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Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Blog Logs - Queen Charlotte Islands DXpedition Part 1


The following loggings, represent those obtained by Walter Salmaniw during his recent stay on Queen Charlotte Islands in northern British Columbia. In his words, "Errors are purely my own, and attributable to lack of sleep, dxing for 7 to 10 hours daily. 2 receivers, the AOR 7030+ and the NRD 535D. 3 Beverage antennae (2 N/S, and 1 E/W), and a Misek phasing unit were used. Enjoy!"
Thanks Walt very much for your contributions. Tomorrow we'll feature Part 2.
Gayle Van Horn
CANADA 680, 0529-, CHFA Edmonton Feb 10 First logging during my stay at our Masset cottage, and the first time I'm using Steve Ratzlaff's phaser. French vocals easily over KNBR. KBRW is one of my goals on this visit! Fingers crossed. Rechecked at 14:55. Station was playing a Spanish song, followed by a Carly Simon tune, but with some deep fades. Hoping for an ID at the TOH. A mish mash near the TOH. The French station in Edmonton faded up. Another station said 'a long time ago', and another with music in the background. Hmmm. KOMW ID at 15:04 from Omak, WA into an instrumental piece followed by CHFA fading up strongly. (Salmaniw, Masset, BC)
USA 505.20, 0533-, WD2XSH/20 Feb 10 Good reception from this experimental station with code. Well heard also in Victoria. Located in Oregon as I recall. (Salmaniw, Masset, BC)
ALASKA 1610, 0524-, WPT1714 Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel, Portage Feb 11 Fair reception of loop for winter operation of the tunnel. Successfully able to hear this one only when phasing my N/S Beverage with a slightly shorter wire on the ground or almost, beneath the same wire but extending another 30 or 40 feet to the high tide line. No luck so far for 680 Barrow, though!. (Salmaniw, Masset, BC)
ALASKA 529, 0543-, Nome (Fort Davis) ? Feb 11 A question for Steve Ratzlaff. At the moment, I'm hearing SQM in CW cochannel a voice loop that the 'Transcribed aviation weather broadcast is suspended'. Is this SQM which continues with it's own SQM CW id, or is it Nome with the TWEB, cochannel to SQM? Only fair tonight. Seems north isn't all that great tonight. (Salmaniw, Masset, BC)
ALASKA 394, 0549-, KAK 20 (RWO) Kodiak (Woody Island) Feb 11 Good reception with ATIS special reports for numerous Kenai Peninsula airports including King Salmon and Kodiak. Again CW in background. (Salmaniw, Masset, BC)
ALASKA 358, 0558-, KAW 27 (SIT) Sitka Feb 11 TWEB voice loop at good levels at times. Broadcast suspended until 15:00 Zulu, 06:00 local time. Call 1-800-WX-BRIEF for pilot weather briefing and other services. (Salmaniw, Masset, BC)
ALASKA 379, 1355-, WSX 70 (IWW) Kenai (Wildwood) Feb 11 Good reception with Kenai transcribed weather broadcast. Not heard late last night. (Salmaniw, Masset, BC)
ALASKA 251, 1406-, KBB 54 (OSE) Bethel (Oscarville) Feb 11 Fair reception with Bethel transcribed weather forecast. Loud CW overtop, but improving after a few minutes. (Salmaniw, Masset, BC)
ALASKA 277, 1415-, KCH 20 (ACE) Homer (Kachemak) Feb 11 Just barely audible with transcribed weather forecast. (Salmaniw, Masset, BC)
ALASKA 338, 1418-, KBX 44 (CMQ) Anchorage (Campbell Lake) Feb 11 Poor to fair reception with transcribed weather report. (Salmaniw, Masset, BC)
ALASKA 347, 1420-, KGD 82 (DJN) Big Delta (Delta Junction) Feb 11 Fair reception with Fairbanks area transcribed weather forecast. Heard again at 06:42 12Feb07 with good reception with numerous airport observations. i.e Galena (temp -8),. (Salmaniw, Masset, BC)
ALASKA 355, 1423-, KCK 35 (AK) King Salmon Feb 11 Good reception with transcribed aviation weather.1400 observations. (Salmaniw, Masset, BC)
ALASKA 371, 1429-, PDN Port Heiden Feb 11 Poor reception with transcribed aviation weather. Much better when used with phaser. ID'd as Kenai transcribed aviation weather, including Kodiak Is, Homer, Kenai, etc. (Salmaniw, Masset, BC)
ALASKA 385, 1439-, KKW 92 (OCC) Yakutat (Ocean Cape) Feb 11 Fair reception with tape loop re transcribed weather forecast suspended until 06:00 local. Faded completely for about 30 seconds before fading back up. (Salmaniw, Masset, BC)
ALASKA 411, 1441-, KAI 82 (ILI) Iliamna Feb 11 Poor reception with transcribed aviation weather. Remarkably better with phaser, however, becoming perfectly readable (noise completely obliterated)! Aviation weather at 14:00 including Iliamna special weather. (Salmaniw, Masset, BC)
ALASKA 529, 1448-, FDV and SQM Feb 11 Interesting indeed! I can hear two stations co-channel. The dominating station presumably is SQM (KQA 59) from Sumner Strait with loop stating that the Transcribed weather broadcast is suspended until 15:00 Zulu. Under this is another voice with aviation weather, presumed the more distant FDV (KBN 58) in Nome (Fort Davis). (Salmaniw, Masset, BC)
JAPAN 1449, 1531-, JOQM Abashiri, Hokkaido Feb 11 Very good reception of this HBC station. Not heard yesterday. Stronger than //1287. Not bad for 5 kw. (Salmaniw, Masset, BC)
CHINA 1377, 1541-, Zhengzhou Feb 11 Very good reception of CNR1 programming // to 5030 in absence of NHK2, with Chinese EZL music. Then into a presumed ad, which sounded very strident, harking back to the old days. (Salmaniw, Masset, BC)
JAPAN 1575, 1558-, AFN Feb 11 Keeping an eye on this frequency this morning and far different from yesterday. AFN Japan is reasonably well heard under VOA Thailand. With music programming ('You can ring my be-e-e-ll, ring by bell', etc). Into English news at 16:00 but VOA faded up. As for the station heard yesterday, very briefly at 15:57, the bubble jamming around 1574.4 became quite evident but only for a few moments. Conditions must be very variable today. Overall not as good as yesterday's. AFN back into modern techno music at 16:03. Signal would be quite decent if not for VOA. Interesting that they became dominant for a time at 16:04, well over VOA. (Salmaniw, Masset, BC)
KOREA 1341, 1608-, KBS Feb 11 An interesting frequency with at least 2 stations audible, neither is the expected NHK1 relay. The dominant is, I suspect, Kimpo in Korean while the second is just too weak to be sure. Possibly English. (Salmaniw, Masset, BC)
JAPAN 1332, 1613-, JOSF Nagoya Feb 11 An interesting frequency with at least 3 cochannel audios. For a time JOSF completely dominated with a 8 to 9/10 signal, then faded down revealing another station with a vocal, possibly HLAO in Chungju. Another Chinese station briefly also heard. What peaked my interest was Russian sounding music, but this disappeared quickly. (Salmaniw, Masset, BC)
ALASKA 890, 0358-, KBBI Homer Feb 12 Public service announcements. Keys found, etc. Very good with a fade-up over CJDC Dawson Creek, BC (C&W music there). Into weather for the Kenai Peninsula. Somewhat difficult to follow as the dj has quite a soft voice making it difficult to punch through the fades. Very good at 05:00 with jazzy EZL music, but no ID at the TOH. Rechecking at 05:20 yields an unusual flutter about once per second. Never heard anything quite like it. (Salmaniw, Masset, BC)
ALASKA 248, 0627-, KGA 25 (GLA) Gulkana Feb 12 My 13th TWEB from Alaska so far with aviation weather for various airports including Gulkana, Hayes River, Anchorage and Homer. Good reception.. Best using LSB. (Salmaniw, Masset, BC)
ALASKA 332, 0636-, KAJ 28 (MND) Juneau (Mendenhall) Feb 12 Just barely audible tape loop with the usual 'Transcribed aviation weather broadcast is suspended'. 14th Alaskan TWEB heard so far. (Salmaniw, Masset, BC)
ALASKA 338, 0638-, KBX 44 (CMQ) Anchorage (Campbell Lake) Feb 12 Good reception with automated weather for numerous airports such as Portage Glacier (temperature -7), Stewart, Homer, etc. 15th TWEB Alaskan. (Salmaniw, Masset, BC)
ALASKA 355, 0644-, KCK 35 (AK) King Salmon Feb 12 Good reception except for the usual beeps and squels with aviation weather reports including King Salmon. Bristol Bay area forecast reported. (Salmaniw, Masset, BC)
ALASKA 356, 0648-, KEJ 28 (HHM) Kotzebue (Hotham) Feb 12 A difficult target with AK just 1 kHz below. Best heard in AM mode. Tape loop of 'Transcribed aviation broadcast is suspended until 1500 zulu, 0600 local). My 16th TWEB from Alaska. (Salmaniw, Masset, BC)
RUSSIA 180, 0659-, Radio Rossii, Petropavlovsk Feb 12 Early fade-in with time-pips and Radio Rossii ID into Russian news. Fair reception. //153 barely audible. 189 has a signal, but too weak to tell whether in // or not. 234 Magadan is poor. Big fat beacon on 279, but weakly audible using USB. (Salmaniw, Masset, BC)
UNITED KINGDOM 1215, 0712-, Virgin Radio Feb 12 Lot's of presumed TA hets tonight and snippets of audio as well. Virgin Radio had quite good audio for a few seconds before fading back into the mud. A mixture of TAs and TPs, I suppose as 1287 definitely sounds Japanese at 07:14 presumably JOHR. (Salmaniw, Masset, BC)