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What a fantastic night it was for AM DXing

gar hi

gar hi

It's been a while since I've just sat back and spent a couple hours non stop simply listening to the AM band at night.

I unplugged the Sangean PR-D5 and listened on battery power (something I haven't done in a long time) and conditions were great for some long distance catches.

Nothing I haven't heard before here (with one exception) but it was the most intense I've heard it here so far.

Most impressive were the Chicago stations with WGN blasting through KDWN and WBBM taking over KKOH at times.

For a brief period, it was all WBBM on 780 and with KKOH barely audible in the background. They were talking about the expected snow storm.

660 which is usually all KTNN had a couple other talk stations in the background but no IDs.

770 was dominated by KCBC from northern California (which is unusual) with KKOB right behind it and a couple other talk stations. One could have been WABC which I've heard here once already.

On 880, KRVN was very strong and completely wiped out the station from Honolulu in the null. There were a couple other stations behind that too but also no chance of any IDs.

On 700, it was mostly WLW with another station in the background. KALL?

870 was WWL mixing with some other unknown station.

WBAP 820 was by far the strongest I've ever heard it. WBAP is actually pretty much a nighttime regular but it's usually bordering on the audible/inaudible line.

But then there was something I haven't heard here before, another station behind KGO. It sounded like talk but could never get strong enough to ID. WGY?

For some reason, there was a lot of hiss, buzzing, and static interference on much of the upper band from the typical modern electronics (a lot more than normal) but KSL 1160 was so incredibly strong. Usually, it's not one of the stronger nighttime stations which is a surprise.

Back when I first got here, I had done so much nighttime AM DXIng that I almost took it for granted but all it took was a little break and a night of good conditions to really appreciate being in one of the best AM DXing spots on earth.
 
Indeed last night was a very good night for AM DXing. Last night I was listening on the Northern Ireland Global tuners node and also heard WBBM among many others. It's very interesting to think that on the same night WBBM could be heard over half of the Northern Hemisphere.
Hawaii is the best place I've ever DXed from. Enjoy the DX season Gar!
 
No, I've already done videos of many of those catches only I wish they were as as good as the reception was last night.
 
Have you had any luck trying KRLD? Or does the 1080 in Honolulu effectively block them?

Very impressed with your Easy of the Mississippi catches. WOAI was the farthest east I was able to snag.
 
This thread gave me goosebumps...or, at least a chill. It was minus 4 degrees (FAHRENHEIT!!) on the top of Farnsworth Peak, with a foot of new snow. The snow level was pretty close to the valley floor, where KSL and KALL are located, with temps in the 20's.
Wonder if the major cold weather across the country had something to do with it all.
 
Has anyone tried tuning WWJ 950, WXYT 1270, WFDF 910, WOOD 1300, and WYLL 1160 on the Northern Ireland Global tuner? All of these have a maximum IDF exceeding the Class A nondirectionals at Night in a Northern direction. I'd mention WHBY 1150 but apparently they are using 83 watts nondirectional on auxiliary. Anyone know anything about that?
 
Schroedingers Cat said:
Has anyone tried tuning WWJ 950, WXYT 1270, WFDF 910, WOOD 1300, and WYLL 1160 on the Northern Ireland Global tuner? All of these have a maximum IDF exceeding the Class A nondirectionals at Night in a Northern direction. I'd mention WHBY 1150 but apparently they are using 83 watts nondirectional on auxiliary. Anyone know anything about that?
Click to expand...

WHBY has been heard there. Apparently they're running higher power at night. I've tried for WYLL, but there's something else on 1160 coming in there.-not KSL. The others I've never heard on that receiver, but maybe Crainbebo has.
 
A couple nights ago (16th UTC) I heard a tentative WRCR in New York (Rockland County) on 1700 kHz. It was the undeniable sound of South Asian music over XEPE and KBGG's REd Eye Radio. Apparently WRCR is the only fit.

On a Radio Shack World Receiver (200-629, their newer version of the ATS505) and loop.

If it was WRCR it's my first New York station from this QTH.
 
Very nice, gar. I had a surprise logging that same night. Around 9:30 p.m. CT on my Superadio II, I managed to catch 960 CFAC mixing with KGKL and XEK. I heard sports discussions, a "Sports 960 - The Fan" ID and an ad for Cowboy's Casino. This is my first logging from Alberta and furthest Canadian catch at 1,678 miles.
 
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hawaiigar said:
Nothing I haven't heard before here (with one exception) but it was the most intense I've heard it here so far.
Click to expand...
Has the Gar ever heard stations from elsewhere in the Pacific or even Asia?
 
ai4i said:
Has the Gar ever heard stations from elsewhere in the Pacific or even Asia?
Click to expand...

I can't speak for Gar, but when I was in Hawaii 7 or 8 years ago I heard alot of stations from Japan & the far east.
One in particular that I heard regularly after midnight HST was 1116 in Brisbane Australia.
 
Remember, Japanese is the only major OSV language in the world, so their structure is usually object, subject, verb, as in "JOUB, I heard".
 
My AM DXing adventures are about to get a lot better.

A neighbor, also a good friend, built a deck out in the woods with a table and chairs and it just occurred to me that it would be the perfect place to get away from all the background noise inside my place.

So I asked him if I could go out there at night and he said no problem at all.

I went out there with the PR-D5 today and there's not a trace of any of the usual annoying background electrical noise!

And I could receive many more Honolulu stations on the upper AM band that I could never receive in my room inside during the day.

One of the big issues that prevented me from ever hearing anything from Australia so far was the interference on their frequencies.

None of it out there in the woods.
 
hawaiigar said:
My AM DXing adventures are about to get a lot better.

A neighbor, also a good friend, built a deck out in the woods with a table and chairs and it just occurred to me that it would be the perfect place to get away from all the background noise inside my place.

So I asked him if I could go out there at night and he said no problem at all.

I went out there with the PR-D5 today and there's not a trace of any of the usual annoying background electrical noise!

And I could receive many more Honolulu stations on the upper AM band that I could never receive in my room inside during the day.

One of the big issues that prevented me from ever hearing anything from Australia so far was the interference on their frequencies.

None of it out there in the woods.
Click to expand...

The new location should really help. A problem with getting Australia now will be that the days are very long there so you may have to try at about 5 AM or so HST. When I was in Hawaii once in February I had to wait until 3AM to get Australia. In March I heard it as early as midnight HST. Good DXing!
 
That is a kewl ap. An earlier version of Windows included a grayline map as part of their clock program.
Listen from dusk in Australasia until dawn in Hawaii.
If you have a decent worldband receiver and antennæ, that would also be a good window for tropical band stations (2.3-2.½, 3.2-3.4, 4.¾-5.06 MHz) from some of the smaller countries in the same area.
I am curious how far you are from Kekaha, Kauai island, and if you can hear WWVH, on any of their frequencies: the primary, second, fourth, and sixth harmonics of 2½ MHz.
 
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I'm not a big fan of shortwave DXing and I don't have my Grundig G8 anymore.

It's a given that you are going to hear stations from thousands of miles away and the broadcasts are meant to cover large parts of the world.

AM is so much more interesting, as it's a real challenge because most stations are meant to serve specific locations or regions and hearing those stations from thousands of miles away captures the true meaning of DXing.

Same with FM when there's tropo or E Skip.

But maybe that's just me.
 
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