My first DXing report from Hawaii

[Steve Green NEPA]

Aloha Gary and Good DX !

The latest Honolulu book shows the *top three* rated stations as Adult-Contemporary FMs, accounting for, roughly, 27 percent of the market. I don;t see a single FM listing for an Hawaiian-language station, or even something as neutral as 'Asian'.
There are eight such stations listed in radio locator. All of them are on AM.
I still find this culture neglect amazing. Last time we were down in your neighborhood Tarpon Springs, for example, every other shop on that souvenir strip near Pappas Restaurant had some form of Greek music playing. I believe the 1470 station from Clearwater had a Greek format. The other shops had cassettes or CD's, or maybe even LIVE music for all I know

 

[gar hi]

During the day, I can't pick up any stations from the other islands.

I'm very surprised.

The AM band is dead here in the day.

I can hear two stations. One on 670 and one on 850 and that's it.

I'll have to remember to bring my radio whenever I make it over to the Kona side of the island.

 

[davideduardo]

The latest Honolulu book shows the *top three* rated stations as Adult-Contemporary FMs, accounting for, roughly, 27 percent of the market.

In 25-54, the top 5 are AC, Hot AC, Hawaiian/Raggae, Rhythmic CHR, Rhythmic AC and Hawaiian AC-

I don;t see a single FM listing for an Hawaiian-language station, or even something as neutral as 'Asian'.

That's because pure Hawaiian is not a widely spoken language. A survey taken about 10 years ago showed well below 1% of the population could speak the language and it was under the threat of becoming a dead tongue.

Pure Hawaiian is not the same as Hawaiian Pidgin, widely spoken by about 40% of the population and even more broadly understood. Even some ad campaigns use the tongue and any permanent resident picks up the principal vocabulary and expression differences.

The Asian populations are fairly established, and native speakers of each language are too few to support an FM. The AMs cater to older first generation folks, and like AMs everywhere are doing what they can to survive.

I still find this culture neglect amazing.

With Hawaiian Pidgin having influence everywhere, including morning / personality shows on some stations, there is no cultural neglect.

 

[radioman148]

That's surprising, maybe it's your location. On Oahu I've heard stations from all the islands including the big island during the day. Have you tried from a car radio yet?

 

[gar hi]

It's the same in the car.

On some frequencies, I can hear a trace of something but way below even being audible.

The ground conductivity here is probably worse than the northeast.

 

[radioman148]

I've never been on the big island so I didn't know the ground conductivity was so poor. The good news is you're in a great DX spot.

 

[MarioMania]

It's different then in Tampa

No E-Skip, No Tropo

 

[cyberdad]

It's the same in the car.

On some frequencies, I can hear a trace of something but way below even being audible.

The ground conductivity here is probably worse than the northeast.

When you get over to the other side of the big island, you'll hear most, if not all, of the Honolulu AM's. At least that's the case along highway 11 on the Kona Coast.

I think the problem you're experiencing can be explained by simply being "on the wrong side of the mountain". When I lived in Honolulu as a teenager, I never once heard the big island. Not once....day or night. I also never did hear Kauai, either. But I did hear Maui at night on 550 and 1310....each of which were comfortably removed from the strong local signals and their splatter that covered most of the dial where I lived.

As for the ground conductivity, there's a map somewhere online. I forget the url. Most of Oahu is actually a "4" IIRC, but the mountains really destroy groundwave signals. I'd expect the big island to be similar, if not a bit worse. And, of course, you've got much bigger mountains on the big island.

As for the matter of ethnic broadcasting.... When I was in Honolulu, there were no ethnic or native Hawaiian stations on FM. On AM (if I recall correctly from 1965), there was fulltime Japanese on KOHO/1170 and Japanese/Fillipino on KZOO/1210. KHVH/1040 was owned by Henry Kaiser and played Hawaiian Music 24/7. I think they were either commercial free or had only one or two commercial breaks per hour. Near the end of my stay, they flipped to all-news, which was something of a novelty at the time.

The high school I went to (McKinley) was 90% Japanese-American. Emphasis on "American". Just about all the kids...including me...listened to top 40 on KORL/650 or more likely KPOI/1380. KUMU/1500 was a top 40 also-ran with a weaker signal (1kw). The apartment where I lived was about a ten-minute walk from the building that housed the KPOI studios and transmitter, and a couple of the jocks lived in our complex. I got to know them on a very casual basis.

Finally, as for pidgin. Just about all the natives I knew spoke at just a smattering of it in their normal speech. Even most of my high school teachers. But to the best of my knowledge and recall no radio or TV stations programmed anything in it.

 

[MarioMania]

I hope he does a Daytime & Nighttime AM Band Scan

 

[gar hi]

Not going to do a daytime one because there's only 2 stations and all the rest is the static of empty frequencies.

I'll see if I can do a nighttime one soon.

................................................

Cyberdad, that's an interesting story. Thanks for sharing!

I've watched some YouTube videos people made of driving around Honolulu and I'm surprised how built up it is.

There's a sea of countless buildings too.

I bet it was nothing like what you remember from 50 years ago.

 

[MarioMania]

Nighttime would be better gar

What other 2 stations in the daytime you can get?

 

[Icangelp]

The conductivity around Hilo is a "4", and cyberdad is correct, you've got two huge mountains between you and most of the other islands.

gar. Come December, I want to see some pictures of you skiing down Mauna Kea while holding your PR-D5 to your ear!! Now that would be some serious DX.

 

[cyberdad]

The conductivity around Hilo is a "4", and cyberdad is correct, you've got two huge mountains between you and most of the other islands.

gar. Come December, I want to see some pictures of you skiing down Mauna Kea while holding your PR-D5 to your ear!! Now that would be some serious DX.

Gliding through the snow, outrunning a lava flow. PRD-5 in one hand, drink with a little umbrella in it in the other. Bring it!

Back OT...... R-L indicates a 1060 in Hilo, but you haven't mentioned it. I wonder if maybe they've gone dark. I don't remember them from back in the day. If it's still there, I'd guess you might be able to null them and snag XEEP. They're easy enough to ID with their Classical music.

 

[gar hi]

I'm surprised my area is a ground conductivity of 4.

Even the Hilo stations less than 10 miles away sound like semi-locals.

I found out the specific place where I am is on a 500 year old lava flow and the particular lava is the kind that's very high in silica.

That may explain a lot.

I'm slightly beyond the 'fringe' for many of the Honolulu stations on Radio Locator and their fringes are mostly very conservative.

It's weird getting only 2 AM stations during the day. I guess 1060 went silent because there's nothing on that frequency during the day.

As for Mauna Kea, I will have to bring the PR-D5 whenever I get up there. The FM DXing should be awesome.

 

[davideduardo]

The conductivity around Hilo is a "4", and cyberdad is correct, you've got two huge mountains between you and most of the other islands.

Like many islands of volcanic origin, the conductivity on the coast is much higher than inland. This is similar to Puerto Rico where the coast can be 4 to 8 while anywhere inland can be as low as 0.5.

 

[cyberdad]

I'm surprised my area is a ground conductivity of 4

I'm slightly beyond the 'fringe' for many of the Honolulu stations on Radio Locator and their fringes are mostly very conservative.

I think the R-L maps for Hawaii are pretty much an educated guess. And I'm not saying that as a "knock" on them at all. I could be mistaken, but I don't remember hearing anything from Hilo when I was on the other side of the island....and on the other side of the mountain(s).

I do remember from my own experiences the variety of terrains and soil types on all three of the islands I've been on. When I was on the Kona Coast of the Big Island during Christmas of 1964, I was startled that at the location where we were staying, there was basically no topsoil whatsoever. Just black lava...which some hardy plants were strong enough to penetrate and survive. My teenaged self had never seen anyuthing like that. I saw some of that on Maui too, in '94. Oahu had some of that as well. But Honolulu basically sits on a coastal plain, while the rest of the island consists mostly of mountains of volcanic origin and a valley in the center where pineapples and sugar cane are grown. The soil there is a shade of red which is similar to some of what you find in parts of the deep south.

 

[gar hi]

I finally got an ID on the station that's heard here on 750 at night.

Most of the time, it's inaudible but it sometimes comes in with a listenable signal.

I had hoped it was the one from Alaska but it's KXTG from Portland, Oregon.

But hey, 2,570 miles ain't chopped liver.

Never thought the day would come where hearing AM stations from well over 2,000 miles away such as KFI, KNX, KMJ, KFBK and with strong signals would be commonplace.

 

[radioman148]

Same thing happened to me when I tried for Alaska on 750, I kept getting Portland. Don't give up. During the winter you may find conditions more favorable to catch Alaska.

 

[cyberdad]

I finally got an ID on the station that's heard here on 750 at night.

Most of the time, it's inaudible but it sometimes comes in with a listenable signal.

I had hoped it was the one from Alaska but it's KXTG from Portland, Oregon.

But hey, 2,570 miles ain't chopped liver.

Never thought the day would come where hearing AM stations from well over 2,000 miles away such as KFI, KNX, KMJ, KFBK and with strong signals would be commonplace.

Have you snagged KNX/1190 from Portland yet? That was my first DX catch on the big island, and I'd think it should be fairly easy.

 

[davideduardo]

Have you snagged KNX/1190 from Portland yet? That was my first DX catch on the big island, and I'd think it should be fairly easy.

KEX, right?