[IRCA] Pacific MW DX for 18Nov09
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[IRCA] Pacific MW DX for 18Nov09




 Pacific DX report for 18 November, 2009: 200 nm south of Tonga

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As I expected, we began hearing more North American and Hawaiian stations as we cruised northward. The bonus was that the weather became much more comfortable sitting outside in the evening with a spectacular sunset tonight. Tonga and Samoa, of course, began to be quite regular, although I did note that 2AP Samoa on 540 does not put out that particularly well compared to Radio Tonga on 1017 which alone dominates the frequency and has excellent modulation. 540 has a lot off competition from NZ’s Rhema which at times overpowers Samoa. As always, I’d appreciate comments on my unids! Overall, I haven’t found this night and the next all that productive compared to my first night. I’m surprised as well on how poorly Australia has been heard compared to New Zealand. I’m also pleasantly surprised on how well Alaska has been heard! One disappointment is the total absence of Radio Cook Islands on 630. This frequency is owned by New Zealand, it seems. Darn! No particular order below as I jumped around a fair bit. Sorry about that!

540: Reminiscent of KICY, Nome with local Christian hymns in Samoan. At 06:54. No TOH ID, just one hymn into another at good level. SBC Radio One, Apia. Listened again later, and noticed English news at 08:09 tune-in until 08:10, and then into islands music. This small segment seems regular, so worth noting for Dxers. The following night, the English segment was between 08:08:30 and 08:13:30 with a fairly heavy Samoan accent. I believe they’re relaying another local English speaking network?

Another interesting observation is that they were playing Christmas carols at 08:40 with Hark the Herald Angels Sing! My first of the season Christmas carols! This continued for quite a while (happened to also note Christmas carols on Tonga too!). At 09:37, NZ’s Rhema totally dominated Samoa.

558: Checking for Radio Fiji 1 and noted 558 to be fairly poor. Wonder whether they beam more to the south, as this was a good frequency yesterday. Did not hear anything on 639. 684 was good. 927 was poor under a DU station, while 1152 was fair/good. At same time, I also checked for Radio Fiji 2 and 1467 was in at fair to good level, and probably // to 810 weakly heard under cochannel NZ. No doubt Radio Fiji 2 is a tough target compared to Radio Fiji 1 !!

580: KMJ, Fresno CA. Fair level at 07:05, with “Live from the city of angels, this is Coast to Coast”. Heard regularly. Later in the evening, very good level with Coast to Coast AM ID at 08:58 followed by “Newstalk KMJ”. Puts out very well!

590: KSSK ID (Honolulu) at 07:18 with pop music at fair to good level. Hawaiians starting to appear now.

630: Nope, not RCI but Radio New Zealand National continues to dominate with BBCWS-like programming and many // frequencies. Same true for the 19^th too. Darn!

640: KFI Fair reception with talk about airborne viruses and biowarfare. Coast to Coast AM ID at 07:30 and into local traffic and weather at 07:33 with “KFI traffic” and phone number as ?news640640?.

650: 2 cochannels heard, with KENI, Anchorage dominating at 07:34. They mentioned “plenty cold” with temperatures in south and central Alaska around 11 below. Another weaker cochannel as well.

666: RFO New Caledonia at very good level around 08:30.

680: weak talk. Later heard ESPN Radio ID at 09:21 at fair to good level. This is probably KNBR San Francisco.

690: KNHR, Honolulu at very good level at 09:04 with news. Cochannel at times with deep fades, but heard local ID at 09:58.

710: KIRO, Seattle with ad for 1-800-FLOWERS and something about ultimate Seahawks coverage. Fair reception at best. Later, “Sports Radio” heard at 09:25 or so. Still KIRO, or is this KSPN, LA?

738: Finally fair to good reception from RFO Tahiti. 07:14 with FF talk. Not heard well or at all further south!

760: presumably KGU, Honolulu with ad for “Hope, the anchor of the soul”, and website as Hopefortheheart.org. Good level at 09:27.

770: possibly KCHU Valdez, AK with an interview at fair strength at 06:51 (7:51 pm local, so quite early still).

780: KNOM, Nome: Native chanting at 07:48 at good level. Rapid ID that I couldn’t quite catch at 08:00, and into ABC news. Local weather followed: “Tonight 10 to 20 below, to 30 below F. in Fairbanks, Yukon Valley 15 to 30 below”. Brrrr, especially as I’m enjoying 75 degree late evening temperatures!

801: KTWG Guam at fair to good level with American accented preacher at 08:30.

830, 1050, 1260: all at poor to fair level only. Later, 830 was at good level with talk about N. Korea. Unid.

945: Hoping for Gizo, Solomon Islands but no luck either tonight or the following night. Still dominated by DU.

1017: Radio Tonga. Listened later in the evening. English news noted from 10:20 to 10:24. The following day also noted English from 08:15 to 08:27 with “Radio Tonga local news” opening this segment. Then after 08:27 came weather information until 08:28:30, finishing with “The call of the friendly islands”, and back into Tongan. I then checked for their sign-off which occurred at 11:04 following Tongan announcements (I was half asleep at this point as it was after midnight local), followed a few seconds later by the transmitter cutting off as well. ****PAL mentions a sign-on of 19:00. Not true. I checked the following morning, and they were already on when checked at 18:21. Wonder whether they sign-on at 18:00? Unfortunately slept in on the 19^th until 18:15 (already on then …07:15 am local).

1070: KNX Los Angeles, CA. Excellent reception at 09:06 with ID. Earlier had CBS news feed, which happened to be // to the 580 I was listening to. Then went into Coast to Coast program (which was also // on 560 at poor to fair level).

1090: Fair level at 09:31 with a call-in program giving a number as 888-648-xxxx.

1100, 1120, 1160 (oldies): all fair level around 10:31

1420: ESPN Radio ID at fair level at 07:54. Likely KKEA, Honolulu

1460, 1500, 1540, 1580 (latter in SS): all poor to fair.

1640: “From Washington, DC, this is …..” at 07:57. Did hear a “1640” ID at 07:57. Not sure who this would be. The format doesn’t seem to fit the 2 OR stations. Perhaps WTNI, Biloxi?

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