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Re: [IRCA] Long Beach, Washington DXpedition - Day 1
Kevin;
Excellent report! Good luck over the rest of your time there. Enjoy
your family time too!
73,
Dave in Indy
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Tue, 31 Mar 2009 08:41:31 -0700 (PDT)
From: satya@xxxxxxxxxxxx
To: irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, ultralightdx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [IRCA] Long Beach, Washington DXpedition - Day 1
Message-ID:
<50141.75.121.232.181.1238514091.squirrel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1
Hi all:
Greetings from Long Beach, WA! It's about 60 miles south of fabled
Grayland, WA, and a whole lot further away from my strong locals in
Seattle. I'm with the girls, staying in a stand-alone A-frame cottage
with no RF to speak of, and an extra bedroom full of all my stuff. I'm
about 800 feet or so from the beach.
I am using an Icom R75 and a dual Crate Loop plugged directly into a
Quantum Loop base unit as the main ?spotter? receiver. (I also have a
few
Ultralights and larger portables.) While no Beverage or other outdoor
antenna is being used, this morning didn't really require one! I got up
at
0330 local (1030 UTC), and delightfully found hets on virtually every 9
khz channel, and at least 25-30 had intelligible audio.
The powerhouses were in on the smallest of Ultralights, with armchair
copy
on 594, 774, 828 and 972 khz. 693 was battling 690-Vancouver and 747
was
battling KXL-750, but both came in well on the little guys with help
from
a passive Crate Loop. 774 was in well all morning and lasted until well
after local sunrise, embarrassing 770-Seattle at times.
The highlight was at 1356 UTC when both 774 and 891 came in from
Australia. I got 891 barely mumbling on the WRX-911 barefoot, but with
the Crate Loop the horse racing report came in well, as well as a TOH
ID.
774-ABC was only strong enough to hear on the R75/Dual Crate combo.
I was struck at how un-dominant the Portland stations are here. Long
Beach must be in something of a Portland shadow, while Seattle stations
were much more meddlesome. Also, 690 out of Vancouver was amazingly
strong, whereas near Seattle where I live (much closer to Vancouver), it
often struggles to be heard, so I must live in a Vancouver shadow!
Some equipment notes:
- The e100 Slider with the Murata filter did very well, picking up much
of what the spotter receiver was hearing. However, with the Crate Loop
augment, the Slider was hearing a lot more. In many instances, mumbling
on the Slider was rendered clear with the Crate Loop. So, if I had to
take only one radio and loop to the beach, that combo would be it.
- The Sony M37V, with its replacement filter, did OK but often needed
help. The Crate Loop really helps out with the selectivity if the
correct orientation (facing/adjacent) is chosen.
- The Kaito WRX-911 fared quite well, although the lack of digital
readout can be a drag at times when chasing TPs.
I also have a Sony 7600GR, SRF-39 and Tecsun PL-450 along, but there
wasn't enough time to try all of them.
So, for my first proper DXpedition, quite a morning. Time for a nap and
some sightseeing with the girls, then up again early tomorrow for Round
2.
Kevin S
Long Beach, WA
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