[IRCA] Grayland DU's for 8-30... Another Thriller!

[D1028Gary@xxxxxxx]

Hello Guys,
 
With more than my fair share of DU luck from previous one-night trips to  
Grayland this summer, it seemed like conditions were tanking-- and an  
overdue lesson in humility was in store. Fortunately, the only  lesson this 
morning was how to sort out multiple new Aussies and  Kiwis, while checking 
Asiatic TP's at the same time.
 
Setting up again at my favorite picnic table on Grayland Beach Road at 1200 
 UTC (way too early, as it turned out), I certainly had the "B team" of 
equipment  for this trip-- the smaller modified ICF-2010 (19.5" loopstick) and 
a 36"  collapsible-frame tuned passive loop (both chosen because of their 
ability to  fit inside a fully loaded Toyota Corolla, during a family trip). 
Sunrise  enhancement didn't really kick in until about 1250 on the ocean 
coast, leaving  me a good 50 minutes to wonder why I messed up on the sunrise 
time so  badly. The conclusion was that after hearing so much about John 
Bryant's  Grayland DU loggings well before sunrise, I had unrealistic 
expectations that my  modest passive loop could somehow receive the same DX as John's 
Wellbrook  Array.
 
The "propagation beacon" 2YA-567 finally got some serious strength at 1250, 
 bringing immense relief from the typical concern over a wasted trip. I  
checked the 1475 kHz frequency for the new Ultralight DX country  of East 
Malaysia, and found a booming carrier with anemic audio-- exactly  the same 
issue as with 639-R.Fiji and 1566-HLAZ recently. Despite this, there  was enough 
audio to make a logging with the C.Crane SWP Slider. Something  strange was 
going on, however-- there was audio on both 1475 and 1476, and the  two 
signals were different. Neither one was slop from 1470 or 1480. It took me a  
while to figure out what was going on, but I finally confirmed that the 1476  
audio was coming from a DU direction on the loop, and that these were two  
different transoceanic signals. Judging from the strong Kiwi signals at the  
time, the 1476 station was presumably R. Trackside in Auckland, but I heard 
 no ID's or other solid clues.
 
I returned to 531 kHz at 1320 and made a nice MP3 of a previously  unlogged 
Pacific Island language station (presumably 531-PI in Auckland) mixing  
with the Aussie "no ID" repeated pop music station, which always seems to show  
up for me at Grayland. I then found that high-band conditions to Australia  
were excellent, and made a quick new Ultralight logging of 1512-2RN, and 
also  heard DU talk from another presumed Aussie on 1503 kHz. Despite the  
strength of the high-band Aussies, the other Aussie big gun frequencies  seemed 
to have rather modest audio this morning. 774, 792, 819 and 1116  were 
nothing to shout about, as the low and mid band seemed to favor New  Zealand 
this morning.
 
756-1YA came to audio on the modified ICF-2010 + loop combo around 1335,  
but never made it to audio on the SWP Slider ultralight. Despite the  very 
good Kiwi conditions in general, the propagation was a shade off from  the 
legendary Grayland conditions of August 9th, when it seemed like almost  every 
Kiwi frequency had some kind of strong carrier or audio.
 
The Asiatic TP powerhouses were strong prior to the DU peak, with 594,  
747, 972, 1566, 1575 and even 1593 very easy to hear. As reported by others,  
1566 had an extremely under-modulated signal, combining a booming carrier  
with wispy, anemic audio. The same issue affected 1475-RTM and 639-Fiji  this 
morning, both of which had monster carriers with practically no audio.  The 
second-tier Japanese and Chinese frequencies had promising carriers around  
1315, but I was more concerned about chasing DU's during this trip  to 
Grayland-- my last during the summer season.
 
Thanks to Walt and John for the "intelligence information" on previous DU  
loggings, which helped me program the memories in the modified ICF-2010 to  
maximum advantage. Detailed loggings for this morning will follow. As during 
the  previous trip, the performance of the 36" collapsible-frame passive 
loop  was way better than anyone could have expected--making the Ultralight  
radios very competitive in chasing weak-signal Aussies and Kiwis. IT  SHOULD 
BE ILLEGAL TO HAVE THIS MUCH DXING FUN!!!  :>)
 
73, Gary DeBock (back in DU-challenged Puyallup, WA)
 
 
 
 
        
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