Re: [IRCA] TP 11 Nov + Phasing

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

Man, we really had different experiences this morning.... the 
Victoria/Orcas bunch....  Maybe it was the very up/down nature of 
things.  For me, it was equally good/bad on both high and low bands, 
with all of the usual JJ suspects being the only audio, except for 
675 Viet Nam (pres.) and SOMETHING on 639. The 639 sounded East Asian 
or Russian.... If I had to guess, it would be Mongolian.... Nothing 
listed really makes sense.... It was almost to the level to ID the 
language.... In fact, had it been CC, or JJ, I would have IDed 
those.  Russian and Korean, I have to hear a bit better.... but I'm 
pretty sure it was neither language.  About all I can say is that it 
wasn't Hindi or SE Asian nor was it JJ or standard CC. Another 
outside possibility would be Tagalog. It was my first pass up the 
band at 1420 and my curiosity got the best of me.... so I only 
listened for a minute and then went on up the band "to see what other 
great DX I might be missing."  Naturally, when I got back, it was 639 
just a het.  Mainly, though, it was a typical "bad auroral 
absorption" morning.  Japan there but attenuated, KK was almost not 
there and China was GONE!

With the small number of TP stations this morning, I had plenty of 
time to practice phasing and test its use in reducing adjacent 
channel splatter, a'la the East Coast.  It sure worked like a 
charm.  I have no trouble reducing any strong signal on MW by 40 to 
45 dB very quickly (except that new Candian CJRJ on 1200). Getting an 
ultimate null takes longer, but doesn't really seem that necessary 
for adjacent channel work. In this RF jungle, I'm a bit ashamed that 
I haven't used phasing sooner.  Examples: phasing Vancouver 600 
really helps 594. Phasing 650 Vancouver, really helps both 648 and 
675.... where 650 overloads the receiver; phasing 740 in San 
Francisco helped 738.... that was a surprise, 740 isn't THAT strong 
here.  Phasing 750 Portland really helped 747. That was a surprise, 
too. Phasing the very sloppy 900 Victoria was significant help to 
both 891 and 909. Phasing Seattle on 1090 really helped 1089, 
etc.  So.... I'm going to modify the Ratzlaff/Misek Phaser just a bit 
so that it can also be an antenna switch for my two main antennas 
here and I think that it will be a permanent fixture.  I'll surely 
take it to Grayland, but I expect that it will be rarely used 
there.... Old Mister Sun wiping out the QRM to our East plus the 
happily very remote location will likely continue to limit a phaser's 
use there. I'm sure I'd use it more there if I could get excited 
about Hawaiian and Alaskan stations, again.... somehow, in recent 
years, they have not been very interesting to me (my problem, of 
course.) As the solar cycle and time reduces the number of new TP 
stations, perhaps the phaser will help rekindle my interest in those 
surprisingly difficult targets, too.

I must say, I really appreciate the fine tuning pots the 
Ratzlaff/Misek phaser incorporates.  I use them every time that I'm 
serious about achieving a maximum null.  Maybe 20% of the time, the 
fine tuning just confirms what I found with the course tuning.... the 
rest of the time, I get a significantly better null with the fine 
tuning controls.

I gotta tell you, it was an almost sexual experience to phase 
740-KCBS literally down into the noise and watch the scope of the 
Winradio as the spike of the carrier slowly dropped in level and then 
disappeared from sight!!!  Better than driving a stake through their 
collective hearts.  Unfortunately, I do not achieve such total 
domination of the Vancouver stations :>)

Two more mornings for me this year.

John B. 
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