Re: [IRCA] A mostly failed DX trip to Grayland WA

[Walter Salmaniw <canswl@xxxxxxxxx>]

Aaron, I'm sorry to hear about your less than successful first DXpedition
to Grayland.  Yes, I've been in your shoes, struggling with equipment that
I thought was all there, only to find more than one SNAFUs.  On a positive
note, you chose the worst time for TP DX.  Nick Hall-Patch maintains his DX
Fishbarrel, that I check every morning, and for weeks, there really have
not been any TP signals to speak of, besides perhaps a rare weak audio, so,
don't despair.  I guess that had you been on the coast in August to
October, you would have likely heard plenty.  Next time, you'll have a trip
under your belt, and I'm sure things will go much more smoothly!   73, and
Happy New Year,....Walt Salmaniw, Victoria, BC

On Wed, Dec 31, 2014 at 8:57 PM, Aaron Kreider <aaron@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

> Over the holidays I spent two days around Hoquiam WA.   On the morning of
> December 28 I tried to hear some TP MW stations.  I setup in the Westhaven
> state park (on the WA state coast) along the sidewalk in the main parking
> lot.   While the Dxing wasn't successful, I did learn a number of things
> about preparation and weather.
>
> For starters, setting up an antenna in pitch black on a coast with major
> wind gusts is challenging (I started around 6:20 am). Unfortunately the new
> 500 foot wire that I'd just bought at Home Depot was tangled - so I spent
> time trying to untangle it in the dark while a friend held a flashlight.
>  Ultimately I resorted to cutting it in pieces with the wire cutters and my
> antenna ended up being around 200 feet (on the ground) with a short coax
> feed to get away from the laptop (a Macbook pro that puts out a ton of RFI
> - especially when you use the touchpad).
>
> I used a QS1R powered with a battery pack and a laptop.
>
> There was a lot of wind (maybe 50 mph gusts?), it was relatively cold (45F
> - could have been worse), and there was the occasional short rain shower.
>
> I focussed on recording the MW spectrum.    Unfortunately either the
> laptop shut down to save energy, or the QS1R battery pack was getting weak
> - and I lost most of my recording time.  So I was left with several minutes
> of recordings from 16:10 - 16:50 (sunrise was at 16:02).
>
> I think there might have been problems with some of my connectors, as I
> got better shortwave reception using my portable (Degen 1103) connected to
> the other end of the antenna.  The portable got good reception of the
> Australian stations in the 120 meter band (and other stations in the 60
> meter band) whereas they were much weaker in the QS1R recording.
>
> The QS1R recording feature is not the greatest. For instance, you cannot
> jump to a time - instead you have to replay the entire clip.
>
> Results
> While driving earlier in the car I got good reception of 540 CBC
> Saskatchewan.  Otherwise nothing too spectacular.  I only noticed the
> faintest traces of any TP stations (558, 1134, etc) .  The night before I
> heard a very faint het on 738 using my Tecsun PL 880 (with internal
> antenna) at Hoquiam.
>
> Aaron
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