Loggings by John Bryant

Antennas: Phased Active Delta Arrays, E-W and NW-SE
West Beverage 700 feet; NW Beverage 800 feet
Receiver: WinRadio 313e

My first trip to Grayland in 2007 was primarily planned as a test session for two phased arrays that are under development by Wellbrook. I managed to DX Thursday through Sunday mornings from about 1000 until bandfade around 1400 UTC. Guy Atkins joined me (with the second array) for Saturday and Sunday AMs.

Each of the four mornings had a very distinctive personality, with the first three being rather better than average overall conditions and the fourth AM being somewhat less than average. Thursday AM, Aug 23 was a mixed morning prior to sunrise, with about equal numbers of Aussie and Japanese signals being the most notable. There was an excellent all-Aussie opening for about 40 minutes after dawn.

The second morning, Friday Aug. 24, was also mixed, but with conditions favoring the East Asians, especially Japan over the DU stations. Saturday morning, Aug. 25, the dial was covered with Aussies and a few Kiwis. Almost no signals were heard from East Asia. The final morning, Sunday August 26, was rather disappointing, overall, but a decent number of stations were heard. There were rather more Aussies on the band than there were East Asians.

Our tests of the two arrays were extremely gratifying. In our now 18 years of DXing from Grayland, we have brought many antennas to the beach to try to outperform our traditional rather short Grayland Beverages. Until this weekend, every antenna that we have tried had proven to be a disappointment when carefully compared to the Beverages, which seem to do especially well on sandy seashores. Although the exact results of our tests are, of course, confidential, I can say that both Guy and I were very impressed with the performance of the rather small arrays (when compared to eve a short Beverage.) We look forward to the day when we will no longer have to slog through abandoned cranberry bogs to string out several thousand feet of wire for the traditional Grayland Beverage Array. The Wellbrook Array of deltas is a winner!

Loggings

576 AUSTRALIA 2RN Sydney , Aug 23 1250 - Heard here most AMs of the DXpedition. (JB-G'land WA)
585 AUSTRALIA 7RN Hobart , Aug 23 1327 - Heard this old friend, though poorly, running modern jazz //576 Sydney which was much better. (JB-G'land WA)
594 JAPAN JOAK NHK-1 Tokyo , Aug 23 1140 - Heard here most AMs of the DXpedition. (JB-G'land WA)
594 AUSTRALIA 3WV Horsham , Aug 25 1302 - Great fun here as max dawn began with 3WV alone on the West array and co-chan JOAK, Tokyo alone on the Northwest array. (JB-G'land WA)
612 AUSTRALIA 4QR Brisbane , Aug 23 1250 - Heard most AMs of the DXpedition. (JB-G'land WA)
648 AUSTRALIA 2NU Tamworth , Aug 26 1304 - Noted here in passing with ABC News on the hour at fair level. Parallel to 594 3WV Horsham. (JB-G'land WA)
657 NEW ZEALAND Southern Star Wellington , Aug 24 1125 - Heard only at poor level, but with usually soft pops programming. (JB-G'land WA)
670 HAWAII KPUA, Hilo , Aug 24 1255 - Best demonstration of the phased array of loops so far. On the easterly setting of the E-W array, KBOI, Boise was in the clear. On the westerly setting, KPUA was at good strength, all alone. The poorly terminated normal west Beverage had both, with KBOI very dominant. (JB-G'land WA)
675 AUSTRALIA 2CO Albury , Aug 26 1304 - Noted in passing // 648//594 with ABC news on the hour. Fair to poor. (JB-G'land WA)
684 AUSTRALIA 2KP Kempsey , Aug 25 1305 - Noted in passing with the end of the ABC News. Fair level. (JB-G'land WA)
693 JAPAN JOAB NHK-2 Tokyo , Aug 23 1140 - Heard here most AMs of the DXpedition. (JB-G'land WA)
702 AUSTRALIA 2BL Sydney , Aug 23 1240 - Noted here most AMs of the DXpedition. (JB-G'land WA)
729 JAPAN JOCK NHK-1 Nagoya , Aug 23 1320 - Noted here at poor level //594. (JB-G'land WA)
729 AUSTRALIA 5RN Adelaide , Aug 26 1326 - Heard here with the weekend ABC world music show that often gets me excited (thinking that I'm hearing Tibet, Kazakhstan or some other exotic location.) Parallel 792 & 1512. (JB-G'land WA)
738 AUSTRALIA 2NR Grafton , Aug 24 1320 - Noted as band faded with Aussie talk by male; ments. of Australia. (JB-G'land WA)
747 JAPAN JOIB NHK-2 Sapporo , Aug 23 1123 - Heard most AMs of the DXpedition. (JB-G'land WA)
756 NEW ZEALAND 1YA National Radio Auckland , Aug 25 1210 - Noted at fair level in passing with DU talk. (JB-G'land WA)
765 AUSTRALIA 2EC (tent.) Bega , Aug 25 1212 - Tentative this with pop music show hosted by male. logging to brief for even a tentative report. Good level, briefly. (JB-G'land WA)
774 JAPAN JOUB NHK-2 Akita , Aug 23 1123 - Heard most AMs of the DXpedition. (JB-G'land WA)
774 AUSTRALIA 3LO Melbourne , Aug 23 1155 - Noted here several times with Aussie talk, mixing with JOUB. (JB-G'land WA)
792 AUSTRALIA 4RN Brisbane , Aug 23 1124 - Heard most AMs of the DXpedition. (JB-G'land WA)
792 AUSTRALIA 4RN Brisbane , Aug 23 1251 - Heard here most AMs of the DXpedition. (JB-G'land WA)
828 JAPAN JOBB NHK-2 Osaka , Aug 23 1125 - Heard most AMs of the DXpedition. (JB-G'land WA)
828 AUSTRALIA 3GI Sale , Aug 23 1340 - Noted here long after sunrise //774 Melbourne. (JB-G'land WA)
846 AUSTRALIA 2RN Canberra , Aug 25 1225 - Heard // 792 4RN Brisbane. Canberra heard several times before, but will never answer a reception report. Will try again. (JB-G'land WA)
846 KIRIBATI Radio Kiribati Betio, Tarawa , Aug 23 1320 - Tentative this one on 24 hours??? with continuous island music. Fair level. Heard also Aug.24. (JB-G'land WA)
855 NORTH KOREA Pyongyang Bangsong Sangwon , Aug 24 1242 - Noted here each mornoing qwith usual slightly off-frequency showing. (JB-G'land WA)
855 AUSTRALIA 4QB Pialba (pres.) , Aug 23 1348 - Noted here long after sunrise //774 Melbourne. (JB-G'land WA)
873 JAPAN JOGB NHK-2 Kumamoto , Aug 23 1126 - Heard most AMs of the DXpedition, but always weaker than 747,774,828. (JB-G'land WA)
882 NEW ZEALAND 1YC Auckland , Aug 25 1316 - Heard at fair level running the Southern Star program stream. (JB-G'land WA)
891 AUSTRALIA 4TAB Innisfail , Aug 25 1228 - ID heard by Guy. Sports talk dominating co-chan 5AN, Adelaide. A new one for me. Fair level, sometimes dominating, sometimes mixing with Adelaide. (JB-G'land WA)
891 AUSTRALIA 5AN Adelaide , Aug 23 1334 - Noted here most AMs of the DXpedition. Usually only at fair levels. (JB-G'land WA)
927 AUSTRALIA 4CC Gladstone , Aug 26 1328 - Noted in passing with usual pop music program and cheeky/cheery '4-Double-C Gladstone' ID. (JB-G'land WA)
936 AUSTRALIA 7ZR Hobart , Aug 26 1332 - Heard at just above threshold level, but absolutely // ABC 702. (JB-G'land WA)
945 JAPAN NHK-1 Synchros , Aug 26 1243 - Noted here at poor level // 594 kHz. (JB-G'land WA)
954 JAPAN JOKR Tokyo , Aug 23 1322 - Heard here most AMs of the DXpedition. (JB-G'land WA)
963 CHINA CRI Russian Service Unkn. Loc. , Aug 23 1308 - Heard most AMs of the DXpedition. (JB-G'land WA)
963 NEW ZEALAND 3YC Christchurch , Aug 26 1310 - Heard here at fair level with usual quiet pops programming from Southern Star. (JB-G'land WA)
972 SOUTH KOREA HLCA Dangjin , Aug 23 1130 - Heard most AMs of the DXpedition. (JB-G'land WA)
981 CHINA CRI Unkn. Loc. , Aug 23 1205 - Noted here most AMs of the DXpedition, often with echos from multiple locations. (JB-G'land WA)
981 AUSTRALIA 2NM Muswellbrook , Aug 25 1331 - '2NM, The Music Station!' was a new one for me, again IDed by Guy, playing an expanded Oldies format. Fair to good level. (JB-G'land WA)
1008 JAPAN JONR Osaka , Aug 23 1131 - Heard here weakly in JJ by two men. (JB-G'land WA)
1044 CHINA CRI Changzhou , Aug 23 1132 - Heard here with Japanese Service most AMs of the DXpedition. (JB-G'land WA)
1053 JAPAN JOAR Nagoya , Aug 23 1310 - Heard here most AMs of the DXpedition. The Korean jammer on this frequency often seems to go off at 1300, leaving JOAR in the clear. (JB-G'land WA)
1062 SOUTH KOREA HLKQ Cheongjyu , Aug 26 1257 - Was looking for DZEC here and found the Korean instead, at a quite good level. (JB-G'land WA)
1062 CHINA Zuijiang JDG, Guangzhou , Aug 24 1300 - 3+1 pips and into the news in probably Cantonese at fair to good level. I rarely hear stations from this far south in China (Canton) even during the October 'Chinese season.' (JB-G'land WA)
1098 MARSHALL ISLANDS V7AB Radio Marshalls, Majuro , Aug 23 1200 - Presume this. The usual source for a huge persisytent open carrier heard here most AMs of the DXpedition. Also heard Aug 26 at 1110 . Fair level with pop music show hosted by fem, seemingly on after their scheduled 1030 sign off. (JB-G'land WA)
1107 AUSTRALIA 2EA Sydney , Aug 23 1350 - Heard here with Aussie talk and ments. Fair to poor long after sunrise. (JB-G'land WA)
1116 AUSTRALIA 4BC Brisbane , Aug 23 1357 - Heard most AMs of the DXpedition, but not with the dominant signals heard in recent years. Usually only heard late and at fair to poor levels. (JB-G'land WA)
1134 JAPAN JOQR Tokyo , Aug 23 1255 - Heard at fair level with usual culturally-oriented programming. (JB-G'land WA)
1143 TAIWAN Taiwan Area Fisheries BS(pres.) , Aug 24 1305 - Presume this one (it is the usual dominant) in standard CC at good level. (JB-G'land WA)
1161 TAIWAN BED-86(t) Ilan , Aug 24 1240 - Heard with folk opera at good level. Very tentative, but BCC QSLed this from a CD a couple of years ago with similar programming. (JB-G'land WA)
1170 SOUTH KOREA RKI Japanese Service Gimje , Aug 24 1220 - Heard here absolutely dominating regional powerhouse KPUG, Bellingham, WA. Heard occasionally before from Grayland, during excellent EaAsian openings. (JB-G'land WA)
1224 JAPAN JOJK NHK-1 Kanazawa , Aug 24 1220 - Heard at fair level //594. (JB-G'land WA)
1233 AUSTRALIA 2NC Newcastle , Aug 26 1350 - Heard poorly with ABC Metro Service // 702 just at band fade. (JB-G'land WA)
1278 CHINA Hebei RGD (pres.), Shijiazhuang , Aug 24 1140 - Presume this one with standard CC talk at good level. (JB-G'land WA)
1287 JAPAN JOHR Sapporo , Aug 23 1245 - Heard here most AMs of the DXpedition. (JB-G'land WA)
1287 AUSTRALIA 2TM Tamworth , Aug 25 1341 - Heard quite a while after dawn with a pop music show, hosted by male. Fair only. (JB-G'land WA)
1323 CHINA CRI Jilin , Aug 23 1135 - Heard here with Russian Service at fair level (JB-G'land WA)
1332 JAPAN JOSF Nagoya , Aug 24 1150 - Fair level with JJ talk by female. (JB-G'land WA)
1332 AUSTRALIA 4BU (pres.) Bundaberg , Aug 25 1343 - Presume this the one heard with Aussie talk at band fade. (JB-G'land WA)
1350 JAPAN JOER Hiroshima , Aug 24 1311 - Good to hear this relatively rare station running well over co-channel Santa Rosa, CA (with news in JJ). (JB-G'land WA)
1386 JAPAN NHK-2 Synchros , Aug 26 1120 - Noted here at poor level in JJ //774 & 828 kHz. (JB-G'land WA)
1386 CHINA Tianjian Life(t) Tianjin , Aug 24 1202 - Tentative this illusive one at poor level in CC. Tianjian is the port city for Beijing, on the Yellow Sea and should be very easy to hear. Not so for me. (JB-G'land WA)
1400 JAPAN JOWF Sapporo , Aug 23 1203 - Heard here overpowering US co-chan stations. This is a fairly common occurrence during good Japanese openings at Grayland. (JB-G'land WA)
1413 JAPAN JOIF Fukuoka , Aug 24 1204 - Noted here in passing at good level with national news. (JB-G'land WA)
1422 JAPAN JORF Yokohama , Aug 24 1312 - Noted in passing at fair level with JJ talk. (JB-G'land WA)
1475 MALAYSIA RTM Sabah, Kota Kinabalu , Aug 26 1333 - Heard first by Guy Atkins, but noted here also at fair to poor level with usual Islamic broadcast to the southern Philippines. (JB-G'land WA)
1503 NEW ZEALAND Radio Sport Wellington , Aug 23 1259 - Possibly running American sports programming (Fox?) Fair only. (JB-G'land WA)
1512 PHILIPPINES DYAB(pres.) Cebu City , Aug 24 1315 - Presume this the one (there is another Filipino, co-chan) in a mixture of Tagalog and EE by both M and W speakers. Will be reporting with a recording. (JB-G'land WA)
1512 AUSTRALIA 2RN Newcastle , Aug 25 1344 - Heard //4RN Brisbane on 792 near band fade. (JB-G'land WA)
1548 AUSTRALIA 4QD Emerald , Aug 23 1138 - Heard here most AMs of the DXpedition, though usually weakly. (JB-G'land WA)
1566 SOUTH KOREA HLAZ Cheju Island , Aug 23 1246 - Heard here most AMs of the DXpedition. (JB-G'land WA)
1566 AUSTRALIA 3NE Wangaratta , Aug 25 1346 - No sign of usually dominant HLAZ at band fade. 3NE running their usual pop music format. (JB-G'land WA)
1575 THAILAND VOA Ban Phachi , Aug 23 1203 - Noted here most AMs of the DXpedition. (JB-G'land WA)
1593 CHINA CRI, Unk. Loc. , Aug 24 1210 - Heard here often with a huge signal during most AMs of DXpedition. (JB-G'land WA)

Published on September 12, 2007