Hi Walt You'll almost be in Honolulu by now...fascinating to track your listening across the Pacific. As you've found, it's a bit of a wasteland in terms of signals originating within the islands themselves. You heard nothing from American Samoa because nothing is on the air. KJAL has been silent for about a year, and the recent photo I have of the tower shows it's heavily rusted after a few short years and is too short for lower frequencies so has no value for the planned KKHJ and WVUV AM outlets. Auckland's Radio Tarana 1386 with 10kW is beamed towards Fiji to provide an alternative service at night for the Indian community. I'm surprised you've heard nothing of Majuro 1098 with 25kW, as this is getting into NZ over Christchurch. There are clearly some propagation things happening in the mid-Pacific, as I've DX'd now from Samoa, Tahiti and Hawaii and noticed the same absence of island stations in the same latitudes, and the absence of Queensland stations or PNG is also noticeable. I think you asked about VL2NI 1566 on Norfolk. It runs 50w and so in the daytime will go nowhere without your having a longwire. From early evening it carries Radio NZ National. Your observations about NZ MW programming were interesting to read - yes, it gets a bit boring, but at least sports and talk shows allow signals under to be separated out! There are a small number of Kiwi AM's with independent programs - 729 Burn, 756 Puketapu, 1440 Goldrush; some of the Maori stations [state funded] such as 765 Hawkes Bay, 1161 Wellington, 1440 Tauranga for instance, 1593 Radio Samoa, Access stations [state funded] such as 783, 1206, 1431, 1575...and the two heritage AM's I had in mind when commenting to you - 1368 Village 1XT and 1413 Ferrymead 3XP. So, it's not as bleak as it could be, but pretty much a network situation for 95% of stations and most of them from just 10-12 studios of which all but 1 [RNZ National] are in Auckland. Wonderful to catch up with you in Wellington, and most enjoyable to see the results of your cruising DX as well. Interesting to see that CBR, CBW, CBU [old friends from my 70's DX] are still reaching towards NZ.....we just have too much local QRM these days to really hear them any more. Cheers David Ricquish Wellington NZ
-----Original Message----- From: Walter Salmaniw [mailto:can...@gmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 2:49 PM To: Mailing list for the International Radio Club of America; d...@yahoogroups.com; ragusa; Yuri Muzyka; Bryan & Sandy Clark; d...@fl.net.au Subject: Pacific Island report for 22 Nov 2009: North of Samoa Pacific DX report for 22 November, 2009: North of Samoa. I didnt DX last night as there was a lot happening on the ship. Earlier in the day, we crossed the Equator to the south and west of Palmyra and Christmas Islands. The weather was blistering hot, so we spent much of the day seeking cooler temperatures. Crossing the Equator is always lots of fun with King Neptune making an appearance. We had perhaps 20 crew members guilty of all sorts of crimes. They were tried by the captain and his senior officers, and basically tar and feathered with gastly colours and flour, much to the amusement of the passengers. Later in the evening it was another one of our formal nights, so no time for DX. On top of that, things were simply way too hot to DX in comfort. The night before, though, I did DX for a number of hours. This was one day out of Samoa. We still have 1½ days to reach Honolulu on Wednesday morning. The seas have been very heavy, and as I type this the Amsterdam is heaving and shuddering in 4 to 5 meter + seas and heavy winds. The most comfortable place to be is outside on the Promenade deck in a chair. Plenty of fresh air there and spray from the deep blue ocean. In any case, heres my brief report for November 22, 2009: 540: 2AP with music until 10:00 and into NA without announcement until 10:01:40. Very good level. 580: ID at 07:14 mentioning KMJ.com, and Fresno. Good level. 590: Charlie Brown Christmas at very good level at 08:11. 630: suspect that I finally heard Radio Cook Islands. At 08:53, islands music with my eton aimed towards the Cook Islands. Lots of drumming, and not parallel to 657 (another NZ frequency that was in // a week ago to 630). Poor to fair level only, and faded down at the TOH. 639: Radio Fiji 1 at good level at 08:11. // 558 good to very good, 1152 (poor). 690: CBU dominating the frequency at 07:00 re the flooding near my Victoria home in North Cowichan, B.C. // to CBW, Winnipeg at fair+ level too. 720: possibly KUAI, Hawaii with I shot the Sheriff at good level at 07:16 738: RFO Tahiti at fair level at 07:17 1010: CBR, Calgary with CBC news at 09:04 1100: Listened to this one for quite a while. Religious station with good levels at times, and then down to nothing. The announcer sounded very much like the slow, deep voiced fellow heard over WYFR in Taiwan on 1557. On-line auction of some sort with phone # given as 1 800 845 216 (or 5?) 2. Do all of your Christmas shopping on line. Gave an address in Oregon.. Finally at 09:58, they mentioned Bay area homes, and KFAX.com. So its Bakersfield, CA. 1120: AM 1120, KPNW. Eugene, OR at very good level 1160 Didnt note who this was, just that it was at Very good level. 1179: Finally Vanuatu, but at poor level but clearly // to 3945 around 08:15. Came back a few minutes later, and no longer // to SW. Perhaps now from DU? 1386: Radio Tarana, Auckland back tonight at good level at 07:15. 1420: Likely KKGA, Honolulu at 08:45 with very good level sports. 1430: ?KFIG, Fresno at fair level with sports. 1580: excellent level with music at 08:46. ? KBLA, Santa Monica. 1640: KDIA, Vallejo, CA with a Bible offer at very good level. 1660: Fair/good with music 1700: note 2 cochannels here at fair level. Shortwave: 15295: Voice of Malaysia at excellent level with a music program from SE Asia from 07:20 to 07:47. This is a Sunday only program. Very enjoyable, armchair level. Shows how SW can still produce excellent audio on a single hop, mostly water path. Filler music until 07:58:30 when an announcer mentioned, Do stay tuned to the Voice of Islam coming up next. No IS, just This is the Voice of Islam at 08:00. Announced also 9750 (not heard), and 6175 (also not heard). Cold and wet in Kuala Lumpur. They then went into the Koran, followed by translation into English. 9526: Voice of Indonesia in English at 10:03. Low modulation with transmitter hum, but otherwise a powerful signal. _______________________________________________ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com 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: irca@hard-core-dx.com
