Re: [IRCA] October 26th at Rockworks #4, Oregon

[Chris Black <n1cp@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Outstanding report Guy. I really appreciate hanging out for at least the one day and I hope to do the "full Monty" with you guys next opportunity.
73,Chris


Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device

-------- Original message --------
From: Guy Atkins <dx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
Date: 10/26/2015  7:45 PM  (GMT-08:00) 
To: Mailing list for the International Radio Club of America <irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
Subject: [IRCA] October 26th at Rockworks #4, Oregon 

I've just finished unpacking my stuff after the return trip from three
mornings at the Rockworks cliffs and thought I should at least give a
quickie report, since I was the "last man standing". Chris was part of the
gang the first morning, Chuck and Dave joined me again Sunday morning, and
I was there alone Monday morning to scoop up the DX leftovers.

They were very tasty leftovers indeed! Monday's DX from Rockworks #4 was
the best of the three mornings by far. It was obvious within a minute of
tune-in that this DX session was going to easily surpass the previous two.

As I drove the final half mile to the #4 highway turnout, I was greeted by
an amazing view of a large, orange, nearly full moon radiating through a
break in the clouds as it was about to set over the Pacific ocean horizon.
Spectacular is the only way to describe it.

I used the Wellbrook ALA1530LN Pro Imperium loop, and placed its tripod as
close as I could to the *large rock spire*
<https://www.google.com/maps/@45.7435775,-123.9580969,3a,75.7y,147.26h,101.92t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sqzBdTlVqVZUXXt7PBNcGBg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1>
that dominates the south end of the Rockworks #4 highway turnout. I was
hoping for even better attenuation of pest stations to the south, but I
couldn't tell any improvement in splatter reduction from the previous
morning's spot 30 feet to the north. However, I'll take it--Rockworks #4
has already shown its benefit over #2 with apparently better splatter
attenuation.

The ALA1530LN Pro is showing itself to be the best 1530 small 1-meter loop
I've yet encountered from Wellbrook. It's performance for such a small size
is impressive to me, and it's perfect for these limited space situations
like the Rockworks cliffs. The previous evening I did some WAV file
comparisons with my signal-meter calibrated Elad FDM-S2 and verified an
even lower noise floor than that on the earlier "Imperium" series loop.
Surrounding the frequency of SQM, the aviation voice beacon on 529 kHz from
Level Island, Alaska I was noting a noise floor of -134 dB. The result was
a 5 to 8 dB better S/N ratio signal on SQM compared to reception with the
ALA1530S+ Imperium. The difference was very *audible* too.

Anyway, it was TP/Asian all the way from my 1330 start time until I shut
down at 1520, with a half dozen Chinese and Japanese stations still going
strong (~30 min. past local SR). Many of the NHK big guns were in good to
excellent audio from the beginning, especially 774 and 828. HLCA on 972 was
the top powerhouse of the session, with very strong audio from just before
sunrise until 1520.

2nd tier Japanese frequencies and a few mumblings on 3rd tier frequencies
were heard, and from 1500 a few of the Chinese channels came in nicely. I
also heard English talk on 531 after sunrise, mixing with presumed JOQG
Morioka in Japanese.

1134 JOQR rose up nicely from 1430 onwards, as well as 1314 JOUF Osaka.

1035 was strong throughout, but alas with just a warbling carrier and
whispers of audio. Perhaps these are multiple CNR1 stations. 1566 HLAZ was
very strong at times, although I don't recall noticing VOA Thailand 1575
better than "good" at any point.

So, it was a very worthwhile morning and clearly above average for me as a
local sunrise DXing session. Now to find time to go through this morning's
WAV files...!

73,

Guy Atkins
Puyallup, WA USA
DXing from Rockworks #4 turnout on US Highway 101
near Manzanita, OR
Elad FDM-S2, Wellbrook ALA1530LN Pro Imperium Loop
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