organization to the wild process I decided to initially report TP-DX according to the countries of origin, and post links for some of the more memorable recordings from each area. Once the dust has settled a more detailed (frequency-by-frequency) report should be in order. The group of MP3's chosen for this first report were all recorded from North Korea, a bizarre country with even more bizarre programming. Other N.K. stations were received in TP snarls, but these were generally all alone. They include an S7 recording of Pyongyang's Japanese service on 621 (with degraded audio from the transmitter), a transmitter on 801 with a Southern Jammer (sounding like the old 1053 beehive) and an 819 transmitter loud enough to wake up the dead. A curious point was that the usual west coast big gun on 657 was never received-- a victim of loud Hawaiian splatter from 650 and 670.
> 
> 
> 621  Pyongyang BS (V.O.K.)   Chongjin, N.K.   Voice of Korea Japanese service at a strong level, complete with a buzzing transmitter. This was one of three Asian TP's (including China and NHK1) that would usually run Tuvalu off the rails around 0900  https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/rhfksf381csgtohluxt3e97tjf79fshm
> 
> Japanese female ID and typical music at 0928 https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/v7q9eniu9qq1f27rbq97v4c9zbni2eha
> 
> 
> 801  Pyongyang BS   Kimchaek, N.K.   This station was a moderate-strength regular, and had an intermittent Beehive-type jammer from the South https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/e4kr0asg24d1ujyk74zztcbdl8aepazh
> 
> Jammer and Pyongyang at equal anemic strength  https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/2fgnifuus86pd0n9qzsatzps56hk43kb
> 
> 
> 819  Pyongyang BS   Pyongyang, N.K.   Far and away the strongest N.K. station in Kona, this signal would pound in around 0830 and vary from S7 to S9+ right up until 1030. Bizarre vocal music from a female group was at legendary strength at 0935 on 12-19  https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/gj2deffl7mjuzqr5tocsro100sfhqll9
> 
> Typical music and 3+1 time pips at the North Korean "TOH" of 0930 on 12-20
> 
> https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/v7q9eniu9qq1f27rbq97v4c9zbni2eha   
> 
> 
> 855  Pyongyang BS   Sangwon, N.K.   Those who remember the tirade lady on 657 will recognize the voice in this recording. This station was always around during good TP propagation, but never at overwhelming strength https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/34r4oayh63kxxigc6hisu3t5bfhz1yeb
> 
> 
> 73 and Good DX,
> 
> Gary DeBock (DXing in Kona, Hawaii)
> 
> 7.5 inch CC Skywave +
> 
> 5 inch "Frequent Flyer" FSL antenna
> 
> (Demo video posted at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRaOnWS-5Ig&t=78s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRaOnWS-5Ig&t=78s   )
> 
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