Return-Path: <markwa1ion@xxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2015 22:00:25 -0400
From: Mark Connelly <markwa1ion@xxxxxxx>
To: irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
For the past week here on the East Coast we have been milking a
rather productive auroral "cow" while the discourse from out west
tends to be one gloomy lack-of-TP's posting after the next.
Is Latin America from out there - other than pest Mexicans / Cubans
- a total non-starter?
I seem to remember '70s era logs of West Coast South America from
West Coast North America. Chile, Peru, Ecuador, and western
Colombia had some representation. Central America - admittedly
aided by splits that aren't there anymore - was reported almost as
much as from the midwest and east.
Even some reports of Brazil and eastern Caribbean region stations -
DX more often associated with eastern US / Canada - wasn't
completely off the table.
The Pacific Northwest (to some extent combined with CA, AZ, etc.)
has more active DXers with more different bags of tricks -
ultralights / FSL's, SDR's / QDFA and Wellbrook arrays, and so on -
than the (at best) half dozen reasonably active DXers in New
England, NY, and NJ. Yet where are the Latin American logs?
Is it "all about the TP's - the TP's - no Latins" (to echo that
massively overplayed "all about the bass" song)?
TA's of course are always a big interest around here. During this
aurora only a handful of stations (e.g. Algeria 549, Canaries 621,
Mauritania 783, Sao Tome 1530) have reasonably beefy
signals. Boring, yes BUT South Americans are SCREAMING in as they
had not done for months, so no one in the northeast is throwing up
the hands or hanging up the headphones.
So as one who has only DX'ed from the West Coast for two weeks in
1991 (business trip to HP in Mountain View, CA), what's the deal on
Latin America from the West Coast? Certainly harder than from
coastal NJ, MA, ME, PEI, NS, and NL (or even Scotland and Finland it
would seem), but impossible?
There are a lot of big gun DXers in BC, WA, OR, etc. with serious
and varied expertise, motivation, and technological power tools of
all sorts at their disposal. DXpeditions seem to be done more often
out there - Grayland, Haida Gwaii, Rockworks, et al.
I have to wonder if there are times of the year when sunset or dawn
greylines ever vector signals from Valparaiso, Chile or Lima, Peru
into that area? Those cities were certainly well represented when
Richard Wood was DXing from Hawaii but, of course, those were
shorter and easier routes to that part of the Pacific.
Would hearing those South Americans be easier from Alaska (away from
the mainland US / Mexican rabble) better than from closer sites
along the US West Coast, just as hearing Uruguay and Argentina is
easier from Newfoundland than from the Carolinas - lower pest levels
trumping longer path lengths?
Sometime I may go on the Topband list and posit the same questions
regarding 160-m ham activity from the western US / Canada to South America.
Mark Connelly, WA1ION
South Yarmouth, MA
<<
Subject: [IRCA] Puyallup, WA Twisted Propagation for 3-23
Hello All,
?
For the second straight morning
Asian TP's were completely comatose, without even a?decent?carrier to be
found.?738-Tahiti struggled to reach a threshold level in KCBS splatter around
1330, but even that station was far?from a healthy level (and has started to
wear?out its welcome here recently, anyway). This must be the west
coast version
of the total eclipse-- a total eclipse of?Asian propagation for two days
straight.
?
73, Gary DeBock (in Puyallup, WA, USA)?
>>
_______________________________________________
IRCA mailing list
IRCA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca
Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the
original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of
the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers
For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org
To Post a message: irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx