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Re: [IRCA] DX Season

It is interesting that there has been some fine coastal receptions of New Zealand in recent years, as I think I recall some pretty "dry" summer DXpeditions back in the days of west coast Vancouver Island adventures. Of course, receivers, antennas and techniques have improved, but whether enough to make that sort of change, I couldn't say. Even now, a coastal Beverage is still a pretty good reference antenna.
The very first Vancouver Island coastal expedition in early July 1979 produced a lot of NSW and Queensland Aussies, not much New Zealand, and I seem to recall one summer coastal DXpedition that yielded exactly one 10kw Zedder (and not much else).
It would be interesting to go through old Grayland logs as well, as there were a number of solstice DXpeditions. A comment made by John Bryant in July 2003, "First morning in several years at Grayland that a significant number of Kiwi stations were present." makes me wonder whether we're living through the "good old days" as far as summer coastal receptions of New Zealand are concerned.
Having heard Western Australia a couple of times at home in the '80s (and not since), but practically never China, while China has been much more frequent in the last decade does make me wonder if we're dealing with long term reception patterns that may even go beyond a single sunspot cycle. Many other variables affect what we receive of course.
(Things to speculate about instead of looking for non-existent DX in mid-winter, a point I think we can all agree on at present.) 

best wishes,

Nick


At 03:34 03-01-16, you wrote:
A very interesting discussion. There's no doubt that strong reception of New Zealand requires a serious dose of salt water (or better yet, a cliff above salt water), but the peak season for optimal Kiwi reception seems to be from July 1 to August 15th. Bill W. wisely makes his DU-chasing trips in late July, and Chuck had his all-time record NZ results in mid-July.  When Kiwi propagation really kicks into gear at Rockwork 4 the signal levels can approach those of big gun Asians during the fall season (especially during these lean solar years). This exciting DU-DX during the dogs days of summer certainly is one of fringe benefits of living on the left coast, but you would never even know that it exists if you stay at your inland location.  73, Gary DeBock (in Puyallup, WA, USA) 


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