What started off as a pretty mediocre session ended up with a turbo boost in Kiwi propagation, resulting in one of the wackiest ocean cliff mornings in recent memory. It was almost like someone turned on a switch at 1220, giving every New Zealand station on the band a serious energy surge. The exotic Kiwis on 576, 585 and 936 suddenly came out of the noise to reach respectable levels, after having been MIA since the start of the trip. The only problem was that there wasn't enough time to go after all of them before the wacky propagation collapsed around 1300. Although the "sleeping squatters" left Rockwork 4 alone this morning it seemed like exotic DX would do the same-- at least for the first hour of the session. Four mega-FSL's were all set up and ready to record, but Longwave from the South Pacific was again dead, and only the Kiwi big guns had any readability on MW (and even they were sounding anemic). High priority frequencies like 558 and 729 were barely registering carriers, and as if to rub it in some splatter from a domestic 530-TIS station was dominating 531. Suddenly around 1220 the Kiwis seemed to get a resurrection call, with Tony W.'s 684-Rhema suddenly coming up out of the KNBR splatter to sound pretty healthy at 1231. The NZ big guns on 702, 1035 and 1386 started pounding in at awesome strength, and a check of the rare 936-Chinese Voice (1 kW) at 1243 found it with music and speech at a decent level. The Rare Kiwi rush was on, but checking the parallels for low power stations like 576-Star and 585-Radio Ngati Porou takes time, and time was running out on sunrise enhancement. 576 (the "Dwarf Star") and 585 were logged for the first time on this trip, but by 1250 the Kiwi turbo boost was starting to collapse, and only 738-Tahiti was holding up at a potent level. 702-Magic, 1035-Newstalk ZB and 1386-Radio Tarana managed their best-ever signals for me during this freakish surge, which would have been legendary if it had continued throughout the entire session. 531 PI Auckland, NZ Good-level Samoan male and female speech at 1205 (with trace of 4KZ underneath). This frequency seems to have its own special propagation, often running contrary to the rest of the MW band (there was no Kiwi propagation surge) https://app.box.com/s/bmyntn0crmmu6t3eygkjxtogi1prtimh 684 Rhema Gisborne, NZ Sounding pretty healthy (despite an impending eviction order) with Christian contemporary music // 594 at 1231 https://app.box.com/s/uwcldud8a2z7jdpt8phbvzystkhq11u9 702 Magic Auckland, NZ Best-ever strength with oldies music during Kiwi propagation surge at 1240 https://app.box.com/s/wkptlzld7cl5dgoq6hzr09ts55f746hm 738 Radio Polynesie Mahina, Tahiti Participating in the Kiwi propagation boost with potent jazz music just prior to the 1300 TOH https://app.box.com/s/m3zd7joc18kprigyu0nafqua7aamp4q1 765 Radio Kahungunu Napier-Hastins, NZ Strong Maori music from this 2.5 kW station // 603 at 1218 https://app.box.com/s/h0qswrkoigxigcmhf5gxlqo64tb1cd13 936 Chinese Voice Auckland, NZ Rare 1 kW Kiwi was a major beneficiary of NZ turbo boost with good-level music and speech at 1243 https://app.box.com/s/sng6i7c70sqm3e5bpymy3mfy1dbpbfdn 1035 Newstalk ZB Wellington, NZ Best-ever strength with NW political talk show during start of Kiwi turbo boost at 1225 https://app.box.com/s/ngkbwd2pc6znfuqxtifh4aktx4z3c0ah 1386 Radio Tarana Auckland, NZ Another Kiwi big gun with best-ever strength, pounding in with S9 level Hindu music at 1246 https://app.box.com/s/aaguop8hp57aa38eulommx06tm3l22qw 73 and Good DX, Gary DeBock (DXing at the Rockwork 4 ocean cliff near Manzanita, Oregon, USA) 7.5" loopstick C.Crane Skywave Ultralights (3) + 17" and 15" DXpedition FSL antennas https://app.box.com/s/fscdusr7ottw9gwlmbjata86nnhgr7id _______________________________________________ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca
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