As Colin and Walt have reported the Asians were humming this morning, with a diverse collection of Chinese stations joining the Japanese and Korean big guns from 1330-1430. Chinese mid-band stations were especially numerous, while 738-BEL2 had its most energetic signals of the season around 1415 (hitting very good peaks until 1430).
It was obvious at my 1330 start time that Asian propagation had improved dramatically, with both 1206-CRI's Korean service and 1323-CRI's Russian service getting through the domestic splatter quite well (almost unheard of for 1206-Yanbian here, only 4 kHz away from a horrendous Spanish pest on 1210). 936 was managing weak Chinese audio, and other Chinese stations on 1017, 1035 and 1044 were in and out of the noise. Around 1350 the second-tier regulars on 603 (HLSA), 657 and 738 came up to good levels in and out, while the Japanese big guns on 594 and 747 hit S9 levels briefly (as 972-HLCA and the 1053 Jammer also did, at various times during the session). At 1400 603-HLSA's "Happy FM" ID was at a good level, while 657-Pyongyang had similar signals after 1400 with its canned female vocal music program. The real star performer of sunrise enhancement was 738-BEL2, though, taking advantage of the KCBS fadeout around 1405 to go on its most energetic run of the season, hitting very good levels in and out from 1414 all the way to 1430. In comparison to its lackluster signals in September and most of October this was a remarkable turnaround for the Taiwan station, with its Chinese female-announced late night news almost at ocean coast strength.
738 BEL2 Penghu, Taiwan Chinese female speech at very good level at 1414; steady signals at this level for much of sunrise enhancement after 1415
