King´s Village DX-Station February: JOHS Rumoi Hokkaido 1557

The frequency 1557 has one of the most powerfull signals from the East: Family Radio who blocks the channel almost totally. Sometimes a Chinese station can be heard but on February 12 I managed to note a short but interesting opening to Northern Japan with some strong signals especially from Hokkaido. So this station "Hokkaido Hoso" (relaying JOHR 1287) could be heard under the dominant station. Back in the 1970´s I collected several QSLs from Hokkaido Hoso already when they were not on European channels which made it easier to hear. However this was the first time to pick up JOHS 1557. The old QSLs were rather nice, I do not know if they send these nowadays.

73,TK

Another Opening to the East

Once again a nice opening to the East, particularly this time to the Philippines was noted on March 5th around sunset. Often before the Spring Equinox time you can have nice reception to the East (SE Asia) around local sunset or just before that time.
On March 5th around 15 utc (near the local sunset) I made a TOH recording and soon discovered a few Philippine signals on several channels. At this time many of most interesting stations have already signed off, but some channels were audible, like 666, 882 (DWIZ, which has been rather rare nowadays), 990, 1269 (Bombo Radyo seems not to s/off around 14utc - at least now it was still going on), 1314 (with typical religious programs) and 1349.97 "la Verdad".
Earlier - many times - good propagation to the Philippines means there is a geomagnetic storm starting soon - and as we know now - the impact of the recent CMEs was due to come soon - now we know, the first one with bright Auroras occured on March 7th - maybe more to come?
An example on 990 kHz is here - DZIQ Radyo Inquirer was really dominating the channel around 15: Radyo Inquirer


73,TK

An Opening to the Far East

Still sometimes after the "real winter months" paths to the Far East and Japan opens up nicely even in Southern Finland. Although the best conditions were during 2009-2010 sometimes you can get some nice signals even from Northern Japan. And at the same time usually dominanting Chinese are not that strong. Now in March the days are coming rapidly longer and the band to the East is open only around 15-16 utc whereas in February you can get signals between 14-15 utc.
A such good opening was noted on February 12th - however signals were not so good around 14 utc when the Europeans were still rather silent, but best signals were noted around 15.00 utc! I had only a relatively short IQ-recording session with Perseus but quite a few stations were noted. Actually only one new - but nice - a 100 W Hokkaido Hoso /HBC relay on 1557 under a very strong Family Radio. This logging was Japan n:o 81 at my QTH during 2009-2012. A sign of good Hokkaido conditions was STV Radio Sapporo 1440 being a dominant for a while - this channel is usually dominated by a "local" Russian Zvezda St Petersburg (normally S9+30dB). You can hear an example on the right in my "Clips" Box-archive. Another example in the Box is JOFR 1278 - a very common one, but as it was Sunday the station was starting the Silent Period with a full ID with call letters.

73,TK