It was a wacky and wild morning as Asian signals which had been in hibernation for most of the month suddenly came out in full force, starting around 1200 UTC. After having made the mistake of checking the band at that time I ended up in the cold back yard for over three hours (although it certainly wasn't anything like Galena). 1044-CRI managed its best signal ever here in Puyallup (very good) at 1257, while 738-HLKG and BEL2 were fighting it out for most of the predawn darkness. 657-Pyongyang had a blistering signal at 1414 with the spooky music that had been missing for about a month-- sounding like something Paul would have recorded in Galena. The Chinese stations on 918, 927, 936, 1017 and 1035 all managed rare audio, while the KBS2 parallels on 558 and 603 had their best signals of the season (although the latter was pestered by 603-China after 1500).
Propagation was great at my 1200 start time, with exceptional signals from all the usual Japanese and Korean big guns. My focus was on the second-tier Asians which bailed early yesterday, however, and they certainly didn't disappoint this time. Rare Chinese audio on 918 and 936 at 1215 was the first indication of a propagation trend favoring the Asian mainland stations, and by 1230 they were showing up on 927, 963, 1017, 1035, 1044, 1206, 1323, 1377 and 1593. 1044-CRI was the first to reach an exceptional level, with its Japanese service sounding very much like an NHK big gun at 1257. 738 had a wild snarl between 738-HLKG and BEL2, with both prevailing at times around 1300 (and BEL2 managing its best signal of the season shortly thereafter). 657-Pyongyang was around at potent strength for a full three hours, finally peaking at a blistering level at 1415. Many obscure Asians were coming out of the noise all across the band but there was nowhere near enough time to go after all of them. Overall it was easily the best session of the season, and similar to something like an ocean beach morning. 603 HLSA Namyang, S. Korea Pop music at good strength at 1235; best signal of the season (during which it has been somewhat of an underperformer) https://app.box.com/s/u8csr0rrljfy5qraltoc25xzmr6938zj 657 Pyongyang B.S. Pyongyang, N. Korea Spooky female vocal music at a blistering level at 1414; this wacky station was strong for over three hours https://app.box.com/s/qolmdck7679vyi26b3auf7b1p80q01fm 738 HLKG Daegu, S. Korea (presumed) At first this sounded like Japanese, but after listening to the recording I'm fairly sure it is Korean. The station was in a snarl with BEL2 prior to 1300 https://app.box.com/s/4gnz1fy8qzphkxrdr259d245az7zr530 738 BEL2 Penghu, Taiwan Chinese speech from the usual female announcer just after the 1300 TOH; its best signal of the season so far https://app.box.com/s/g3ic68t0akfw65abiwfhaz1bvndj7ala 1044 CRI Jiangsu, China Japanese service at very good level at 1257; best signal ever here in Puyallup (over 9 years) https://app.box.com/s/plgq4lncyn0iu56nchxhb1t5awrsgmmz 73 and Good DX, Gary DeBock (in Puyallup, WA, USA) 7.5" loopstick C.Crane Skywave Ultralight + 15" FSL antenna _______________________________________________ IRCA mailing list [email protected] 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: [email protected]
