Re: [IRCA] Kona, Hawaii DXpedition-- More Exotic DU Recordings

[d1028gary@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Hi Colin, 

<<< Probably easier on the West Coast than we think -- because there is largely 
nothing that it is competing with. >>> 

540 is a frequency that I've never really investigated on the Oregon cliffs, but 621 and 1440 are both practically ruined by 620-Portland and 1440-Medford. The chance of receiving any of these three exotic Pacific island stations at home (a notorious DU-dead zone) is next to nil. 

<<< Last Fall I had a couple of mornings where I thought I had something 
"Island like" on that -- 
but I did not have your great recordings at my disposal. >>> 

Thanks, Colin. Your earlier trips to Kona (and your 540-Samoa and 1089-Marshalls MP3's, recorded only on your 7.5" loopstick PL-380 and E100 Slider models) were what motivated me to make a Kona trip in the first place. Now Craig Barnes also plans to try his luck there, and with the development of the relatively cheap, airport-friendly Baby FSL models (using commonly available 140mm x 8mm ferrite rods), I think that these "hit and run" Kona DXpeditions will become increasingly popular in the future. 

<<< I am back in Kona for 3 weeks in January 2018 - 
I hope you return soon as well. >>> 

3 weeks should be more than enough time to really track down some great DX at that location, especially with one of the new "airport-friendly" FSL's. You won't need to chase DX after a full day of sightseeing every day (like I did). Actually we returned to Puyallup already on Thursday, which was probably a good thing considering the lack of sleep every day while in Kona :-) 

Gary 


----- Original Message -----

From: "R. Colin Newell" <coffeecanuck@xxxxxxxxx> 
To: "Mailing list for the International Radio Club of America" <irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
Sent: Tuesday, April 18, 2017 9:10:03 AM 
Subject: Re: [IRCA] Kona, Hawaii DXpedition-- More Exotic DU Recordings 

Probably easier on the West Coast than we think -- because there is largely 
nothing that it is competing with. 

Last Fall I had a couple of mornings where I thought I had something 
"Island like" on that -- 
but I did not have your great recordings at my disposal. 

I am back in Kona for 3 weeks in January 2018 - 

I hope you return soon as well. 

On Tue, Apr 18, 2017 at 2:34 AM, <d1028gary@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: 

> From April 9-12 a Mini-DXpedition was conducted on a sixth floor 
> oceanfront room at the Royal Kona Resort Motel in Kona, Hawaii. A 
> newly-designed 5 inch "Frequent Flyer" FSL antenna (specifically 
> constructed to be "airport friendly") was used to boost DX station gain on 
> a 7.5" loopstick C.Crane "Skywave" Ultralight radio. This combination was 
> effective enough to track down many exotic Pacific Island stations (540, 
> 621, 1440, etc.) at S9 levels during transmitter-site sunset skip 
> propagation into Kona. 
> 
> Knowing very well that all of these Pacific island stations are extremely 
> tough catches in North America (even on the west coast), a deliberate 
> effort was made to record their formats, announcers, sign off routines and 
> times. Linked below are some of these exotic Pacific island MP3's-- which 
> hopefully will be useful to those DXers (like me) who have never heard any 
> of these stations at home. 
> 
> 540 2AP Apia, Western Samoa This station features a lot of Samoan music 
> with both male and female announcers, and dominates the frequency in Kona 
> at night as long as it transmits. Unfortunately it doesn't follow the 
> listed PAL sign off time of 1000, but runs past this time routinely, making 
> it tough to track down an exact sign off time. My guess is that it signs 
> off sometime between 1030 and 1100. The following MP3 is of S9+ level 
> Samoan Christian worship music at 0931 on 4-9. This overwhelming signal was 
> one of the most awesome recorded during the entire DXpedition 
> https://app.box.com/s/8ejvx8s7udh5ibtqymtxs5ew65mquqcl 
> Energetic Samoan music at 0956 on 4-12. This is typical of the station's 
> music format 
> https://app.box.com/s/tbo84s7gb2jci6gfxkawo7rsqpmpkyp3 
> More typical Samoan choral music at 0835 on 4-11 -- a staple of 
> programming in the station's format 
> https://app.box.com/s/z8ecbvx14fyqx0tpjtw2ahy2r7omhst4 
> The usual male announcer in Samoan at 0845 on 4-11 
> https://app.box.com/s/zirqxu76dj7bywxyk1jynoushnw0zyv6 
> The usual female announcer in Samoan at 0856 on 4-11 
> https://app.box.com/s/6rkd8ckcd1005fyc5itupxowaf6jqhex 
> 
> 

-- 
Colin Newell - Editor and creator *of *Coffeecrew.com 
<http://www.Coffeecrew.com> and DXer.ca <http://www.DXer.ca> - 
VA7WWV | Twitter @CoffeeCrew | Victoria - Canada 
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