Craig Edwards ?
Townsville, Queensland
Life is full of compromises
when you?re married. You can?t regularly go on DXpeditions most weekends when
you?re married. So some compromises must be made. My wife has given me the
chance to go on DX trips every couple of weekends but the compromise is that she
and the dog have to come along so we stay as a family. So rather than the
typical remote DXpedition location with no powerlines in sight, instead we have
to go to caravan parks or established campsites with public toilets, running
water, etc. At least she has agreed
to tents and 12V for power. This situation does create serious antenna problems
because people tend to come across them in this situation. But hey!! It?s better
than DX?ing from home and listening to monster noise levels due to family and
neighbours.
Our first attempt on August
14th was a caravan park just to test things out in an environment
with all amenities very close by, just to keep the wife happy ? mission
accomplished but noise was an issue and the 100m on the ground to
USA and 200m to
Mexico weren?t very good and people
regularly came across them. Even so I managed to hear a few new US
stations that I couldn?t log from home, and the bottom line was that we were now
ready to go to the established campsites where caravans were not permitted, therefore less man
made noise.
Only problem with the
beautiful beach side campsite we chose is that lots of other campers wanted to
go there too, not to mention the 20 or so American College girls on a Christian retreat around Australia. Their little dome tents
peppered the path I wanted to put my wire to North
America. I said to the wife that if I went 100m at 50o
then I could land myself a dozen or so lovely yanks, but she didn?t find the
humour in that. So best I could do was 100m at 90o through Central America which in the end didn?t work that well,
only new ones to log in Townsville were KVVN, KTXZ, KGST, KBJD, KBIV and KAVT.
Before the listening session I was sitting in a deck chair gazing around the
campsite, thinking about what to set up next week ? it struck me ? what about a
EWE?
So the following week on
28/8 I tried the EWE at 55o through the middle of USA and the tent
was only 20m from the beach overlooking the Pacific. Again in the deck chair
with a beer in hand, I decided that it didn?t matter if I couldn?t put out a
Beveridge, after all the EWE is easy to erect, cuts out noise from power lines
only 1km away and is invisible to other happy campers and beach goers. Well
conditions were great. I was very pleased with excellent conditions this evening
hearing in Townsville for the first time KFI, KNEW, KECR, KYCW, CKWX, KESS,
KFRN, KYOS, KVNR, KWOK, KSTP, KSPA, KGDD, KKAD, KNZR, KCRG, KQWB, WTDY &
WRLL in 6 hours!
OK 11/9 and the third trip
to this lovely campsite at Balgal Beach. Same EWE except slightly different
orientation at 40o this time, quite by accident really. But what an
accident to make as again conditions were sensational with signals from
Washington USA and Western
Canada coming in and I?ve never had such a great opening from this
region. Attribute part of the
reception of KIRO, CHMJ, KJR, KALE, CKNW, CBR, WHO, CKMX, CHRB and KGA to the
ritual sacrificing of VB while kneeling in Pacific Ocean arms out stretched to
the sky to pray to Gods of MW ? you had to be there???.. Will take a few weeks
off listening to go through tapes and do multitude of reports while watching AFL
finals series. Happy to say though that I have a short DXpedition planned for
October 1-4 and I?ll put up EWEs to usual USA in addition to Africa. So far haven?t tried a sunrise session yet, can?t
wait. Reports to: KFI 640, KIRO 710,
CHMJ 730, KNEW 910, KECR 910, KJR 950, KALE 960, CKNW 980, CBR 1010, CKMX 1060,
KYCW 1090, CHRB 1140, KESS 1270, KXTK 1280, KVVN 1430, KYOS 1480, KVNR 1480,
KWOK 1490, KSTP 1500, KSPA 1510, KGDD 1520, KKAD 1550, KTXZ 1560, KNZR 1560,
KLIV 1590, KDAV 1590, KVRI 1600, KDZR 1640, KBIV 1650, KQWB 1660, WTDY 1670,
KAVT 1680, WRLL 1690 and KDDZ 1690. QSLs
from: 2HC 639; DXKT 1071; DXMR 1170; JOUG 675; JONK 819; JOVF 1431; CNR
1593; CNR Fujian 765 & 927; CNR Henan 1377; CNR 1359; CRI Changchun 1323
kHz; CRI Yunnan 1188 kHz; KHPY 1670; KKPZ 1330; KMKY 1310; KBIV
980.
640 1208 KFI Los Angeles CA. Fair here
with coast to coast 28/8
(CE)
680 1111 KNBR San Francisco, CA. Poor
here with usual talk 14/8 (CE)
710 0820 KIRO Seattle, WA. Fair here with a rarely heard nostalgia
radio drama program ?When Radio Was? 11/9 (CE)
730 0839 CHMJ Vancouver, BC. Fair but poor overall with ESPN 11/9
(thanks to USA guys for tip on this one)
(CE)
910 0953 KNEW Oakland, CA. Dominant on
the channel here with talk 28/8 (CE)
910 1223 KECR El Cajon, CA. A couple of peaks up over stronger KNEW,
noted with lifestyle directions program 28/8 (CE)
950 0745 KJR
Seattle, WA. Good at times despite cochannel splatter
with ESPN Sports Talk Back, good all night 11/9 (CE)
960 0753 KALE
Richland, WA. Poor with ESPN // 950 network pgm, mixing
with unid station possibly with CBS news 11/9 (CE)
980 0856 CKNW
New Westminster, BC. Fair with sports then news mixing with
traces of KDBV 11/9 (CE)
1010 0907 CBR
Calgary, AB. Fair at times but tough to hear, noted international news, then
heard at 1024 relaying DW Germany of all bloody things! 11/9 (CE)
1040 0914 WHO
Des Moines, IA. The best on this channel mixing with KLHT
and possibly CKST with sports talk. Heard with Coast to coast 11/9
(CE)
1060 0922 CKMX
Calgary, AB. Poor under Torres
Strait Islands 4TI on 1062, oldies mx show
11/9
(CE)
1090 0941 KYCW
Seattle, WA. Good with C&W music & IDs between
every couple of songs 28/8 (CE)
1130 0938 CKWX
Vancouver, BC. Good with ID mixing with KRDU & KSDO
28/8 (CE)
1140 0930 CHRB
High River, AB. Fair at times with network religious pgm from Florida, then
local ID noted 11/9 (CE)
1180 1052 KERI
Wasco, CA. Poor with religious talk 14/8 (CE)
1270 0925 KESS
Fort Worth, TX. Fair signal but bad splatter from 2SM, SS
oldies with brief annc?s in between songs 28/8 (CE)
1280 1040 KXTK Arroyo
Grande, CA. Poor here with wx & talk of east coast Hurricane 14/8 &
better at 0913 on 28/8 (CE)
1280 1245 KFRN Long Beach or
KUYL Stockton, CA. Under KXTK with religious commentary 28/8
(CE)
1430 1153 KVVN Santa Clara,
CA. Unid lang songs and few male announcements, then EE ID 21/8
(CE)
1480 0852 KYOS Merced, CA.
Good here with coast to coast over KVNR 28/8 (CE)
1480 0904 KVNR Santa Ana,
CA. Brief fade ups over KYOS, Asian format 28/8 (CE)
1490 1210 Unid SS talk stn,
no ID, likely one of the 1kW Californian or Texan SS stations here 21/8
(CE)
14901303KWOK Hoquiam, WA. Poor right on WA sunrise with ESPN radio
IDs 28/8 (CE)
1500 1045 KSTP
St Paul, MN. Good with talk
& ID on hour, but mixing with equally strong KUMU also with talk 28/8
(CE)
1510 0715 KGA Spokane, WA. Monster signal at times thanks to pointing
this antenna to Canada. Lots of IDs 11/9 (CE)
1510 1100 KSPA Ontario, CA.
Brief peaks with oldies mx show under very dominant KGA with usual talk 28/8
(CE)
1520
1105 KGDD Oregon City,
OR. Poor here under much stronger KOMA which
this day actually changed call to KOKC, noted a couple of unids in the mix, one
with EZL SS tunes
&
other with news/talk 28/8 (CE)
1550 1014 KKAD Vancouver, WA. Tough one due to splatter from monster on
1548, noted oldies mx show with ID and occasional ads, also noted unid talk
station 28/8 (CE)
1560
1218 KTXZ West Lake Hills,
TX. Fair here in SS mix with KNZR
21/8 (CE)
1560
0834 KNZR Bakersfield, CA. Good with ID & football promo. 28/8
(CE)
1590 0732 KLIV San Jose, CA. Fair with CNN news & ads over KUNX
with SS 28/8 (CE)
1590
0702 KDAV Lubback,
TX. Fair & dominant over KLIV
with oldies 28/8 (CE)
1600 1114 KGST Fresno, CA.
Thought it was the Mexican until ID, here in SS with great tunes 21/8
(CE)
1600
0939 KVRI Blaine WA. Dominant in the mix here with great back
to back Indian mx & very few announcements 14/8 (CE)
1600 0801 KCRG Cedar Rapids, IA. Peaked up briefly with ID, nx & wx
then back down in the mix a few minutes later 28/8 (CE)
1600 0717 Unid. Fair peaks
with adult cont format back to back songs, no announcements heard, mixing with
others 28/8 (CE)
1600 0803 Unid. Another unid
on this funky channel, fair briefly in the mix with USA Radio News but no ID
11/9 (CE)
1640
0732 KDZR Lake Oswego, OR or WKSH Sussex, WI. Not sure which one as
missed local ID on half hour, fair on peaks with lots of Radio Disney IDs 11/9
(CE)
1650
0827 KBJD Denver, CO. Dominant one in the mix with mainly religious talk 21/8
(CE)
1650
0845 KBIV El Paso,
TX. Fade up over KBJD, back to back
C&W songs 21/8 (CE)
1660 1130 KXOL Brigham City, UT. Best of the bunch here with IDs &
oldies over KRZX & KTIQ 14/8 (CE)
1660 1127 KQWB West Fargo, ND. Great peak here over KXOL, KRZX & KTIQ
mix, noted ads, then CNN news & ID 28/8 (CE)
1670 1119 WTDY Madison, WI. ID after series of nx items and wx, over
top of KHPY 28/8 (CE)
1680 1027 KAVT Fresno, CA.
Good with IDs, lots of ads in EE & SS & pop mx 21/8 (CE)
1690 1112 WRLL Berwyn, IL. Good peak over KDDZ playing oldies then ID
28/8 (CE)16901219KDDZ Arvada, CO. Poor but fair peaks with usual
Radio Disney format 14/8 (CE)
(CE) Craig Edwards,
Townsville QLD. DXing from the DX Tent at Balgal Beach campsite, 50km north of
Townsville, Icom R75 running off 12V, pre-amp, EWE to North
America.
QSLs
AUSTRALIA
2HC Coffs Harbour 639 kHz.
FD letter in 2 weeks v/s Georgie Frogley, Station Manager, PO Box 1950, Coffs
Harbour NSW 2450 (CE)
CHINA
CNR Fujian 765 kHz. FD CNR
card in 7 weeks, addr PO
Box 4501, Dept Audience, CHR Beijing
(CE)
CNR Henan 1377 kHz. FD CNR
card in 8 weeks, addr PO
Box 4501, Dept Audience, CHR Beijing
(CE)
CNR 1593 kHz. FD CNR card in
3 weeks, addr PO Box
4501, Dept Audience, CHR Beijing (CE)
CNR Fujian 927 kHz. FD CNR
card in 3 weeks, addr PO
Box 4501, Dept Audience, CHR Beijing
(CE)
CNR 1359 kHz. FD CNR card in
3 weeks, addr PO Box
4501, Dept Audience, CHR Beijing (CE)
CRI Changchun 1323 kHz. FD QSL
cd in 5 weeks (CE)
CRI Yunnan 1188 kHz. FD QSL
cd in 5 weeks (CE)
JAPAN
JONK Nagano 819 kHz. FD NHK QSL
card in 2 weeks, v/s T. Sato (CE)
JOUG Hiroshima 675 kHz. FD
letter in 2 weeks, v/s Hideo Yamanaka, NHK Hiroshima (CE)
JOVF Wakayama 1431 kHz. FD QSL
card in 6 weeks, v/s Hirotoshi
Kino, 3-3 Minatohonmachi Wakayama City, 640-8577 (CE)
PHILIPPINES
DXKT
Davao City
1071 kHz. FD QSL letter v/s John S Rada, RPN9 DXKT TX, Bolton Isla Davao City
800 (CE)
DXMR
Zamboanga City
1170 kHz. FD letter v/s Andrew Navarro, Baliwasan Chico Rd, Zamboanga City 7000 (CE)
USA
KKPZ Portland OR 1330 kHz. Nice FD letter in 2 weeks for $US with
details of past listeners in Sweden, Italy, Australia and Switzerland. v/s
Sharon, KKPZ
4700 SW Macadam #102, Portland OR 97239 (CE)
KMKY Oakland CA 1310 kHz. FD letter & sticker in 3
weeks for US$, v/s Shalon Rogers, 900 Front Street, San
Francisco CA 94111 (CE)
KHPY Moreno
Valley CA 1670 kHz. FD letter for
US$, v/s D.L. Van Voorhis, 24490 Sunnymead Blvd, Suite No. 215, Moreno Valley CA
92553 (CE)
KBIV Salinas CA 980 kHz. FD letter & sticker for
$US v/s Erica Villalobos, 548 E.Alisal St,
Suite A, Salinas CA 93905 (CE)