Rockwork Cliff (Oregon State) Ultralight South Pacific DX for 8-9 (Final Session)
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At the risk of receiving some rotten tomatoes across the border from Victoria I decided to compile a detailed report of the final Rockwork Cliff DXing session on August 9th, mainly because there is far more time for such activities back at home. The DU's are somewhat more enhanced at the ocean cliff site, especially for blasters like 531, 558, 603, 1017 and a few others. Nick has spent some serious time at the Cliff himself, so he knows the score.
This last session was a wild one featuring enhanced DU's on both Longwave and Medium Wave at the same time (1230-1300), making it tricky to choose priorities in live DXing. At my 1200 setup time there was no South Pacific NDB propagation on Longwave, but a spot check at 1230 revealed 260-NF on Australia's Norfolk Island at a fair to good level, and the Longwave NDB rush was on. A detailed search was made for trans-equatorial beacons, and although propagation wasn't quite up to Thursday's standard, the final tally wasn't bad for a hot-rodded Ultralight-- 238-KT (New Zealand), 260-NF (Norfolk Island), 320-AI (Aitutaki, Cook Islands) and 352-RG (Rarotonga, Cook Islands). 320-AI had apparently repaired its sick-sounding transmitter within a day, although its signal strength was down quite a bit from Thursday. During this Longwave search 531 kHz, 558 kHz and 1107 kHz were being recorded on dedicated Medium wave FSL's, and both 531 and 558 kHz caught some of the Longwave enhancement effect, resulting in S9 signals (and ID's) from both 531-More FM and 558-Radio Fiji One. 603-Waatea also pounded in at S9+, although that was after the live DXing switch back to MW around 1300. Biggest impression of the morning (except for the unusually smooth ocean) was the potent boost that the enhanced Longwave propagation seem to provide for both 531-PI and 531-More FM, who seemed to tap into some extra strength from 1245-1315. Unfortunately, with the overwhelming strength of both 531-More FM and 558-Fiji there was no chance to check for Western Australian parallels on 531 and 558 to match the ABC football game heard on 702 kHz. The Longwave NDB's provided another thrilling session, though, with multiple low power stations crossing the Equator at great range. 238 KT Kaitaia, New Zealand 2 kW Fair strength Morse code ID at 1239; longest range beacon of the session https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/or98t3rs1i2i93l841smige8koj3auz8 260 NF Norfolk Island (Australia) 500 watts Fair strength Morse code ID at 1233, starting the Longwave NDB search https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/ruqw0m124qs9rntaj1ag1hr4pd6hl5b7 320 AI Aitutaki Island (Cook Islands) Poor to fair strength Morse code ID at 1247, with CW tone note repaired within a day https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/e6hmsr8q6hblxktm0hv0cakbin0rdbu9 353 RG Rarotonga, Island (Cook Islands) Fair strength Morse code ID in Hawaii super beacon LLD splatter at 1253 https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/b50ioz9mfae1w46ghj70ubgaiwfdtw9h 531 More FM Alexandra, NZ 2 kW Female-voiced ID and Kiwi ad string at S9 level from 1257-1259, obviously with some freakish propagation https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/nsg1k0e4em59zxfb2qnaif3181mdl2l8 More FM is coming out at S9+ at 1307; "better get the party started" https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/qolvem4idtcnc13q4map1akzn4kjjay3 531 PI Auckland, NZ 5 kW Island music and "531-PI" ID (21 seconds) at huge level at 1300 https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/k4bvzhpht4dknz3rex3frvb49i046wut Drum oriented S9 Island music at 1317 https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/9u3nwv2ewe0vyjjtvl7ryenwacn1f5t9 558 Radio Fiji One Suva, Fiji 10 kW S9 island music with female ID at 1:18, and male ID at 1:24 https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/ndgtrr4ny3a4uxq704jgli88ecccpdwc 585 7RN Hobart, Australia 10 kW The Tasmanian ABC relay goes against the Kiwi trend with fair to good strength female speech // 576 at 1318 https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/tp95vt97xc8z4gkg4e3fxgz289t6159o 603 Radio Waatea Auckland, NZ 5 kW R&B music at S9 strength // 765 at 1305 https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/eed53kcqemgu9ovtz67yw899w0dx4f8v 702 Magic Auckland, NZ 10 kW Classic oldies pounding in at huge level over 2BL at 1248 https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/7pogcfk1gxad5vnlecegfzeuz7v4xsic 73 and Good DX, GaryDeBock (DXing at the Rockwork 4 ocean cliff turnout on Highway 101 near Manzanita, OR, USA on August 9th, 2019) 7.5" longwave loopstick Tecsun PL-380 Ultralight + 12" Longwave FSL (Longwave loggings) 7.5" loopstick CC Skywave and XHDATA D-808 portables + 15", 15" and 17" Airport Unfriendly FSL antennas (Medium Wave Loggings) Last day DXpedition video showing the gear (and the unusually smooth ocean) is posted at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tLpBzB1qrM
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