Rockwork 4 DXpedition 2016
 
DXing from the Ocean Cliffside by Tom Rothlisberger K7WV
   
View From Rockwork 4 on 10 July 2016

 Represented Nations The International Medium Wave DXpedition July 09 - 11,  2016
A return to the DX-enhanced ocean cliff pullout just north of Manzanita, Oregon

Saturday July 09: Three of us gathered on the ocean cliffside pullout this morning, Nick Hall-Patch, Gary DeBock and myself. It took some time to set up everything as this was a new antenna and configuration for me at the cliffs, and I was planning to experiment with a vactrol for the first time. A major setback occurred when my new Win10 notebook refused to recognize the Perseus hardware due to a possibly corrupt driver. To make matters worse I did not bring the backup MSI Wind U100 that I have been using for years with good results. Note to self: always bring backup. I wound up borrowing Nick's netbook as he did not need it for experiments that morning. So it was 1222 by the time I started recording. Magic 702 was slamming in and 1KW TAB Trackside on 549 was in nicely but briefly. I didn't think the session was as good as what was experienced last year but everything was working and signals were loud at times, usually briefly, before settling back down into the noise. Little high band action but 1503 Radio Sport was in.
I had one corrupt file and one with some stuttering this morning as would sometimes happen with my MSI netbook as it ran short of resources and was the reason for upgrading. I did eventually get the new Dell 2-in-1 working later and used it the next two mornings.
 
Sunday July 10:  Two distinguished visitors from Japan, Satoshi Miyauchi and Hiroo Nakagawa, had arrived and joined Nick, Gary and myself. We had a beautiful preview of the site the evening before, after dinner. But now we were all fighting to set up in the midst of a huge storm. Driving rain and gale force winds were making things miserable. My antenna spreaders blew down time after time. For the last 15 minutes of the opening I was holding one up outside by hand, the other secured to the rock wall by heavy straps.
This turned out to be a morning favoring Australia. 1116 4BC was ruling the band with huge signals, I had Aussies on 702 and 936 instead of NZ stations. The ABC News fanfare was heard on 891 on the half hour and there was audio on 1566, 1611 and 1701. This was the only of the three mornings the whole band was in although not very robust or "locked in" on Australia like it was last August. Some of the frequencies unexpectedly had nice NZ signals and 567 RNZ was loud, reminiscent of last year when they were using their old and superior antenna.
My Win 10 netbook was working at last and as hoped I was now able to tune around while recording. All recordings were good and without issues.
We were all soaked to the bone when it was over, my usually adequate Gore-Tex jacket was no match for that storm. Hiroo-san and Satoshi-san were still smiling at the end and had wisely brought better rain gear than us North Americans (Hiroo bought his raincoat in Oregon!). The important thing really, is to have fun, share adventure and overcome adversity. That we heard any stations at all was an added bonus. And we were all able to operate and record files. All of us will always remember this morning, I'm sure. Later in the morning after DX the sun came out and it was gorgeous.
 
Monday July 11:  All five DXers again assembled on the pullout. Another mostly New Zealand morning, decent signals would arise but they would fade back down after a minute or two, and something else would become strong elsewhere on the band, one at a time. This made getting parallels for ID purposes time consuming and difficult. On several frequencies NZ and Australia signals were fighting it out and on a few like 702 and 792 the Aussie had won and was all alone. It was another low band morning. The TAB Trackside affiliate on 1224 (1 KW) was briefly good but almost nothing heard above it except for occasional weak audio from Radio Sport 1503. 738 Tahiti was slamming in with meter-bending signals. Satoshi and Hiroo seemed very pleased as this station is considered rare and exotic DX from Japan. DXing seemed so easy this morning in the good weather.
 
Overall: 657 Star gets the award for strongest and longest lasting DU signal over the three days, beating last year's champions 1035 Newstalk ZB and the no longer potent RNZ 567. I had more wire up this year but the signals were really no better. Part of that due to the lower gain FLG100LN used this time in lieu of the ALA100M. I failed to find a "sweet spot" with the vactrol for reducing splatter from the Portland powerhouses. The conditions were simply lacking compared to last year but it was far from being a shut-out with over 50 DUs ID'd. Nick suggested we include Hawaii in our logs after noticing some good IDs on the recordings. I was expecting perhaps 3 or 4 with these conditions but got solid IDs from 14 stations from Aloha-land so that was actually pretty impressive. With a DKAZ at Grayland we typically get 20 or more but these are much smaller and simpler antennas.
 
Longwave: DX NDBs were practically non-existent. I am wondering if the antenna configuration made it deaf at LW, or if conditions were really that below par. Only one DX station, 352 KHz "RG" Nikau, Rarotonga, Cook Islands was noted. 531 PI was also exceedingly weak so I suspect the antenna configuration. I will be changing things again at my next visit to the ocean cliffs to ensure I get more LW action, likely going back to the ALA100M.

For my prior DXpeditioning adventures at the cliffs in 2015 click HERE (August) or HERE (June)

July 09 pics taken at "Rockwork 4" just north of Manzanita, OR. with Gary, Nick and I in attendance. (Click on each for enlargement).

My July 09 Antenna Manzanita view July 09  Borrowed netbook and Perseus   

A 5-DXer international team took to the cliffs on the morning of July 10, 2016.  A wild, wet and windy storm was battled as we went ahead and set up, and operated during these extreme conditions. Antennas blew over, DXers got soaked but we all had a shared experience to remember. After dawn the storm let up somewhat so I snapped some pics. Eveyone had a good attitude and was still smiling.

   Wet DX session    Satoshi-san with ultralight   Gary, Hiroo and Satoshi

July 11 was the final morning for the 5-man team, the largest DXer crew ever to assemble here at Rockwork 4. Much easier to operate this morning both with the FSLs and ultralights, and the SDRs and broadband antennas. (Click on each for enlargement).

FSL Row and vehicles Tom, Hiroo, Satoshi, Gary, Nick  Dell Win 10 Netbook and Perseus   Hiroo and Satoshi

Location:

Rockwork 4 Pullout off Highway 101 on Neahkahnie Mountain just north of Manzanita, OR
Coordinates: N 45° 44' 36.5" W 123° 57' 28.9" Elevation 575 feet (175.4 meters)
GPS Coordinates: N 45 44.608 W 123 57.482
Google Maps Satellite View

Equipment:

Perseus SDR
Dell "2 in 1" 11.6-inch netbook (Win 10) 500GB internal SSD.
Wellbrook FLG-100LN antenna modules
60 feet #18 multi stranded copper wire, jacketed (Deployed as a front-fed delta)
26-foot segmented fiberglass fishing pole and weighted (with concrete) stand
Folding stand (from a drum kit, for the cymbal), 6-foot solid fiberglass rod
50 feet RG8X coax with BNC connectors
50 feet RG59 coax with BNC connectors (Vactrol)
Vactrol base unit and antenna-mounted photoresistor unit
Mini-Circuits ZSC-3-2 3-way antenna splitter 0.01 - 30 MHz.

K7WV Medium Wave Results:  


 

Rockwork 4 DXpedition July 2016 Log

Date UTC KHz Station Comments KW City State Country
7/9/2016 1232 531 531 PI Samoan language "Island" music 5 Auckland   New Zealand
7/9/2016 1222 549 TAB Trackside Radio //828, with race results and payouts 1 Napier-Hastings   New Zealand
7/10/2016 1246 549 2CR ABC Central West Jazz program with alto sax and rhythm section, alone and clear 50 Orange NSW Australia
7/10/2016 1248 558 4AM  Harp and apparent "NQ music continues, Easy, Relaxing" between songs 5 Atherton QLD Australia
7/9/2016 1229 567 RNZ National //675, fair with up-tempo rythmic song 50 Wellington   New Zealand
7/11/2016 1242 570 KUAI "Kauai's Country...KUAI" by female announcer and into music 1 Eleele, Kauai   Hawaii
7/11/2016 1243 576 Star //909 with slow Christian music sung by female 2.5 Hamilton   New Zealand
7/11/2016 1256 590 KSSK Musical jingle "92-3 KSSK" between songs 7.5 Honolulu   Hawaii
7/10/2016 1245 594 Star //909 with male vocalist and disinctive bass line 5/2 Timaru/Whanganui)   New Zealand
7/11/2016 1218 603 Radio Waatea Briefly loud with Maori language music 5 Auckland   New Zealand
7/10/2016 1233 650 KPRP "KPRP 650 AM and Pinoy Power Radio.com" 10 Honolulu   Hawaii
7/11/2016 1212 657 Star Music into announcements by female, water purifier commercial 50 Wellington   New Zealand
7/11/2016 1159 670 KPUA "America's First News next on AM 670 KPUA Hilo" 5 Hilo, Hawaii   Hawaii
7/9/2016 1229 675 RNZ National //567, much louder with up-tempo song 10 Christchurch   New Zealand
7/11/2016 1250 684 Rhema String of commercials 5 Gisborne   New Zealand
7/9/2016 1228 693 Radio Sport //774, 792 with Fox Sports feed 5 Dunedin   New Zealand
7/9/2016 1222 702 Magic Blasting in with "Cotton Fields Back Home", "Strangers In the Night" 10 Auckland   New Zealand
7/10/2016 1228 702 2BL ABC Sydney Loud with female announcer // 774 50 Sydney NSW Australia
7/10/2016 1224 729 5RN ABC National Good with male and female back and forth as if reading short news items 50 Adelaide SA Australia
7/11/2016 1235 738 Radio Premère Polynésie Huge at times, almost local-like with pop music 20 Papeete   Fr. Polynesia
7/09/20161250738Magic"Feels Good...Magic" by male ann. between oldies, under talk from Tahiti5Christchurch New Zealand
7/9/2016 1230 740 KCIK "Maui's Immaculate Heart Radio" over KCBS 5 Kihae, Maui   Hawaii
7/10/2016 1243 756 RNZ National //567, weaker with synopsis of current films 10 Auckland   New Zealand
7/9/2016 1300 760 KGU "Hawaii's Business Authority…KGU Honolulu" all alone 10 Honolulu   Hawaii
7/9/2016 1228 765 Radio Kahungunu Loud with nice Maori song with female vocalist and guitar 2.5 Napier-Hastings   New Zealand
7/9/2016 1228 774 Radio Sport //792, 693, Loudest of the Radio Sports, Fox Sports crew discussing the NFL 5 New Plymouth   New Zealand
7/10/2016 1228 774 3LO ABC Melbourne //702 with female announcer, not as loud 50 Melbourne VIC Australia
7/11/2016 1235 792 4RN ABC National //828 commentary by male announcers 25 Brisbane QLD Australia
7/9/2016 1228 792 Radio Sport //693, 774 with Fox Sports feed 5 Hamilton   New Zealand
7/10/2016 1245 801 Rhema //684 with man talking as if reading, with dates and times 1.6 Nelson   New Zealand
7/11/2016 1235 828 3GI ABC Gippsland Loud with two males in conversation // 702 50 Sale VIC Australia
7/9/2016 1228 828 TAB Trackside Radio Briefly loud with race results, instrumental music 2 Palmerston N.   New Zealand
7/11/2016 1230 830 KHVH "Weekday mornings at ten on News Radio 830 KHVH" 10 Honolulu   Hawaii
7/11/2016 1230 891 Magic "We Can Work it Out" (Beatles) // 702, over weak ABC News fanfare (5AN) 5 Wellington   New Zealand
7/10/2016 1230 891 5AN ABC Adelaide ABC news with fanfare intro; offset on the half hour (indicating SA time zone) 50 Adelaide SA Australia
7/9/2016 1300 900 KMVI "Maui's ESPN Radio Station KMVI AM 900 Kahului" at TOH 5 Kahului, Maui   Hawaii
7/11/2016 1241 900 Star //657, 909 weak and behind domestic with slow Christian music 10 Dunedin   New Zealand
7/11/2016 1241 909 Star //657, 900 loud with slow Christian music 5 Napier-Hastings   New Zealand
7/11/2016 1240 927 Newstalk ZB Loudest of the "ZB" affiliates at this time // 1026, 1044 2 Palmerston North   New Zealand
7/10/2016 1239 936 4PB ABC News Radio Presumed; Female announcer reading news in EE 10 Brisbane QLD Australia
7/10/2016 1241 940 KKNE "All traditional Hawaiian all the time AM 940" and Ala Moana Center ad 10 Waipahu, Oahu   Hawaii
7/11/2016 1248 954 TAB Trackside Radio //828, 549, 1224 and briefly loud with distinctive instrumental music 2 Hamilton   New Zealand
7/11/2016 1240 954 Coast Presumed with oldies (Hall & Oates "She's Gone", etc) Not // 828 1 Dunedin   New Zealand
7/11/2016 1244 963 Star //657 but weaker with distictive song by female vocalist 10 Christchurch   New Zealand
7/10/2016 1230 981 Star //657 with music and male singer 2.5 Timaru   New Zealand
7/11/20161218990KIKI"The Herd: Weekdays, Live from 6 to 9 on Fox Sports 990" under KATD5Honolulu Hawaii
7/11/2016 1246 1008 Newstalk ZB //1026 with spoken commentary 10 Tauranga   New Zealand
7/9/2016 1225 1017 Newstalk ZB //1035 with male announcer interviewing woman on phone 2.5 Christchurch   New Zealand
7/11/2016 1245 1026 Newstalk ZB "Newstalk ZB" ID //1098, pronounced echo effect from two stations 2 Kaitaia   New Zealand
7/10/2016 1245 1026 Newstalk ZB "Newstalk ZB" ID //1098, pronounced echo effect from both Northland stn's 2 Whangarei   New Zealand
7/9/2016 1225 1035 Newstalk ZB Loud, best "ZB" as usual with call-in interview show 20 Wellington   New Zealand
7/10/2016 1251 1040 KLHT "The Pure Light of Hawaii KLHT Honolulu 1040 AM" between songs 10 Honolulu   Hawaii
7/10/2016 1229 1044 Newstalk ZB //1035 Two males in discussion 10 Dunedin   New Zealand
7/10/2016 1246 1053 Newstalk ZB //1026 briefly good with male announcer interviewing woman on phone 2 New Plymouth   New Zealand
7/11/2016 1245 1098 Newstalk ZB Briefly loud; commercial, then "Newstalk ZB" ID 7.5 Christchurch   New Zealand
7/11/2016 1250 1107 RadioLive Commercial followed by "Radio Live" ID and selected frequencies 1 Tauranga   New Zealand
7/9/2016 1233 1110 KAOI "KAOI AM Kihae" and into music, mixing with KBND 5 Kihea, Maui   Hawaii
7/10/2016 1248 1116 4BC Brisbane "Brisbane's News Source 4BC" followed by several clear commercials 50 Brisbane QLD Australia
7/10/2016 1243 1161 4FC Radio TAB briefly good; racing odds from woman on phone with male announcer 2 Maryborough QLD Australia
7/9/2016 1238 1179 Radio Ake Briefly loud with "The Sweetest Taboo" by Sade, other US pop, Maori ann.n. 5 Auckland   New Zealand
7/11/2016 1239 1206 TAB Trackside Radio Two male announcers in discussion // 828 2 Dunedin   New Zealand
7/11/2016 1240 1224 TAB Trackside Radio Briefly good with two male announcers in discussion // 828 1 Invercargill   New Zealand
7/9/2016 1223 1314 2KY Racing Radio Presumed; Horse racing action being called 5 Wollongong NSW Australia
7/9/2016 1252 1332 Radio Sport //792 briefly fair, several males conversing, laughing 10 Auckland   New Zealand
7/9/2016 1230 1503 Radio Sport //774, 792 with Fox Sports feed, weak 5 Wellington   New Zealand
7/10/2016 1300 1540 KREA MBC chimes, then "This is KREA Honolulu 1540 AM" at TOH 5 Honolulu   Hawaii
7/10/2016 1238 1566 UNID choral men's group singing, non-EE male speaking; briefly fair *** ******* UNID
7/11/2016 1233 1570 KUAU "Keep it right here…KUAU Haiku, Maui" 15 Haiku, Maui   Hawaii
7/10/2016 1239 1575 Otago Access Radio Presumed; Man and woman in EE taking turns reading slowly, BBC mention 2.5 Dunedin   New Zealand
7/10/2016 1226 1611 Vision Radio Network Lecture or sermon in EE by male with voice inflections of preaching 0.4 Several Affiliates NSW? Australia
7/10/2016 1223 1701 Radio Brisvaani Hindi music with male/female duo singing and chanting. Best X-band signal.n 0.4 Brisbane QLD Australia

Audio Clips (MP3):

 531 Radio PI (Samoan Language), Auckland 5KW. Jul 09 1232

  549 TAB Trackside Radio Napier-Hastings 1 KW. Jul 09 1222

  567 RNZ National, Wellington 50 KW Jul 10 1240

  570 KUAI Eleele, Kauai Hawaii 1 KW with country music and ID. Jul 11 1242

  576 Star Hamilton 2.5 KW. The "Dwarf Star" in quite well Jul 11 1243

  603 Radio Waatea, Auckland 5 KW with nice Maori music

  657 Star Wellington 50 KW

 675 Radio NZ National Radio, Christchurch 10 KW

  684 Rhema, Gisborne 5 KW with string of commercials

 702 Magic, Auckland 10 KW. Jul 09 1222

 738 Radio Premère Polynésie, Papeete, Tahiti with French pop

 738 Magic, Christchurch 5KW "Feels Good...Magic" ID just prior to "To Know Him is to Love Him"

 765 Radio Kahungunu, Napier-Hastings 2.5KW Nice Maori music Jul 9 1228

 828 TAB Trackside Radio, Palmerston north 2 KW. Always the best TAB Trackside affiliate at the cliffs 

 830 KHVH Honolulu, Hawaii 10 KW Rush Limbaugh ad and Fox News 1230 Jul 11

 891 ABC Adelaide (ABC fanfare) fading into "Magic" Wellington 5 KW // 702 1230 Jul 11

 909 Star, Napier-hastings 5 KW, talk and music but much splatter

 940 KKNE Waipahu, Oahu Hawaii "All Traditional Hawaiian All the Time"

 1040 KLHT Honolulu, Hawaii 10 KW with ID

 1107 RadioLive Tauranga 1 KW with ID and apparent FM frequencies

 1116 4BC Brisbane, Australia 50 KW with ID and commercials; Loud on Jul 10

 1179  Radio Ake, Auckland 5 KW

 1570 KUAU Haiku, Maui Hawaii 15 KW with ID

 1611 Vision Radio Network Jul 10 with sermon, particular affiliate UNID



Cliffside Steel Mesh:

Here is a picture that clearly shows the extent of the steel mesh on the cliff face behind us. Giant antenna / re-radiator or giant reflector? We will need to experiment to see if only the Rockwork 4 site has this enhanced reception or other nearby pullouts without the steel behind them. I wonder what would happen if one were to hook up a receiver directly to the mesh? Experimentation may reveal answers in the future. Nick's Nehalem Bay / Rockwork 4 comparative study undertaken on this DXpedition suggests that Rockwork 4 is indeed enhanced over a typical sea level site. From last year's astonishing LW results we also know that longwave is every bit as enhanced as MW.

Steel Mesh on the cliff face (Click to Enlarge)

  
Manzanita Sunset

Related Links:

Latest 2017 MW DXpedition to Rockwork 4 Aug 2-7 2017
August 02-07 2017 Rockwork 4 DXpedition  Return to the ocean cliff with Gary and Chuck for 6 morning DX sessions. Superb "best ever" conditions on Aug 4. "More FM" 531 IDs on the 4th and 6th. 39 Pacific/DU NDBs received and reported to NDBlist, a record haul. 16 Hawaiians with IDs. Two Western Australians. NZ station count of 69 blows away my old record of 57. 40 Australians too, and loud Fiji 1.

Recent MW DXpeditions that I have undertaken in 2015-2016
October 2016 Grayland DXpedition logs, pics and audio clips using a DKAZ and a delta loop for LW. Results exceeded 2015 Grayland DXpedition.
July 2016 Rockwork 4 DXpedition Log K7WV Results in downloadable in Excel 2013 (.xlsx) format
October 2015 Grayland DXpedition My results from my first experience using a DKAZ. With audio clips
August 2015 Rockwork 4 sessions: logs, pics and audio clips My previous visit to the cliffside for 3 sessions in Aug 2015 with Gary and Chuck.
June 2015 Rockwork 4 sessions: logs, pics and audio clips My first ever visit to the cliffside for 2 sessions in Jun 2015 with Gary and Chuck

Videos by Gary at various stages of the July 2016 Rockwork 4 DXpedition
1st Day Tour with Gary DXing solo this morning
Antenna Setup Tour following our first 3-DXer morning of the July 2016 DXpedition
Visiting DXers Arrive An after dinner preview of our Rockwork DXing site for the just arrived Japanese DXers
The Session From Hell Gary's video of five soaked international DXers after a wild and stormy session
Final Day Success Gary's video after our final DX session with the Japanese DXers Hiroo and Satoshi

Other Related Links
Comparison of Nehalem Bay and Rockwork 4 sites By Nick Hall-Patch in real time using identical antennas at beach and cliff locations (.pdf file) NOT CURRENTLY AVAILABLE
DX Fishbarrel From Victoria, BC by Nick Hall-Patch. See indications of Trans-Pacific MW DX. Nick also operated a DX fishbarrel for this DXpedition.
Totsuka DXers Circle "Propagation" annual publication, Cover art and illustrations by Shinya Hasegawa (well known anime artist and character designer). Hiroo and Satoshi are both members of this Yokohama DX club.
Propagation Ed.5 is now published, with reports and pictures from this DXpedition!
>>>Special thanks to Satoshi Miyauchi for sending me a hardcopy souvenir edition of Propagation, Ed. 4 from Japan!
>>>Update: A special Thank You to Hiroo Nakagawa for sending me a hardcopy edition of Propagation, Ed. 5! This issue covers our Rockwork 4 DXpedition and also Nick's "cliff vs. beach" experiment!
Taitosake Cape 太東崎 Google Maps satellite view; Ocean cliffside MW DXpedition location on Chiba Prefecture's coast; Japan's equivalent of "Rockwork 4".
Joint report on the 2016 DXpedition by Gary and several of the team members (MS Word file).
Bill Whitacre's Grayland WA and Oregon logs Jul -Aug 2016 This VA DXer visited the WA and OR coast shortly after our Rockwork 4 DXpedition and set up a 160-foot DKAZ.
K7WV's Grayland DXpedition 2015: My October 2015 logs using a 140-foot DKAZ at Grayland, WA aimed west. Over 40 DU's out of season, 50 Japan stations, 20 Hawaii.
Gary demonstrates 3-inch Ferrite Bar Loop Modification for the Tecsun PL-380 ultralight. Hiroo-san had one of these that he modified himself (in picture) and received 738 Khz Tahiti nicely as a standalone unit.

My main radio hobby page for Ham, MW and LW DXing:
K7WV Radio Page My Radio Page on QSL.net