dxAce wrote:

Kachina 78 wrote:

Still having trouble IDing this one. I work second shift, so by the time I get
to the shack, this one drops from S-9 to S-7 between 0500-0530. By the music
their playing, I'd be inclined to think it's the Domestic Service of the
Namibian Broadcasting Corporation, in Windhoek. I'm in the midwest, so if we
think in terms of gray line DXing, by 0100 CST it's 0700 in Windhoek, which
would explain the steady fade the later it gets by me. There are times when the
announcer throws in some English, but it's still tough to copy any ID. Anyone
else hearing this one down in the trops? Good DXing to you. Gary,

Grey line dx'ing implies that it is sunset at the transmitter site and sunrise at
the receiving site, or vice versa.

There is also the effect of sunset and or sunrise enhancement at either the
receiving or transmitting site, but that is not true grey line.

A very good example of grey line dx'ing would perhaps be my reception of AFN Diego
Garcia on 4319 on October 21, 2000.

At the time I was using a Beverage antenna aimed south at South America, and the time
was about 2340.

If you look at a grey line map for that time and date you'll see that the grey line
was just past me here in Michigan (sunset), and just coming up on Diego Garcia
(sunrise). Grey line propagation will typically last for an hour or less.

I had access to 6 Beverage antennas, all terminated, and the only one that afforded
reception of Diego Garcia was the South American wire. By looking at a grey line map
you can see that the Diego Garcia signal was following a 'crooked path' along the
grey line, down through the Indian Ocean, touching Antarctica, up through South
America and on to my receiving site.

Reception at that time lasted perhaps a half hour to 45 minutes as the grey line
passed by me, and sunrise was rapidly approaching Diego Garcia.

Did I plan to hear it at that time? No, not really, though my purpose at the time was
to hear it.

I just happened to tune down to the frequency in hopes of hearing something at around
2330 and I had a het on the frequency. Bingo! I may have something there so I stuck
with it and about 10 minutes later it was clear that I indeed did have them on the
frequency, and the signal continued to build.

It was a nice evening for dx, and I was pleased to hear AFN Diego Garcia. A couple of
weeks later I was rewarded with a QSL letter.



dxAce
Michigan
USA