[IRCA] First Morning at Grayland
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[IRCA] First Morning at Grayland



I had been wondering if a trip to Grayland was really worth it for me. I'd be using the same antenna (the Wellbrook Array) as at our home on Orcas Island, and there, I look up the Strait of Georgia at Japan and the Koreas. Just how much better could Grayland be for Asians? That is not an idle question, since going to Grayland, for me, is about a 6 hour combination of a ferry ride and lots of driving. Well, I got the two-ALA-100 Array set up in the rain on Monday afternoon and fired it up at 1200 UTC, 2 hours before dawn on Tuesday morning. My radio happened to be sitting on 1188 as it came on and there was FEBC, Seoul, a very rare visitor on Orcas and it was LOUD. From there, I bounced down to 531 and found JOQG, NHK1 Morioka, which is usually at or just above murmur level on Orcas. It, too, was LOUD. That pretty well defined the morning. L*O*T*S*A Japanese and South Koreans doing well, too. Is it worth all the hassle of coming to Grayland? Oh, yes!!!

DXable conditions lasted until after 1440, more than 30 minutes after dawn and the last Big Gun JJs lost audio a full hour after dawn. Over all, things were just noticeably louder here, significantly louder and a lot of murmur level channels or seemingly open channels on Orcas were at or near arm-chair quality at Grayland.

It really was a "Japanese morning" and I ended up with 25 positively IDed JJ stations, mostly through parallels. Most of the 25 were old NHK friends or a few of the stronger commercial stations that are also very commonly heard. The more interesting catches:

540 NHK1 Synchros, rarely heard
648 JOIG NHK1 Toyama, rarely heard
729 JOCK, NHK 1 Nagoya
837 JOQK NHK1 Niigata presumed
846 NHK1 Synchros
909 JOCB, NHK2 Nagoya over presumed Tianjin

936 JONF Miyazaki + repeaters. This was probably the catch of the morning and was only IDed by the fact that it was clearly JJ and had echos. It is the only JJ multi-transmitter net on that frequency. Well over Anhui at 1425.

1008 JONR Osaka
1017 JOLB NHK2 Fukuoka over CNR KK Service
1179 JOOR Osaka

1197 JOWL Ashikawa //1440. This used to be stronger than 1440, but has been unheard this year. Was fairly weak this AM

OTHER LOGGINGS OF NOTE:

548.99 Rarely heard Voice of Vietnam 2 was coming in very nicely at 1400. Its 30 years ago this year that I heard a WHOLE LOT of Vietnamese. Some things you just don't forget. Was very nice to hear them.

936 Anhui RGD took over from the JJ station after 1425 and was running a mixture of CC talk and EE business-oriented PSAs.

1170 Radio Korea International owned this frequency all morning, wiping out strongman KPUG, Bellingham, WA.

1134 KBS Haminjok Bangsong, Kimpo. One People Radio may be directional to the North. It dominated this frequency, usually owned by JOQR, Tokyo

I also found time to check one last time the effectiveness of the Kchibo D96L against the Murata-ed E100 this morning. On frequencies ending in 1, 2, 8 or 9, there is just no contest: The D96L would have the DX plus a loud het from the adjacent USA station, the Murata E100 would have only the DX. Every time. So, the bullet-proof nature of the D96L will let me DX in the overloaded cess pool of nearby Vancouver, when I'm on Orcas, but on the Coast, the Murata-ed E100 (or Crane) rules!

I should add that I only noted three North Koreans, for some reason, and just six Chinese. It really was a Japanese morning. I look forward to my compatriots reports. Was it a JJ morning for them, too.

Two more mornings on this trip!

John B.
WinRadio 313e + Ultralights
Wellbrook Phased Arrays, SW and NW
Grayland, WA, USA





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