DX from Port Douglas QLD Australia

[wildthangjim]

I've just returned from Pt Douglas, on the NE coast of Australia, just about the opposite side of the country from Perth where I live. It's a tropical paradise, so with all the snorkeling, whale-watching, beachgoing, and rain forest hiking, I must say DX was not my highest priority...but I did bring my Sony ICF-SW7600GR portable and tuned around a few times. Our condo was 50m from the beach, but was very RF-noisy (Aussies love the CFLs and the reverse-cycle a/c units are noise generators), so had trouble DXing from the room. One night after the kids were in bed I sat on the beach with the radio and some red wine (ahhh) and had better luck.

In the daytime, the dial is relatively empty compared to Perth, maybe slightly busier than the dial in the northern Rockies or South Dakota. One of the stronger signals on the dial day and night is 585 Port Moresby Papua New Guinea (10kw at ~500 miles from Pt D). I also heard what must have been the 50kw 612 Brisbane, 900 miles down the coast. Otherwise, there are a few stations in Northern QLD but that's all I heard.

At night, the dial is more busy than here, with more stations over on the eastern coast. My attempt to hear Hawaii or US was mostly a bust. I heard weak audio on 760, probably KGU, but never heard it clear enough to ID. I tried 650, 690, and the others suggested on here, but no luck. No external antenna hurt me I'm sure...

The most interesting thing was all the PNG, Phillipines, and other Pacific stuff I heard that I've not yet heard from Perth. Vanuatu on 1179, Fiji on 684, PNG on 810 and 900, possibly Tonga on 1017, Tahiti 738, Micronesia 1350. The strongest Chinese there, 1089, was nearly local-strength, but I've never heard it here. Conversely, the 1 mw VOA 1575 in Thailand, very strong here, was completely absent over there. I was expecting to hear some NZ's, but was tough as NZ is more or less the same direction as the SE Australia cities, with Phillipines/SE Asia on the back side, making nulling difficult. I had tentative receptions of 657 Wellington and a couple of others, but no positive IDs.

Anyway, a good trip, hope to get back over there someday (with an external antenna).

 

[radioman148]

Thanks for the report--very interesting.

 

[cd637299]

If you heard audio on 760, and know that it wasn't 756 or 765, I think it'd have to be KGU---or even better--KFMB

I heard a "whistler" I think on 585 when I was at Nags Head NC in Nov 1997---figured it to be Spain, but of course I didn't stay with it---it was an analog radio anyway.

cd

 

[wildthangjim]

When you look at the distances involved, it would have been pretty amazing to hear KGU, much less KFMB. According to "Daftlogic", Honolulu is ~4,700 miles from Port Douglas (vs 3,800 from NC to Madrid!). I don't know about the math involved, but 10kw at 4,700 miles using a portable w/no external antenna was always going to be a challenge, even considering saltwater path. Certainly not impossible, but tough.

 

[jd]

I don't know about the math involved, but 10kw at 4,700 miles using a portable w/no external antenna was always going to be a challenge, even considering saltwater path. Certainly not impossible, but tough.

This is admittedly theoretical, but might it make sense not to concentrate only on the lower band AM's from Hawaii? We know that the upper part of the band is more skywave friendly, e.g., KVNS 1700 and some other X-banders being heard in parts of northern Europe. There aren't any stations in Hawaii in the expanded band but there are several Honolulu stations that are just below it on 1420, 1460, 1500 and 1540. Those are all 5kW non-directional except for 1500 which runs 10kW.

 

[radioman148]

When you look at the distances involved, it would have been pretty amazing to hear KGU, much less KFMB. According to "Daftlogic", Honolulu is ~4,700 miles from Port Douglas (vs 3,800 from NC to Madrid!). I don't know about the math involved, but 10kw at 4,700 miles using a portable w/no external antenna was always going to be a challenge, even considering saltwater path. Certainly not impossible, but tough.

This is not as difficult as you think. On two different trips to Hawaii in 2008 & 2010 I heard 1116 in Brisbane, Australia on multiple occasions very well.
The radio was a Grundig G5 with an internal antenna. Over 5,000 miles.
I was also in Hawaii in 1978 and heard both WLS & WBBM on a panasonic radio with a similar internal antenna. In this case over 4200 miles--half over land.

 

[wildthangjim]

Yep, I was expecting/hoping to do better, based on your experience and others'. Someone on here told of getting Hawaii easily from down here as well.

I do think it was KGU I heard, but didn't get an ID. I'm not sure what else it could have been, was strongest right on 760-even. I didn't really have enough time to DX...if I had, I would have spent more time on each frequency and might have had more luck.

I tried 1500 and 1540, but didn't hear anything but slop from 1503 and 1539 respectively. Considering how KVNS gets out, maybe I should try for it down here

 

[crainbebo]

Next time, I would HIGHLY recommend you try 1580. KMIK and KBLA both make it down to the South Pacific very often. Most of the juice goes to sharks and dolphins...

-crainbebo

 

[pianoplayer88key]

I second the recommendation to try 1580 for KMIK. (No, rbrucecarter5, you are not the only RD fan on the boards. ) I'm especially curious to know how their signal is in eastern AU on consumer portable radios using only the built-in antennas. Isn't one of their current artists - Cody Simpson - from Gold Coast, near Melbourne, IIRC? I wonder if any of his fans back in his hometown might be able to hear the station...

I think he and his sister (Alli) are living in the L.A. area now, but some daydreaming I've done recently involves them at home in GC doing a live online video chat around early evening their time, me noticing a portable radio (preferably one that has AM Stereo reception capability, combined with KMIK dropping their IBOC and starting up C-Quam) behind them, and asking them to see if they can get anything on 1580. Of course one of Cody's songs would be on, as the last song before the top of the hour. Then the station goes to break .. then when they come back with whatever their ID might be if they didn't have HD - maybe "Arizona's 50,000-watt Radio Disney station, AM Stereo 1580, KMIK, Tempe / Phoenix!" or something like that - I wonder how they (or i guess any other non-dxers from the younger generation) would react to hearing music from a station ~ 7,000 miles away?

Also I wonder how strong KMIK's signal might be there in Australia. It's a blowtorch at my house near El Cajon, CA, outslugging just about every other skywave signal available here, and often even out-dueling many of my locals, except a couple nearby 50kW stations and maybe a few others. Its IBOC also frequently wipes out my reception of stations on 1570 and 1590, although I have heard XERF a few times, as well as KPRO during critical hours. I've even had it overload my PL-606 (not just front-end blocking/desensing, but actual on-channel audio distortion / clipping that you get when the signal is indicating upwards of 98 dBµ or so) when combining a Select-A-Tenna and utility grounding wire! I'm not even in the fattest part of the main lobe, either. ERP toward me, last I calculated (too lazy to double check right now) is about 100 kW at night, and the main lobe is 400 kW. (I think to eastern AU it's around 300 to 350 kW, IIRC. Not sure what it is to western AU, like Perth, but I would expect it to be considerably less.)


As for 760 ... which do you guys think would have been more likely? KGU from Honolulu, at 10 kW omni-directional, or KFMB from San Diego, at 50 kW with a broad lobe aimed out into the Pacific?

 

[cd637299]

I "third" the motion on 1580. KMIK is probably the most-reported US AM station in Australia.

One of our r-i members who lives in Australia once heard it during its country-music days as KCWW----in AM Stereo.

cd

 

[wildthangjim]

Well, I guess I'd better take another trip to Port Douglas .

Interesting question re KFMB vs KGU. If KFMB is sending that much more power in my direction, it's only 2500 more miles.

 

[dxer2_2000]

Ok - sorry I've come to this posting late, but here is my experience in DXing in Cairns , near Pt Douglas. I however used a high end setup consisting of a Kenwood R-5000 & 200m longwire, Dxing at Cook uni on their football ground. Many of the Aussies simply aren't there, which made for amazing DX.

Much of the Hawaiians & West Coast North Americans are strong & clear. Best Hawaiians were 760 KGU, 1500 KUMU. Many others were heard at weak levels such as 1270 KNDI. Best of the west coasters was 1120 KPNW out of Eugene OR - heard at armchair levels. Stations like KMIK 1580 are weak up there. KMIK is heard much stronger down here at my latitude of Numeralla NSW ( I get KMIK strong enough to flash "HD" on the sony tuner's display).
Some East coast (W calls) were heard incl WBBM & WMAQ.

Much of SE Asia was heard, but was different every night. One night would favour Japan, the next, Phillipines, another night, China.

During the mornings, the ME was heard well - most strongest was 1233 RMC Cyprus at S8 on the S meter. I heard only one Euro - that being 1269 Yugoslavia.

Pacific was hit & miss. I heard only one Fijian on 1467 & American Samoa appeared briefly on 648 (WVUV).

That's just a brief summary of DXing in Cairns in 1996.

dxer2_2000

 

[cyberdad]

Much of the Hawaiians & West Coast North Americans are strong & clear.

dxer2_2000

Amazing stuff....your entire post. And for that matter this entire thread.

What surprises me is KNDI. David Eduardo reported hearing KNDI in Cleveland during the early 60s. The reason I'm surprised is because when I lived in Honolulu for one year of high school in the mid 60s, KNDI was such a shoestring operation. The signal locally was pretty awful....complete with bad audio! KGU...and even KUMU...would be less of a surprise to me. KUMU was only 1kw when I was out there, but they upgraded shortly after to 5kw and then eventually 10kw IIRC.

 

[wildthangjim]

dxer2_2000, very impressed with your receptions. I guess I really needed a 200m longwire