UTAH #2 AND THE PROSPECT FOR UTAH #3 SOON ===============================================
Maintenance Test Results-KMTI 650khz Manti, Utah March 19, 2007 12:00AM-02:00AM Mountain Time Our thanks to Mr. Doug Barton for one of the most successful and widely heard maintenance tests of the past several seasons. We received report after report that indicated that KMTI represented "Utah #2" in the log. Doug also promised to consider test material when KSVC 980khz completes it's antenna upgrade! Details at the end of this report. This test was heard literally coast to coast, and in nearly every state of the union including Hawaii at a distance of almost 3,000 miles! Now let's look at the reports: One of the highlights of the reports was that received from Richard Wood in Keaau, HI. He used his Icom R75 and an 1800 foot unterminated beverage antenna to log the entire test, including the voice announcements. He reported that KTMI was dominant on the frequency!This logging is from almost 3,000 miles away! Also receiving the test was Rob Roberts of San Bernardino, CA, William Wilkins of Springfield, MO, and Jim Paige of Sterling Heights, MI. Other lucky DX'ers included Ernie Wesolowski of Omaha, NE, and Dennis Vroomski in Vancouver, WA. Dennis used his trusty JRC 545 along with a high performance active whip and H-800 active whip with the Quantum Phaser to pull in the signal. Dennis was one of many who enjoyed the test in "real time" using the #mwdx chat room on www.starchat.net. If you haven't tried a DXing sessions (especially a test) while logged on to this chat room, you're really missing out. Patrick Martin pulled the signal in easily from his home in Seaside, OR using the beverage antenna. An EWE antenna "came through again" for James Niven, who logged a new one thanks to the test. Bill Block of Prescott Valley, Arizona added the Southwest to those regions of the country hearing the test, while your editor, Les Rayburn managed to null WSM in Nashville to put Utah #2 into the log from Central Alabama. Pete Taylor used a Sony 2010 and the mighty Kiwa Loop to hear this test from Tacoma, WA. Jim Renfrew struggled for a while to pull in a complete ID, but finally put "Utah #2" into the logs from his shack in Western, NY. Nice catch, Jim! Neil Kazaross used two BOG's (beverages on the ground) phased against each other to null QRM from WSM and CKOM to pull in KMTI. The Golden State was well represented by Martin Foltz who logged "semi-regular" KMTI easily during the test from his home in Mission Viejo. Despite the nearly urban location, Martin hears a lot out there on the coast. IRCA President Nick Hall-Patch used his flag antenna with remote termination to null nearby CISL and log the test from Victoria, BC, Canada. Curtis Sadowski managed to overcome a booming signal from WSM to pull out the sweep tones and code in Paxton, IL. Saul Chernos in Ontario, Canada, Patrick Griffith in Westminster, CO, and Kevin Redding in Arizona all managed to log the test as well. Another "happy camper" was Jim Chenard of Blairstown, NJ who used his Drake R8 Receiver and the famous Kiwa loop to null WSM well enough to make out several Morse Code ID's and sweeps from KMTI. Marc DeLorenzo suffered long and hard in the #mwdx chat room as others reported hearing the test from around the country, while Marc continued to struggle. Finally narrowing the bandwidth of his receiver did the trick and he managed to log this one all the way in South Dennis, MA which is over 2100 miles away! Great job, Marc! Brandon Jordan of Memphis, TN also used CW mode and narrow filtering to make out the test signals and overcome the nearby country legend to hear a new one. Brandon runs the incredible web site, www.dxtests.info which makes tracking upcoming DX tests easy! Thanks for all you do Brandon! Bob Rodriguez may help sell a few Quantum Loops, because he managed to log the test from his home in Poughkeepsie, NY using only that antenna and a Sangean 818! That's almost 2000 miles folks! Another great catch was Steve Howe, in Saint Albans, Vermont. He used a Radio West Loop and the Sony 2010 to catch KMTI at a distance of over 2000 miles. He commented later, "No fancy phased beverages for me". On the other hand, Bill Harms knows that good DX'ers take no chances when it comes to a rare test from Utah. He used a Western BOG, an EWE, and a K9AY antenna all routed into the Quantum Phaser to null WSM and pull in this one from his home in Elkridge, Maryland. For the record, Manti is on a bearing of 281.4 for Bill, and WSM is on nearly the same bearing at 252.3! Very nice work there, Bill! Brett Saylor used his Drake R8 and a 100 foot E/W sloper to hear this one from the shack in Central PA. Nigel Pimblett reports that "KMTI is heard fairly often here" and the sweeps and Morse Code made it an easy catch from his home in Dunmore, Alberta. Tim Noonan of Oak Creek, WI sent in a detailed report of the test, which he was thrilled to log. Another Wisconsin DX'er who heard the test was Bill Dvorak of Madison. Jordan Lopshire of Coldwater, MI heard the test very well at his shack and reported it as his first ever Utah reception! Glad to help put a new one in the log book, Jordan! It was also a new one for Charles Dobbins of Alpine, Texas who needed only the internal loopstick antenna on a Sony ICF-7600 to pull this one in. I guess even the loopsticks are bigger in Texas! KMTI was a new one in the log from Mike Stonebridge in St. Isidore, Alberta, Canada and he was thrilled to hear it. And of course, Canada's only "Bat-Man" whose radar ears hear it all, Barry McLarnon logged this one from his home in Ottawa. Nice catch Barry! Adam Myrow used only his trusty Q-Stick antenna to null WSM enough to log KMTI from his home in Memphis. His receiver is the YB-400 portable. Don't scoff at this simple equipment, he's also managed to log Croatia on 1134 and Norway on 1314 with only these tools! Great job, Adam! Utah #2 was the battle cry of many a DX'er and that was true for Bruce Winkelman of Tulsa, OK. His Drake R8, Quantum Phaser and two 50 foot wires were up to the task. Joe Miller, KD8DLU designed the QSL card for this test (and many others the past two seasons) and it's only fitting that he manage to hear the test. From Troy, MI it's a respectable 1500 miles to Utah! Joe noted that this catch was MW#390, Utah #1, 650#3 and Utah is his 36th state heard. For many, it was the use of sweep tones that enabled them to put a new one into the log book. That was certainly the case for Russ Johnson, of Lexington, NC who managed to log the test after nearly an hour of trying to overcome WSM. The "Doctor of DX", Dr. Walter Salmaniw pulled into a new one from his shack in Victoria, BC, Canada. Nice catch, Doc! Mike Sanburn reported KMTI "heard well" in Bellflower, California as did John Tucker in Mesa, AZ. It was John Tucker's original visit to KMTI and discussions with CE Doug Barton that led to DX'er being included in these maintenance tests. We all owe John Tucker a huge thanks for his efforts! (John, can you visit Rhode Island next?) Seattle, Washington DX'er Bruce Portzer heard the test quite well, reporting voice ID's and "off hook" phone sound effects along with the usual code and sweeps. While in Shorewood, IL, Tom Jasinksi used a Drake R8A and a Quantum loop antenna to pull the test in. Phillip Chiello in Elm Grove, WI sent in a nice recording of the test, made using only a stock Sony 2010! After 37 years of DXing from his shack in Charleston, West Virginia, Jim Wallace used the KTMI test to put Utah #2 into his log book. Great catch from over 1600 miles away! Larry Rusesell in Flushing, Michigan was another listener who went to bed happy after logging a new one. And our last successful report came in from Dan Riordan in Sherwood, Oregon who logged the test for a successful ID of KMTI, which he had only marked as "tentative" on a past effort. Glad to put that in the logs for sure, Dan! Despite the widespread success of the test, a few folks did go to bed unhappy. Among them were Mike Hardester of Jacksonville, NC who could not null WSM successfully. KMTI lies on nearly the same bearing as WSM, making it difficult for the Radio West Loop to pull out KMTI. WSM also proved too much for Eric Berger of Detroit, MI who managed a null on the Nashville station, only to be plagued by WNMT in Nashwauk, MN...alas that station was unneeded for Eric. Russ Edmunds of Blue Bell, PA also couldn't get past the monster signal from down South and when he did, only UNID Spanish waited in the null. Better luck next time Russ. Bryan Clark had "reasonably good signals from North America", but was unable to log the test from his home in Mangawhai, New Zeeland. Bryan has a first class station with an AOR 7030+ receiver and a 100 meter long BOG antenna beamed toward the Americas, but all his efforts were for naught on this one. FINAL TALLIES ================================================ By my quick count, the test was heard in at least 23 states and three providences of Canada! Receptions ranged literally from Coast to Coast, and for more folks than I can count, this test presented a chance to put Utah #2 into the log books. Doug Barton may make the next battle cry, "Utah #3!" later this year, when he completes work on KSVC on 980Khz in Richfield, UT. The station will have new, taller towers and higher power levels. When construction is completed, KSVC will have a 400 foot tall Non-Directional tower and 12,000 watts. Doug has promised to consider including Morse Code IDs, Sweep Tones, etc. during some testing when the new array is complete. Stay tuned for details---we may all get a chance to put a third Utah station into the logs! Our thanks again to Joe Tucker for personally setting up this test, and of course, to Mr. Doug Barton for including us in his station maintenance! SOAPBOX ====================================== As I thought, a piece of cake to hear with the 10 KW. Voice ID, Morse code, sweep tones, etc. Creaming everything else off the Eastern beverage. -Patrick Martin, Seaside, OR This will be UT #2. Guess which one is #1? -Jim Renfrew, Holley, NY Tonight WOULD be one of the nights WSM comes in like it was next door. Anyway, the DX test is weak underneath it, just the tones so far. -Curtis Sadowski, Paxton, IL After 46 minutes of frustration, KMTI-650 test finally heard with sweep tones thru WSM at 0246 EDT. Big thanks to Joe, Les, Barry, Jim, & Brandon in the mwdx chat room. And of course John Tucker for visiting the station and Doug Barton at KMTI!! -Marc DeLorenzo, South Dennis, MA WSM was being a pain to fully null here in Memphis, and slop from local WCVR-640 on LSB. I wasn't have much luck in ECSS USB, AM or AM Synch and finally settled on tuning to 651 kHz in CW mode and narrow filtering. That did the trick, decent morse code and sweep tones from 0630 UTC onward. -Brandon Jordan, Memphis, TN Before the test, I noted that the bearings of KMTI and WSM (respectively) from my QTH are approximately 290 and 282 degrees. Need I say more? -Mike Hardester, Jackonsville, NC KMTI-650 heard very weakly under WSM several separate times between 0309 and 0330 EDT with sweep tones, but no code or voice IDs, using my ICF-2010 and Radio West loop. No fancy phasable beverages for me. -Steve Howe, St. Albans, VT I was anticipating the KMTI DX test for over a month now, so needless to say I dragged myself out of bed at 2:00 to hear it! -Jordan Lopshire, Coldwater, MI Heard it at Burnt River ON last night, morse code and sweep tones. Not a bad signal at times, fading up and down in WSM null, mixing with a Coast to Coast station (Minnesota presumed) and a Latin music station (Venezuela presumed) and possibly others too weak to do much with. Utah #2 here and made the last-minute rip here absolutely worthwhile. -Saul Chernos, Burnt River, Ontario, Canada A welcome addition to the log indeed, UT #4 and 650 #11. Thanks to all involved! -Barry McLarnon, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Hooray, the sweep tones punched through. Extra hooray, I don't have to listen to the last hour of this country music! -Russ Johnson, Lexington, NC Les Rayburn, N1LF NRC/IRCA Broadcast Test Coordinator Please call anytime 24/7 if your transmitter will be off the air for maintenance. (205) 253-4867 _______________________________________________ IRCA mailing list [email protected] http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: [email protected]
