DXing in Hawaii

[radioman148]

Have you tried any FM DX yet? I'd be curious to know if there is any FM reception from outside the state when conditions are ripe.

I have not tried any FM DX. Maybe someone else who's been out here has tried that--anyone?

 

[cyberdad]

The Vancouver station alternates here in Hawaii now with XEX in Mexico City. I wonder if they get any ratings with that traffic format?

The traffic format pulls a 0.3 to 0.4.

Not surprising.  I said in my last post that Vancouver traffic can be pretty nasty.  But basically that's confined to rush hours.  During most of the day its usually not all that big of an issue.  11pm?  There are better things to be doing in Vancouver at that hour than listening to traffic reports! ;D  Maybe they'll switch to live reports of the sea planes taking off and landing in Coal Harbor.

I'm intrigued...but I guess not totally surprised...with KFAQ. Personally, I'd have guessed if there'd be anything on 1170 from the mainland, that it would be San Diego.  Not sure offhand what's going on with them now, but when it was KCBQ they were throwing a lot of juice towards the ocean.

In the late '60s, after my junior year of high school in Honolulu (McKinley), I was in college in eastern Iowa.
During most of the school year, as KVOO, 1170 from Tulsa would regularly trash semi-local KSTT from about mid-afternoon until putting in their nighttime DA.  Monster signal. 

 

[radioman148]

>>I'm intrigued...but I guess not totally surprised...with KFAQ. Personally, I'd have guessed if there'd be anything on 1170 from the mainland, that it would be San Diego. Not sure offhand what's going on with them now, but when it was KCBQ they were throwing a lot of juice towards the ocean.

In the late '60s, after my junior year of high school in Honolulu (McKinley), I was in college in eastern Iowa.
During most of the school year, as KVOO, 1170 from Tulsa would regularly trash semi-local KSTT from about mid-afternoon until putting in their nighttime DA. Monster signal. >>


I also expected to hear KCBQ, but they're not even in the mix. Apparently they're running less than 3KW at night.
I used to hear KVOO well when I traveled through Texas years ago, but I never expected to hear Tulsa's 1170 in Hawaii.
Proves you never know with DX.

 

[radioman148]

Tonights DX report from Oahu between 10:30--11:10PM HST:

Religious sounding station on 1170 instead of KFAQ tonight. Couldn't copy it long enough to hear where it was.
Notice KNJP in Alaska is religious, but only running 20Kw at night not likely, but who knows?
Also heard a station on 890, but could not identify because of splatter from local 880. Wonder if I was hearing KDXU?

Lot's of LA stations were strong tonight including KTLK, KNX, & KTNQ the strongest. KSL also coming in very well this evening.
As usual Marshall Islands on 1098 coming in with their weird sounding music.

 

[radioman148]

Was listening around 5:10AM HST this morning. The mainland was gone, but I was getting a weak signal on 1116. They were speaking english with a british accent. Can anyone with a WRTH help with this? I doubt very much this could've been Australia. Is there anything else out in the pacific that's a brit territory that fits this frequency?

Thanks.

 

[stormy01]

How about 4BC in Brisbane? They are 4700 miles at 226 degrees from HI, so was your antenna oriented almost exactly South West? Perhaps check their web stream at http://www.4bc.com.au to see if the audio compares. Everything else is in other languages but a Melbourne area station and a New Zealander. Checked WRTH and
fmscan.org I wouldn't rule out reception of a skywave and/or seawater conductivity at that distance and even at the power they are transmitting - 6.3kW at night. And
you were on a relatively clear channel as well.

I have no idea what effects reception more in that region of the world, the skywave reception and/or seawater conductivity, or to what proportion of each. The seawater conductivity is enormous, more than 150 times in direct proportion to that of the best soil conductivity. However, I have no idea at this point in time if that is in direct proportion or there is a logarithmic measurement/calculation for conductivity. Perhaps Richard Fry who is very knowledgeable on conductivity and skywave reception could tell us! The FCC has some good information on conductivity at: http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/m3/index.html

 

[radioman148]

How about 4BC in Brisbane? They are 4700 miles at 226 degrees from HI, so was your antenna oriented almost exactly South West? Perhaps check their web stream at http://www.4bc.com.au to see if the audio compares. Everything else is in other languages but a Melbourne area station and a New Zealander. Checked WRTH and
fmscan.org I wouldn't rule out reception of a skywave and/or seawater conductivity at that distance and even at the power they are transmitting - 6.3kW at night. And
you were on a relatively clear channel as well.

I have no idea what effects reception more in that region of the world, the skywave reception and/or seawater conductivity, or to what proportion of each. The seawater conductivity is enormous, more than 150 times in direct proportion to that of the best soil conductivity. However, I have no idea at this point in time if that is in direct proportion or there is a logarithmic measurement/calculation for conductivity. Perhaps Richard Fry who is very knowledgeable on conductivity and skywave reception could tell us! The FCC has some good information on conductivity at: http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/m3/index.html

It sure sounded like it could've been Australia. I guess if I can pick up Tulsa, Ok at 3,800 miles maybe I can get Australia at 4,700 over water. How do I check fmscan.org for a particular frequency? When I go in there I just get the option of clicking on a country and then a few arbitrary stations come up. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks Stormy

 

[stormy01]

Hey Radioman, try these steps, just tried it to make sure it works correctly:

- http://www.fmscan.org/

- click on MW

- click on - Frequencies For Any Location
(complete prediction 150 - 1720 KHz)

- click on change location

- enter - Where is the location of the receiver? click search

- select the appropriate location from a list

- click on expert options

- input the frequency range desired (narrow the range if you're looking for a specific part of the MW/AM band; output list won't be so large)

- input the desired radius in km multiply distance in miles by 1.61 to obtain distance in km. (use a distance calculator such as http://www.mapcrow.info/ or a website you prefer to determine the distance between two locations)

- check - list all stations if checking program content, check program list

- threshold - make that 0 db (default is 35, that is a regional signal strength)

- weaker signals range - make that 0 db (default is 20, that is a bit over the average atmospheric noise level)

- depending on where you're located, you may need to set the output limit higher or lower (default is 1000 stations) I would suggest at least 2000 for the output limit; when I ran the search for Hawaii with the output limit set to 1000, the list would not display the 1098 and 1116kHz frequencies, or any other "split channel" (non 10kHz steps) but when I increased the output to 2000 these stations appeared on the list. So that's one little quirk of the database.

- click on generate distance in list is in km, to convert to miles multiply distance in km by 0.62 if you want to know the distance in miles.

- happy DXing!

 

[radioman148]

Thanks Stormy. I'll try it.

 

[radioman148]

Tonight, my last night here I think I picked up KCBS. Very weak signal on 740 with a talk show. After checking their website
I noticed that they do broadcast non news shows on Sunday nights.
All the regular San Francisco stations were coming in very well including KTRB, KFAX & KNBR. Still no sign at all of KGO.
Never heard it on this trip.

 

[gar hi]

Has any of you who've DXed from Hawaii ever attempted to hear 610 KEAR from San Francisco? With all the mention of SF stations, it made me think of how 610 (the old KFRC) used to sound more like a 50kw than the 5kw it really is. It's non directional too.

 

[radioman148]

Has any of you who've DXed from Hawaii ever attempted to hear 610 KEAR from San Francisco? With all the mention of SF stations, it made me think of how 610 (the old KFRC) used to sound more like a 50kw than the 5kw it really is. It's non directional too.

On my trip I was unable to hear anything on 610 well enough to identify. There are 2 other stations on the west coast one in Washington & one in Southern California that send more signal towards Hawaii than San Francisco does.

 

[Len14043]

Radioman,
What do you hear on the graveyard channels in Hawaii? I did a search on Radio-locator.com and all the graveyards appear to be vacant. I was curious if you receive strong stations from Asia or the choppy sound of multiple stations, albeit at a lower level, as heard on the mainland.

 

[radioman148]

Radioman,
What do you hear on the graveyard channels in Hawaii? I did a search on Radio-locator.com and all the graveyards appear to be vacant. I was curious if you receive strong stations from Asia or the choppy sound of multiple stations, albeit at a lower level, as heard on the mainland.

I didn't check the graveyards when I was there, but a few of them have Hawaiian stations. I didn't spend much time listening to those frequencies.
Along that subject I did listen to the ex-band and I did pick up 3 stations, 1640 Vallejo, Ca, 1670 near LA, and 1700 near San Diego. Underneath them and on other ex band frequencies I did hear the choppy sound that you mentioned.
Regarding Asia I heard stations on split frequencies that I believe were from Japan at around 5AM Hawaiian time. However, not being able to understand the language I can't officially confirm.

My most interesting catch at that time was a talk station on 1116AM which was in English and sounded like a british/aussie accent. I was told that there is a station in Brisbane , Australia on that frequency which I strongly suspect I was hearing, but the signal wasn't strong enough for me to make a positive ID at a break.

 

[cyberdad]

When I spent my junior year in high school in Honolulu in the mid-60s, there was a 1490 on Kauai. You couldn't hear it very well in Honolulu because of splatter from KUMU on 1500. If you got far enough from the KUMU stick, it had a fair nighttime signal with no readily apparent trace of the mainland graveyard stuff underneath.

 

[radioman148]

There's a 1420, 1460 and 1270 in Honolulu which was very close to where I was on Oahu.
Other than those I didn't hear anything on the graveyards, but I didn't put much time into listening to those frequencies.

 

[kd8hho]

did you get any recordings, i think it would be awesome to listen to

 

[radioman148]

No I didn't record anything this time, but when I was in Hawaii in November 1978 I did receive WLS & WBBM and I did record it, albeit on a lousy recorder. If I can locate the cassette and it still plays I'll try to post it sometime.

 

[cyberdad]

When I spent my year in Hawaii as a teenager, a buddy of mine lived in the same building as James Ownby, the guy who ran KNDI 1270. It was a shoestring operation, mostly brokered and the signal sounded terrible and also didn't get out very well. Very pathetic for 5kw. The 1kw stations on 1170 and 1210 sounded better and got out better. I never met Ownby, but my friend described him as "very odd". I believe he may have named the station after his daughter, Candy....but I'm not at all sure about that. I was surprised to see on the other thread that its been heard on the mainland.

The old KPOI, on the other hand, had plenty of punch all over the islands with 5kw on 1380. (I lived three blocks from their stick). 1420 and 1460 at this point (mid 60s) were still a twinkle in someone's eye! In those days, no Honolulu station was running more than 10kw. I personally thought KULA on 690 probably had the best signal....although KGU on760 and KORL on 650 (in that order) were reasonably close.

 

[radioman148]

When I spent my year in Hawaii as a teenager, a buddy of mine lived in the same building as James Ownby, the guy who ran KNDI 1270. It was a shoestring operation, mostly brokered and the signal sounded terrible and also didn't get out very well. Very pathetic for 5kw. The 1kw stations on 1170 and 1210 sounded better and got out better. I never met Ownby, but my friend described him as "very odd". I believe he may have named the station after his daughter, Candy....but I'm not at all sure about that. I was surprised to see on the other thread that its been heard on the mainland.

The old KPOI, on the other hand, had plenty of punch all over the islands with 5kw on 1380. (I lived three blocks from their stick). 1420 and 1460 at this point (mid 60s) were still a twinkle in someone's eye! In those days, no Honolulu station was running more than 10kw. I personally thought KULA on 690 probably had the best signal....although KGU on760 and KORL on 650 (in that order) were reasonably close.

When I was there recently the best signal on Oahu was 830 which is now KHVH. When I was there in the 70s
830 was KIKI and KHVH was 990.
650, which was KORL (I'm not sure what their calls are now) still has a good signal, but their audio is terrible.
They are running an oldies/nostalgia format playing everything from the 4 Seasons, Beach Boys, to Stan Kenton and Frank Sinatra. They are always overmodulated--simply terrible audio. I've heard part 15 stations with far superior audio.