Late night test tone on 1630 (Northern California)

[seattlesarchiebunker]

Had a late night at work tonight, and an hour commute up the Sierra Foothills back home.

While scanning the AM dial trying to DX some TIS stations at around 3:30 AM local time this morning, I noticed a test tone coming off of 1630. Unusual enough as test tones really don’t exist in radio anymore.

Any guess who this may be? My only guess would be XEUT from Tijuana…but that would be an impressive catch as they only run 1kW at night on the X-band…and I’m about 12 hours north of TJ/SD.

Any other possibilities I’m potentially missing out on?

 

[PTBoardOp94]

Yes, probably XEUT. Another west coast DXer asked about this last year. https://www.radiodiscussions.com/threads/test-tone-on-1630.741730/post-6434809

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

Yes, XEUT.. theyve been doing it for years.. i cuaght it once or twice in Wyoming, just 40 miles west of Cheyennes full pwoer commercial station on 1630

 

[crainbebo]

XEUT stays on all night with an 800hz test tone and I've heard them regularly on 1630.

 

[davideduardo]

Any guess who this may be? My only guess would be XEUT from Tijuana…but that would be an impressive catch as they only run 1kW at night on the X-band…and I’m about 12 hours north of TJ/SD.

Remember, the extended band frequencies are near-shortwave. Very little power can go huge distances.

Before the X-Band became populated in the US, the low power stations in Argentina, mostly around the area of Buenos Aires, were heard easily in the eastern US... most with 1 kw.

 

[Mediafrog+]

Remember, the extended band frequencies are near-shortwave. Very little power can go huge distances.

Both of the Texas stations on 1700, KKLF and KVNS, have been heard in Western Australia, over 10,000 miles away.

 

[cyberdad]

KCJJ, 1630 in Iowa City, was off one night several days ago, leading me to think that they may be doing some maintenance work. So perhaps that can't be totally ruled out, but I still think XEUT would be far more likely. Also, I Checked 1630 this morning about a half hour before local (Chicago area) sunrise this morning and KCJJ was in with music.

 

[MichaelTheZ]

1 KW on the X-band can travel long distances... In Chicago, on 1620 you can sometimes hear WDHP which is in the US Virgin Islands. I can believe that Tijuana can easily make it up to Northern California if there is nothing blocking the signal.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

Wow. 1630. Oh for the good old ancient days, like 1996, when the AM dial was pristine all the way up past the X-band.
The incredible distances possible for low-wattage nighttimers was very cool for a nice strech back then. Indeed, there arrived KDIA 1630 one late night. Still R&B at the time. I believe it was sometime later that I herad them on 1640. The dates here are non-extistent, but Radio-Locator now has them listed on 1640. Oddly, R-L says they're 10,000 watts. Anyone know ?
For some reason, none of us back in Queens ever heard them on 1310. One would imagine that KDIA 1310 had to've been a ratings gangbuster back in the 60's.
That XEUT sounds to be a nice pursuit. 800 cycle tone sometimes is easier to discern than the standard-issue 1 kC tone.

Those two Dallas TX airport stations also were IDable for a while. One on 1640 and one on 1680. Great, different listening entertainment .... flight times, parking routes, lost luggage updates, et al.
Does anyone here remember the power on which those two stations operated?

 

[radioman148]

Wow. 1630. Oh for the good old ancient days, like 1996, when the AM dial was pristine all the way up past the X-band.
The incredible distances possible for low-wattage nighttimers was very cool for a nice strech back then. Indeed, there arrived KDIA 1630 one late night.

In 1996 when I first heard KDIA on 1630 as clear as can be I was really impressed with how well it came in in the midwest. Then I realized the significance of how well even low power stations could travel on a clear channel. Unfortunately for me when I first started DXing in the early 1960s I concentrated on the higher powered stations.

 

[davideduardo]

In 1996 when I first heard KDIA on 1630 as clear as can be I was really impressed with how well it came in in the midwest. Then I realized the significance of how well even low power stations could travel on a clear channel. Unfortunately for me when I first started DXing in the early 1960s I concentrated on the higher powered stations.

A good example of what you describe in the early 60's was KIKI on 830 in Honolulu. It ran at 250 watts, and when WCCO and XELA went off on Monday mornings, many of us in the East logged it on a good winter night. It got so that a good KIKI signal was a sign to go looking for NZ and Australia in the next hour or two!

And, as mentioned before, the extended band channels that started up in Argentina before the US licensed on the same channels were often heard by US DXers at power levels of 1 kw or less.

 

[radioman148]

A good example of what you describe in the early 60's was KIKI on 830 in Honolulu. It ran at 250 watts, and when WCCO and XELA went off on Monday mornings, many of us in the East logged it on a good winter night. It got so that a good KIKI signal was a sign to go looking for NZ and Australia in the next hour or two!

And, as mentioned before, the extended band channels that started up in Argentina before the US licensed on the same channels were often heard by US DXers at power levels of 1 kw or less.

Yes, I remember you mentioning that before. Unfortunately for me I was trying to DX the stronger stations because I thought more power made them an easier catch. I think I first snagged KFI in 1962 in the midwest. It wasn't until 63 or 64 that I learned about the Monday morning signoffs.

 

[cyberdad]

A good example of what you describe in the early 60's was KIKI on 830 in Honolulu. It ran at 250 watts, and when WCCO and XELA went off on Monday mornings, many of us in the East logged it on a good winter night. It got so that a good KIKI signal was a sign to go looking for NZ and Australia in the next hour or two!

Of course during the year I was in high school in Honolulu, KIKI had a tough time getting past the Koolau mountains to the windward side of Oahu!

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

Re what David E said about distance and wattage .....
It's all water under the dam now, and probabky never was, and I'll never know anyway. But back in the great late-60's days, as so many of us knew, a general awareness of the dial was almost an instinctive requirement for DXers -- especially the ones who didn't own omniverous DX monsters. We mokes and benchwarmers had to make do with Emersons and Philcos and Zeniths. So we had to be aware which stations were still on, which ones were off, whether we'd dare to stay up until the dragonnade of 5 AM sign-ons and maybe still catch a few winks before school.
(Helping things greatly was that the first Monday Morning class was 'assembly'. And no one ever stayed awake for that. Even the teachers and band members were often spotted nodding off.)

Anyway: One MM, local WNYC 830 had signed off at their usual 10PM. And there was no WCCO Minneapolis. The only detectable ANYTHING was this faint Amrican pop music station, sounding very far away. I didn't hear an ID or a time check or even much of any discernable language.
Every AM station logbook available at the time listed only a KIKI Honolulu as a possibility. Heck -- what else COULD it've been ?
My great DXing buddies all talked me out of adding it as an official 'catch'. So I didn't count it.
(In retrospect, it would have given me 47 out of the 50 states heard on AM -- and they'd all be stuck at 46. The thought must have appalled them ; Green and his barbershop Zenith and they with their American Bosch's and Hammarlunds, hi. The disavowals are understandable, hi.)

Ergo; if it was KIKI, then David and the others here who testify about low-power and far-reaching signals are forever QSL'ed in my book.

 

[cyberdad]

I don't remember pop music on KIKI during my junior year at McKinley High School in Honolulu. To be honest, I don't remember much of anything about KIKI! Other than it being rather boring. I do, however, remember that it had a tough time getting past the Koolau mountains north of Honolulu (as I posted earlier). That said, I also recall that it was perfectly listenable on the Windward shore of the Big Island of Hawaii. About 150 miles via saltwater path.