[IRCA] Grayland Report

[Bruce Portzer <bportzer@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Everybody

As mentioned elsewhere, Chuck Hutton, Tom Rothlisberger, and I spent 
this past weekend at Grayland.  We only had the northwest Beverage, so 
no DU logs.

Conditions were slightly below average by Grayland standards on Saturday 
morning, and slightly above average today.  We'll have more detailed 
report(s) later, but here's my quick summary.  Chuck may want to add 
more later.

Friday night - No TA's, Alaskans started to make promising appearances.  
KJNO-630 pretty much owned the channel, KGTL-620 and KDLG-670 were doing 
numbers on KPOJ & KBOI, etc.  Then all of a sudden they disappeared as 
though someone had flipped a switch somewhere.  Coincidentally, the K 
index went from 3 to 5 during that period, and then dropped back to the 
2-3 range for the next measurement periods.

Saturday morning - mostly low band stuff, some of it at unusually good 
levels.  The high end of the dial was mostly sub par but some stations 
had brief periods of good reception.  For the first time I can remember, 
the NHK1 stations (567 594 612 666 729 etc) were more abundant and 
stronger than NHK2 (693 747 774 828 etc).   Going from memory, the 
highlights included Russia-567,  Shandong-981 with actual IDs (a first 
for me), China 684 //098 (Liaoning?), KBS stations unusually good on 558 
603 711 738 747, Filippinos on 1062 and 1314, even channel logs of 
China-630 and JO stations on 1350 and 1440.  657 was the only North 
Korean coming in, and was often at "bite down on a piece of wire and 
you'll hear it on your tooth fillings" level, but at other times was 
thrashing it out with an Unid Chinese station.  Chinese stations (?) 
were also poking through the 594 774 and 828 powerhouses.

Sunday - Signals were noted up and down the dial.  A few highlights, 
going from memory: Heilongjiang RGD-1341 //621, Liaoning-963 mixing with 
CRI and //1098, NHK1-1161, unid Chinese 1395, unid 1584, CNR1 540, 
JOQG-531, KBS-1062, Russia 1008, unid Chinese 1512, Sabah 1475, China 
909 (Tianjin?), N Korea 855, and many of the usual suspects like 1566 
1575 1377 1593 1170 1134 972 981 1044 738 648 etc etc..  Like the 
previous night, the big NHK stations seemed unimpressive and even the 
powerhouses were being almost constantly buzzed by stuff from other 
countries.  The upper band commercial JO's (1287 1422 1332 1242 etc) 
were in & out - strong at times, and gone at other times.  Yanbian RGD 
on 1206 was quite good both mornings.  CKMO-900 seemed to be having 
problems - a strong carrier but no programming (maybe Colin hacked their 
computer <g>), leaving a jumble of audio including a weak woman in 
Chinese fading in and out (I wish I could have IDed that one).

On both mornings, the DX started to die out around 1445.  Some of the 
NHK stations were still around at their 1500 signoffs, and a few 
stragglers gradually dies out aroung 1515-1530 or so

Overall, both mornings were worthwhile.  Looking back, conditions were 
kind of strange - in some ways consistent with what others have reported 
lately and in other ways the exact opposite.  Definitely not the 
dullsville that Walt experienced.

Bruce 
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