[IRCA] Report from The Queen Charlotte Islands

[WALTER SALMANIW <salmaniw@xxxxxxx>]

Hello, fellas from the Queen Charlottes!  Regarding DX conditions, last night's TA fare was much worse than the previous night (UTC 13th).  I note that the SF was 73 with A/K indices at 14 and 4.  Not great.  I assume the previous day's were much lower.  In any case I did hear some audio on 1215 and 1179 to name a couple, but these were rather short lived.  As I was up until 03:30 local the previous night chasing Alaskans, I was pretty darn tired and hit the pillow pretty early by 21:30 or so local.  The night of the 13th (UTC) was phenomenol!  Alaska was wide open.  I was able to log and mp3 IDs on about 2/3 of the listed stations.  Still no Barrow, though.  

720 was also elusive, but for another reason.  About 0400 onwards (maybe a bit later), I started to hear Russian.  OK, I  thought.  There are several Alaskan stations that broadcast in Russian, right?  No sign of this on 720 though.  Well, the signal increased to armchair copy.  To my surprise, they went into a call-in program, many callers being from Moscow.  At the TOH, I hear the familiar IS for Mayak!  It was from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk with Mayak programming.  Wonderful!  Close to 5-5-5 SIO as well.  This went on for hours.  I continued to log Alaskan after Alaskan as well.  Finally I went to bed and missed the morning's DX.  Last night, no signs of Mayak on 720 at all, nor this morning.

This morning I monitored a couple more Alaskans that have been elusive:  870 and 920.  The latter is difficult due to Ketchikan on 930 which is very close to my location.  Alaskans seem to do very well from the middle of the night to the morning, and rapidly fade away at sunrise here (they're still in darkness) being replaced by WA, OR, BC lower mainland, and CA stations...also in daylight, but presumably more favourable due to a clear salt water path.  My theory anyway.  Any other ideas why Alaska just drops off like a light switch at local sunrise?  They are in darkness, still, so why the fade out being replaced by stations that have been in the sun for an hour or more?  

As for TPs this morning, I initially thought things were pretty dull at 15:00.  The Aussie X-band was open with lots of carriers, but weak audio only on 1611.  The upper half of the band was totally dominated by Japan.  Virtually every channel had readable audio.  Didn't realize there were  so many NHK2 repeaters on the top half....sure heard most of them, anyway!  Heard a few Koreans up there too.  The lower half was less populated, but that may be due to the late hour...around 16:40 onward.  Still heard great audio on 954, for example, with JOKR and 945 with NHK1, being replaced with CNR1 with satellite delay compared to 5030 at 16:42.  Vietnam may have been in there as well.  KBS1 was present on 711.  Both 1737 and 1725 PNG Beacons were in at decent levels.  

A comment on 1575 from a few mornings ago.  I'm quite certain that this was Radio Farda from the UAE.  They beam due north (ie towards me) and there is a darkness path.  I'll have to check the mp3, but they were absolutely dominating the frequency for a time.  Is this the 1st WCNA logging of them in our mornings?  Perhaps one of the first Euro/Asian TA logging for WCNA this season in the morning?  Comments welcome.

Well after a wonderful DX session this morning, took out the surf board and went surfing for an hour....perfect waves.  Not too big, just 4 to 5 footers but lovely, with a bit of sun breaking through.  Nice! (water pretty cool....probably around 4 or 5 deg C, but with a wet suit, no problem.  Toes felt like sausages though!

Assistance with Barrow 680 would be appreciated.  Any suggestions on how and when to log this one?  Maybe they're not on the air.  Not a peep the other night despite perfect conditions.  Hmmmm.

........Walt Salmaniw from the beautiful and wild Queen Charlotte Islands, BC (Haida Gwaii)

----- Original Message -----
From: Bill Block <billwblock@xxxxxxx>
Date: Wednesday, February 14, 2007 6:34 am
Subject: [IRCA] TPs for 2-14

> 
> It was a much better morning for TPs than its been with audio on 
> 1566 at 1410 UT.  Carriers were heard on 594, 693, 774, 828, 1377, 
> 1413, 1422, 1557 and 1593 from 1335-1420 UT.  The carriers on 
> 1377, 1413 and 1422 were heard for the first time since last fall.
> 
> Bill Block
> Prescott Valley, AZ
> Drake R8
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