[IRCA] Ultralight DU Success at Grayland

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

Once again, ultralighting came to the rescue! Despite deploying the 
Wellbrook Array, the mediocre Trans-Pacific DX conditions reported 
widely elsewhere would have garnered me a very mediocre and 
depressing morning.  Using my Winradio 313E, and starting two hours 
before dawn, I noted over 40 channels with various levels of hets, 
prior to dawn enhancement. Most were below 1116. I even had threshold 
audio on a dozen of the usual suspects: 702, 738, 756, 774 (JJ at 
about 1130), 891, 1017, 1028, 1098, 1116, 1134, 1287 (prob.JJ) 1512 and 1611.

As dawn enhancement began at 1145, I noted more threshold audio on 
648, again on 738 (DU). On 774, NHK was coming in well enough that I 
tried all three Ultralights that I had hooked to the array. (National 
SRF-39, DT-200VX mod., E100) The E100 was the best, overall, and I 
happily listened to a few phrases of Japanese during, I think, a 
language lesson.  That was my first-ever TP with an ultralight 
receiver. Felt real good! Soon after that, the JJ faded away and pre 
and post dawn were both exclusively DU. They were all at threshold or 
just above, with 8 or ten rising to language recognition level.  Each 
of those was DU, about 1/3 NZ and the rest Aussie. None were at a 
level to be receivable on the Ultralights, even hooked to the array.

Then I stumbled upon 891, right at dawn (1215) and it was at (just) 
listenable levels. I tried the E100, expecting 891 to be swamped by 
whatever was on 890... or by splatter from that dastardly Canadian on 
900. Not so, Tonto!  There sat the DU, coming in almost as well on 
the E100 as on the 313E. I then tried the DT-200VX and the National 
SRF-39 and got the DU on each, with somewhat reduced S/N. Happily, 
890 is pretty much an open frequency after Mr. Sun knocks out the 890 
Chicago station about an hour before our dawn... and the array was 
looking due SW, away from the Victoria station on 900... My ship had come in!

It took me a while to figure out what was going on, but happily, 
conditions stayed stable for over 15 minutes.  There were actually 
two stations on 891 and I was hearing each quite well. They were 5AN, 
ABC Adelaide and 4TAB Townsville. Each would dominate for two or 
three minutes with very little interference from the other. Then, 
almost like flipping a switch, they would reverse. 4TAB was running 
their usual horse racing programming, with race calls and betting 
payouts. I heard mention more than once of TAB. When 5AN was in, it 
was running the some talk/public affairs and some popular music. I 
heard mention of "Morning Melody," possibly the program name. The 
music to my ears, though, was hearing them go to ABC News at 1230, 
with an ID as "ABC ADELAIDE!" After that, I had a brief celebration, 
dancing around the campfire, shouting various Chickasaw war hoops and 
generally acting stupid. It felt REAL good!

At 1230, dawn had happened 15 minutes earlier and I knew that things 
would likely close down within 20 more minutes or so.  It was time to 
try for the Hawaiians, now that dawn had diminished their continental 
co-channels. I heard three potential Hawaiians before things faded 
out at 1245. 760 (prob. KGU) had relig. talk by a female preacher 
(this matches their format); 1110 (maybe KAOI?) had trucker talk and 
670 (maybe KPUA) was running a news program called "Wall Street 
Journal This Morning." It may be very difficult to determine whether 
any of these were Hawaiians, since they are all syndicated programs 
and the propagation only seems to work from about 1220 to 1245. I'm 
here for three more mornings, so..... maybe a local commercial or PSA 
at the half hour???

I did get one opportunity to compare the 12" x 1" ferrite booster bar 
to directly connecting the Ultralight radio to the Wellbrook array. I 
couldn't hear any audio at all on 891 with the ferrite, while I had 
100% intelligibility with direct connection to the array.  During the 
DX session here at the beach, there was no sign of overload of the 
Ultralights that were connected to the array.

Well, now I can complete that article on adding a MW antenna input 
port to portable radios :>)

Reporting live from the Local Tavern and wi-fi hotspot in Grayland, Washington,

John B.
WinRadio 313E, Ultralights
Wellbrook Array to SW and NW
Grayland, WA, USA
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