This was easily the worst Asian session of the entire month (and probably a banner DU morning in Victoria). Four TP's made it into weak audio here around 1345-- although one of them may have gotten there with a little imagination thrown in.
The first band check at 1330 revealed only ghostly audio on 1566, with weak carriers on 594 and 693. The only drama in the miserable session was whether or not the two Japanese big guns would be able to reach audio level before the propagation reaper claimed them. They both did-- barely. 594-JOAK reached a poor to fair level at 1345, while 693-JOAB's Chinese lessons made it all the way up to fair (on peaks) at the same time. The other big guns Asians had trouble even managing carriers, while the ghostly audio on 1566 bailed around 1350. Before writing off the pathetic session I noticed a rising carrier on 603, which seemed out of synch with the miserable propagation. It reached threshold level at 1353 with some apparent ghostly audio, but stayed mostly in the twilight zone until bailing at 1355. Propagation during the entire session seemed about as frozen as the 0 degree C back yard, and as usual, provided strong motivation for upcoming ocean coast trips.
73 and Good DX,
Gary DeBock (in Puyallup, WA, USA)
7.5" loopstick CC Skywave SSB Ultralight +
15" FSL antenna