[IRCA] Victoria TP for 23 Sept 2012: in the darkness

[cafe-swl <cafe-swl@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

As planned, power was cut to around 200 homes or more in my 
neighborhood
between 4 and 7 AM -- very handy indeed.

I powered my Drake R8, Wellbrook antennas and Icom 703+ on
independent 12V "motorcycle" batteries - actually I think they
are 4 amp/hour UPS batteries but close enough.

As predicted, the silence and lack of ambient RF noise
and hash on all frequencies was stunning - reminiscent
of my days in the mid-seventies on 3.5 acres when the
only "noise" was the occasional buzz from a local 13KV/220V
step down transformer hundreds of yards away.

Anyway - the reason that our power was cut was that there
was a 12 bedroom house being moved - and in order to get
the house and wheels on the road, power lines had to be interrupted.
Initial predictions indicated a 2 hour cut in power... from 2 AM to 4 
AM.
Thank heavens for delays.

What did not appear, however, were stellar conditions - I was at the 
dials
at 11:35 UTC and apart from domestics and some hets on the 9khz plan
there was little to pick from.

By 12:05 UTC I decided to snooze on the sofa for a half-hour or so --
and I awoke again at 13:20 to...

567 - likely Japanese, 594 - Japanese, 603 - threshold audio,
621 - solid het, 747 Japan (best signal when I looked), 774 Japan,
792 - threshold audio, 828 - Japan, 891 - big het, nothing
else really standing out til 972 and even Korea on that frequency was
nothing special... and then little but hets all the way up to the
top of the dial.

My prime tuning was between 1320 and 1335 -- which may have been a tad 
early
for the enhancement...
Was looking for some of Walt's Hawaiian stations but I should have had 
notes
because I was totally on the wrong frequency!

Postscript: Last night after dark, drove out to the suburbs and checked 
out
a park area behind a property (and house) that my wife and I are 
looking at..
and yes, it was whisper quiet too.
=========================================================================
Colin Newell is a radio guy from way back who lives and works in 
Victoria
and uses radios by Drake, Eton, Icom, Kenwoon, Sony and Tecsun...
===================================================================
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