[IRCA] Grayland DXpedition Loggings - Dec. 29, 2008

["Guy Atkins" <dx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Using a Perseus receiver has radically changed the way I chase and listen to
DX. With the ability to record and play back and entire MW band, and
employing a "looping" technique across the top of the hour, I find I can
catch and ID far more DX from a single evening than is possible with
conventional receivers and techniques.

The 29th was an average midwinter "doldrums" DX evening, but digging out top
of the hour catches for this single night has kept me busy until now. I
haven't yet started checking frequencies on the files recorded at the bottom
of the hour or in-between! Nor have I yet gone through the files for
December 30th, except for a few hours of 60 meters tropical band DX (which
was very good, with numerous Indian regionals, Vietnam, and three morning
longpath Africans including Chad--first time ever for me via longpath).

I'll bet Walt Salmaniw and Chuck Hutton are still wading through their many
Perseus WAV files from their DXpedition to northern Vancouver Island in
November, despite the lackluster conditions they encountered. They are sure
to find more DX on their hard drives waiting to be discovered!

I've written on my blog about the importance of a high quality sound card
and headphones for the best weak audio recovery when using a low noise SDR
receiver like Perseus. I think these two items give an "edge" to the
receiver system that helps me to have the best chance at the really weak,
threshold DX signals. The Edirol UA-25 mentioned on my blog is an example of
a relatively inexpensive upgrade to a laptop's built in sound card or the
average sound card installed in most desktops. My gut feeling is that 5-10%
of the weakest, most threshold level stations I logged were made possible by
the Edirol UA-25 and my Sennheiser HD-525 headphones. They give you the
sense of being able to really dig into the noise, splatter, and muck to
provide improved clarity and a better chance at IDing a station.
This trip to Grayland Beach State Park was a real challenge with the
weather. I encountered high winds and rain, and occasional, nearly-sideways
hail that pounded the yurt wall so hard I had to crank up  the volume to the
headphones considerably. I also had the din of the  nearby roaring Pacific
Ocean to contend with. At least last week's snow had melted, and I had brief
periods of calm and almost no rain while erecting and dismantling the
antennas--thankfully! It was also the first time I've been c-c-cold in the
Grayland yurts; the wind and chilly temps found their way easily around the
door edges, and the yurt's built-in heater couldn't keep up. Not only this,
but I went three days without a latte! Now THAT's endurance!  <g>

If I come up with any new or different loggings from these after I listen to
the Perseus files from Dec. 30th I will post them on the IRCA list.

The list of MW loggings is too long for including in this message, but click
here for the text file:
www.guyatkins.com/files/sdr/atkins_loggings_29dec08.txt

For those interested in the shortwave logs, click this link:
www.guyatkins.com/files/sdr/atkins_sw_loggings_29-30dec08.txt

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Guy Atkins
Puyallup, WA
DXing from Grayland Beach State Park
Perseus SDR X2 / Wellbrook Phased Array antenna (proto)
PA0RDT Mini-whip antenna
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