Vacation DXing at the Beach (Query)

[Omega-TI]

I'll be at Ocean Shores (the Washington State peninsula) for the last week or July. I plan to do some late night and early morning DXing while my honey is still sleeping. I'm aware that some propagation is better over water than it is more inland, so does anyone have any target frequencies or band that I should pay special attention to? I'll mostly be listening between the hours of 4am - 6am and 10pm-12pm. Yeah, I don't sleep much in my old age.

I'll be taking an Eton Elite Executive for shortwave and an SDS100 for everything else since they are both small and will fit nicely into a suitcase.

Thanks.

 

[TAC4]

That sounds like major fun and a great radio combo to bring.
Scan everything, I find when you have set of frequencies
or bands to try to listen to they never pan out because of
how dynamic propagation is and something new will
show up by surprise when you least expect it.

 

[Omega-TI]

That sounds like major fun and a great radio combo to bring.
Scan everything, I find when you have set of frequencies
or bands to try to listen to they never pan out because of
how dynamic propagation is and something new will
show up by surprise when you least expect it.

You do have a point there. I was considering doing a little BCB-DXing in addition to shortwave. My hopes are "something" from Australia in English and not just Asian stuff from NHK or CRI. I sure miss the old days when the bands were full of International broadcasters speaking English.

I think I'll also take my digital audio recorder as well so I'll have proof of anything new, good or interesting.

 

[bearcatrp]

As posted above, just scan the band. I take my belka to Cozumel when I go down in the winter. Every night was different. Some nights there was plenty to listen to, other nights was not so great. Enjoy and have fun. Let us know if you hear some interesting stations.

 

[Boombox]

Asia is your friend in this case, at least for SW. If you have a MW loop -- or one of your radios is really good on MW -- I'd try for some MW from Asia and Hawaii. Maybe even Alaska would show up, because of the water path. Oz & NZ on MW might be a tough sell. You'll undoubtedly be able to hear more Asian stations (including Chinese domestics, VOA to Burma, and maybe AIR India and other subcontinent broadcasts) than you'd get in inland WA state.

Also, if you have an SSB radio, don't forget the 40M and 20M ham bands. 40-41M should be packed with CW, Indonesian ham pirates (LSB mainly, speaking Bahasa Indonesia, between 6900-7020 or so), hams from Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia. There's a lot that goes on in the 40 M band during the early morning.

The 41 M section, of course, has a lot of China and other big broadcasters. Perhaps load an EiBi SW frequency text file onto your phone or tablet for reference. It's pretty helpful that way.

Good luck and let us know what you heard. I haven't been to Ocean Shores in ages. Great place to fly a kite, and get some ice cream. Last time I went I wasn't into the radio hobby, never took a radio.

 

[ka3jjz]

If you are shooting for any Non-US TPs, then reset your spacing to 9 instead of 10 khz spacing, or you might miss something. Even a little antenna like the AN-200 might give you an edge you might not otherwise have

Good luck and enjoy...Mike

 

[Omega-TI]

Thanks guys, I hadn't thought of taking my AN-100 on the trip, but I think I'll do that now. At this point the amount of gear I'm taking is adding up, I'll have an almost full-blown monitoring station there! I guess I'll have to take some pictures, or even make a YouTube video... if I receive anything decent. I have decided to run everything on batteries this trip for ease of transport and because I doubt I'll get more than 6-8 hours total listening time in.

@ka3jjz thanks for the reminder on the step rate, I'll be sure to set that for late night DXing.

 

[W7MTH]

Hopefully you're having fun. The higher bands will be pretty dead in the morning, but anything from like 40-20 meters will be quite open to Asia in the early mornings. Voice of (North) Korea is on 9435 I believe. You'll be able to get trans pacific aircraft, probably some broadcasts from NZ and AU as well. Many many Indonesian stations can be heard on 40m in the morning. Lot of Asian broadcasts on 31/41 meters too.

 

[Omega-TI]

Hopefully you're having fun. The higher bands will be pretty dead in the morning, but anything from like 40-20 meters will be quite open to Asia in the early mornings. Voice of (North) Korea is on 9435 I believe. You'll be able to get trans pacific aircraft, probably some broadcasts from NZ and AU as well. Many many Indonesian stations can be heard on 40m in the morning. Lot of Asian broadcasts on 31/41 meters too.

Thanks for the great information! I checked in 1/2 hour ago and will set up the receiving gear later tonight. Sadly I'm using the cell phone to reply, so my online time will be limited.

 

[Boombox]

Thanks for the great information! I checked in 1/2 hour ago and will set up the receiving gear later tonight. Sadly I'm using the cell phone to reply, so my online time will be limited.

No prob, man. Enjoy your vacation at the ocean.

PS, if you're into the ham bands, when conditions are good 20 Meters also has some ham traffic from SE Asia. I've heard some Indonesian hams on CW around 7-8 a.m. Pacific. And you'll hear some Malay/Indonesian language transmissions in the 30 Meter ham band, possibly. They're weak, but I've heard some on that band. Not a lot -- but still interesting to hear.

Obviously, there are a ton of possibilities.

 

[Omega-TI]

Well, good news and bad news. First I got my mobile listening post all setup on my vacation, as you can see in the photo below. The bad news is I didn't get enough listening time in during the magic hours.

 

[bearcatrp]

Does that small loop really work good on HF? Looks like something I can take camping instead of running a wire. BTW, what is that radio on the right?

 

[Omega-TI]

Does that small loop really work good on HF? Looks like something I can take camping instead of running a wire. BTW, what is that radio on the right?

No, the loop is only good for MW BCB-DXing. It does a good job in pulling in signals, on the selected frequency while attenuating the signals on either side, and it also nulls out others by shifting the direction of the loop which is especially good on "graveyard" frequencies when there is more than one station on the same frequency.

The item on the right is not a radio, it's a Sangean DAR-100 digital MP3 recorder. I use it to record what I'm listening to when DXing in case I miss a station ID. I can also leave the radio on a specific frequency so when something does come in above a specific audio level it'll record what it hears. Yeah, it's cheating, but not as blatant as using an SDR and recording the whole band at the same time for later examination.

 

[bearcatrp]

Thanks for answering my questions.

 

[pjxii]

Does that small loop really work good on HF? Looks like something I can take camping instead of running a wire. BTW, what is that radio on the right?

They're hard to find, but if you want a small portable loop for HF look for an AOR LA320. Takes a 9 volt battery and is very lightweight. Most importantly the 5-15 MHz 320H loop that was standard with it pulls in a lot of signals.

 

[MUTNAV]

There's actually a group for that kind of thing.

I hope you have a great time ! ! !

Coastal Washington state, Maine, and Long Beach Island NJ are apparently really good Locations, and have receive only dx expeditions to them.

Ultralight DXpedition – The SWLing Post

swling.com

Thanks
Joel

 

[bearcatrp]

They're hard to find, but if you want a small portable loop for HF look for an AOR LA320. Takes a 9 volt battery and is very lightweight. Most importantly the 5-15 MHz 320H loop that was standard with it pulls in a lot of signals.

Found this one but a bit expensive.

AOR LA380 Shortwave Amplified Loop Antenna 10 kHz - 500 MHz + AC + Battery Pack | eBay

AOR LA380 Indoor Shortwave Amplified Loop Antenna. 10 kHz - 500 MHz.

www.ebay.com