[IRCA] Puyallup, WA Ultralight TP's-- Seasonal Summary

[D1028Gary@xxxxxxx]

Hello All,
 
     With the local deep freeze matched by frozen Asian  signals the past 
few mornings, it's probably best to start using limited  hobby time to 
complete several backlogged ULR articles and technical  projects. Sunrise TP 
signals have been on life-support for some time now, and  it's not an especially 
great thrill to hear 594, 747 and 828 reach fair audio  here each morning. 
New or rare Asian signals have not appeared for weeks  now, and show no 
indication of doing so.
     The Fall DX season has provided many exciting  days, however, 
especially in consideration of the decline in solar conditions.  About 12 new TP 
stations were received here since September 1, plus several UnID  Chinese 
stations (which typically are weak co-channels, and tough to  ID). It has been 
fascinating to compare the TP-DXing results here with those  posted by Nick, 
Bruce, Tom, Walt, Dennis, Colin and Guy-- all excellent  DXers using a 
variety of radios and antennas. As usual, the oversized 9'  PVC box loop used here 
seemed to have its best performance on the lower  frequencies (where the 
"Q" is highest), while the other west coast DXers  obviously had superior TP 
reception on the higher AM frequencies. Several  UnID-TP mysteries here were 
solved with the help of Chuck, Bruce and  Walt, which was greatly 
appreciated.
     TA signal reception was extremely limited  here, with brief audio 
signals from 1575-Farda and 675-Radio Maria  received on one day only (November 
7th). This seems to be similar  to the TA-DXing results of most other west 
coast DXers, who have reported a  great decline in such propagation compared 
to last Fall.
     The very active appearance of other  Ultralight radio transoceanic 
DXers like Richard Allen, Allen Willie, Gary  Deacon and others has been 
extremely gratifying here, especially in  consideration of the propagation 
challenges that they have faced during this  modest DX season. Especially, 
Richard's determined efforts to chase TP-DX daily  in Oklahoma with only a PL-310 
Ultralight radio and a 7.5" external loopstick  have provided Asian results 
far beyond what anyone could have expected, and  have demonstrated to all once 
again the potential of a determined DXer using  basic equipment. I hope 
that the TP-DXing results posted from here have also  been useful to Richard 
and others, and that our growing ULR group will  continue to really "push the 
limits," both in antenna experimentation and  transoceanic DXing!
 
73 and Good DX,
Gary DeBock (in Puyallup, WA, USA)
 
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