[IRCA] Oregon Cliff (Rockwork 4) Ultralight TP's and DU's for 4-11 (Conclusion)

[d1028gary@xxxxxxx]

Hello All,
 
The Rockwork 4 Cliff finally delivered some vibrant DU signals this early morning (really early, that is!). Since it was my final DXing session during this 3-day trip, I decided to face the cold and wind almost all night long in an effort to track down some energetic South Pacific signals.
 
The effort was generally successful, but as usual the Cliff demanded a pretty harsh tradeoff in DXing comfort before yielding its propagation enhancement. April propagation to the South Pacific is nowhere near as reliable as the summer conditions, and you need to be on the right frequency at the right time in order to be successful. It sounds fairly easy, but when you are facing numbing cold for extended hours it's easy to lose track of which Kiwis and Aussies are on each frequency ;-) Anyway the shift to the South Pacific sunset propagation (0800-1030 UTC) proved to be the trick which made the Kiwis come out of the woodwork, although very few of them managed their typical summertime strength. 531-PI was almost as strong at 0836 as it was two days ago (near S9 strength), while 765-R,Kahungunu was around an S7 level at 0843. 738-Tahiti managed its best signal of the trip (around S7) at 1002, while a whole collection of anemic Kiwis came out of the woodwork across the band (56!
 7-RNZ, 594-NZ.Rhema, 603-R.Waatea, 657-Southern Star, 828-R.Trackside, 1008-Newstalk ZB and 1503-R.Sport.). Attempting to record MP3's of these halfhearted Kiwis was a trying experience (i.e. I tried to record, and they tried to fade). I did manage to get halfhearted MP's of a sermon on 594-NZ. Rhema at 0912 and some DU English speech on 567-RNZ at 0918, but in general one could easily forget during the month of April that this is supposed to be the "Kiwi Cliff." 1017-Tonga also made a halfhearted appearance around 0855, and although the recording was nothing to shout about I was able to match the foreign-language female voice on the MP3 with the same voice on last summer's 1017-Tonga MP3 (confirmed by NZ's Tony King to be the Tonga station).  
 
The Asian TP's took up the slack from 1236-1339 this morning with vibrant performances from the Chinese CRI stations on 963, 1017 and 1323, as well as stellar signals from the 1053-Jammer and the usual NHK big guns. 558-HLQH managed its best audio of the trip (fair to good) with Korean pop music at 1337 (// 603-HLSA, which was at a good level), and once again the halfhearted Kiwi big guns on 567 and 1008 managed to stick around throughout sunrise enhancement at ghostly levels. Unfortunately the Aussie stations were generally Missing in Action during this trip, with audio limited to ghostly traces of the big guns 576-2RN, 792-4RN and 891-5AN after the Asians had bailed each morning. I figured that these Aussies would behave somewhat like they do on this Cliff in July (booming in on one out of three days, on average), but apparently they don't care for the April propagation any more than the Kiwis.
 
Overall the 3-day DXpedition to Rockwork 4 was another thrilling experience, with legendary audio recorded from 594-JOAK (1322 on 4-9), 657-Pyongyang (1145 on 4-9), 693-JOAB (1221 on 4-9), 972-HLCA (1335 on 4-10) and 1566-HLAZ ((1347 on 4-10). All of these big gun signals were the strongest that I've ever heard them in 8 years of TP-DXing. In order to get high quality audio recordings during this DXpedition I temporarily switched over to the C.Crane SWP 7.5" Slider loopstick model, which is unique among the hot-rodded Ultralights in producing relatively high fidelity audio even with the transplanted Murata CFJ455K5 IF filter (although it is unlikely to ever compete with the Perseus-SDR in this aspect :-) Repeatedly sliding the Slider loopstick coil with frozen fingers on the side of a windswept ocean Cliff around 0200 local time on a Highway 101 turnoff is a wacky experience-- and it may take some time to regain a normal perspective.
 
765  R. Kahungunu  Napier-Hastings, New Zealand (2.5 kW)  
        The star KIwi performer of the morning, with strong Maori
        music at 0843 (full summertime strength level)
        http://www.mediafire.com/listen/ze9co15xenb1c8z/765-R._Kahungunu-0843z041114SWP.MP3 
 
1017  CRI  Changchun, China   Strong Chinese music during
        Korean service at 1248
        http://www.mediafire.com/listen/rtdtdv3bmbzhdme/1017-CRI-1248z041114SWP.MP3 
 
1323  CRI  Huadian, China    Strong Russian male speech 
        during Russian service at 1241
        http://www.mediafire.com/listen/95p1hdcr4e8su13/1323-CRI-1241z041114SWP.MP3

73 and Good DX,
Gary DeBock (DXing at the Rockwork 4 ocean cliff in Tillamook Co., OR-- now back in Puyallup, WA)
C.Crane SWP 7.5" Slider loopstick Ultralight +
New 12" DXpedition FSL antenna




 

        
 
 
 
 
 
 
          
 
        




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