[IRCA] Howe Bay 2012

[Nick Hall-Patch <nhp@xxxxxxxx>]

Quick report from Howe Bay, PEI, Brent Taylor, Niel Wolfish, Bruce Conti and
myself giving the first impressions.  We're not suffering effects from Hurricane
Sandy, nice waves out on the ocean and blustery winds, but not abnormal for this
time of year.  

Brent has already logged 9 provinces in less than half an hour (he'll never hear
the 10th, which is PEI, because it has no AM stations anymore).   As I
mentioned, we've been awash in TAs, starting a couple of hours before sunset,
and lasting until European sunrise, though the peak has seemed to be within an
hour or two of our sunset.   1215 carrier was noted as late as 0915UT the second
morning.  But, for much of the time, there are many channels that you can just
sit on, and different stations will fade in and out.   This is not like the TPs
at home, either in quantity or in strength.   I'm a bit like the deer in the
headlights, trying to make sense of it all, while the others are mining the more
exotic minutiae, hohumming their way through stuff about which I'm chortling
away with glee.   However, I did snag Iran on 1575 within a short time of our
setting up the first antenna, so haven't been totally unhelpful.

The night of the 27th did seem a bit more middle Eastern for longer, while the
28th and 29th seemed more European to me, though had a Middle Eastern tilt at
the top of the band before sunset.   Spaniards are everywhere, but that doesn't
mean that something else might not fade up on any given channel.

Morning TPs have not been too successful so far.   The first morning was not
successful at all, but that was before adding an FLG100 amplifier to the
antenna.   Yesterday morning (29th) we had carriers that seemed to be Australian
by their frequency signature (1116 for example), but our first antenna, a corner
fed loop, was set up to null the US Eastern seaboard, and also does a pretty
good job of nulling eastern Australia.  So yesterday, we set up an ALA100 which
also nulled the Eastern seaboard, but provided a better lobe to Australia as
well as to Brazil and southern Africa.   Of course, this morning was Asian, with
just the slightest traces of audio on 774 at the peak of sunrise enhancement at
1032UT.   But last night, while I struggled with the "easy" TAs, Brent and Niel
were starting to work the Latins using the ALA100, and of course, Globo on 1220
was heard by all, so the ALA100 has paid for the minimal effort in setting it
up, and the phasers have already been set on stun, using it and the corner fed.
 (Bruce came equipped with a corner fed crossed pair of antennas, phasing unit
and all, so has been self sufficient; the Canadians have had a more gradual
approach to antenna construction) 

More as it happens...actual loggings also to follow.

best wishes,

Nick


-- 
Nick Hall-Patch
Victoria, BC
Canada

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