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DXing In Hawaii

Over here on Kaua`i, KNBR is a regular nightly catch, as is KMJ in Fresno. Conditions can be very different from night to night, even early to late, low band and high band. Some nights, AM 690 in Honolulu slops over KNBR fairly strongly, but tonight the selective fading is pretty heavy from Honolulu, so long distance should be good later. Right now (10 PM HST) I am hearing KDLG in Dillingham Alaska on 670 fairly clearly, just as strong as KNBR. KFI is fairly clear, but KNX is in the noise. And there are no hetrodynes yet, so Japan and Asia are not in quite yet (another hour until local sunset in Japan right now). I am hearing music on 530 khz again, not as strong as last week. I suspect it is coming from Turks-Caicos, but I am not sure.
There is a newly re-established Maui AM (KUAU) on 1570, running 15KW day and night, non-directional. The tower is down by Kihei, sharing the stick with KNUI (900 khz). They just signed on yesterday. They are coming in fairly well here, 200 miles away.
As the winter transitions to summer out here, the noise levels will rise, and the skip won't be as strong from the distant places. But like I said, it changes night to night, so it is always interesting.
 
Don Mussell said:
Over here on Kaua`i, KNBR is a regular nightly catch, as is KMJ in Fresno. Conditions can be very different from night to night, even early to late, low band and high band. Some nights, AM 690 in Honolulu slops over KNBR fairly strongly, but tonight the selective fading is pretty heavy from Honolulu, so long distance should be good later. Right now (10 PM HST) I am hearing KDLG in Dillingham Alaska on 670 fairly clearly, just as strong as KNBR. KFI is fairly clear, but KNX is in the noise. And there are no hetrodynes yet, so Japan and Asia are not in quite yet (another hour until local sunset in Japan right now). I am hearing music on 530 khz again, not as strong as last week. I suspect it is coming from Turks-Caicos, but I am not sure.
Click to expand...

Don, if this music on 530 sounds like easy listening and if you hear somebody speaking Spanish, it may be from Cuba. I have been hearing elevator music on 530 and I have been thinking it may be Cuban. But if there's no 530 on Cuba then it must be on nearby Turks-Caicos. Appears to be that I'm learning some new geography here.
 
"R .Enciclopedia" broadcasts on 530 from Cuba. Mostly "elevator music" instrumentals with female announcer dispensing encyclopedic "facts" between music selections. 20kw IIRC, and becoming fairly widely heard around the eastern and southern U.S. as well as parts of eastern Canada. They're audible (barely) during the daytime on a car radio along the Florida panhandle and adjacent Alabama gulf coast.

They also stream, so you can go online to confirm if this is what you're hearing.
 
That station on 530 playing elevator music has a good daytime signal right here in Tampa and even without first hearing an ID, I knew it had to be from Cuba just by seeing the specific direction the signal comes from by turning the radio to it's weakest reception point.

So many DXing reports I've read on mention 530 as being from the Turks and Caicos without mentioning Cuba at all.
 
gar fla said:
That station on 530 playing elevator music has a good daytime signal right here in Tampa and even without first hearing an ID, I knew it had to be from Cuba just by seeing the specific direction the signal comes from by turning the radio to it's weakest reception point.

So many DXing reports I've read on mention 530 as being from the Turks and Caicos without mentioning Cuba at all.
Click to expand...

While things may have changed, supposedly the Turks station was damaged in the hurricanes of two years ago and has not returned. Cuba is on the air, as is the 4 hour a day Comando Solo broadcast of Radio Marti (USIS) on 530. Martí is the classic anti-Castro rant stuff, and Cuba is instrumental. THe Turks station was religious in English and Spanish.
 
cyberdad said:
"R .Enciclopedia" broadcasts on 530 from Cuba. Mostly "elevator music" instrumentals with female announcer dispensing encyclopedic "facts" between music selections. 20kw IIRC, and becoming fairly widely heard around the eastern and southern U.S. as well as parts of eastern Canada. They're audible (barely) during the daytime on a car radio along the Florida panhandle and adjacent Alabama gulf coast.

They also stream, so you can go online to confirm if this is what you're hearing.
Click to expand...
I did ID this station when I was in Sarasota in January...about equal daytime & nightime signal though. The stream did help ID it, but be advised, there's a very long delay between the air signal & the stream...on the order of 3-4 minutes when I was comparing them. So find something unique on the air signal, then go make a sandwich & pour your favorite beverage & by the time you get back to the computer, the stream should just about have caught up.
 
Good sunset DX tonight from Oahu. All the usuals including KIRO, 730 Vancouver, KTRB, KFAX, very solid KNX--best of the LA stations with KTLK. Also, KOTC Oklahoma City coming in at sunset! X-bander KHPY quite strong with XEPE. Heard something on 1660 but not strong enough to identify.
Now 2 hours later getting a good solid KSL and KFAQ Tulsa is coming in weak, but identified.
Haven't had a chance yet to listen for the orient or Australia. Haven't been up during those hours. Hope to give it a try this weekend.
 
Radio Polynesie from Tahiti now coming in strong on 738. Man & woman taking, but I can't understand a thing they're saying.
Marshall Islands and their strange music starting to roll in on 1098.
 
OK, at 10 PM I caught sort of an ID from AM 530, and it appears to be Cuba. Light jazz music is being played tonight, last night was light classical. That is a long way from here, for sure. Turning the antenna north reveals ocean beacons off the coast of Alaska, and other unreadable carriers coming in over the north pole. Conditions are very good tonight, noise floor low, long path good to the east, even KGO is coming in weakly. Portland (AM 850 over the top of Hilo) , Seattle, Vancouver BC (730 traffic) and 540 CBC-1 coming in loud and clear. The east will be open shortly, so it should be a good night for Asia.
I can hear the hetrodynes from the south Pacific, but I have too much signal from the west coast right now. Later tonight they will calm down, and the 9 khz channels may be more readable.
 
Getting that Cuban on 530 is a good catch and I'm sure that's what you were hearing.

I've been searching a lot and can't find out how much power they use but all I can say is their daytime signal is so much better here than other Cubans like 640 and 880, for example, which are barely audible in the daytime here in Tampa and can only rival the signal strength of 530 if you are right out at the Gulf.
 
Re: DXing In Hawaii - comments on Cuba

gar fla said:
Getting that Cuban on 530 is a good catch and I'm sure that's what you were hearing.

I've been searching a lot and can't find out how much power they use but all I can say is their daytime signal is so much better here than other Cubans like 640 and 880, for example, which are barely audible in the daytime here in Tampa and can only rival the signal strength of 530 if you are right out at the Gulf.
Click to expand...

There have been published stimates of 10kW for Radio Enciclopedia on 530 [since the Cuban government doesn't generally release information about radio stations frequencies or power outputs] ...530 is a newer frequency, and it's likely they are using a newer, more efficient transmitter and tower. I read somewhere (possibly Arnie Coro's column, Radio Havana Cuba online) recently that Radio Reloj on 570 had replaced their aging 30kW transmitter with a new solid state 25kW transmitter, and it gets out a lot better than the old TX did. And I found that to be true checking the frequency occasionally.

Keep in mind that 530 gets out better than stations further up the dial (given the same power and antenna system) 640 is an aging TX (and I haven't heard 640 in quite a long time, especially after 640 in Grand Rapids went on the air at night). As for 880, I have not heard Cuba on 880 - WCBS dominates here - we get 870 Radio Reloj underneath WWL. I also hear Cuba on 600 and 1020. Haven't heard Cuba on 590 for years, either. 590, 600 and 640 from Cuba used to powerhouses in the 60's - 80's.
 
Well, it seems my statement about the reception of the Cuban 640 here in my last post is from how I remembered it the last time I checked which was a while ago.

I checked again this afternoon and 640 has as strong a signal here as 530. Interesting.

I'm guessing both stations could probably be heard to some extent along the entire Gulf coast during the day.
 
Don Mussell said:
OK, at 10 PM I caught sort of an ID from AM 530, and it appears to be Cuba. Light jazz music is being played tonight, last night was light classical. That is a long way from here, for sure. Turning the antenna north reveals ocean beacons off the coast of Alaska, and other unreadable carriers coming in over the north pole. Conditions are very good tonight, noise floor low, long path good to the east, even KGO is coming in weakly. Portland (AM 850 over the top of Hilo) , Seattle, Vancouver BC (730 traffic) and 540 CBC-1 coming in loud and clear. The east will be open shortly, so it should be a good night for Asia.
I can hear the hetrodynes from the south Pacific, but I have too much signal from the west coast right now. Later tonight they will calm down, and the 9 khz channels may be more readable.
Click to expand...

Good job getting KGO. On all my trips to Hawaii I've never been able to hear it with their big null in this direction. Do you get anything from Australia? If so do you remember what frequencies? On my last trip I heard 1116 from Brisbane. Would like to try for a different one if possible.
 
Can't remember who asked, but tonight I did hear KMKY Oakland on 1310. The biggest surprise was hearing KOKC in downtown Waikiki on the car radio at 8:52 HST with a good signal. The wonder of radio signals even after 50 years of DXing always amazes me.
 
No KKGN, but heard KMKY again. KMJ coming in well right now. First time for me getting that one here. KOKC very strong at 10:45 HST also heard KKOH.
Unfortunately my location here does not give me a good shot at the far east only the mainland. Hopefully Don who lives on Kauai can give us all a good rundown on those signals. He obviously has far better equipment than the makeshift stuff I'm using here.
 
Don Mussell said:
OK, at 10 PM I caught sort of an ID from AM 530, and it appears to be Cuba.
Click to expand...
If you hear it again, try to verify it with the streaming, remebering that there's a large (3 minute) delay in the stream. That is a long long way frrom Cuba, but it gets out very well & that channel is pretty clear (at least it is here in the midwest). Let us know if you confirm it.
 
radioman148 said:
Good job getting KGO. On all my trips to Hawaii I've never been able to hear it with their big null in this direction.
Click to expand...

I could have sworn that I got KGO in Maui when I was out there in '94, but subsequently, David mentioned that this was highly unlikely. So I've accepted the premise that my memory may be faulty after 16 years.  I'm certainly aware of the null, and I also never snagged it during my year of high school in Honolulu in the 60s.

As for Cuba 530...

This weekend, I'm back at the place where we stay on the gulf outside Pensacola on the AL-FL state line.  530 is audible here in the daytime....barely.  Signal at night is better, but still not all that great. There may be convergeance going on.  As for the other Cubans, 710 and 670 are the strongest here day and night.  640 does indeed seem to be challenged.  Audible during the daytime...better at night, but only fair at best.  As for R. Reloj.  I haven't noticed any difference so far on 570 (meaning basically absent daytime...reasonably strong at night). Also, fairly good R Reloj signals at night on 790 and 950.  Then there's the matter of R. Reloj on 870.  Almost always audible under semi-local blowtorch WWL here every night.  I even heard it quite clearly under WWL last week back home in the Chicago area.

Finally, returning to the main topic....  Radioman, have you tried for the Philipines?  I used to get DZRH from time to time during my high school year.  It was on 710 then, and even doable without leaving Honolulu (especially when local 690...then KULA...was off).
 
Being that you're more than 600 miles from Cuba and you get the daytime signals on the frequencies you mentioned, it helps give us a better clue as to the distance potential for a saltwater signal.

What about 880 from Cuba? I think they are from Pinar del rio.

It would also be interesting if we knew exactly how many kw these stations are broadcasting and whether they are directional. Someone said 530 in Cuba is likely 10 kw but they're also at the bottom of the band too. From your report, the others get out even better.
 
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