[IRCA] TP DX this morning 9-21-09

[Bruce Portzer <bportzer@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm in Shelton, WA for a few days of R&R with family members. We're in a rental house about 7 miles east of town, next to a long narrow salt water inlet about a quarter-half mile wide, running east west. The house is about 30 feet from the water at high tide, and in a beautiful area with lots of waterfowl, tidal critters, and one or two seals to entertain us. 

The area is relatively quiet r.f. wise, and I brought my SDR-IQ, R-75 and E-100 to play with. There aren't many houses in the area, so I was able to lay out a 300 foot antenna running roughly parallel to the water. 

Just after sunset last night, I briefly had a weak carrier on 1575, which was likely Radio Farda, but it didn't last long. No other TA's were noted. KENI-650 was good around 11:30 LT last night, but I didn't find any other Alaskans except maybe bits of KFQD. 

This morning's DX was decidedly limited by skywave interference from domestics. During the day here, the noise floor on the SDR display is in the -100 to -110 range. Last night, it was more like -80 to -90, so I'm sure I was deeply impacted by the antenna not rejecting signals off the back. I recorded the lower part of the spectrum on the SDR-IQ after 1300, and could actually watch the noise level gradually drop down to day time levels And as it did, TP signals started poking their little heads out of the noise, in much the same way that buildings reappear after the flood waters recede (how's that for silly metaphors?). 

I got up at 1230 and wasn't too impressed. I eventually gave up around 1320 and left the SDR to record 540-720 kHz. As it turned out, I went back to bed too soon, so I'll have to shift my listening time tomorrow morning. 

Between 1230 &1320, 1566 and 1575 were quite good, but little else TP-wise was audible on the upper part of the band. The lower band had the normal suspects like 594 657 738 747 774 and 972, with unimpressive signals. 

Things were better after I went back to bed, with the SDR revealing the following low band stuff 
540 - China poor //639 mixing with TIS and/or CBXQ (I have a weak station during the day with a woman droning on and on not //690) 
585 - Carrier, probably Japan 
594 - Japan - quite good at times, still there 1400 with time pips 
603 - Audio 
612 - Mostly a carrier, audio didn't seem //594, no pips heard 1400, still there 1402 with woman in what sounded like EE, so likely the Aussie 
621 - good carrier and some audio when I was up, but nothing there around as sunrise approached 
639 - China good at times 
657 - NK good at times 
666 - Japan good-nil, sometimes better than 594, still there with pips weakly at 1400 
693 - Japan good-nil 

I can't really say if this was a good morning or not, due to being in a different location with a different antenna. It'll be interesting to see what tomorrow brings. 

Bruce 


_______________________________________________
IRCA mailing list
IRCA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca

Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers

For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org

To Post a message: irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx