Hello All,
The second (and last) DXing session on the beach at Ocean Shores
was quite a bit more interesting than yesterday's, with fairly good propagation
on both the middle and high band. The low band continued to underperform, but
there were multiple TP's on 1044 at 1311, a huge signal from 1206-Yanbian at
1303, and even a pesky co-channel with 1566-HLAZ (apparently Chinese) right
before the Japanese program ended at 1342.
It was another clear and cold morning at the beach, with my
portable TP-DXing station (Ultralight radio + 15" FSL antenna) set up about 50
feet from the salt water. Without much confidence in the flat beach's potential
of providing serious DU action from 0800-1000 my start time
was around 1140, by which time 1566-HLAZ's Chinese service was already building
up to its usual thunderous level. No other TP was nearly as strong in the total
darkness, but some interesting signals starting showing up from the CRI stations
on 1017, 1044, 1206 and 1323 just after 1200. All of these except 1044 had good
audio in and out, with the 10 kW 1044-KBS station seeming to dominate over
CRI. The usual big guns on 1053, 1134 (JOQR), 1287, 1575 and 1593 (CNR1) were
all in and out with good audio, but around 1311 an apparent Chinese station
started to fight it out on 1566 with the Korean big gun HLAZ. During fades in
the Japanese Christian program the UnID Chinese even managed equal strength--
although no real identity clues were gained. After HLAZ switched to its Chinese
program (with a different antenna) around 1344 the mystery station tapered off
down into the noise, along with most of the other Asians. By 1400 only the big
guns 774-JOUB, 972-HLCA and 1566-HLAZ were still around on the wet sand, and
after spending two and a half hours on the cold beach it certainly seemed like
they would last a lot longer than I would. My portable DXing station was
dismantled at 1410, well before 1566-HLAZ's Chinese service dropped into the
noise. Overall the two day visit was interesting, with somewhat better Asian
results than expected. The low band never really got untracked, however, with
even 594-JOAK sounding anemic.
1017 CRI Changchun, China Korean service with Chinese
lessons at a good level at 1254
1044 CRI- KBS Mix The Korean female voice having the
apparent edge over its co-channel at 1311
1053 Korean Jammer Pretty good jam session at 1232
1206 CRI Yanbian, China Female Korean speech and music at an
awesome level at 1303
1287 JOHR Sapporo, Japan Japanese male and female speech at
good level at 1208
1566 HLAZ Jeju, S. Korea The usual nuclear-powered signal
during Chinese service at 1214
1566 UnID Apparent Chinese female speech mixing with HLAZ's
Japanese male speech at 1314
Same station-- this time with apparent Chinese male speech
mixing with HLAZ's Japanese female speech
1575 VOA Ban Rassom, Thailand Male Asiatic language speech
at a very good level at 1307
73 and Good DX,
Gary DeBock (DXing at Ocean Shores, WA)
7.5" loopstick C.Crane Skywave Ultralight
+15" DXpedition FSL antenna
