Re: [IRCA] Kona night 1

[Gary DeBock <d1028gary@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

<<< Scanning the dial - night one Kona - nothing at all like Garyâs Royal Kona next door. This is an environment with S9+ video buzz, dimmers, TVI, RFI top of the dial to the bottom - >>>

Colin,

Depending upon which ocean-facing motel room they place you in, you can either end up with a TP-DXing paradise or a RFI-saturated zoo. To be perfectly honest, last month I ended up with the latter. During the "hot season" in Hawaii (which is the cold season for us here), the less desirable rooms seem to be the ones we end up with. We pay more $$ and end up with more RFI.

Last month I survived by taking the modified CC Skywave, Frequent Flyer FSL, digital recorder and logbook down to the ocean side lounge area on the south border of the Royal Kona Resort property, facing your motel. All this gear can easily be carried without any hassle, and setting up a TP-DXing station at the beach level was easy (they even provided a couple of lounge chairs for the motel guests). In Kona you can chase some of the Pacific island stations (846 and 1098) as soon as it gets dark, and about an hour after that the island stations on 540, 621, 1017 and 1440 start to come in. With luck you can track down 558. After about 0800 UTC you can pretty much expect to get plastered by overpowering Asian stations, though, leaving most of the Pacific island DU's in the noise. 621-Tuvalu rarely survived until its 1006 sign off without getting hammered by North Korea and China, while 1440-Kiribati had a running battle with JOWF until it signed off around the same time. 846 and 1098 usually survived the Asian onslaught fairly well.

During wild DXing trips like this, my advice would be to expect the unexpected!

Gary

> On January 3, 2018 at 11:22 PM "R. Colin Newell" <coffeecanuck@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>
> Scanning the dial - night one Kona - nothing at all like Garyâs Royal Kona next door. This is an environment with S9+ video buzz, dimmers, TVI, RFI top of the dial to the bottom -
>
> Many thanks to Gary for sponsoring me with the TSA friendly loop -
> Brought a PL380 and a Kaito KA1103...
>
> As predicted, every year is a slightly different pastiche of noises.
>
> By now there should be a handful of pacific stations audible and maybe some Japanese stations. Not so. Just an orchestra of gadgets blaring away.
>
> Tuning in at dawn will reveal if thereâs any potential here. Currently just the strongest domestics rising above the RFI onslaught.
>
> Colin Newell - Kona - Hawaii.
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