Welcome


Hello and welcome to my blog.

My wife and I relocated to Mangawhai, Northland, New Zealand - just over 100 km north of Auckland in July of 2018. Whilst not as active as I would like to be, this is a record of what I have been hearing.

Thursday 19 April 2018

To those who look at my blog

I have a world map on my site which shows me where people who have logged onto the site come from. There are people from all over the place.

There is the facility to send me a message, so if you come and have a look, send me a hello via the message so I know who you are as well as where you are from.
A new logging

I had great pleasure in hearing KNDI on 1270 kHz in Hawaii yesterday evening. It was logged via the League's SDR in Russell. It came in pretty well, with a little fading. I have sent a report off and now must be patient!

Tuesday 17 April 2018

A couple of interesting loggings

1290 kHz was an interesting frequency. KKDD in San Bernadino dominates it with Coast to Coast AM in our evenings. However, a couple of other stations raised their heads. One was KAZA in Gilroy, CA, near San Jose. It is a Vietnamese language station and we caught definite snippets of Vietnamese, including some numbers. I lived in Ha Noi for 2 years and I know Vietnamese when I hear it. According to various sources, it broadcasts on 88 watts at night. I very much doubt it was that, I suspect the day power had been left on (5kw).

At one stage during the broadcast, a station came up with a pop song. I managed to get an id on the song and artist, thanks to the Shazam app on my iPhone, but that was all. I did some research and given the stations we were hearing, I suspect it is KIVY from Crockett, TX. It is about the only station I saw thatw as in the right area with the right format.

I have written to both KAZA (with sound files) and KIVY in the hope they mgiht answer in the affirmative. I am very sure it was KAZA we heard, but not so certian about KIVY. Time will tell - I may get an answer .... or I may not!

Friday 13 April 2018

An Interesting QSL

During the recent NZRDXL Convention I, along with Paul Ormandy and David Norrie, logged KUAZ in Phoenix, Arizona on 1550 kHz. It is a National Public Radio station carrying the BBC World service overnight, with local ids at the top of the hour.

Stephen Claasen, Senior Broadcast Engineer, duly verified it, but what was interesting was that we shouldn't have heard it at all as the AM outlet is supposed to broadcast from sunrise to sunset only. So, we were lucky to be able to hear them, lucky they were on and lucky that Stephen took the time to reply.

In his reply he wrote:
Good Morning.

Thank you for the reception report for 1550, KUAZ. Your reception is confirmed.

Due to an equipment  malfunction, KUAZ remained on the air long after local sunset when it  normally signs off, the program material which you heard was meant for  KUAZ-FM which remains on the air 24 hours a day; if our programming is  interesting to you, we also stream KUAZ on the internet at:  streaming.azpm.org/kuaz48.mp3.m3u

Yours in service,

Stephen D. Claasen
Senior Broadcast Engineer
Arizona Public Media

Wednesday 11 April 2018

Trail from the Convention

At the convention I was listening with MW guru Paul Ormandy and former League President and current Vice President, David Norrie. This is a summary of what we heard:

171
1820
MOROCCO
R Medi fair/ poor in Arabic. 7/4 SMF
570
0725
USA
KLAC Fair but suffered from splash. Sports news 8/4 SMF
680
0732
USA
KNBR Fair with ads for San Francisco. Some splash from 675 8/4 SMF
790
0735
USA
KABC Clear but not strong. With mentions of LA. 8/4 SMF
800.003
0756
PERU
Radio Union fair good with religious message - dominant on channel but mixing with KRVN. Good ids at 0759 7/4 SMF
840
0740
USA
KMPH (presumed) with talk prog. Fair/ poor 8/4 SMF
850
0742
USA
KOA Fair with Coast to Coast. 8/4 SMF
880
0745
USA
KKMC Fair with religious prgm. 8/4 SMF
880
o759
USA
KRVN vgd w/nx o/unid relig, pres KKMC. PO
940
0755
USA
KFIG Fair/ good with ESPN sports 8/4 SMF
1100
0806
USA
KFAX fr-gd w/relig tlk. PO
1110
0600
USA
KRDC Pasadena, gd-vgd w/Country mx, dominant. PO
1110
0808
USA
KFAB, fr-gd w/ Coast to Coast AM, o/KRDC. PO
1140
0800
CANADA
CHRB Fair with country music. 8/4 SMF
1170
0638
USA
KFAQ clear, fr-gd w/George Norry on Coast to Coast AM. PO
1170
0720
USA
KLOK fr w/Hindi mx, mxd KFAQ. PO
1190
0705
USA
KEX - fair/ good with Coast to Coast. 7/4 SMF
1270
0841
HAWAII
KNDI fr-gd w/Hawaiian mx. PO
1280
0837
USA
KXTK fr w/sports tlk. PO
1290
0830
USA
KPAY in local commercial break then back to Coast to Coast 8/4 SMF
1290
0858
USA
KAZA (Tentative) with Vietnamese/ Asian sounding music Fair but mixed and fading. 8/4 SMF VV lang FA hrd 0827. PO
1300
0834
USA
KAZN Pasadena, pres the one here w/Hindi mxd others. PO
1300
0923
USA
KAPL Phoenix, OR fr-gd w/relig sermon, old-style fire & brimstone pulpit-bashing. PO
1310
0818
USA
KMKY Fair with talk - distinctly Indian accent - suffered from splash. 8/4 SMF
1320
0919
USA
KIFM big sig w/ESPN nx, //1420. PO
1360
0522
PERU
R Bienestar (presumed) in SS with talk prog. 7/4 SMF
1370
1000
USA
KWRM Corona, "AM 13-70 and FM 105.9" then back into SS. PO
1370
1004
HAWAII
KUPA Pearl City,, fr in CC/o unid in SS. PO
1380
0906
USA
KTKZ Sacramento up w/id "AM 13-80, The Answer" after ad then country mx interlude and more tlk. PO
1390
0859
USA
KLTX gd w.id, "long Bach, Los Angeles", "Radio Nueva Vida". PO
1409.82
0551
PERU
R Corporacion Wayra, fr w/chicha mx, FA w/id & t/c. PO
1410
0950
CANADA
CFTE - good with Fox Sports Radio id 6/4 DN & SMF
1430
0958
USA
KYNO - fair but mixed and playing oldies music 7/4 SMF
1430
0824
USA
KVVN Fair and clear with VV prog, although some EE. Others under the sig. 8/4 SMF
1430
0827
USA
KMRB came up over KVVN. Fair/ good and then down. 8/4 SMF
1440
0822
KIRIBATI
R Kiribati, dominant o/unid US. NZer may have been off air?? PO
1460
0850
USA
KION Good with talk radio. 8/4 SMF
1470
1006
PERU
R Capital good and clear in SS with talk and id. 6/4 DN & SMF
1470
0600
PERU
R Capital indent top of the hour 06/04. SB
1480
0937
USA
KVNR Santa Ana, fr in Vietnamese. PO
1480
0943
USA
KYOS Merced, fr mxd w/KVNR w/ nx-tlk. PO
1480
1007
PERU
R Espinar Yauri (presumed) with Buenas Dias announcements, vocals and talk. Fair. 6/4 SMF
1510
0925
USA
WLAC fair with id at 0929 7/4 SMF
1510
0920
USA
Unid NPR stn, hrd w/id "KALW, a Public Radio station, 91.7 FM, San Francisco", KALW is an NPR station so who was relaying them????. PO
1530
0537
USA
KFBK string of ads, mxd unid in SS, bth demolishing the NZer. PO
1550
0834
USA
KUAZ fair with BBC WS overnight (NPR stn). 7/4 SMF Id mentions 89.1 FM. PO
1570
0821
HAWAII
KUAU dominant o/2 others w/EE relig. PO
1580
0513
USA
KBLA fr w/MA in SS relig & inspirational mx. PO
1610
0714
CANADA
CHHA Toronto pres the one here w/Hindi mx & FA. PO
1650
1031
USA
KBJD gd in SS, ids "Radio Luz". PO
3255
1849
Sth AFRICA
BBC Meyerton, vy weak w/tlk. PO
3320
1851
NTH KOREA
R Pyongyang, fr-gd w/classical mx. PO
3480
1854
STH KOREA
Voice of the People - vg with talk and mx in KK. //3910 vg but jammed by Nth Korea, //3930 ditto but clearer
3985
1855
STH KOREA
Echo of Hope fair but jammed.//4450 the same 7/4 SMF
4765
1857
TAJIKISTAN
Tajik Radio 1 fair with Koran readings 7/4 SMF
4810
1845
ARMENIA
AR Yerevan, off abruptly after FA & a few bars of mx. PO
4835
1842
AUSTRALIA
Ozy Radio - vg with pops and announcements. Gone by 1900 7/4 SMF
4885
1840
STH KOREA
Echo of Hope, fr sig in KK. PO
4930
1805
BOTSWANA
VoA African Sce in EE - poor and noisy noisy //6080. 8/4 SMF
5009.92
1843
MADAGASKAR
R Nasionaly, pr-fr w/FA vocs. Only heard 10/04. PO
5860
1858
KUWAIT
R Farda good in Farsi 7/4 SMF
5900
1818
BULGARIA
Bible Voice in AA - good signl. 7/4 SMF
5910
1900
ROUMANIA
RRI opening with int sig, then ids, frequency and contact details in Romanian. 7/4 SMF
5950
1855
ETHIOPIA
V of Tigray Revolution, fr-gd w/tribal rhythms, right past top of the hour. PO
5960
1831
TURKEY
V of Turkey fair and clear with v pleasant mx prog. //9460 8/4 SMF
5980
1820
TURKISH
VoT good in Turkish with music. 7/4 SMF
5980
1825
NEW ZEALAND
RNZI excellent with stories for children. 7/4 SMF
6030
1842
ETHIOPIA
R Oromiya fair in Oromo but noisy as sun rose. 8/4 SMF
6070
1914
GERMANY
Channel 292 - fair with music prog. 7/4 SMF
6080
1803
BOTSWANA
VoA African Sce in EE - fair but noisy. 8/4 SMF
6110
1856
ETHIOPIA
R Fana, gd sig w/lively HOA (Horn Of Africa) mx. PO
7120
1910
SOMALIA
Radio Hargeysa fair with music. Signal deteriorated with local sunrise. 7/4 SMF
7205
1904
SUDAN
R Omdurman, vgd w/tribal choral mx. PO
7550
1846
INDIA
AIR GOS fair but noisy in EE with pop mx show for Europe. 7/4 SMF
9460
1831
TURKEY
V of Turkey fair/ poor and noisy with mx prog //5960 8/4 SMF
9515
2022
BRAZIL
R Marumby, pres the ine here w/weak pops. PO
9630.585
0430
BRAZIL
R Aparecida v good in PP on off-set freq 7/4 SMF
9664.98
2035
BRAZIL
R Voz Misionaria, in the clear, mx & MA ids, tlk, mxd unid. Also heard pr-fr 0355. PO
9725.357
0434
BRAZIL
R Evangelizar fair but noisy with music and PP talk 7/4 SMF. Also hrd 2038. PO
9745
0416
BAHRAIN
R Bahrian, USB mode, pr-fr in AA but heard much stronger at 1900z. PO
9790
0450
FRANCE
RFI in FF to East Africa - fair good 7/4 DN & SMF
9818.817
0450
BRAZIL
R 9 do Julho - fair with PP talk. 7/4 SMF. Also hrd 2040.PO
11735
2014
BRAZIL
R Transmundial, FA relig, MA id, clock chimes at 2015, best of 25mb Brazilians. PO
11815
2029
BRAZIL
R Brasil Central, weak w/relig mx. PO
11855.87
2018
BRAZIL
R Aparecida, MA w/relig tlk. PO
12095
0404
UAE
BBC via Dhabayya - fair but clear in EE with nx 8/4 SMF


For listening at the convention, I was using my WinRadio G33-DDC, Paul Ormandy was using my Drake SPR4 and David Norrie was using his AOR7030+. All were connected to 5 metre EWE antennae.