Hawaii DXpedition Final Day-- 400w Australian Bonanza!
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On the final day of last year's Poipu, Hawaii DXpedition exceptional long range Asian propagation hit the Kauai beach, with Oman, Iran, India (2), Bangladesh, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam all received on a 5" FSL antenna. This year's final day also featured exceptional propagation, but from a different direction-- Australia.
A collection of relatively obscure 400 watt Australian stations are on frequencies from 1611 to 1701 kHz, and although several of these are regular catches with SDR's and large broadband antennas on flat west coast ocean beaches, they are not common fare on small, live DXing FSL antennas-- which tune one frequency at a time, and have a reputation for best performance on the low band. Despite this, on the morning of November 7th the Kauai, Hawaii propagation provided a rare thrill-- multiple 400 watt Australian HPONS stations at great strength on the X Band, including several at S9-- easily received on my portable 5" diameter FSL antenna. To provide even more enhancement, Australian DXpedition partner Chris Rogers was right by my side, providing background information on several of these obscure, flea-power stations. This was far and away the best Australian propagation of the entire DXpedition, and we had a blast exploiting it! Attached are some photos from the final day morning session, including Chris and I with our respective live DXing gear (Chris was using a Tecsun PL-880 and 20" PK loop while seated at a picnic table, while I was standing up, using a 7.5" loopstick CC Skywave Ultralight and 5" Frequent Flyer FSL on a 5' PVC base). Chris is an awesome DXer who made out like a bandit tracking down South American and African DX in Rarotonga last June-- and he provided a lot of "on the job training" to help Craig and I improve our sunset DXing strategy! 1611 Three Australian Mix Pandemonium breaks out at 1620 UTC as three low power stations mix together at good strength, one of which is almost certainly Vision Radio Network, according to Chris https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/mru2w7od0jofcy2d0zu9291fkr3ha104 1620 4KZ According to Chris this 400w station has the best antenna of any of these HPONS stations, personally installed by Chris' friend Al Kirton (while the other stations' antennas are "nothing special"). The antenna was sure doing the trick at a powerful level during a call-in talk show at 1618 https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/1trwkqq6xc9h9gbymribu8i630gwks6n 1629 UnID Good level conversation about the release of a music album at 1624-- maybe 2HRN? https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/xkykqt1ps7k535ab359na99e2x3i242x 1638 UnID Arabic (?) at very good level at 1629 https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/vvq3dsfpn9erin96z762qr5qmflki79x 1656 Voice of the Australian Chinese (+ UnID) Chinese music station with S9 peaks at 1631 prevailing over weaker UnID male "talker" station https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/o7lim33qfmj217xqmgjclnpt0hbgow0v 1665 UnID Weak male "talker" station rising above the noise level at 1642, with co-channel flutter from something even weaker https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/mjkrf4g0wdjgkm0jmhpja71fffso62nz 1701 Radio Brisvani Distinctive South Asian music with S9 peaks at 1614-- definitely one of the stars of the session https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/yah56zm6cwqplakzpnlhk9800jwzz6cj Keeping up its S9 strength at 1648 https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/8xr0pspg13slny760e45gr5009h3atky 1701 UnID Weak male "talker" co-channel giving Brisvani some temporary competition at 1637, but soon swallowed up by the South Asian music https://dreamcrafts.box.com/s/3s3mwgi6z2059jhxxzql1c1ufppltn2t 73 and Good DX, Gary DeBock (DXing with Craig Barnes and Chris Rogers at Poipu, Kauai, Hawaii from November 2-7) 7.5" loopstick CC Skywave Ultralight + 5" Frequent Flyer FSL antenna (on a 5' PVC base)
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