Hello All, Like Nick and Colin, I was very unimpressed with this morning's TP propagation initially, and thought that the band was a total bust. Around 1450 all the "powerhouse" TP's were struggling to maintain audio, and this mediocre situation did not improve at all by 1510. Only 738-Taiwan and 594-JOAK had weak audio by 1512, and even they were near the noise level. Ready to write off the band, I gave one final check on the high band TP's, not expecting to find even a strong carrier. The first frequency to check was 1503 kHz, and much to my surprise, JOUK in northern Japan had decent audio-- the only decent TP audio on the entire band at that time (1514 UTC). This was a station that had never been heard here at much above the noise level, and now it was fairly strong with the distinctive NHK1 interval music: _http://www.mediafire.com/?mujdjookh4g_ (http://www.mediafire.com/?mujdjookh4g) Listening in as this weird propagation boost continued, I wrapped up the recording at 1516, with JOUK's NHK1 interval music coming to a close. I didn't know until listening with headphones later that there was a definite TP co-channel on the 1503 kHz frequency with JOUK at 1516, apparently either Korean or Chinese: _http://www.mediafire.com/?nm5wnzki42t_ (http://www.mediafire.com/?nm5wnzki42t) I quickly checked 1494 kHz to hopefully hear the UnID Japanese from a week ago, but there was only a weak carrier on the frequency. 1566 and 1575 kHz also were nothing special, with only weak carriers on both at 1518. I have no idea why only 1503 kHz had such a weird, sudden propagation boost this morning, but even JOUK was only a weak carrier by 1519. Probably this is one reason why TP-chasing is so fascinating, and why it's so hard to give it up even in the "December doldrum" month :-) 73, Gary DeBock Spotting receiver: Modified ICF-2010 (30" loopstick) Main receiver: Modified C.Crane SWP (7.5" Slider loopstick + CFJ455K5 IF filter) 9' and 7.5' (side) PVC tuned passive loops (in the cold back yard) _______________________________________________ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.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