MW DXing in Alaska

[mmckenna]

I tuned the dials late at night last week and ran across the fairly common KSJX 1500 San Jose, about 2000 miles away. What caught my ear was what they were airing.

Not really related to the thread, but when I was a kid, 1500am in San Jose was "KHTT" and played top 40 stuff. One of the stations I was able to get on a cheap clock radio when I was growing up in San Jose. They switched to the Vietnamese programming a long time back.

No doubt you can get KGO on 810 no problems? I used to sit on the bridge while in port in Kodiak and listen to KGO to get a taste of home. Bonus points was it was on the RDF receiver and I had a visible bearing home.

 

[DXerPaulAK]

Not really related to the thread, but when I was a kid, 1500am in San Jose was "KHTT" and played top 40 stuff. One of the stations I was able to get on a cheap clock radio when I was growing up in San Jose. They switched to the Vietnamese programming a long time back.

No doubt you can get KGO on 810 no problems? I used to sit on the bridge while in port in Kodiak and listen to KGO to get a taste of home. Bonus points was it was on the RDF receiver and I had a visible bearing home.

Eazy peazy.. so much so i dont even really bother with them,

 

[mmckenna]

Eazy peazy.. so much so i dont even really bother with them,

Yeah, that's what I figured. Big 'ol flamethrower pointed at you with 50kw. Kind of hard not to be able to pick it up sometimes.

660am, KTNN is my standard test station. 50kw pointed west from the Arizona/New Mexico state line.

 

[DXerPaulAK]

I've shared my DX clips from well outside Alaska, but I wanted to show just how far AM's in Alaska carry and how good the signals can be.

Thought you'd like to hear these clips. I've heard ALL AM's in Alaska, but one.. KTKN 930 which is blocked by KNSA 930 Unalakleet here, only 180 miels away with 5KW non directional 24/7

KZPA 900 Fort Yukon, Alaska isnt owned by KSKO, but simulcasts us a good portion of the day. 5KW Non D from 350 miles away NE of us . I recorded this clip this morning during the KSKO morning show. 6khz audio on my radio, STL is a 128K stereo mp3 stream. Audio: KZPA-AM 900 Fort Yukon, AK Thu. Jan 27, 2022 827AM AK Time.mp3

KLAM 1450 is 250 watts from about 350 miles away, SE of us. The whine/het you hear is from Iran with 400kw. KLAM is owned by a guy who is the morning news anchor for a Fairbanks TV station and he's originally from Cordova. Audio: KLAM-AM 1450 Cordova, AK Thu Jan 27, 2022 835AM AK Time.mp3

KCAM-AM 790 Glennallen, Alaska. 5KW Non D 24/7 from about 320 miles away. Audio: KCAM-AM 790 Glenallen, AK Mon Jan 17, 2022 906pm AK Time.mp3

KCHU-AM 770 Valdez, Alaska 10KW Non D 24/7 from about 315 miles away. Audio: KCHU-AM 770 Valdez, Alaska Mon Jan 17, 2022 908pm AK Time.mp3



Location: McGrath, Alaska

Radio: CCrane Skywave Non SSB Model

Antenna: DeBock 5" FSL tunable AM "loop"

 

[DXerPaulAK]

Conditions havent been so great lately but ive still had a few good ones. Here's one

Heard KLOG 1490 Longview, WA (1715 miles!!) again late last week. Sounded like a news report on a bridge re opening and some story involving a disturbance involving a man and a woman: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DL6ph-Ko4AfNuVBo-ujF7nS44RwWbPWl/view?usp=sharing

This is my second log of them, the first one just a few months ago.. even clearer than last weeks log. Audio: KLOG-AM 1490 Kelso, WA Fri Sept 17, 2021 512am AK Time.mp3


KKDZ 1250 Seattle, WA is operating with 1,250 watts non directional at night from it's daytime tower site after losing the lease on its night site. Normally, KKDZ is 5KW Non directional from 12am to local sunset (that hasnt changed) and goes to the 5KW DA from Sunset to 12midnight to protect KWSU Pullman, WA until it signs off at midnight.

On Saturday January 29th at about 11pm AK Time, KKDZ's 1,250 non directional watts made the 1500 or so mile trip to McGrath, Alaska in two shorts spurts as evidenced in my two recordings here.

Clip #1: KKDZ-AM 1250 Seattle, WA Sat Jan 29, 2022 1059pm AK Time.mp3

Clip #2: KKDZ-AM 1250 Seattle, WA Sat Jan 29, 2022 1102pm AK Time.mp3

This was the only Seattle station I recall hearing that night that was out of the ordinary (IE: A station I dont normally hear)



For a NEW to me log.. I bagged CFLD 760 Burns Lake, BC on Sat. Jan 29th at 1122pm AK Time. The commercial is a bit hard to understand but at 1 minute 10 seconds, you hear "Call me at 250.." and then there's a liner ""The Bulkley Valley & Lakes Biggest Variety".

Audio:
CFLD-AM 760 Burns Lake, BC, Can 1122pm Sat Jan 29, 2022 AK Time.mp3

 

[DXerPaulAK]

On Sunday morning February 6th, my DXing got postponed after this creature was just chilling on the front steps at KSKO

 

[KB2GOM]

It would be interesting to know how far anyone can hear WGY, 810, Schenectady, NY.

 

[DXerPaulAK]

I don't recall seeing anyone in the US ever logging PBS North Korea 855kHz and I didn't think I would hear it, but it showed up this past Tuesday here in Alaska. They've got some transmitter hum and a bit of a het, plus KICY 850's audio is really loud and wide. KICY is almost impossible to null.

BUT you can make out.. barely, the tell tale operatic North Korean music in this clip:

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Paul

 

[DXerPaulAK]

I got two QSL cards in the mail yesterday.

One was for STV’s JOWF 1440kHz Sapporo, Japan (50kw, Non Directional)

Another was for HBC’s JOHR 1287kHz Sapporo, Japan (50KW, non directional)


Here’s my audio of JOWF: JOWF 1440kHz Sapporo, Japan Thu. Dec 9, 2021 1757UTC.mp3

Here’s my audio of JOHR: JOHR 1287kHz Sapporo, Japan Thu. Dec 9, 2021 1744UTC.mp3


For anyone wondering, I simply sent postal mail to the station address listed on the website to get my QSL

 

[DXerPaulAK]

For those of you unaware, I live in McGrath, Alaska managing the day to day operations of an NPR Radio station, KSKO, serving about 500 miles of the alaskan interior.

I'm a member of another hobby site and facebook page, HFUnderground. Geared towards, well.. HF/SW but we do talk AM radio there.

On Friday, someone I didn't recognize popped by the radio station but vaguely knew my name. We got talking and it turns out he's an HFU member. He was here in McGrath to fix some equipment for the FAA.

Paul

 

[mbott]

<snip>
On Friday, someone I didn't recognize popped by the radio station but vaguely knew my name. We got talking and it turns out he's an HFU member. He was here in McGrath to fix some equipment for the FAA.

Curt?

--
Mike

 

[DXerPaulAK]

Curt?

--
Mike

No, John .... L somebody, id have to look at my messenger

 

[DXerPaulAK]

I havent forgotten about you guys here, but ive put away the AM gear for the season already.. AM DX has been so abysmal here since december.... it was like pissing into the wind going down the highway at 70mph....

I have two tunable HF loops, a DXE Pream pand a tecsun pl880 and have had my fruitful endeavors in 3 weeks of SW dxing then 4 months of AM DX produced up here because of all the solar storms

 

[mbott]

Paul,

I was just making a somewhat wild guess.

Take care!
--
Mike

 

[DXerPaulAK]

Hearing new countries on SW is tough, as these days, many of the various broadcasters/stations/programs all come from one of the 2 dozen or so sites across the world.

Well, Saturday night about 730pm AKDT (0330UTC Sun) I bagged Peru. Talk in what was spanish or something soundalike along with religious music was fading up on 4810khz but getting hammered by codar. The music and talk was 1kw Radio Logos on 4810 from Peru!

 

[DXerPaulAK]

About 0420UTC Tuesday morning, I had 10230kHz with some english/spanish/portuguese oldies music and what sounded like spanish or portuguese jerky boys type content with lots of bleeps. The folks over at HFUnderground suspect this is a pirate from Latin America somewhere, but we dont know where.


BUT.. one user had it real good on a Brazil SDR and several of us report a wobbly carrier and squished mushy audio.. both things that seems to be common for even licensed Brazillian's like Clube do Para on 4885, Amazonias on 11780 and Missonaria on 9666.67 (They should be on 9665 and amazonias has been missing for 2 weeks on 11mhz but their 6mhz channel has been there!)

 

[DXerPaulAK]

Here's some audio and report form my log of a Brazillian pirate on 10230kHz.

I heard this Tuesday March 29th at 0417UTC(Monday the 28th, 817pm local time). The signal fades in and out, but gets quite clear at times. A spanish speaking friend ID one song as a Brazillian singer and some of the speech from the Jerky boys type comedy as Portuguese.

Others who heard this in the NE US reported a wobbly carrier and squishy mushy audio which is common even among licensed Brazillians like Amazonias on 11780 or Missionaria on 9665(whos drifted way over to 9666.6).

HFUnderground folks also have referred to this station as Radio Cidades, which is apparently a name they've borrowed from two licensed Brazillian stations

Audio:
10230kHz Latin America Pirate tue Mar 29, 2022 0417UTC

Paul Walker
McGrath, Alaska
Tescun PL880, DXE Preamp and 2 Tunable HF loops

 

[DXerPaulAK]

Hi guys.. havent forgotten about you... I'll start a new thread with these years catches soon

Just getting psyched up for the AM DX Season in about a month or so when it starts getting dark and stays dark "late" enough for me to go out and try some AM DX.

This was one of my most favorite catches from 2021, a 15KW on 1530 from Romania running their "Actualitati" network. This was after skywave from KFBK Sacramento had burned off. It was recorded in late November at 1803 UTC so it was 908 AM in Alaska, and in November its dark until about 10am

Romania 1530kHz Sun Nov 28, 2021 1803UTC

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And this is 20KW Radio Dechklova on 1233 from the Czech Republic. It's in and out a bit, but you can clearly hear the music at times.. it was recorded in January in the 1800UTC hour, and its dark till about 1030 am or so in January

Rádio Dechovka 1233khz Czech Republic Sun Jan 17, 2021 917AM Ak time 1817UTC

MediaFire is a simple to use free service that lets you put all your photos, documents, music, and video in a single place so you can access them anywhere and share them everywhere.

www.mediafire.com

 

[KB2GOM]

Hi guys.. havent forgotten about you... I'll start a new thread with these years catches soon

Just getting psyched up for the AM DX Season in about a month or so when it starts getting dark and stays dark "late" enough for me to go out and try some AM DX.

This was one of my most favorite catches from 2021, a 15KW on 1530 from Romania running their "Actualitati" network. This was after skywave from KFBK Sacramento had burned off. It was recorded in late November at 1803 UTC so it was 908 AM in Alaska, and in November its dark until about 10am

Romania 1530kHz Sun Nov 28, 2021 1803UTC

MediaFire is a simple to use free service that lets you put all your photos, documents, music, and video in a single place so you can access them anywhere and share them everywhere.

www.mediafire.com

And this is 20KW Radio Dechklova on 1233 from the Czech Republic. It's in and out a bit, but you can clearly hear the music at times.. it was recorded in January in the 1800UTC hour, and its dark till about 1030 am or so in January

Rádio Dechovka 1233khz Czech Republic Sun Jan 17, 2021 917AM Ak time 1817UTC

MediaFire is a simple to use free service that lets you put all your photos, documents, music, and video in a single place so you can access them anywhere and share them everywhere.

www.mediafire.com

Go get 'em, Paul!

 

[mass-man]

Man I love this stuff!!!