[IRCA] 7-23 Yachats Oregon DUs (or Lack Thereof)

[Guy Atkins <dx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Yesterday morning was opportunity to sleep in and recover from the long
drive to Yachats, Oregon, not to mention a late night, available-light
photography session with my oldest daughter. This morning however I was up
early and awaiting the DX at Strawberry Hill, a beach access area and small
parking lot about 4 miles south of town. The site is located here:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=strawberry+hill,+or&hl=en&ll=44.253206,-124.111146&spn=0,0.006856&sll=44.253876,-124.110178&sspn=0.00279,0.006856&t=h&z=17&layer=c&cbll=44.253206,-124.111146&panoid=uzOU-SSRTzGGn0ROe1tzsg&cbp=12,323.09,,0,0

The picnic tables overlooking the Pacific Ocean are approximately 70 feet
above the water. This scenic viewpoint is around 55 miles south of Lincoln
City, where Gary DeBock was DXing just a few days earlier.

Well, perhaps the "on again, off again" propagation pattern that Gary
observed is continuing as this morning's results were very anemic. Indeed,
the A & K Indices from the last 24 hours were on the high side, generally
not a good indicator for long haul MW DX.

Despite the scrawny loggings below, it was easy to tell that the 6.5"
Ferrite Sleeve Loop (FSL) Gary constructed before I left home is a winner.
Given its compact size (not much bigger than a toaster) it has very good
gain and tunes extremely sharp... so much so that a vernier drive on the
capacitor would be a useful addition. I'm guessing that this 6.5" FSL has
gain at least as good as a 3 or 4 foot diameter air core loop. In public
places like parks the small size gathers less attention than serious air
core loops. On the other hand, the cylinder of black ferrite rods does bring
to mind a Gatling Gun, or maybe a bundle of sticks of dynamite! A FSL
antenna would definitely be a challenge to take through an airport security
checkpoint.

---------------------------------------

738 RFO Tahiti at 1205 Woman talking in French language; fair signal and
sometimes good on peaks. The best performer of this outing, which is often
the case when summer DX conditions are lackluster.

765 Unidentified at 1250. Likely the same mystery station heard by Gary
earlier in the week as well as on his Oregon trip last year. Possible
English language noted 1240 and then pop music onwards through 1250. 765
nulled to the SW-NE. Poor signal.

1566 Unidentified at 1236. Pop music heard here, looping SW-NE, and then
before any talk could be noted, presumed HLAZ South Korea took over with
Japanese talk by a woman (NW-SE null). Both signals were poor to fair.

1584 Unidentified at 1300. First heard at 1255 with nondescript EZL music
across the top of the hour without ID or break. Some splatter from 1580,
increasing at 1300 as domestic transmitters boosted their power at local
sunrise.

-----------------------------------------

A note on the receivers used with the 6.5" FSL: I alternated between a stock
Tecsun PL-380 and a custom, digital readout Sony SRF-59 receiver originally
designed and built by the late John Bryant. His article on this clever,
modified receiver is here:
http://www.dxer.ca/file-area/doc_details/134-buildingandoperatingthedigitalsonysrf-39

The digital readout creates some RFI hash that interferes with weak signals,
so after centering the tuning on a frequency of interest I would simply turn
off the display temporarily.

Here's a photo of the FSL antenna and receiver combo (sorry about the washed
out photo from the glare of the Pacific Ocean :^)
http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/30d59efef5236c3737c0c0b768c974b89265fecb4436b40044d8cff9ec98496c6g.jpg

Guy Atkins
Puyallup, WA
DXing near Yachats, Oregon
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