[IRCA] TPs on Orcas Island: Down Quite a Bit - Up in Victoria

[cafe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

WARNING: This report contains UPs AND Downs.........

Ok. Stirring it up a bit here - I was under the impression that this morning
was better than yesterday -- but let me emphasize that I `stuck` at it longer
this morning than yesterday.

Preamble: I have a habit (that I am sure I share with many of my fellow DXers...):
Before I hit  the hay at night I do a cursory scan of the dial to see what's up -
as if to get a sense of what I can expect in the morning... and I am rarely right when
I speculate. That said, I always power down the gear leaving the dial at 530khz...

And I hope the reason for that is as obvious to me as it is to everyone else.

Anyway - when I power up in the morning, still somewhat bleary eyed and half-way
through tying my house coat, and flipping on a light switch - I hope to hear one
of two things on 530Khz; a het on the high side, the low side... or ideally both...
indicating that there is activity on 529 to Alaska and 531 to Asia or DU land.

This morning I had both. As I tuned up the dial, I could immediately hear audio on
558... then 567 (Japanese at full intelligibility), then 576... 594... more Japanese...
Ah... a big het on 603 over our semi-local in Vancouver.... 612... hmmmmm sounds English...
621... no audio but a big het worrying 620.... 639... a jumble no less....
and then 648... clearly (I have this on my mini-disc) Russian or Chinese... will need to review
the disc....continuing up, nothing on 657 (never is for me...), 666 traces of Japanese audio,
675... nothing there... jumping past mighty-690 from Vancouver... 702 trace audio,
720 big grumbling mess of stuff.... impressed... 738 sounds like Chinese.... 747 Japan
with English lessons but not as loud as I would have expected... minor dog pile of
stuff on 756.... 774 Big signal....nothing again til 801... an abrasive het on 800...
828 more language lessons... more audio on 846... 855 jumble.. 864 audio... 873 more audio....
Hmmmmm... switch R8 to stand-by.... disconnect Sony MD... grab short 1/8" stereo to 1/8" stereo cable
for patching Eton E1 into Sony MD...

Throw open 7th floor South facing apartment window - brace for chilly breeze into house coat.
Plug in adapters, press record on Sony, fiddle with Eton E1 resting in window (balancing would be a 
better word...)

Whoa. Big audio on 936... and 945... and 954... and 963 (not so much...) and 972

Reach for pencil.
Something goes wrong.
Radio is moving.... and slipping... and just out of my grasp...
Eton E1 falls... slowly... but soon speeds up...

and lands...

with a thud...

on my foot.

Long story short - radio is fine. If it fell the other way, it would have been another story.
Listened from 1410 til 1455 and things were still in good form.
Lots of audio below 1100 khz - which is typical for me - and maybe it was not as good as yesterday,
but I could not tell.
--
Colin Newell - Editor - coffeecrew.com | coffee.bc.ca | DXer.ca
Web-Design / E-Commerce / Writing
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

_______________________________________________
IRCA mailing list
IRCA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca

Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers

For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org

To Post a message: irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx