New EWE and Frustration

I have erected a 5 metre EWE at our property in Titirangi, Auckland, where we spend the week working.

The aerial is not working well at all and even regular power houses such as KUAU on 1580 and XERF on 1570 cannot be heard. I have to discover what the reason for this is. The noise levels don't appear to be too bad. The section slopes down quite steeply at the back of the house. The aerial is probably 3m lower at the far end - whether that makes any difference or not I do not know. It may be the way I wound the ferrite core, or the way things are connected up. It is a bit frustrating as we are within sight of the sea, so I should be able to hear things.

I will be trying to change things soon with the hope that I might hear something.

Ironically, the only frequency I could hear thing on was 1170. I think it was too early for the Aussies to come in, so it likely wasn't 1170. What it was I don't know - perhaps a birdie from a NZ station?? What I do know is that right on the top of the hour it faded!!

KEIB 1150 AM

I had the pleasure of logging KEIB in Los Angeles on 1150 kHz over the weekend. The signal was fair but conditions were quite noisy. If I used the passband facility on my radio (set at -.800, so almost a full kilohertz below the signal) I got a decent signal and was able to pick out a number of details. The splash from 1152 was quite bad. Reception was at 1000 UTC.

New EWE and things heard

I have finally got around to putting up my new south east EWE. I had one there originally, but it didn't perform terribly well, so I moved it to become a north east EWE, where it has performed admirably. Unfortunately the weather intervened before I could finish it this weekend, so next Saturday's job is to complete it.

While I was down in Auckland this week, I left my laptop running and the SDR and recorded 1430 kHz for 10 minutes each day from 0858 UTC. I have heard snippets of things on the frequency, but not much that you could really identify.

I was pleased to hear some music recorded on the 23rd and an announcement on the 24th (not very clear). I was complaining to Bryan Clark how noisy it had been. When I went out on Saturday to bring the EWE down so that I could use the back end pole to share the back end of the new EWE I realised that the earth wire had snapped off in the wind. No wonder the signal was noisy and I am surprised anything was heard at all.

That evening following the repair, signals on 1430 were much better. I managed to log KVVN the Vietnamese language station in California with an announcement in Vietnamese and a song. Just before the hour a station was playing Tom Jones' 'It's Not Unusual'. There were later snippets of KLO, but nothing concrete to verify it. On Saturday evening there were 4 stations visible with their various offset frequencies.

I am recording again this week in the hope I may hear more.

Noumea is an interesting place

Noumea is an interesting place with no AM to disturb the airwaves, everything heard must be from overseas. Using my Etón E1 with only its whip aerial, I was able to hear a bit. I was staying in an Air BnB apartment on the Baie des Citrons just south of the city and there was a fair bit of noise around. From about 800kHz down there was a lot of noise. However, if I held the radio horizontally, ie with the tuning dial facing up, the noise was reduced.

My first listening session was from 0630 UTC on 2^nd October. New Zealand only stations were heard. They started to fade in around then. Darkness is complete at about 0715

The second session was from 0855, well after sundown and after sundown in Australia. Results were quite different as the Aussies proved more powerful than the Kiwis. Disappointingly the PNG stations were not audible. I suspect with a EWE pointed in the right direction things might be a bit different.

I have left out repeats, i.e. where I heard NZ early and again late.

612	0856	AUSTRALIA, 4QR Brisbane very good // 630 4QN Townsville – also good 3/10
621	0856	UNKNOWN –mixed - likely to be 3RN Melbourne and Rhema Whangarei. 3/10
639	0857	AUSTRALIA – sport. Possibly 4MS Mossman….. ? Good 3/10
657	0857	NEW ZEALAND, Star Wellington – good. 3/10
684	0857	AUSTRALIA, 2KP Kempsey good. 3/10
738	0858	AUSTRALIA, 2NR Grafton very good. //747 4QS Toowoomba and 774 possibly Melbourne both fair. 3/10
792	0859	AUSTRALIA, 4RN Brisbane Fair/ good. 3/10
837	0900	AUSTRALIA, 4RK ABC Capricornia good 3/10
936	0900	AUSTRALIA, 4PB ABC News Radio fair 3/10
990	0636	NEW ZEALAND, R Apna, Auckland fair with rock mx 2/10
1008	0901	AUSTRALIA, 4TAB Brisbane fair but noisy 3/10
1017	0636	NEW ZEALAND, R Sport Canterbury – fair/ poor 2/10
1035	0901	UNKNOWN – possibly a mixture of Aussie and Kiwi 3/10
1035	0920	AUSTRALIA, 2EA, SBS2 good in German. I could even follow the conversation! 3/10
1080	0640	NEW ZEALAND, NewstalkZB Auckland – good with talk 2/10
1098	0915	MARSHALL IS V7AB (presumed) fair in an indigenous lang. Nothing else fitted with what I was hearing. 3/10
1107	0637	NEW ZEALAND, R Live, Tauranga – fair with talk 2/10
1125	0635	NEW ZEALAND, Radio Sport Hawkes Bay Fair 2/10
1125	0914	VANUATU, Fair with a discussion in Bislama, presumed. 3/10
1134	0902	AUSTRALIA, 2AD Armidale fair with music 3/10
1143	0902	UNKNOWN – surging signal. 3/10
1161	0903	AUSTRALIA – unknown which one but fair with music. 3/10
1170	0910	AUSTRALIA, 2CH Sydney good with talk and mx. 3/10
1179	0637	NEW ZEALAND, R Ake, Auckland – fair with music 2/10
1188	0903	AUSTRALIA, 2NZ Inverell at fair levels 3/10
1206	0855	NEW ZEALAND, supposedly Trackside Radio Dunedin, but mention as made of grasslands (perhaps a local ad) and mixed with Aussie. Fair 3/10
1215	0638	NEW ZEALAND, NewstalkZB Kaikohe – fair with talk 2/10
1233	0903	AUSTRALIA, ABC Newcastle good 3/10
1242	0640	NEW ZEALAND, 1XX Whakatane fair with mx 2/10
1242	0904	UNKNOWN – possibly 4AK Toowoomba good with mx. 3/10
1251	0635	NEW ZEALAND, Religion – fair 2/10
1269	0904	AUSTRALIA, 2SM Sydney good with the end of the news. 3/10
1296	0640	NEW ZEALAND, A bit of a mystery because it was //1332 and 1341. NewstalkZB Hamilton is what I expected. Will investigate again 2/10
1314	0905	AUSTRALIA, 2KY Racing Radio Wollongong fair. 3/10
1359	0642	NEW ZEALAND, Coast Taranaki fair with music 2/10
1386	0642	NEW ZEALAND, Tarana – Good as always. 2/10
1413	0643	NEW ZEALAND, NewstalkZB Tokoroa fair but surging signal 2/10
1413	0906	AUSTRALIA, SBS1 Newcastle fair in what sounded like an island language. 3/10
1422	0922	AUSTRALIA, probably 3XY in Greek, but it didn’t sound too Greek to me! 3/10
1449	0643	NEW ZEALAND, National Radio Palmerston Nth, fair with mx 2/10
1458	0644	NEW ZEALAND, National Radio, Westport fair with mx 2/10
1476	0644	NEW ZEALAND, Trackside Radio Auckland fair with racing 2/10
1494	0645	NEW ZEALAND, Star Hamilton fair with religious talk 2/10
1512	0925	AUSTRALIA, 2RN Newcastle good. 3/10
1593	0645	NEW ZEALAND, presumably R Samoa fair/ poor – fading in 2/10
1602	0645	NEW ZEALAND, R Reading Sce audible but poor. 2/10

Yanks are about

Having turned my EWE from south east to north east recently I have been able to hear Mediumwave Yanks.

I had a quick flick around the dial on Saturday evening at 1000 UTC and as a result heard the following:

580	1100	USA, KMJ (presumed) fair with news then talk 22/9 SMF
590	1100	HAWAII, KSSK Fair/ poor 22/9
650	1059	ALASKA, KENI Fair with ads for the Alaskan National Guard then ABC nx. 22/9 SMF
710	1100	USA, KIRO with ESPN ID and mentions of KIRO Fair/ Good. 22/9 SMF
760	1100	USA/ HAWAII – unknown with talk – possibly either KGU or KFMB – Fair 22/9 SMF
940	1100	USA, KFIG – ESPN ads. Fair. Mixed with music station 22/9 SMF

It is not a great list, but the Alaskan in September was interesting.

A new verification

All India Radio was heard on 10 August 2018 on the frequency of 9380 kHz coming out of Aligarh. A verification arrived this week.

Inactivity 
Once we got home from living in Malaysia, I eventually erected a 5 metre high EWE antenna (15 metres between verticals) in a generally southeasterly direction. However, this aerial has proved quite disappointing with a lot of noise on it. The only two stations I could positively identify are Radio Capital in Lima, Peru on 1470 and Radio Rebelde, Cuba on 1620 and that had to be verified by listening ot the shortwave parallel on 5055.

The difference between listening for Latins up north and down in the deep south is that because of the angle of the antenna, you have to go through a lot of New Zealand and of course the stations that are there as well. It was very annoying as there were carriers on every 10 kHz, but they just were not good enough to rise above the locals.

So, having had enough of the noise and no signals, I turned my aerial to the north east. Unfortunately conditions were still noisy, however, I was able to easily hear and identify KUAU in Hawaii on 1570 kHz. I haven't listened to my recording yet, but I haven't got them verified so my task next weekend is to write a report.

I might yet get that elusive first verifiaction from my home QTH!

It might also be noted that Bryan Clark, living 3 or 4 km away in a very good DX location also reported that conditions were so noisy that he wasn't prepared to waste time lsitening either. This may be the end of the solar cycle, but compard to 11 years ago, it is rubbish!

Verifications Received

We arrived home in Mangawhai this evening and found two QSLs from Radio Romania International awaiting. They are for loggings in January on 7345 kHz and March on 15255 kHz. Both were logged in Malaysia.

The 5m EWE is up

... and the signals are coming in - they haven't been great, but they are there. The problem with a SE pointing EWE up north is that in order to catch the Latin signals, you have to go through all the NZ ones. On the SDR I can see all the carriers on 10kHz spacings, but the locals are just too strong.

I have managed to hear Radio Capital in Lima, Peru on 1470 and I think it may have been Radio Bandolera in Mexico on 1410. However, others are also lurking and just waiting to be heard....

I haven't had an opportunity yet to listen at the crucial period an hour before sunset. However, this weekend might just be the time. My wife and I now have jobs down in Auckland - about 120km away. We are down there from Monday-Friday and home at the weekend. Saturday night is the night to listen!

Home at last!

Maureen and I arrived home two weeks ago. I finally have my 3m EWE up, but it is not enough. I can see carriers on my SDR but I need to get a 5m EWE erected so as to capitalise on those signals.

On the positive side, I noted SW signals from Sth Africa last night - couldn't hear those in Malaysia!

On returning home I found QSLs from AIR 5010, 7550, 9445 and 9945 and another from the Voice of Turkey 5960 and 9460.

I hope to add to the list soon!

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!

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!

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

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.