[IRCA] Tips for TP reception EAST of the Rockies? (i.e. in Missouri)

["John H. Bryant" <bjohnorcas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Randy,

I've ever expended much effort DXing TPs from Oklahoma since, for the 
past 20 years, I've been spending at east a couple of months a year 
in western Washington State, where the TPs are just the right degree 
of DXing difficulty.  The one time that I did hear them from Oklahoma 
was in either 1984 or 1985, in the Fall season (November???) when 
Kirk Allen, Mitch Sams and I put up our first beverage antenna.  We 
accidently hit a hot two mornings on MW.... we had been hearing some 
TA hets with our normal longwire set-ups (used then primarily for 
SWBC DXing) and we knew to look in the evening for them.  We got 
Radio Monte Carlo, one of the Algerians, Lille and one of the major 
BBC frequencies those two evenings. We were young and foolish and 
DXed all night, mostly on SWBC, but we checked MW from time to time 
and ABOUT 3 AM, we stumbled across our first TP.... it was 774. Then 
there were several more, all in parallel.... 747, 774, 828 and 
873.  It was not at LSR in Oklahoma, but rather at maybe 0900 UTC.... 
not too long after sunset in Japan.  That was back before I knew 
anything about splitters or impedance matchers and we were all 
hardwired to that Beverage, using my van as a shack.  We heard all 
four NHK2s the second night, as well.

We were all three ready to abandon SWBC DXing and move to MW, 
thinking that we could hear that kinda stuff everytime we hung a 
Beverage among the Beeves in an Oklahoma cow pasture.  I kept DXing 
almost every night, leaving the van (our second car) parked at the 
end of the Bev in the pasture. I kept hearing those JJs night after 
night, but sure got tired of going out to the van in the middle of 
the night. I had heard of impedance matchers then and I knew that you 
had to have one to connect the Bev to coax to run it inside.... and I 
remembered seeing a copy of the IRCA bulletin and that they had 
published an article, either edited or written by some guy in 
Victoria, Canada named Nick Hall-Patch.  The information operator 
(remember them?) got me Nick's number and I called him.  He not only 
sent me a circuit diagram but an actual wired toroidal matcher with 
little paper tags telling me what wire to connect where.  I did and 
was able to move back inside the house. I still have that matcher, 
but haven't tried to DX Japanese from Oklahoma since.  And Nick is 
still helping me understand this crazy hobby, too.

I'm not at all sure that sunset at the transmitter (plus an hour?) is 
as good as local dawn enhancement for your case in the middle of the 
continent.... It was certainly much better during that week that I 
was DXing them. Why not use something like Total Recorder and try 
both times on a nightly basis????

Whoever suggested that your great circle path was almost all land, 
across Alaska and Siberia had not looked at an Azi-Equi centered on 
your location.  From central Oklahoma to Japan, the route goes right 
over Seattle.  Your route from SE Missouri to Japan likely hits the 
Pacific less than halfway up the BC Coast.

For the center of the continent to East Asia, if I could only listen 
to one frequency, it would be 774, or highband 1566. If you wanted to 
look at multiple frequencies, I'd ignore 873.... I can't explain how 
we were getting a station in far south Japan... go for the ones 
suggested: 747, 774, 828.  I'd also suggest 594, NHK-1 Tokyo and 972, 
Korea.  Other powerhouses this year would have to include 945 and 
963, Chinese transmitters in Manchuria (the 963 is their Russian 
Service, Govorit Pekin.) And someone else suggested VOA 
Thailand.  All of Southeast Asia must brown-out when they put that 
nuclear flamethrower on the air! At times this year it has been the 
strongest TP signal on the band.

This summer was a poor DU season for us up here in the NW and I don't 
know why, really. So I'm not sure that trying for DUs would be very 
productive.... Unless you hit a really strong auroral night.  Its 
true that 1116 has often been the strongest DU for the last three or 
four seasons (I think that they did some transmitter-antenna work 
about that long ago.)  However, this season, they have been much 
subdued here, even accounting for the poor cx. I'd think that the 
best shot would be 702, 2BL. It seems to be the leader for the DU 
openings most of the time. 738 Tahiti is probably easier for you than 
2BL, now that they have a new transmitter. Then the Kiwis are most 
likely on 1035, 2ZB Wellington and probably 2YB on 783.

One other DU not to discount is 1701.03 or so, Radio Brisvaani.  Its 
only 400 watts, but it being out there in the open on 1701 and 
off-channel a bit, to boot, I think that you have a real shot at it 
under auroral or maybe even normal equinoctial conditions.   In the 
early late 80s/90s, when the Aussies first opened up the expanded 
band to low power stations, I was getting most of them on a fairly 
regular basis from Oklahoma, with a 500 foot beverage pointed at 
them.  David Clark even heard them several times in Totonto and I 
think that some of the NE guys did, as well.  Brisvaani is well 
modulated and has legs.

Randy, I'm heading back to the South Prairie in 10 days, so the above 
may be a target list for me, too.

John Bryant
still on Orcas Island, WA









At 10:11 AM 11/2/2006 -0600, you wrote:
>Since IRCA seems to be so westerly-oriented, I thought it would be a
>good idea to survey the foreign-DX braintrust on this list with the
>following questions.
>
>Here in southern Missouri, *TA* reception has not only been possible,
>it's been remarkably good at times both this season and last.  My
>questions are as follows:
>
>Anybody got any tips for *TP* reception this far east of the Rockies?
>Obviously, early morning is mandatory as a time to tune, but might be
>the BEST time to try--how long before local sunrise, in other words? (I
>figure post-sunrise is probably not an option this far inland...)
>
>What are the likeliest suspects?  JOUB-774? What others?  Longwave
>targets?
>
>Randy Stewart
>Springfield MO
>
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