[IRCA] Grayland: Day Two: Wednesday Oct. 8

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

This morning seemed almost as good as yesterday morning, with audio 
on most every channel for the last two hours before dawn. Some of the 
channels were at murmur-level, or one notch up at language 
recognition level, only. However, even a number of these latter 
yielded to slight up-ticks which allowed identification through the 
use of parallels.

The bias continued toward Japan and away from China. At two hours 
before dawn, almost all of the good audio was from Japan and while 
China and Korea eventually joined the chorus, the bias toward Japan 
was very evident.  For instance, one of my missions this trip was to 
try to get a good TOH recording on 837... All season, its been either 
the regular Chinese from Heilongjiang in Manchuria or a large new 
station broadcasting from Fujian Province to Taiwan.  This morning, 
it was all NHK 1 Synchros,  603 is usually a 200 kW KBS2 out of South 
Korea... This morning it was either a 1 or a 10 kW NHK1 Synchro until 
40 minutes past dawn when KBS2 was all by itself with a KBS ID at 
1500. I'm certainly not complaining... the unusual bias is helping me 
add to my Unlimited Ultralight totals quite nicely... eleven new ones 
in the log this morning, mostly in Japan:

549 Mayak Synchros at 1218. Actually noted here all morning, with 
probable NHK1 Okinawa "almost there" several times

603 NHK1 Synchros 1142 (likely JOOG, Obihiro, Hokkaido)
603 HLSA KBS2, Namchang very prominent here the last 15 minutes 
before band fade.
837 NHK1 Synchros at 1409 with mush most of the morning
855 Pyongyang Bangsong, Sangwon N. Korea 1412 rose above the usual mess on 855
927 NHK1 Synchros 1443 I was expecting the usual multi-tx Shandong station here
1107 JOMR Kanazawa1200 with several mentions of Kanazawa
1143 JOBR Kyoto doing very well near band fade 1455
1152 NHK2 Synchros 1416 at good level
1368 JOTS Wakkanai, Hokkaido // 1287 at exactly dawn 1422. I'm really 
proud of this one, since its only 1 kW. I suspect that will be a new 
1 kW Ultralight distance record, though I've got that info on my home 
computer, only.
1593 NHK2 1215 with EE lessons, briefly topping the usual CNR1 from Manchuria.

Yesterday afternoon, I realized that I had been so busy logging new 
stations with the hotrodded E100 that I'd completely neglected 
Barefoot Class DX. This morning, after a couple of runs up the dial 
with the E100, I switched for a while to my beautiful little T615 and 
was rewarded with quite a few nice loggings:

594 JOAK NHK1 Tokyo at 1124
774 JOUB NHK2 Akita at 1128
828 JOBB NHK2 Osaka at 1129
972 HLCA KBS Dangjin at 1135
1170 HLSR, RKI JJ Service at 1200 and several other times... booming in!
1440 JOWF, Sapporo with typical JJ pop music program at max dawn 1420
1566 HLAZ Cheju Island at 1325
1575 VOA Ayutthaya, Thailand at 1330.  I still don't believe this, 
but I actually heard an ID and then caught them again at 1430

I continue to be amazed with the hotrodded E100. I'm using both a 
Slider version and a unit with its stock antenna, but each connected 
to the Wellbrook Array.  They are indistinguishable in use. This 
morning, I heard all but one station that I could hear on the 313e on 
the hotrodded E100. That single instance would also likely have been 
possible, had the E100 been equipped with SSB.  The new Murata filter 
was worth all the sweat and tears (along with ruining one radio) 
because it works wonders, even on 9 kHz. splits that are only one kHz 
off a NAm channel... I just tune to 892 rather than 891 and there the 
TP sits waiting to be picked off! Just amazing!

In comparison, the T615 is rather frustrating, of course.... I don't 
really mind the loss of sensitivity (a 1.5" bar vs. the Wellkbrook 
Array!) but the lack of selectivity is sometimes maddening. Even with 
nulling, it is very common to hear one of the adjacent  NAm channels 
quite well... even on 4, 5 or 6-ending TP split channels, 585, or 594 
or 666 or 675, etc..... Gee, I hope that we discover a digitally 
dialed Ultralight with even better selectivity than the T615! Who, 
me? SPOILED????

Well, it was a VERY interesting morning.  I think that I'll look 
toward Alaska next and hope that the bias shifts a bit westward 
toward the China coast for tomorrow.... yes, GREEDY, too :>)


John B.
WinRadio 313e + Hotrodded E100 Ultralights, Sony SRF-T615
Wellbrook Phased Array NW
Grayland, WA, USA  
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