[IRCA] Initial brief report from Haida Gwaii DXpedition

[WALTER SALMANIW <salmaniw@xxxxxxx>]

Here's a quickie from John Bryant and Guy Atkins.  They're outside at the moment erecting another Wellbrook phased array.  That'll make 6 antennae so far........Walt.



Guy and I arrived after two very long but beautiful days of
driving through mountainous British Columbia
and a six hour ferry ride.  We landed in
Skidegate, about two hours of driving south of the Salmaniw's cabin and stopped
at the new national museum of the Haida Nation, the Northwest
"Indian" First Nations group whose graphics and architecture are
justly world famous. We'll be driving back Thursday to do the full tour ($$$
gifts) on Thursday.

 

After arrival at Walt's, it was set up the radios and hook
up to the antennas that the early (flying) arrivals had already assembled. The
evenings have been fairly full of Europeans, one evening favoring the high
band, the next, the low. Twenty stations have been heard in two evenings, with
the most being in Spain,
but with Britain
being well represented along with the odd station in North Africa
and the rest of Europe.

 

The mornings, starting at about 4:00 AM local time (1100)
and lasting until 1530, an hour after sun-up have been full of Asians, but very
few DownUnders. I fear that the season for DUs is past. In two AMs, I've heard
well more than half of the JJs and CCs that I've logged in 18 years from
Grayland or my place on Orcas Island.
No wonder NATO had/has a suoer-secret listening base up here. The high points
so far for me are DW in Sri Lanka
on 1548, heard first by Chuck H., and extending our knowledge of several
Russian stations beyond what is listed in PAL or the other references that I've
checked.

 

Specifically, 621 Khabarovsk
is running R. Rossii // 279 up to at least 1500 UT and 810 Razdolnoye is also
running Rossii quite late... as late as 1410, for sure. I've heard both at my
place on Orcas, but never strong enough or long enough to be absolutely certain
about things. 

 

As far as Japan
is concerned,  I've heard one new one and
IDed a couple of NHK2 repeaters. More to come the rest of the weekend and the
weekend!

 

Tonight, Walt's wife's family is hosting us at a traditional
Haida salmon banquet and tomorrow its the national museum and the an evening
ceremony where Walt is going to be adopted into the Haida Nation, a serious
event.  

 

Yesterday, we toured around and saw some beautiful country
(twas a very pretty day) and we got to meet two Haida artists, one a graphic
artist of wide reputation and a carver of traditional cedar ocean-going boats
and beautiful masks out of yellow cedar. I got to tour and photograph some
traditional Haida construction and was then invited into the backroom of the
construction shack to view a walrus tusk that was about .7 meters long which
was about finished carving in the traditional Haida fashion. The carver and I
hit it off and we both had a real laugh when he admitted that he (and everybody
else) was doing museum-quality carving using powered Dremel tools, sort of like
dentist's drills. I think that he was kind of relieved when I told him that
even the top carvers among the Polynesians (Easter Island,
Tahiti) were doing the same thing. He allowed as how he
would be an old man before he finished that tusk, if he had used the old
techniques. It was a very beautiful piece... He got the tusk from the Alaskan
coast by barter.

 

Well, thanks to Walt, his wife Wanda and their family, we
are having a great time and, oh by the way, hearing some great DX, too.

 

I'm sorry that our internet connection is so poor here....
it is an imperfect world.

 

…………John Bryant

 

Commentary - 9/14 to 9/19  
Guy Atkins

 

 

What a DXpedition thus far! Some random notes on the trip
and the DX up to this point follows...

 

My drive from Puyallup, WA
to spend the night with John Bryant on Orcas island Friday PM proved my
suspicion that the Seattle
rush-hour crush extends from 40 miles south to at least 60 miles north.
*Finally* the heavy traffic shook loose north of Marysville, and it was smooth
sailing from there to the Anacortes ferry terminal. Unfortunately, the *actual*
sailing to Orcas Island
was inexplicably cancelled due to "operational issues." I was able to
reach John by phone, though, so he could know I was delayed until the next
scheduled sailing.

 

With his gear and mine stored in my car, we took the AM
ferry at dawn back to Anacortes and north to the border. After an uneventful
USA-Canada border crossing (whew...no explaining what that strange gear in the
car was all about), we made good time into the heart of British
  Columbia. We enjoyed impressive views around Hope and
Kamloops, BC,
with dry, pine tree-covered mountains that looked exactly like my favorite
inland states of Wyoming and Montana.

 

The overnight stay in Prince George
put our minds at ease, security-wise, when we noticed six RCMP
("mounties"...Canadian police) vehicles in the block surrounding the
motel. We were obviously next door to their local office! We were also
well-situated next to a Tim Hortons, the Canadian version of a Starbucks coffee
& donut shop.

 

The countryside turned greener and even more spectacular
further north along the Skeena River
towards Terrace and eventually into Prince Rupert.
Honest-to-goodness glaciers were seen from the highway, with cascading snow
melt waterfalls emptying into the river and "fjord" nearby. What a
view!

 

An automated e-mail message from the BC Ferries system
informed us that our 12:30 AM sailing
to the Queen Charlotte Islands ("Haida Gwaii"
to the locals) was delayed due to "operational issues." There's that
ominous phrase again! The ferry's new sailing time was 7:00 AM, so we found a decent local hotel so we wouldn't
need to sleep all night in the car. 

 

The older but pleasant "Queen of Prince Rupert"
ferry made the 7-hour channel crossing to the QCIs in fine shape; we even got
to catch a few more ZZZz's in our rented berth (room) onboard.

 

Once on Masset Island
in the QCI island group, we had a 90-minute drive north, mostly along isolated
forests and beaches to reach host Walt Salmaniw's spacious new A-frame cottage.
We knew we had arrived when I spotted an antenna wire snaking through the
bushes! Early arrivals (via plane) Bruce Portzer and Chuck Hutton had already
erected five antennas in various directions. They had Bogs, a Wellbrook loop,
and a terminated broadband loop already deployed and in use.

 

After setting up our own equipment and a bit of chat, we
waited for the TAs to roll in...and roll in they did! Early evening TA
highlights for me the last two nights here include an often-powerhouse Virgin
Radio (UK) on 1215 (often mixing with Spain);
981 Algiers, and TalkSport
Droitwich (UK) on 1053.

 

The TP DX these first two nights was nearly 100% Asian, with
DUs *very* absent. The Chinese and Japanese MW stations can be real pests here,
if you're hunting signals from other parts of the region. Coolest TP catch so
far for me (thanks to Chuck's tip) was Deutsche Welle,
 Sri Lanka in German on
1548! It was at a very good level much of the time around 1345-1400, and two
IDs were noted. Japanese catches new for me were JOBK Osaka, JOKD Kitami, JOER
Hiroshima, and JOGB Kumamoto. Another highlight was DWXI Paranaque,
Philippines, with Tagalog on 1314. A new Korean for me was HLKH Bia on 747.

 

Yesterday we had a great sight-seeing trip hosted for us by
Walt's father-in-law, and we were taken to a remote, agate-strewn beach via
4-wheel-drive trucks. The views were spectacular, and the Alaskan panhandle
could be easily seen on the horizon.

 

Walt's wife Wanda has been very gracious, with excellent
cooking. We weren't expecting any homemade meals, but her hospitality has been
most welcome.

 

Well, the DXpedition has just begun, so it's back to the
dials now!

………..Guy Atkins

 

            
 
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