[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

[HCDX] Report from Tokyo

Greetings to my DX colleagues around the world from a cold and rainy Tokyo. I`ve spent the last 2 weeks touring Japan, with my trusty Sony 2010 in tow. Though time was very limited, I was able to spend a little time scanning the bands, especially MW. Tokyo, where I`ve been for the last week is generally poor with too much local QRM, but I did find Kyoto, more on the western part of the country rather good. I was in a Ryokan (a Japanese style hotel), on the ground floor, so no possibility to use an external antenna, but nonetheless, reception overnight was excellent, with very little interference. I was particularly interested in the Russian local far east stations on MW, which were heard on several frequencies, as well as the AFN Korean MWers, which are very difficult to hear, although this time I was able to copy a couple of frequencies. Unfortunately overnight they have no local programming. Eagle 810, with 50 kw is very well heard throughout the day and night, here in Tokyo. 1670, the frequency for the very low (50w) lighthouse weather stations yielded very little again on this trip (I was also here 2 years ago).

The Akihabara electronics district of Tokyo isn`t much different than my last trip, except possibly a bit seedier. It`s a great place for parts. There was a very good selection of Sony portables, but not a single 2010 in site. Prices are pretty high compared to Canada/US so I didn`t buy anything in this category. I did invest in a very interesting piece of equipment called an iRiver....this is a 20 GB portable hard drive, MP3, WAV encoder, and FM tuner. This little baby will store 300 hours of audio!!!Runs on a rechargeable Li battery for 16+ hours. Has USB connection to your PC. I do download a lot of media programs, previously on MD manually, which is time consuming. I`m going to give this a whirl when I get home! 300 hours....blows me away! Unfortunately, there is no date/time stamp which would have been great, at least so far as I can see. This brand is very popular in Japan, and seems to have many more features than the similarly priced iBox. I paid about 39k yen (1USD = 105 yen), getting a further 10% discount by asking, and duty free as well.

There are still a few ham outlets in the district, which seemed to attract a reasonable crowd on the Saturday I was there. Lot`s of nice scanners too, frs radios, and ham transceivers. I did not see any SW tabletop receivers this time.

On to a few loggings, in no particular order (Sorry):

KYOTO, Japan:

5000 BPM Heard with loud voice ID and morse at 2000. There`s another station that is heard on each minute in English, saying something like "From 7,....this frequency....", at least that is what it sounds like to me. Not on 10 megs. Who might they be??? I can share an audio clip upon my return to Canada tomorrow. (Salmaniw, Kyoto 11 March).

4950 VOA Sao Tome. English at 20:06 at poor to fair levels (using only a whip). (Salmaniw, Kyoto 11 March).

7125 Germany(?) Radio Liberty in Ukrainian at 2011 with good reception. Parallels 9625 fair to good, and 5955 fair. (Salmaniw, Kyoto 11 March).

5098 to 5102: Codaar is heard well here, identical to the one centered on 4800 on the WCNA.

783 RUSSIA Radio Lemma, Vladivostok heard with local ID "Vi shlushayte Lemma", at 2042 with birthday greetings and a call in from a YL. Good reception. Heard again at 1147 on 12 March with "Dobryij Vechir, mi shlushayem odin radio, radio Lemma" (Good evening, we listen to one radio station, Radio Lemma). (Salmaniw, Kyoto 11 - 12 March).

810 RUSSIA Razdol`noe, cochannel AFN Tokyo, but overpowering it, with local ID for Primorske Radio at 2047. Good reception when tuned in again at 1059 following day, but this time with a Radio Rossii ID. At 2110 there was a Primorske Radio ID with good reception, but faded rapidly. Tried again on the 13th with cochannel N. Korea. No AFN audible that day. News until 2009, then R. Rossii ID, followed by a local Primorske ID, then "Dobroho Utro" and into local weather.
(Salmaniw, Kyoto 11 - 13 March)

9795 Australia Christian Voice at 2135, with "playing good music" by an Australian accented DJ at poor to fair strength. (Salmaniw, Kyoto 11 March)

KOREA 1080 AFN Korea weakly heard at 1102 with English news. Again at 1846 following day with baseball game. Parallel to 1530 which is stronger with deep fades. At 1859, I heard an ID as Sportsline. Then, "This is Westworld 1, your home for NCAA basketball". At 1905, "You are listening to Armed Forces Network One". As close as a local ID as I could get. (Salmaniw, Kyoto 12 - 13 March)

RUSSIA 549 Mayak, from presumed Tavrichanka with good signals with Russian music, followed by an American tune, parallel to 576. Heard at 1108 on 12 March. (Salmaniw, Kyoto 12 March).

RUSSIA 738 Radio Evropa Plyus, Vladivostok fair at 1135 cochannel with local stations. Same with modern dance music at 2058. (Salmaniw, Kyoto 12 March).

JAPAN 666 1959:45 A great time for local IDs. Local ID for JOBK NHK 1, Osaka. Excellent. (Salmaniw, Kyoto 13 March).

JAPAN 1512 2030 Local ID for JOZB Matsuyama. Fair to good (5 kw). (Salmaniw, Kyoto 13 March).

That`s it from Tokyo. Cheers, and see you on the other side of the ocean!.......Walt.

_________________________________________________________________
STOP MORE SPAM with the MSN Premium and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-ca&page=byoa/prem&xAPID=1994&DI=1034&SU=http://hotmail.com/enca&HL=Market_MSNIS_Taglines

---[Start Commercial]---------------------

World Radio TV Handbook 2004 is out! Only $20.97 through us.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0823059685/hardcoredxcom

---[End Commercial]-----------------------
________________________________________
Hard-Core-DX mailing list
Hard-Core-DX@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://dallas.hard-core-dx.com/mailman/listinfo/hard-core-dx
http://www.hard-core-dx.com/
_______________________________________________

THE INFORMATION IN THIS ARTICLE IS FREE. It may be copied, distributed
and/or modified under the conditions set down in the Design Science License
published by Michael Stutz at http://dsl.org/copyleft/dsl.txt