Re: [IRCA] Cook Islands Ultralight DXpedition

[Gary DeBock <d1028gary@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Mark,


<<<   Is South America / Central America to Cook Islands simply a path that doesn't work?
So far I haven't heard much about DX that way, which would presumably be happening at or just after sunset on the Cook Islands end.
Mark Connelly, WA1ION
South Yarmouth, MA   >>>


There is no doubt that Aitutaki in the Cook islands can provide exceptional sunset DXing for stations in Central and South America, similar to what the sunrise sessions brought in from south and east Asia. There were a couple of factors which made it very awkward for me to spend some serious live DXing time to investigate this propagation, however.


The ostensible reason for our trip to Aitutaki was to celebrate the 38th anniversary of our meeting in Hong Kong, and hobby time needed to be carefully balanced with time spent on my wife's favorite activities (especially snorkeling and lagoon cruise touring, both of which took up many hours each day). She also discovered that sunset pictures along the lagoon beach were unusually attractive in Aitutaki, with the coconut trees framing dazzling colors in the dusky Southern Hemisphere skies. As such, there was rarely time for dedicated sunset DXing to either North or South America during the trip. During these sunset photography sessions, I recalled John B.'s DXpedition to Easter Island (having complete freedom to DX 24 hours a day) with some chagrin, although to be honest, a DXer really does need to have some balance in enjoying other activities to appreciate the full beauty of a dazzling tropical island like Aitutaki.


Every evening I would check propagation about two hours after sunset (after everything was dark), and during these sessions there were six USA mainland stations that crashed the DU-DXing sessions with powerful transoceanic signals. I wasn't really looking for these, but they all managed potent signals on the hot-rodded Ultralight alone, wiping out adjacent 9 kHz-split stations in NZ and Australia. These were 640-KFI, 1070-KNX, 1160-KSL, 1170-KFAQ, 1430-KMRB and 1640-KDIA. Receiving Hawaiian stations were pretty much like shooting fish in a barrel, so i really didn't go after them. Such are the realities of balancing a DXpedition with other vacation activities.


Gary DeBock (in Puyallup, WA, USA)  


The other factor was a 150m hill on the northern side of the island, strategically placed in between my lagoon DXing location and the South American location 

> On April 27, 2018 at 1:58 PM Mark Connelly via IRCA wrote:
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> On April 27, 2018 at 1:58 PM Mark Connelly wrote:
> 
> 
>     Is South America / Central America to Cook Islands simply a path that doesn't work?
> 
>     So far I haven't heard much about DX that way, which would presumably be happening at or just after sunset on the Cook Islands end.
> 
>     Mark Connelly, WA1ION
>     South Yarmouth, MA
> 
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