Man, we really had different experiences this morning.... the Victoria/Orcas bunch.... Maybe it was the very up/down nature of things. For me, it was equally good/bad on both high and low bands, with all of the usual JJ suspects being the only audio, except for 675 Viet Nam (pres.) and SOMETHING on 639. The 639 sounded East Asian or Russian.... If I had to guess, it would be Mongolian.... Nothing listed really makes sense.... It was almost to the level to ID the language.... In fact, had it been CC, or JJ, I would have IDed those. Russian and Korean, I have to hear a bit better.... but I'm pretty sure it was neither language. About all I can say is that it wasn't Hindi or SE Asian nor was it JJ or standard CC. Another outside possibility would be Tagalog. It was my first pass up the band at 1420 and my curiosity got the best of me.... so I only listened for a minute and then went on up the band "to see what other great DX I might be missing." Naturally, when I got back, it was 639 just a het. Mainly, though, it was a typical "bad auroral absorption" morning. Japan there but attenuated, KK was almost not there and China was GONE!
With the small number of TP stations this morning, I had plenty of time to practice phasing and test its use in reducing adjacent channel splatter, a'la the East Coast. It sure worked like a charm. I have no trouble reducing any strong signal on MW by 40 to 45 dB very quickly (except that new Candian CJRJ on 1200). Getting an ultimate null takes longer, but doesn't really seem that necessary for adjacent channel work. In this RF jungle, I'm a bit ashamed that I haven't used phasing sooner. Examples: phasing Vancouver 600 really helps 594. Phasing 650 Vancouver, really helps both 648 and 675.... where 650 overloads the receiver; phasing 740 in San Francisco helped 738.... that was a surprise, 740 isn't THAT strong here. Phasing 750 Portland really helped 747. That was a surprise, too. Phasing the very sloppy 900 Victoria was significant help to both 891 and 909. Phasing Seattle on 1090 really helped 1089, etc. So.... I'm going to modify the Ratzlaff/Misek Phaser just a bit so that it can also be an antenna switch for my two main antennas here and I think that it will be a permanent fixture. I'll surely take it to Grayland, but I expect that it will be rarely used there.... Old Mister Sun wiping out the QRM to our East plus the happily very remote location will likely continue to limit a phaser's use there. I'm sure I'd use it more there if I could get excited about Hawaiian and Alaskan stations, again.... somehow, in recent years, they have not been very interesting to me (my problem, of course.) As the solar cycle and time reduces the number of new TP stations, perhaps the phaser will help rekindle my interest in those surprisingly difficult targets, too. I must say, I really appreciate the fine tuning pots the Ratzlaff/Misek phaser incorporates. I use them every time that I'm serious about achieving a maximum null. Maybe 20% of the time, the fine tuning just confirms what I found with the course tuning.... the rest of the time, I get a significantly better null with the fine tuning controls. I gotta tell you, it was an almost sexual experience to phase 740-KCBS literally down into the noise and watch the scope of the Winradio as the spike of the carrier slowly dropped in level and then disappeared from sight!!! Better than driving a stake through their collective hearts. Unfortunately, I do not achieve such total domination of the Vancouver stations :>) Two more mornings for me this year. John B. _______________________________________________ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://arizona.hard-core-dx.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
