[IRCA] Second Morning at Grayland + Walt

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

My wife accidently downloaded all of my e-mail yesterday to our home 
computer, so it was not accessible to me when I hooked up to the WiFi 
at the local library here.  Later, I called her and she only had time 
to read me Walter Salmaniw and Dennis Vroom's notes.  Argggggh! On a 
morning that Dennis and I both thought was sub-par, Walt manages to 
basically hear the Pacific world from his cottage in the Queen 
Charlottes!!! Way to go Walt!!!  Its no wonder that the formerly 
secret joint US+ Canada RF listening base was located a couple of 
miles from Walt's  cottage.  Who me, jealous???  I guess there is 
always greener grass across the fence. ARGH!

If you have not read my TP ultralight loggings from today elsewhere, 
they are appended below. Beside those 18, there were at least another 
couple of dozen TP/DU loggings that I've already heard on an 
Ultralight or that were too weak to hear on the E100 this morning. 
All of them were old friends, just about what you would expect as we 
start the Equinoctial Season. About the only thing remarkable has 
been the absence of audio from North Korea.  I've seen weak 
off-channel hets where they normally reside, but nothing even close 
to audio. Weird, because I'm hearing all around them.  I wonder if 
they are even shorter of electricity than normal and have turned down 
the wicks on the transmitters???

Here are the Ultralight loggings:

The conditions to Asia were MUCH improved here this morning over 
yesterday's pedestrian showing, with the exception of North Korea, 
for some reason. I was at the dial at 1120 UTC (LSR=about 1320). It 
was pretty much all about China and Japan until exactly LSR, when the 
Asians faded some and the DUs came up. I pretty well skimmed the 
cream off Japan yesterday morning, but conditions were so much better 
this AM, that I received a number of second and even third level 
Japanese (5 and 10 kW) as well as much of the cream of China. Olympic 
coverage was widespread, being that our dawn coincides with prime 
time in East Asia and DU... and the games being located in China. The 
Olympics coverage made for some strange parallels, with 972 running 
some coverage // to KBS1 and even more unusual, several of the 
commercial networks in Japan were carrying the same Olympics JJ that 
NHK1 was carrying. Wow!

There were bunches of relogs from yesterday, though I tried to 
concentrate on new` stuff, naturally. The log shows 18 new Ultralight 
catches and one new country: Marshall Islands.

747 JOIB NHK2 Sapporo Japan    8/20/2008 1154   Fem in JJ //828
918 CNR2 China   8/20/2008 1123   CC Talk, paralleled later
954 JOKR Tokyo Japan    8/20/2008 1240   Olympics in JJ + Commercials
981 CNR1 Multiple Sites China    8/20/2008 1125   M+W // 5030
1008 JONR Osaka Japan    8/20/2008 1242   Male in JJ
1044 CRI JapanSvc Changzhou China    8/20/2008 1127   M in JJ
1062 HLKQ Cheongju South Korea    8/20/2008 1245   Olympics in KK //972 (!)
1098 MIBC Majuro Marshall Isl's    8/20/2008 1129    Cont. Isl. Music 
Slight under mod
1107 2EA Sydney Australia    8/20/2008 1350   DU phone interview
1179 JOOR Osaka Japan    8/20/2008 1248   M+W in JJ. Hrd on 1178
1206 Yangbian RGD Yanji China    8/20/2008 1200   KK Svc. Caught TOH 
on 1205.96
1224 JOJK NHK1 Kanazawa Japan    8/20/2008 1309   Olympics in JJ //594
1269 HBC Synch Obihiro ? Japan    8/20/2008 1137   Olympics in JJ //1287
1377 CNR1 Shijiazhuang? China    8/20/2008 1200   Olympics in CC //5030
1440 JOWF Sapporo Japan    8/20/2008 1321   Completely on top at dawn! JJ talk
1503 JOUK NHK1 Akita Japan    8/20/2008 1140   Olympics in JJ //594//1287!!
1548 4QD Emerald Australia     8/20/2008 1325   Olympics in Aussie
1593 CNR1 Changzhou China    8/20/2008 1150   M+W //5030

Most of the above are at least somewhat regular here at Grayland 
during the heart of the Fall Season (October) but I'm particularly 
pleased with the 1269-HBC Synchros, since there are only two: 1 kW 
and Obihiro at 5 kW. I'm also pleased with 1440 JOWF which was 
totally dominating 1440. Not unheard of here at Grayland, but 
pleasant all the same.  Also

I tried the T615 Barefoot several times on signals that were 
particularly strong (972, 1566), even going outside once.  No 
luck.  Going TP Barefoot is REALLY difficult.

I'm sort of overjoyed , too, with 1179 and 1269. That Murata 5 kHz. 
is a wonder.  I received those two by off-tuning one kHz.... e.g. 
when tuned to 1269, the station on 1270 was obliterating a barely 
audible HBC, but when tuned to 1268, HBC was in the clear. Very 
nice!  A good filter plus  1 kHz. tuning resolution makes a heck of 
an ultralight.

I should note that I discovered a whole class of weak audio that the 
E100 can't touch. After dawn, in that happy half hour that only 
occurs at the coast, signal levels of all sort (including noise) drop 
away with daylight. At the coast, though, some DX hangs on or even 
returns for about 30 minutes. This morning, the DUs made their only 
appearance at and after dawn. There were about a dozen of them strong 
enough that I could at least ID the language; about half, I could 
follow the programming... all using the 313e.  Only three of these 
very weak ones could be heard at all on the E100 + Wellbrook.

The Ultralight loggings of the last two mornings have been an 
embarrassment of riches.... about double the number that I'd hoped. I 
think that an awful lot of the success is due to an almost perfect 
match between the location (very low RF environment so overloading is 
not an issue and COASTAL) coupled with an excellent little radio that 
is being driven by a really serious major antenna. Another advantage 
that I'm enjoying is DXing at a site and season that I have done for 
18 seasons and being particularly up to speed on the band due to the 
early appearance of Asians this summer at my home location. Finally, 
it is a distinct advantage to be able to DX several days in a row, 
unlike many of my NW colleagues who are not yet in the 
"post-employment years."

Speaking of days in a row ... I've two morning to add to my now 72 
Ultralight TP loggings this season.

John Bryant
Grayland 2008.8
WinRadio 313e + Ultralights
Wellbrook Phased Array
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