Hello All,

 

It was another excellent morning for Asiatic reception here, although most of the propagation seemed concentrated on the lower band, and signals did seem to drop down somewhat from 1230 to 1310 UTC (which was the beginning of sunrise enhancement here). An all-new Chinese station on 657 kHz was the highlight, with strangely strong signals completely replacing Pyongyang for about 5 minutes from 1335-1340 (this should be Henan, according to Chuck's Grayland DXpedition experience). Another mystery station was on 891 kHz on top of a weaker TP, and certainly didn't seem Japanese. The lower-band Asiatic stations generally had decent audio, and the presumed Chinese stations on 1035 and 1044 were producing fair audio at times. The high-band "big gun" stations on 1377, 1566 and 1575 kHz didn't seem particularly vibrant, though, and the 1134 khz TP mix was not at its usual strength. In general it was an exciting morning, though, and a good indication of the new season's potential.   

 

The following were received on a C.Crane SWP Slider model (7.5" loopstick) inductively coupled to a 9' PVC tuned passive loop in the back yard:

 

585  JOPG  Kushiro, Japan  Fair to good NHK1 audio at 1305, sigs like JOAK

594  JOAK  Tokyo, Japan  Not much stronger than its 585 // this morning

603  HLSA  Namyang, S. Korea  Fair Korean speech over weak Chinese, 1317

639  CNR1  Beijing, China  Fading in and out at a weak level all morning

648  VOR  Razdolnoye, Russia  Good signals with Chinese program at 1325

657  Pyongyang BS,  N. Korea  Dominant for most of morning with Korean 

          tirades at decent strength; SSB carrier had typical rough edge

657  UnID-China (presumed Henan)  Strong fade-in replacing Pyongyang at 1335;

          continued at good strength for 5 minutes with Chinese news and some

          music; first time heard here http://www.mediafire.com/?176l0s1w9way10x

666  JOBK  Osaka, Japan  Fair-good Japanese conversation at 1322, // 594

675  VOV  Hanoi, Vietnam  Fair-good Vietnamese signal through 680 splatter 

          at 1319 http://www.mediafire.com/?ouznlc5paiope37

738  BEL2  Penghu, Taiwan  Chinese pop music program weaker than usual

747  JOIB  Sapporo, Japan  Good Japanese signals through KXL splatter, 1306

774  JOUB  Akita, Japan  Way under KTTH splatter with NHK2 program at 1308

828  JOBB  Osaka, Japan  Fair signal at 1309 over UnID music station (Chinese?)

891  UnID  Mystery station at fair level on quiet frequency-- doesn't sound Japanese.

           Maybe Thailand, or China?  http://www.mediafire.com/?qablsjvv6jfor59

972  HLCA  Dangjin, S. Korea  Good Korean conversation at 1304

1035  China (presumed)  Chinese speech and music in and out at fair level, 1303

1044  China (presumed)  Weak threshold audio with rare peaks at a fair level, 1301

1053  Korean Jammer  Good signal for most of morning, but not overpowering like

            during some recent sessions. No co-channel TP's this morning.

1134  TP-Mix  Fair- good signal at 1346 with JOQR and KBS apparently fighting it out

1377  China (presumed)  Anemic audio at best around 1348; weaker than usual

1566  HLAZ  Jeju, S. Korea Japanese religious program fair to poor from 1300-1330

1575  VOA Ban Rassom, Thailand  Threshold Asiatic language audio at best, 1300-1330

 

For those interested in a full recording of the 657-China station's fade-in (including some nice music) this morning, a 2.03 MB file is linked at  http://www.mediafire.com/?4y7ksan22mw8ztn  .

 

73 and Good DX,

Gary DeBock