[IRCA] TP MW DX for 19Nov09 from north of Tonga
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[IRCA] TP MW DX for 19Nov09 from north of Tonga




 Pacific DX for 19 November 2009: North of Tonga enroute to Samoa

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A lovely day in Tonga. Truly, a gorgeous island with extremely friendly people. For me, slightly reminiscent of Fiji (from a visit 25 years ago). Very flat, so at risk from storms, tsunamis and global warming for sure. I’ve never seen so many churches of various denominations (per capita), seemingly on every corner and so many cemeteries. The latter are beautiful with more recent graves decorated with lovely quilts either directly on the ground or displayed overhead. The shuttle driver drove me to the studios of Radio Tonga where I took a few nice photos outside. I’m pretty sure of the AM omnidirectional antenna for 1017 as well, as the island is so flat, it’s quite easy to see. David Ricquish in Wellington gave me directions to 2AP in Apia, Samoa so hopefully I’ll get over there tomorrow when we arrive. Nothing terribly exciting to report last night, but this may be simply due to fatigue, as I did stop around 08:44 and went off to bed after a full day on Tonga!

540: Apia Samoa, still battling with NZ’s Rhema (note the ID is not Radio Rhema, but New Zealand’s Rhema!) at 06:35. See my comments for 18 Nov re Apia.

590: fair to good with oldies

650, 670: poor

684: Radio Fiji 1 good at 08:44. Finally heard 639 at fair to good level, except for het. 558 only weakly heard today. No sign of Radio Fiji 2 stations. Darn! Overall, Fiji has not done very well on this cruise, even though they are quite close geographically.

690: KHNR, ID’ing as “Hawaii’s Intelligent Station, K-H-N-R” at good level at 07:19

760, 780, 830, 1060 (Johny Cash at 07:37), 1100, 1110, 1160, 1180: all poor to fair.

850: KICY, Nome at fair to good level with native singing at 06:46.

1017: Armchair level, of course, for Radio Tonga. See my comments from 18 Nov. I have several hours of good mp3 files of this station. Unfortunately, did not get the sign-on, though. Do have a fair copy for their sign-off from 2 days ago, though.

1210: prob KZOO, Honolulu with JJ, I think at 07:40 at fair level.

1386: Radio Tarana, Auckland. Continues to be the strongest station on the band. A real powerhouse at 08:35 with lots of ads. Radio Tarana ID at 08:36 and then at 08:58:30: “Radio Tarana time check” and proceeded to have many Radio Tarana IDs from passers-by. All in Hindi, though some ads in English, and many English words (phone numbers, etc). No wonder they get out so well into North America. Have a nice mp3 of this station too.

1410: poor level with Hawaiian version of “Somewhere over the rainbow”

1420, 1460: poor

1500: KUMU, Honolulu at good level at 07:44

1540: KREA, Honolulu at fair level with pres KK programming at 07:46

1566: Last comment on the no-show from Norfolk Island. The closest we came was perhaps 600 miles and not a peep to be heard. Darn!

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