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- Subject: Thursday evening - Orleans, MA
- From: Mark Connelly <markwa1ion@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 25 Jun 2015 23:27:17 -0400
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For the first time in two years I did some local DXpeditioning with the Perseus receiver and car roof loop set-up ( http://www.qsl.net/wa1ion/loop/car_roof_loop.htm ).
This was a good "shake-down cruise" opportunity for the various antenna system components. I had a few redundant assemblies on hand in case of something going belly-up.
One thing I noticed was that noise introduced by the laptop could range from negligible to bad depending on how I routed the feedlines.
I was at the site ( http://chowdanet.com/markc/pictures/orleans_dxsite1.gif ) from 8:30-10 p.m. EDT (0030-0200 UTC). Knowing that conditions were going to be auroral, I figured that it made sense to visit this location which has a good track record for Brazilian and African reception.
The top Brazilian was R. Globo on 1220. It dominated the channel pretty much anytime I checked. 1100 and 1280 popped in at times. Stations occasionally tangling with 1010 WINS and 1130 WBBR were likely also Brazil. Signals on frequencies below 800 kHz were relatively weak. Often-big-gun 760 Fortaleza, Brazil may have been there but laptop noise and the limitations of the 2m by 2m broadband loop posed challenges to clean audio recovery. A bigger antenna definitely would have nailed more DX in this kind of an opening, but how much can really be mounted on top of a car?
The TA's that were coming in reflected southerly-route reception. Best ones were 549 Algeria, 621 Canaries, 783 Mauritania, and 1008 Canaries.
I don't think the captures are going to turn up anything astounding. Based on yesterday's at-home listening and tonight's session in Orleans, I think that the aurora of late March had more DX "beef" to it than the current one.
Mark Connelly, WA1ION
South Yarmouth, MA
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