The ninth and final day of my Rockwork cliff DXpedition probably featured more drama than any other, starting with my drive up the mountain at 1050 (0350 local time) to scout out any turnoff with enough space in between the squatters to allow FSL antenna setup. After looking over all the turnoffs between #6 and #3 it seemed like the squatters had maxed out all the turnoff space, so I needed to push my luck a little and set up in about 15 feet of space between two squatters at #6. This would maybe allow one FSL to be set up-- assuming that there was no interaction with my "neighbors" in the total darkness.
Since I had received the Norfolk Island beacon 260-NF the previous day I was highly motivated to chase more Longwave beacons from the South Pacific, but they failed to cooperate. The 12" Longwave FSL could only track down the Hawaii super beacons 332-POA and 353-LLD, so I shifted my Longwave attention to the Alaskans, which boomed in like gangbusters. The weather broadcasts from the air navigation beacons 251-OSE (Bethel), 385-OCC (Yakutat) and 394-RWO (Kodiak) were as loud as I had ever heard them at the Rockwork cliff, even though they are all of low power (1 kW or less).
Because Western Australia had yet to be received by any of us over the past eight days, as soon as one of the two neighboring squatters cleared out (around 1200) two 15" FSL antennas were set up to record 531 and 558 kHz for the entire session. These were the two frequencies where Tom and I had received 531-6DL and 558-6WA last year, and every effort would be made to track down at least one of them during this last chance. As reported previously a marginal DU English signal broke through on 558 briefly around 1254 but was immediately swallowed up by Radio Fiji One for the remainder of the session. Despite the rather dicey 558-DU English recording (and the rather dicey subject matter of the ABC "Nightlife" episode, which I needed to listen to about 10 times to find my recorded material), I was able to track down a segment of my recorded material on the ABC podcast, confirming that I had indeed received 558-6WA on the 9th day of a 9 day DXpedition. This was its fourth August appearance in four years at the Rockwork cliff.
Australian signals finally had the edge over the Kiwis on the other MW frequencies as well early in the session, although the Oz exotics like 531-6DL and 558-7BU failed to show up like last year. 531 kHz was a total zoo as 2PM and 4KZ apparently fought it out from 1240-1305, only to be replaced by PI and More FM fighting it out after that. 558-Fiji and 1017-Tonga made their usual S9 appearances, and late in the session at 1316 I recorded some music on 855 not // 774 (maybe 3CR or Rhema?). Chuck was supposedly at the cliff during this session but in the scramble for antenna setup space at 1100 there was no chance to locate him. At the end of this wild and wacky session a Rockwork 6 DXpedition video was recorded, showing the multiple FSL setup, the hot-rodded XHDATA D-808 (on a PVC base) and several squatter vehicles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lO2ybVYaeG0
251 OSE Bethel, AK Aero Beacon with weather report strong at 1137
https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/5nltfhojcclfs6vwsvnsstd0h90wiq13
277 ACE Homer, AK Aero Beacon with weather report fair at 1208 https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/6dmwnis63nurfl2ha2wudocw1sgl0bjk
332 POA Puhoa, Hawaii Aero Beacon S9+ at 1107 https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/yepbr3328vxdywbb1udby5tl4zvv25jn
385 OCC Yakutat, AK Aero Beacon with weather report strong at 1133 https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/yuw38tqgh49djgfrmqd6ushdfb32s9tk
394 RWO Kodiak, AK Aero Beacon with weather report strong at 1209 https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/fzy99wrxdhtjghxuixq87er4rlsjgusj
531 PI Auckland, NZ Apparent Samoan conversation at good level at 1309 https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/h6o18yz4pmizb6jeasfpntqsp0xazu83
531 Oz Mix From 1251-1256 these two Oz stations did their best to drown each other out, sometimes near S9. Theo, how is your Oz English? https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/el2xsfgzgxe27n0l9gb7tp9g1iecdh7l
531 UnID-DU Apparent Oz station playing Country-Western music across the 1300 TOH with some kind of ID at 30 seconds https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/yj18j2q2makxegv4kxoj7k50148njpct
558 6WA Wagin, Western Australia Last-chance appearance at 1254 before being immediately swallowed up by Fiji; the operative words (from 30 to 35 seconds) are "you have to be extremely careful of the vanity publishing area") https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/dv5g0dc3k469p7upm5t92dy66fq34u8l
ABC website Podcast material matching the "operative words" on the Nightlife program (proving 6WA reception) https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/mw00oo69wdovircqi0q95cfr5db9ykok
558 Radio Fiji One Suva, Fiji The usual S9 appearance with beautiful island music at 1255 (after letting 6WA squeeze through for a few seconds) https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/e4y2m2eo8u4dv3n7htzj6ptjkxmsqhoa
855 UnID-DU Fair-level music at 1316 not // 774 (maybe 3CR, or Rhema?) https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/0ip0rqpcal1bwk5e6fgxp4pgnvywcba8
73 and Good DX,
Gary DeBock (DXing at the Rockwork 6 ocean cliff near Manzanita, Oregon, USA)
Longwave receptions made with a 7.5" LW loopstick Tecsun PL-380 + 12" Longwave FSL
MW receptions made with 7.5" loopstick CC Skywave SSB model + 15" FSL antenna (531 kHz only) and 7.5" loopstick XHDATA D-808 models + 15" and 17" FSL antennas (all other MW frequencies)
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