[IRCA] Grayland DXpedition Report Oct 24-28, 2007

["John H. Bryant" <bjohnorcas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Friends,

Got back from Grayland last night.  I was able to 
download at the Local Bar and Grill on Friday and 
Saturday noons, but had problems (that I did not 
realize) uploading.  So, I've pasted and edited 
my uploads into a four day narrative that also 
includes the more interesting loggings.  The full 
set of loggings has been sent to the bulletin.

For those of you tracking Trans-Pacific 
conditions, the brief description would be

Thursday AM, Oct 25: LOUSY
Friday AM, Oct 26: Better, but still poor, with more Chinese
Saturday AM: Oct 27: Worse, but not as lousy as Thursday
Sunday AM: Much better.... not great, but GOOD.

I was hoping for a lot of low level audio, since 
I find that most useful when doing antenna 
testing... the main purpose for my trip. I should 
be more careful what I wish for....

Here is the narrative:

Wednesday, October 24 was my travel day from 
Orcas Island to Grayland. Rain, some fog and 
numerous accidents in Seattle forced me to divert 
widely around the metropolitan area, and take an 
additional ferry to get to Grayland. A normal 6 
hour trip became a low stress eight plus 
hours.  The travel delay and early sunset meant 
that I only had time to get up the 
standard  BOGs: westerly 600' and the NW 800 footer.

THURSDAY, OCT 25
Given the conditions that I found Thursday AM, I 
probably should have just waited until Thursday 
to hang any wire at all.  Thursday AM was the 
least interesting, least productive morning of DX 
that I've had here in several years.  From the 
way that the band was behaving, I'd guess that 
there was some kind of solar disturbance. I DXed 
periodically from 1130 until 1530.... Going back to bed twice in disgust.

A number of DUs were in most of the morning, at 
just above threshold levels... 531, 549, 612, 
702, 1116, 1512 and 1548. None ever got to really 
listenable levels, but they hung around a long 
time. All of the usual Japanese were there, 
though usually at their late October poor levels. 
Once in a while, one of the Big Guns would pop up 
for 10 minutes or so, before dropping off to 
fair/poor levels. The Chinese were almost totally 
absent, with 963 and 1206 kHz. being notable exceptions.

The only two bright spots were a really good log, 
early (1300UT) of 738 Taiwan Fisheries, parallel 
a much worse 1143 and CNR1 639, very late (1500 
UT).  I've heard them both a number of times 
before, but they were still the class of the 
field for Thursday morning, October 25.

Thursday, the 25th, was a beautiful sunny day at 
the beach and I had great fun putting up both Guy 
Atkins? and my own beta Wellbrook Phased Arrays 
ready for some more serious Beta testing on 
Friday morning and, I sincerely hoped, a load of great DX.

FRIDAY, OCT 26
I DXed from 1130 until 1615UTC with 
somewhat  better results than Thursday and a pot 
full of antenna testing. Overall conditions still 
seemed sub-par, but a good deal better than the 
abysmal conditions of yesterday Thursday AM. The 
Aussie Big Guns were in at 1130 and more or less 
stayed in until things FINALLY shut down after 
1600.  (sunrise = 1445UT) The larger Japanese 
were there, along with some of the second and 
third line stations, though levels were generally 
sub-par. The Koreans were back for the most part, 
though not too strong and there were quite a few 
more CCs around, though still quite low level.

The more interesting loggings included:

648 The Russian transmitter near Vladivostok was 
in nicely this morning, running a VOA program 
until TOH @ 1400, then they either slewed the 
antenna away from NAm or left the air, as after 
1400 there was only threshold audio on the frequency.

990 JORK in Kochi was dominating that frequency 
for a while. Also QSLed long ago, but a relatively rare visitor.

531 was a mix of at least two, maybe three DUs 
for quite a while before 4KZ dominated at dawn. 
Unneeded, again, but fun to listen to at a decent 
level.  Crime Stoppers PSA, local Toyota dealer's 
commercial, nautical weather and sea conditions for the area

783 8AL Alice Springs, very tentative this, late 
in max dawn at fair level, initially, fading to 
nothing just before 1500. Could be Access Radio, 
Wellington, but heard no other Kiwis on this 
DXpedition. I hung on every word and every note, 
like an IDIOT, rather than trying to // from 120 
meters. I'll be looking tomorrow morning, but... 
Will send a tentative report with CD.  I might 
add that the music program was several songs by a 
female "lounge singer," which doesn't sound that 
much like Alice Springs to me, but even less 
Wellington. Definite DU, both by DFing and by language. Hummmmm.

At noon on Friday, Patrick Martin and Dave 
Williams showed up for a delightful lunch and 
afternoon radio jam session.  We had lunch at the 
Local Bar and Grill and I was able to upload the 
partial "Report #1" and download two days worth 
of messages. It was comforting to know that other 
DXers in the region were experiencing similar 
(semi-lousy but improving) conditions.

SATURDAY, OCT 27:
If you look in the DXers' dictionary under 
"mediocre conditions," you'll see a picture of me 
at Grayland this weekend.  The Japanese are 
clearly beginning to fade out about an hour or 
more before dawn enhancement kicks in, so they 
are "mere shadows of their former selves" at 
dawn. This morning, the few DUs that have been 
present the past two days were even more modest, 
though a few made it to poor levels of 
audio.  The Chinese were beginning to reappear in 
some numbers, but there still were many "usual 
suspect" stations that were either still totally 
missing or were mired in the mud of 
unintelligibility (936, 927, for instance.)

The silver lining in this weekend for me was the 
fact that I was there primarily for final Beta 
testing of the Wellbrook array and I wanted a lot 
of very low level audio for test purposes.  "Be 
careful what you wish for........"

SUNDAY, OCT. 28
Finally, decent, not great but DECENT, TP 
conditions. Most of the usual East Asian suspects 
were there and sometimes at excellent levels. 
Even 4QD-1548, Emerald, Queensland was bombing in 
just after dawn. The Japanese continued to peak 
well before dawn and nowhere near their levels of 
mid and late September?. But, they were there!

  The still disturbed but improved conditions brought me two very nice catches:

549 OKINAWA JOAP NHK1, Naha , Oct 28 1250 - 
Stumbled on this running a national sporting 
event soon after turning on the radio. Fair to 
good at first, rapidly fading back into the 
mumble mix. Happily, the play-by-play announcer 
was very distinctive and I could follow the 
signal until TOH. The // on 594 was ever so much 
better.  Really happy with this one, after a 
minimum of 16 years of trying. Report going out tomorrow! (JB-G'land WA)

801 AUSTRALIA 4QY, Cairns (prob.) , Oct 28 1520 - 
30 minutes after dawn, caught an Aussie talk show 
just above threshold level. There are three 
Aussies listed. 2RF is Radio Italia; 5RM, 
Berri  appears to be an Oldies` station. 4QY 
would be my first guess, anyway,since Q'landers 
often dominate late at Grayland. However, this 
talk program was similar but NOT // to 4QD-1548. 
Subsequent i-net research indicates that the two 
stations are in different subgroups of ABC Local 
Radio, so this is certainly a possibility. New 
for me and worth a report with CD. (JB-G'land WA)

I DXed until 1545, an hour after sun-up and then 
had to roll ?em up and head back inland into the 
fourth nice sunny day in a row.

  Totals for the 4-day weekend: Japan: 31 
stations, China: 21, Australia: 11, South Korea: 
6, North Korea: 4 and one station each in 
Okinawa, Taiwan, Thailand, Russia and the Philippines.

  With our annual migration back to our winter 
home in Oklahoma coming up in two weeks, that 
closes out my DXpeditioning out here for another 
year? and what a great one it has been!

John B.
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