[IRCA] 585-2WEB-- Knocking on Science Fiction's Door

[d1028gary@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Just as South Pacific propagation was collapsing in bright daylight at 1335 UTC on August 8th I made a final band check to see if any New Zealand or Australian stations had escaped my notice at the Rockwork 4 ocean cliff (near Manzanita, Oregon). Most of the DU's had already bailed, but there was a very strong station playing rock music on 585 kHz. I knew from experience that this could be either of two Australian 10 kW stations-- 7RN in Hobart, Tasmania (part of the ABC RN network) or David Sharp's independent "Outback Radio" station, 2WEB in Bourke. Apart from an ID, the only was to make sure of the station's identity was to check for parallel programming with another station in the ABC RN network. Parallel programming would indicate that the station was 7RN, while clearly different programming would mean that the station was 2WEB. 

In the MP3 linked below the 585 Australian station's powerful rock music signal continues for an awesome 3 minutes and 20 seconds, during which time several parallel checks were made (Ultralight radios can only tune one frequency at a time). The first parallel check for 576-2RN (in Sydney) occurs from 1:02 to 1:13 into the recording, but 2RN has already faded out, so the 585 station's identity is still unknown. The second parallel check (again for 576-2RN) occurs from 2:03-2:15, but it is still dead. Finally, at 2:15 a parallel check is made for the 25 kW Brisbane RN network station 792-4RN (generating the 2 kHz het), which has just enough of a signal left to confirm that its RN network programming is speech, and not the music playing on 585 kHz. As such, the powerful station playing "Knocking on Heaven's Door" had been narrowed down to David Sharp's 2WEB in Bourke, transmitting far and away the most powerful signal it has even managed in 9 years of these ocean coast DXpeditions. 

The reception was made on a 7.5 inch C.Crane Skywave Ultralight boosted by a 17 inch (43 cm) diameter FSL antenna, as in the Rockwork 4 DXing setup photo attached with this post. Thanks again to David for his outstanding support to the DXing community! 

585-2WEB MP3 (3 minutes 20 seconds) 
Just as South Pacific propagation was collapsing in bright daylight at 1335 UTC on August 8th I made a final band check to see if any New Zealand or Australian stations had escaped my notice at the Rockwork 4 ocean cliff (near Manzanita, Oregon). Most of the DU's had already bailed, but there was a very strong station playing rock music on 585 kHz. I knew from experience that this could be either of two Australian 10 kW stations-- 7RN in Hobart, Tasmania (part of the ABC RN network) or David Sharp's independent "Outback Radio" station, 2WEB in Bourke. Apart from an ID, the only was to make sure of the station's identity was to check for parallel programming with another station in the ABC RN network. Parallel programming would indicate that the station was 7RN, while clearly different programming would mean that the station was 2WEB. 

In the MP3 linked below the 585 Australian station's powerful rock music signal continues for an awesome 3 minutes and 20 seconds, during which time several parallel checks were made (Ultralight radios can only tune one frequency at a time). The first parallel check for 576-2RN (in Sydney) occurs from 1:02 to 1:13 into the recording, but 2RN has already faded out, so the 585 station's identity is still unknown. The second parallel check (again for 576-2RN) occurs from 2:03-2:15, but it is still dead. Finally, at 2:15 a parallel check is made for the 25 kW Brisbane RN network station 792-4RN (generating the 2 kHz het), which has just enough of a signal left to confirm that its RN network programming is speech, and not the music playing on 585 kHz. As such, the powerful station playing "Knocking on Heaven's Door" had been narrowed down to David Sharp's 2WEB in Bourke, transmitting far and away the most powerful signal it has even managed in 9 years of these ocean coast DXpeditions. 

The reception was made on a 7.5 inch C.Crane Skywave Ultralight boosted by a 17 inch (43 cm) diameter FSL antenna, as in the Rockwork 4 DXing setup photo attached with this post. Thanks again to David for his outstanding support to the DXing community! 

585-2WEB MP3 (3 minutes 20 seconds) 
Just as South Pacific propagation was collapsing in bright daylight at 1335 UTC on August 8th I made a final band check to see if any New Zealand or Australian stations had escaped my notice at the Rockwork 4 ocean cliff (near Manzanita, Oregon). Most of the DU's had already bailed, but there was a very strong station playing rock music on 585 kHz. I knew from experience that this could be either of two Australian 10 kW stations-- 7RN in Hobart, Tasmania (part of the ABC RN network) or David Sharp's independent "Outback Radio" station, 2WEB in Bourke. Apart from an ID, the only was to make sure of the station's identity was to check for parallel programming with another station in the ABC RN network. Parallel programming would indicate that the station was 7RN, while clearly different programming would mean that the station was 2WEB. 

In the MP3 linked below the 585 Australian station's powerful rock music signal continues for an awesome 3 minutes and 20 seconds, during which time several parallel checks were made (Ultralight radios can only tune one frequency at a time). The first parallel check for 576-2RN (in Sydney) occurs from 1:02 to 1:13 into the recording, but 2RN has already faded out, so the 585 station's identity is still unknown. The second parallel check (again for 576-2RN) occurs from 2:03-2:15, but it is still dead. Finally, at 2:15 a parallel check is made for the 25 kW Brisbane RN network station 792-4RN (generating the 2 kHz het), which has just enough of a signal left to confirm that its RN network programming is speech, and not the music playing on 585 kHz. As such, the powerful station playing "Knocking on Heaven's Door" had been narrowed down to David Sharp's 2WEB in Bourke, transmitting far and away the most powerful signal it has even managed in 9 years of these ocean coast DXpeditions. 

The reception was made on a 7.5 inch C.Crane Skywave Ultralight boosted by a 17 inch (43 cm) diameter FSL antenna, as in the Rockwork 4 DXing setup photo posted at https://app.box.com/s/dqaag49l6uboqcfboq4b7fn5fy9dsr1f 
Thanks again to David for his outstanding support to the DXing community! 

585-2WEB MP3 (3 minutes 20 seconds) 
https://app.box.com/s/u64u4pvx2u1ofb5u87ze10p0ynqire1u 

73 and Good DX, 
Gary DeBock (in Puyallup, WA, USA) 
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