[IRCA] Mea Culpa: 5CC

["John H. Bryant" <bjohnorcas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The TPers here will remember my "nearly/actually certain" logging of 
5CC Port Lincoln on 765 kHz. from ten days ago. This 765 signal has 
been a persistent threshold or just above signal all of this summer 
season and has been driving me crazy.... Trying to distinguish 
between 5CC and 2EC, Bega NSW..... with both running an Oldies/pops 
format.  The station seemed to pay little attention to TOH or BOH 
IDing and had few, if any commercials that late at night.  On the 
recent DXpedition, there was low level audio on 765 every 
morning.  The programming was pops/rock, but the level was so low 
that I had never even been able to ID a single record, before. 
Finally on this DXpedition, one of the first mornings, I clearly 
heard about 2/3 of "Knock Three Times" from the 1970 "Candida" album 
by Tony Orlando and Dawn.... the signal then settled back into rock 
and roll murmurs. The next morning, at last, I heard a quiet ID by a 
woman. I wasn't sure of the call letters, but I heard "Port Lincoln" 
clearly. Touchdown!  Problem solved, success at last.  I heard fair 
to low 765 audio a couple more times during the DXpedition and 
recorded about 5 minutes of it each time, hoping for another ID or 
clue at a better level... no luck and consistent pop rock/roll murmurs.

When I started doing reception reports back here on Orcas, I decided 
to use CoolEdit to try to pull up those call letters or at least 
clarify the words "Port Lincoln" so that the station staff might also 
hear them.  Well, I wasn't successful... I couldn't understand the 
call letters at all and, actually, the only word that was 
unmistakable was "PORT." Even the "Lincoln" was quite 
suspect.  Finally, the thought popped into my brain "This isn't 
English!" and my life passed before my eyes. I knew and had even 
mentioned that the third possibility was Radio Kuhungunu, an 
all-Maori station in Napier-Hastings, New Zealand! But, heck, a Maori 
station playing all pop rock and Tony Orlando from 1970????!!!

I should have known better.... when I was on Easter Island last year, 
I listened to the local community station a lot: RADIO 
MANUKENA.  They played almost exclusively pop rock. About half of it 
was in Spanish, mostly from Chile (they are Chilean territory.) The 
other half was pop rock from around Polynesia.... Easter Island, 
Cooks, Tahiti, Hawaii and NEW ZEALAND, with every record being in 
some Polynesian dialect. They played almost no traditional Polynesian 
singing. I should not have been surprised that there is a fairly 
vibrant popular music scene around Polynesia and Melanesia... there 
is almost every place else and, at low levels, it tends to sound like 
USA/Brit pop.  Well, nuts! I blew that one.

I went back through my five other recordings of 765 and sure enough, 
there is one that it is CLEAR is a pop rock song in Polynesian. I 
don't know how to explain Tony Orlando being on the air.... either 
that reception was, in fact, from one of the two Aussies - it fits 
their format - or more likely, Radio Kuhungunu tossed in a Tony 
Orlando and Dawn just for the heck of it.

This morning, a report, with a CD containing four separate recordings 
from 765, including that "ID" went in the mail, to Radio 
Kuhungunu.  Here's hoping!  Its only 2.5 kW.

Hummmm there are several lessons for me here....


John B.
Orcas Island, WA, USA
Rcvrs: WiNRADiO 313e, Eton e1, Ultralights
Antennas: Two 70' x 100' Conti Super Loops, West and Northwest
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