Re: [IRCA] Pacific Island report for 22 Nov 2009: North of Samoa

[ragusa <ragusa@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Walt
You'll almost be in Honolulu by now...fascinating to track your listening
across the Pacific.
As you've found, it's a bit of a wasteland in terms of signals originating
within the islands themselves.
You heard nothing from American Samoa because nothing is on the air. KJAL
has been silent for about a year, and the recent photo I have of the tower
shows it's heavily rusted after a few short years and is too short for lower
frequencies so has no value for the planned KKHJ and WVUV AM outlets.
Auckland's Radio Tarana 1386 with 10kW is beamed towards Fiji to provide an
alternative service at night for the Indian community.
I'm surprised you've heard nothing of Majuro 1098 with 25kW, as this is
getting into NZ over Christchurch.
There are clearly some propagation things happening in the mid-Pacific, as
I've DX'd now from Samoa, Tahiti and Hawaii and noticed the same absence of
island stations in the same latitudes, and the absence of Queensland
stations or PNG is also noticeable.
I think you asked about VL2NI 1566 on Norfolk. It runs 50w and so in the
daytime will go nowhere without your having a longwire. From early evening
it carries Radio NZ National.
Your observations about NZ MW programming were interesting to read - yes, it
gets a bit boring, but at least sports and talk shows allow signals under to
be separated out!
There are a small number of Kiwi AM's with independent programs - 729 Burn,
756 Puketapu, 1440 Goldrush; some of the Maori stations [state funded] such
as 765 Hawkes Bay, 1161 Wellington, 1440 Tauranga for instance, 1593 Radio
Samoa, Access stations [state funded] such as 783, 1206, 1431, 1575...and
the two heritage AM's I had in mind when commenting to you - 1368 Village
1XT and 1413 Ferrymead 3XP. So, it's not as bleak as it could be, but pretty
much a network situation for 95% of stations and most of them from just
10-12 studios of which all but 1 [RNZ National] are in Auckland.
Wonderful to catch up with you in Wellington, and most enjoyable to see the
results of your cruising DX as well. Interesting to see that CBR, CBW, CBU
[old friends from my 70's DX] are still reaching towards NZ.....we just have
too much local QRM these days to really hear them any more.
Cheers
David Ricquish
Wellington NZ

 


-----Original Message-----
From: Walter Salmaniw [mailto:canswl@xxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 2:49 PM
To: Mailing list for the International Radio Club of America;
dxld@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; ragusa; Yuri Muzyka; Bryan & Sandy Clark;
dxer@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: Pacific Island report for 22 Nov 2009: North of Samoa

Pacific DX report for 22 November, 2009: North of Samoa.

I didn?t DX last night as there was a lot happening on the ship. Earlier 
in the day, we crossed the Equator to the south and west of Palmyra and 
Christmas Islands. The weather was blistering hot, so we spent much of 
the day seeking cooler temperatures. Crossing the Equator is always lots 
of fun with King Neptune making an appearance. We had perhaps 20 crew 
members ?guilty? of all sorts of ?crimes?. They were tried by the 
captain and his senior officers, and basically ?tar and feathered? with 
gastly colours and flour, much to the amusement of the passengers. Later 
in the evening it was another one of our formal nights, so no time for 
DX. On top of that, things were simply way too hot to DX in comfort. The 
night before, though, I did DX for a number of hours. This was one day 
out of Samoa. We still have 1½ days to reach Honolulu on Wednesday 
morning. The seas have been very heavy, and as I type this the Amsterdam 
is heaving and shuddering in 4 to 5 meter + seas and heavy winds. The 
most comfortable place to be is outside on the Promenade deck in a 
chair. Plenty of fresh air there and spray from the deep blue ocean. In 
any case, here?s my brief report for November 22, 2009:

540: 2AP with music until 10:00 and into NA without announcement until 
10:01:40. Very good level.

580: ID at 07:14 mentioning KMJ.com, and Fresno. Good level.

590: Charlie Brown Christmas at very good level at 08:11.

630: suspect that I finally heard Radio Cook Islands. At 08:53, islands 
music with my eton aimed towards the Cook Islands. Lots of drumming, and 
not parallel to 657 (another NZ frequency that was in // a week ago to 
630). Poor to fair level only, and faded down at the TOH.

639: Radio Fiji 1 at good level at 08:11. // 558 good to very good, 1152 
(poor).

690: CBU dominating the frequency at 07:00 re the flooding near my 
Victoria home in North Cowichan, B.C. // to CBW, Winnipeg at fair+ level 
too.

720: possibly KUAI, Hawaii with ?I shot the Sheriff? at good level at 07:16

738: RFO Tahiti at fair level at 07:17

1010: CBR, Calgary with CBC news at 09:04

1100: Listened to this one for quite a while. Religious station with 
good levels at times, and then down to nothing. The announcer sounded 
very much like the slow, deep voiced fellow heard over WYFR in Taiwan on 
1557. On-line auction of some sort with phone # given as 1 800 845 216 
(or 5?) 2. Do all of your Christmas shopping on line. Gave an address in 
Oregon.. Finally at 09:58, they mentioned ?Bay area homes?, and 
KFAX.com. So it?s Bakersfield, CA.

1120: ?AM 1120, KPNW?. Eugene, OR at very good level

1160 Didn?t note who this was, just that it was at Very good level.

1179: Finally Vanuatu, but at poor level but clearly // to 3945 around 
08:15. Came back a few minutes later, and no longer // to SW. Perhaps 
now from DU?

1386: Radio Tarana, Auckland back tonight at good level at 07:15.

1420: Likely KKGA, Honolulu at 08:45 with very good level sports.

1430: ?KFIG, Fresno at fair level with sports.

1580: excellent level with music at 08:46. ? KBLA, Santa Monica.

1640: KDIA, Vallejo, CA with a Bible offer at very good level.

1660: Fair/good with music

1700: note 2 cochannels here at fair level.

Shortwave:

15295: Voice of Malaysia at excellent level with a music program from SE 
Asia from 07:20 to 07:47. This is a Sunday only program. Very enjoyable, 
armchair level. Shows how SW can still produce excellent audio on a 
single hop, mostly water path. Filler music until 07:58:30 when an 
announcer mentioned, ?Do stay tuned to the Voice of Islam coming up 
next?. No IS, just ?This is the Voice of Islam? at 08:00. Announced also 
9750 (not heard), and 6175 (also not heard). Cold and wet in Kuala 
Lumpur. They then went into the Koran, followed by translation into 
English.

9526: Voice of Indonesia in English at 10:03. Low modulation with 
transmitter hum, but otherwise a powerful signal.


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