Re: [IRCA] Big Island DXing

[d1028gary@xxxxxxxxxxx]

The west coast of the Big Island where Kona is located is ideal for reception of TP's and DU's, but because of the large hills blocking the way to the east it seems less than ideal for reception of North and South America. Canadian and U.S. Mainland stations generally seem to have a rough time managing very strong signals when competing with DU's. 

The motels on the Kona coast have many ocean front rooms available, especially fifth and sixth-floor units which seem to provide enough of a DU propagation boost to compensate for internal RFI issues. For a "hit and run" DXpedition with smaller antennas these rooms are ideal. Stations like 540-Samoa, 621-Tuvalu and 1440-Kiribati were typically at S9+ strength every night on the balcony of my fifth floor oceanfront room. The room did have minor RFI issues, but the awesome strength of the DU's more than made up for it. 

The combination of excellent propagation and the new 5 inch "airport friendly" FSL antenna made the recent Mini-DXpedition to Kona very enjoyable. Since those Kona Coast motels are unlikely to allow any large external antennas, the key to success is to squeeze as much DXing gain as possible out of a compact 
aerial-- either broadband or FSL. When serious antenna gain is added to the superior propagation in such areas, a DXer can really have some serious fun! 

Gary DeBock (back in Puyallup, WA, USA) 





----- Original Message -----

From: "Todd S" <amdxing1976@xxxxxxxxx> 
To: "Bob Coomler" <w7swl@xxxxxxxxx>, "Mailing list for the International Radio Club of America" <irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
Sent: Wednesday, April 12, 2017 7:02:11 PM 
Subject: Re: [IRCA] Big Island DXing 

Or at Poipu on Kauai. I have some logs somewhere for early evening DXing. 
Poipu would be great for the DU to Deep South America DX for it serves as a 
buffer zone to block the US. I do recall hearing many SS stations. 

Todd Skaine 


On Wed, Apr 12, 2017 at 1:19 PM Bob Coomler via IRCA <irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
wrote: 

> I've been following the Kona adventures with great interest and envy. I 
> was wondering, has anyone been to, or considered, listening from South 
> Point at the very southern end of the island or Hawi at the very north 
> end? Both would seem to offer good east-west shots. Hawi has some horizon 
> blockage to the south (no big deal), but is a pleasant small village. 
> South Point can get windy, is a bit isolated and might not be the best 
> place to spend the night, but no immediate blockage and very quiet 
> electrically. 
> Bob Coomler W7SWLTucson, AZ 
> 
> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- 
> From: Bob Coomler via IRCA <irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
> To: Mailing List for the International Radio Club of America < 
> irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
> Cc: Bob Coomler <w7swl@xxxxxxxxx> 
> Bcc: 
> Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2017 18:19:23 +0000 (UTC) 
> Subject: [IRCA] Big Island DXing 
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