Thanks to a long rainy drive and some in-route errands, I didn't make
it to the Grayland Motel until after 4:00PM. Thankfully, the
impending REAL storm held off long enough for me to get the NW
Wellbrook up while it was still light and in only a windblown drizzle.
My goals on this trip were to add a few non-QSLed Asian stations to
the log and get my Ultralight log up to 20 Countries (now 18) and 100
TP stations (now at 90.) I was pretty sure that I could add two
countries by catching two out of the three "easy" ones left to me:
Mexico, Viet Nam and Alaska. I was quite unsure about making 100 TP
stations this season: In June, I'd gotten quite a few Pacific Island
and DU stations and that season was long gone. In mid-August, at the
beginning of the East Asian season, I'd had a great run and picked
off most of the easy East Asian stations. On this trip, I was hoping
to take advantage of the now-mature Asian season and squeeze out just
enough more to get over the 100 station barrier.
Although the hotrodded ultralights overload so badly as to be useless
in my home location, I am able to DX the Asian band every morning
from home with my main radio, so I was able to make up a Hit List of
twenty possible "new" TPs to try to snag with the Ultralights here at
Grayland. Happily, the hotrodded E100s are totally unconcerned with
overload in this rustic/rural and isolated area.
I started DXing at 1140UTC, about 3 1/2 hours before total band fade
at 1510 (8:10AM local). Happily, I caught a morning that was quite
good over all, but favored Japan more than I had expected, given that
the Asian season is well along (the later in the Fall season, the
more that Mainland Asian stations seem to dominate.) I was able to
catch a number of second and third-tier Japanese stations that were
just not available in August and knock off a few of my mainland targets, too.
I ended the first morning (of four) with 22 new Ultralight
loggings! Furthermore, I've still got 11 stations on my hit
list.... If you do the math, its obvious that I managed to catch a
number of unexpected TAs, as well as knock the Hit List in half.
The Ultralight logged stations:
531 JOQG-NHK1 Morioka (late, there was something behind that was NOT
DU. India???)
540 CNR1 Synchros (only there late and poorly)
558 JOCR, Kobe (there all morning)
576 R. Mayak Synchros
585 JOPG, NHK1 Kushiro (there all morning)
612 JOLK, NHK1 Fukuoka
639 CNR1 Synchros
666 JOBK, NHK1 Osaka
675 V of Vietnam, My Van (late only, but good level)
702 NHK2 Synchros late
711 HLKA KBS Sorae (all morning)
729 JOCK, NHK1 Nagoya (Late, presumed Jiangxi RGD, Nanchang was
mixing in, too.)
756 CNR1 Synchros
846 NHK1 Synchros
1026 Beijing Econ BS
1071 JOFK, NHK1, Hiroshima
1161 BCC Synchros Taiwan Country Network in Taiwanese dialect
1170 HLSR, Gimje KBS Japanese Service
1251 V of Russia in CC
1260 JOIR Sendai
1368 NHK1 Synchros (late)
1602 NHK2 Synchros
There were also some tantalizing "almost IDs" that are on the Hit
List for tomorrow:
549 JOHP, NHK1 Naha, Okinawa;
720 V of Russia... I had just a bit of JJ mixing with KDWN prior to
1400 and then after 1400, an unID CC. The Chinese could have been
VOR, tho' the WRTH schedule does not show it, and there is a big CNR2
in Beijing on 720, sooooo ;
810 just for a bit, between KGO fading down at dawn and the durn
semi-local Christian station fading up, I had UNID CC on 810, most
probably Zhejiang RGD from coastal Hangzhou.
900 Somebody was running BBC World News at 1500... I fear that was a
rapidly fading Victoria, BC... but I'm darn sure gonna check it out.
Like Bruce and Chuck reported, I enjoyed hearing all of the NHK2
stations sign off with the Musoic Box tuning signal at 1502. However,
since that is`almost 45 minutes after dawn, there was nothing
listenable when they finally pulled the plug. RThat will be
different in another 2 or three weeks.
So, I'm already well past 100 TP stations and my new goal will be
150... That will likely take all of next season, the DU summer and
the Asian fall, both.
This evening, I'll log XEPE, Tecate, BCN which beams north to San
Diego (and up here, too.) That, coupled with Vietnam will make 20
Ultralight Countries, 17 of them TP/DUs. I doubt that any of us up
here will ever be able to get 25. I guess that my new goal ought to
be 20 countries DU/TP... though I'm not positive that is possible....
In any case, it was a really fine morning... much thanks to both
Bruce and Chuck for the tips from their visit to the Grayland Motel
last weekend.
John B.
WinRadio 313e + Hot Rodded E100 Ultralights
Wellbrook Phased Array NW
Grayland, WA, USA
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