[IRCA] My First TP & TA AM Signal Log from Alaska!

["Paul B. Walker, Jr." <walkerbroadcasting@xxxxxxxxx>]

Since moving to Galena, Alaska on December 31, 2015 I have done solely
Shortwave DX'ing. I've done it at least 30 minutes a day almost every day
for 11 months. Some days, I've done hours upon hours of it when conditions
are good and other times, I've done days without doing any when conditions
were poor.

Galena is in the central part of Alaska, 300 miles west of Fairbanks, 300
miles east of nome and about 300 miles northwest of Anchorage. In the
middle of summer we have broad daylight sunlight from about 415am to 130am.
The sun goes down around 130 but never completely sets, leaving it kinda
hazily lit. In the winter, around January we have broad daylight sunlight
11am to 4pm. The sun doesn't begin rising until about 10-1030am and starts
setting around 330-345pm or so.

Until November 10th and 11th, I'd only racked up about 30 minutes of AM
DX'ing total here and it was all very casual, with no intent on reporting
or logging anything I heard. (KFBK 1530 is my most regular, reliable AM
Visitor.. the signal is usually solidly in and a very listenable fair
signal, but often quite good)

The other day, with Shortwave conditions fair at best and some free time on
my hands, I decided to do some AM DX and as it turns out, I'm glad I did.
The first night, I used just my Grundig Sattelit 750 and 2 long wires, each
225 feet. Ine oriented to provide east/west pick up patterns and the other
oriented to provide north south pick up patterns. The second night, I added
my DX Engineering HF PreAmp which amplifies a signal about 20db (but also
amplifies the noise too!)

I recorded the TA & TP signals I heard the other day and rather then post
long clips, I waded through about an hours worth of audio and picked out
the best portions of my receptions of various stations.

My first TA signal happened to be Absolute Radio 1215khz on November 11 at
0206UTC. The reception was a bit rough. A SINPO rating for this broadcast
would be 35244. The signal had a ton of noise but thankfully no
interference so I could easily make out "Eye Of The Tiger" by Survivor.

Audio clip here:
http://www.onairdj.com/amdx/AbsoluteRadio1215khz_11112016_0206UTC.mp3

I heard Absolute Radio 1215khz again at about 0240UTC on November 12. I was
using my amp and the signal was much stronger and there wasn't as much
noise. SINPO rating for this broadcast would be 45344. My reception starts
out with "Way Down We Go" by Kaleo followed by a very clear Absolute Radio
station liner and into "My Favourite Game" by The Cardigans.

Audio clip here:
http://www.onairdj.com/amdx/AbsoluteRadio1215khz_11122016_0240UTC.mp3

The next signal I heard was Cadena SER's 1044khz from Spain on November
11th at 0217UTC. The signal was actually pretty darn good, just some
atmospheric noise but had I understood spanish, this would've been easy to
listen to. The signal did start to take a noise dive. There is a woman
casually talking in spanish and thanks to Bjarne Mjelde for catching it,
but at 1 minute 22 seconds the lady gives a casual Cadena SER station
identification. I would give this broadcast a SINPO rating of 35333. It
starts out OK but gets poor by the end.

Audio recording here:
http://www.onairdj.com/amdx/SER1044khz_11112016_0217UTC.mp3

The next station I heard was TalkSport 1089khz on November 11 at 0241UTC.
The signal was fair but there was a whine in the background and echo in the
program audio which means I was hearing more then one of the TalkSport 1089
transmitters, they were coming at me from different directions and one was
slightly off frequency from the other. The Two Mikes was on the air
 talking sports and taking listener comments via phone, email and text.
SINPO rating for this broadcast would be 34453. If it wasn't for the whin
and echo, whatever one TalkSport 1089 signal I would've heard would've
likely been pretty listenable.

Audio here:
http://www.onairdj.com/amdx/TalkSport1089khz_11112016_0241UTC.mp3

I heard TalkSport 1053khz as well on November 11 at 0226UTC. The Two Mikes
program was on the air here, again talking about sports and taking listener
comments. The 1053khz signal was SOLID and STRONG like a semi local AM
might be. SINPO Rating for this broadcast would be 55454. Overall,
excellent with just a bit of noise.

Audio clips of TalkSport 1053khz here:
http://www.onairdj.com/amdx/TalkSport1053khz_11112016_0226UTC.mp3

and here: (signal is a bit weaker and slightly noisier here)
http://www.onairdj.com/amdx/TalkSport1053khz_11112016_0231UTC.mp3

I have saved the BEST and MOST AWESOME for last. I have a few AM stations
in particular I really want to log and on my first night out of serious AM
DXing, I was able to knock one station off my Wanted List right off the
bat!!

*V7AB 1098khz Majruo, Marshall Islands *was in remarkably well, all things
considered. There was quite a bit of atmospheric noise but the signal was
pretty strong and the mix of Island type songs and american country music
tines was very very easily cutting through the muck.

I had V7AB in at listenable levels for over half an hour on November 11
between 0518UTC and 0550UTC. The signal would fade down at times but I
would give this an overall SINPO rating of 35354. I'd rate this as good
because I was easily able to understand the music and the clips I uploaded
to YouTube garnered me 4 notices of copyright violations for the songs,
which were all correctly identified by their systems in the copyright
violation notices.

During my listening time on V7AB, they played several pacific island tunes
but also several american country songs including Alan Jackson's
"Summertime Blues", along with Alan's "It Must Be Love" and later on in the
broadcast, Dolly Parton's "9 to 5" and another Alan Jackson song, "Good
Times".

Here's a few clips of V7AB where the music is very audible and easily
identifiable:

http://www.onairdj.com/amdx/V7AB1098khz_11112016_0518UTC.mp3
http://www.onairdj.com/amdx/V7AB1098khz_11112016_0521UTC.mp3
http://www.onairdj.com/amdx/V7AB1098khz_11112016_0532UTC.mp3
http://www.onairdj.com/amdx/V7AB1098khz_11112016_0536UTC.mp3
http://www.onairdj.com/amdx/V7AB1098khz_11112016_0544UTC.mp3

Enjoy,
Paul Walker
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