Trying to DXing AM stations at Night

I'm really, really, late to this movie. Came across the thread just now.

I was in Honolulu my junior year in high school (McKinley) in the mid '60s. I lived in an apartment complex on Ala Moana Boulevard near the Ihilani Hotel (which had just opened) and the Ala Moana Mall. Even with a popular model shortwave reciever (Hallicrafters S-120) and a longwire antenna. AM DX was a complete bust with the glut of nearby transmitters. I never once picked up anything from from the mainland....not even a whiff.

Getting in the car one night and driving up highway 83 north of Kailua, was a different story. My prize catch that night (as posted previously in other threads) was exactly what I was looking for....hometown WLS. In addition to "the usual suspect" west coast stations, I also snagged WBAP and WWL (the Honolulu 870 KAIM was off).

What was frustrating about being "stuck" in Honolulu was I was fully aware that mainland stations....of all sizes...were easily making the hop to Hawaii. I had a conversation one afternoon with an engineer who had been working on the big island. I forget all of the particulars, but the gist was his station in Hilo was relaying programs from parent/sister station KGMB/590 from Honolulu. Problem was at night, the 5kw 590 from Spokane was regularly giving them fits!

Shortwave wasn't all that much better, although there were a few Asian and South Pacific area stations that were strong and reliable. Lots of harmonics from the nearby AM sticks. Most notably from KPOI/1380, which was 5kw less than a half mile away from me.

When I lived in Honolulu in the early 1980s, the FM transmitters blew away most of the dial, even tho thre were only 7 stations in town (including a low power KTUH), and they only went as high up as 97.5 at the time. KHPR debuted at 88.1, but could be hard to hear from their less than direct ridgetop location over the spurious splatter from the 100kw transmitters a few feet above everyone in the heart of town. KSHO from another ridge above Kailua was a nice smooth jazz station for a while, before changing to KRTR and soft rock, and it came in OK without distorting all over the dial like the others from the tops of buildings. Was a nice tropical soundtrack while it lasted.

The top of the KUMU-AM tower was about even with where I lived for awhile on Wilhelmena Ridge, so it not only spread wide on my AM radios, it also bled thru whenever I hit "play" or "record" on any of my cassette decks. The only FM you could get from off island was the new KLHI 101.1 from Lahaina. It was the only station higher up the dial that "98 Rock" at 97.5. KCCN AM1420 was popular, but had the longest top of the hour ID package I've ever heard - something like 6 different elements pasted together, starting with a woman reciting, "this land. . . of Aloha," a conch shell, and a bunch of other things that would have made more sense one at a time. Emperor Hudson held court for several months mornings on AM 1080 KZHI until he could get something going back in LA. Couldn't even start to compete with Aku on KSSK, whose death seemed timed for morning drive, too.

AMs came in day and night from Kauai and Maui OK, but KKUA 790 from the Kona Coast was the only Big Island station I could hear in town. I had to put a resistor on the back of my multi-band radio to reduce the smush, which didn't really help much with picking up "distant" signals. Never heard anything from other Pacific islands. Probably because as best I knew, none of them had high powered AM stations. And Japan, China and Korea stations were probably covered up. I only heard them with a big antenna from Nome Alaska before I moved to Hawaii.

A drive on the Big Island in a rental car brought in all sorts of nighttime AM surprises, however. LA, San Francisco and Las Vegas' 50kw directionals came in pretty well, especially 1020 and 1580. Probably some San Diego and Portland stuff, too. Might have DX'd Fairbanks Alaska, too, once on the neighbor islands. Or maybe that was the other way around???

Goldilocks94941 said:

When I lived in Honolulu in the early 1980s, the FM transmitters blew away most of the dial, even tho thre were only 7 stations in town (including a low power KTUH), and they only went as high up as 97.5 at the time.

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I remember that from the mid-60s. Only the "bottom of the band" was being used. Although I think there were only three or four FMs at the time. KPOI was one of them, and I think KGMB may have been operating one of the others. I also remember that TV channels 5 & 6 were not available for use anywhere in the islands.

As for AM DX, I was able to hear the other islands a couple of times despite all the bleed and splatter in Waikiki. 550 and 1310 from Maui and 1490 from Kauai (if KUMU was off). Never anything from the big island. However, when I was on the Kona coast for a couple of days, the Honolulu AM stations all had pretty decent signals. Including the 1,000 outlets (KIKI, KOHO, KZOO, and KUMU, IIRC.)

I'm also very late to this thread, but noticed it earlier in the year.

The only thing I have to add is for the original poster: the DX-390 is a terrific SW radio, but you may have been better trying to DX MW with a different radio; maybe a Superadio or one of the newer radios MWDXers use today.....

I have a 390 and I use mine all the time. I have found it a great receiver for SW DX. Its main issue being very hot AGC, but it pulls in the stations well and it is very easy to use. If the AGC pumps a bit too much I just back off on the RF gain a bit.

But on AM band the DX-390 just doesn't isn't a DX radio. I think it's the circuitry that's meant to block MW signals from bleeding onto the SW band. I think it deadens the entire band a bit. My 390 will pull in some MW DX on the low and medium part of the MW band, but when it gets close to 1600, the sensitivity drops off quite a bit.

Goldilocks94941 said:

When I lived in Honolulu in the early 1980s, the FM transmitters blew away most of the dial, even tho thre were only 7 stations in town (including a low power KTUH), and they only went as high up as 97.5 at the time.

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Ah, but do you know why there were no FM's higher on the band? Way back in the day the high end of the FM band was reserved for interisland links for the phone company in Hawaii, and I think there was a similar allocation in Alaska. There was an antenna up on Tantalus and they kept it active as an "emergency backup" to existing circuits even though I dont think anyone ever remember it being fired up until the FCC did away with that service.

Goldilocks94941 said:

AMs came in day and night from Kauai and Maui OK, but KKUA 790 from the Kona Coast was the only Big Island station I could hear in town.

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You might be thinking of KKON 790 in Kealakekua. KKUA (at least back in the early 70's when I worked there) was on 690 and transmitted from the Kewalo Basin tower on Oahu. From the more usless trivia dept I know of two enterprising young men back in the late 60's who, due to scarce and expensive land on Oahu, thought of putting an AM directional on the Kona Coast aimed at Oahu.

Yes, KKON Kealakekua. Great ID, no? Was an enjoyable mix of AC music and low key stuff. Good for inter-island weekend listening.

My understanding about the prohibition on FM allocations in Hawaii on 100-108, until KLHI Lahaina came on 101.1 in the early 1980s, was that it was all "reserved for the military." I never heard anything up there, and if it was used for phone communications, I think everyone would have been able to hear something on their FM radios, since receivers certainly didn't stop at KPOI 97.5

Just the opposite in Alaska - nothing was allocated below 100FM until the 1980s as well. Same reason, according to the Broadcasting Yearbook, which is where I believe learned it. Perhaps the first station that moved down the dial up there was KMBQ in Wasilla. Public radio in Anchorage didn't migrate down there for awhile, either, and KUAC Fairbanks moved rfrom 104.7 to 89 something when a commercial broadcaster paid them to do it in the 1990s.

I think TV channel 5 and 6 were also reserved in both states until the full band was opened up.

As to Alaska, when I was there 1978-80, I believe that FM was limited to 100-106 MHz only. I may be wrong, but I think it was KSKA Anchorage, originally on 103.1, that moved to 91.1 first. Nowadays, Anchorage FM is looking like L.A.

And yes I think that channels 5 & 6 were taboo in both AK & HI then.

cd

Goldilocks94941 said:

My understanding about the prohibition on FM allocations in Hawaii on 100-108, until KLHI Lahaina came on 101.1 in the early 1980s, was that it was all "reserved for the military." I never heard anything up there, and if it was used for phone communications, I think everyone would have been able to hear something on their FM radios, since receivers certainly didn't stop at KPOI 97.5



I think TV channel 5 and 6 were also reserved in both states until the full band was opened up.

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I could be 100% wrong, but my understanding also was that the upper end of the FM band was reserved for possible military use. Same goes for TV channels 5 and 6. Plausible, at least from the standpoint of all of the military bases and activity in the state.

Very late to this thread as I just discovered it. In 1978 on Oahu, but not in Waikiki I heard WLS, WBBM, & WWL.
As recently as 2010, also on Oahu I heard KOKC & KFAQ on a rental car radio driving on the outskirts of Honolulu.
Also heard Australia on 1116 on my Grundig G5.
Picked up loads of West Coast stations & KSL everynight I was there.

DavidEduardo said:

Going farther east, in the early 60's I heard a number of Hawaiian stations in NE Ohio.

650, 690, 760, 830, 870, 1040, 1270 and 1380 were the ones I heard, several of which were heard under several different call letter combos. KIKI 830 was 250 watts at the time, and heard a number of times. I also had a tentative reception of 940 as well... on a night when I could not spend more time trying to dig it out as Roturua, NZ, was coming in on 1000.

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Wow! Never been able to pick up a station from Hawaii and I live in NE Ohio. Furthest AM I've ever been able to pick up was a station from Denver, CO and two from California and that was in the 70s sitting in my driveway in my 1962 Nova. [Actually picked up a TV station from Denver early one morning in the 80s, it didn't last long though]

Aloha, Hawaii board. To keep a little life left in this "I remember when" DX thread:
I never caught any transmissions, not even beeps, on the 'reserved for military" half of FM dial whenever I dialed around in either Hawaii or Alaska, back when that was the rule. I remember the surprise when one day in Honolulu, a station from Lahaina showed up on 101.1 FM! KLHI had a nice, more relaxed AC and Hawaiiana format than I could find on Honolulu's 9 local FM stations, so enjoyed the surprise of the dial opening up above 100mHz.
Does anyone know if the military ever used any of those frequencies at a level that the general public could have monitored them? It took a couple more years before Honolulu FM started to show up, up higher than KPOI on 97.5.
One summer afternoon in Alaska's Copper River Valley, where there was only a local AM station, and nothing at all on FM for more than 150 miles, I had a strange occurance with that wide-open FM dial. I decided to scan the FM dial to see if I could find any signals at all on my trusty Panasonic FM-2200, which I still use as my primary radio, and am listening to, even as I write this. Anyhow, out of the blue (or is the ether green??), I caught a stray FM signal somewhere around the middle of the dial, just long enough that I could identify it as a program from Canada's CBC. I was at least 200 miles away from anywhere in Canada where they were likely to have an FM repeater, through a range of really tall mountains, no less. But wherever it was coming from, it started to drift frequency rather quickly, so I followed the signal all the way up the dial, until it disappeared after 108 FM. It probably took no longer than a minute until the signal flew away, after crossing at least half of the empty FM dial! A Canadian signal in search of a frequency to call home!

Some years later, driving back to Alaska on the Alaska Highway, I found that the CBC's FM transmitter halfway between Whitehorse and the Alaska border on 103.3 FM was well located, since that signal covered a lot more miles than any of their other signals, all the way up from Vancouver. But it was engineered to fall away within a couple of miles after I crossed the border into the US. Perhaps CBC engineers were working on putting up an FM repeater in the Yukon back when I caught that strange traveling wisp of a signal that summer afternoon in 1982, and the transmitting frequency happened to unleash itself, just as an FM DX atmospheric phenomenon was happening. I have no other idea of why I was able to catch that signal, or why it was traveling across the dial. I was never able to find anything on FM in Glennallen Alaska again after that, and I left that region a couple of months later for the bright lights of Nome and the Bering Sea!
On another note, the speed at which that stray signal traveled reminds me of the time me and some friends saw the silhouette of what I'm convinced was a ghost, drifting across their apartment wall in San Francisco a few years later. It was a person's shadow that traveled steadily across the wall of the apartment, at night, at about the same speed as the phantom FM signal, until it, too, drifted out of sight. (We all acknowledged what we saw to each other, and quickly went into another room, trying in vain to explain away what we saw.) Perhaps the radio frequencies do relate in some way to some cosmic energies or something we don't yet understand about the "radio" frequencies that comprise the world we know?

Happy DX-ing!

Perhaps a ghost DJ?

OK David Eduardo, you did not say you heard KTIP in ohio. I had to read it twice to make sure.

I used to DX that station from Hanford. CA not WA.

I was on Oahu in a rent-a-car in September 2008, parked near the easternmost point on the island, so away from the worst of the heavy Honolulu RF interference. I was using a car radio that was relatively crummy (i.e. I could barely hear 1350/Lihue in the daytime from Honolulu), but my brief survey of the dial at night was rather surprising. Every spare frequency had SOMETHING on it, including the six "graveyard" frequencies 1230 1240 1340 1400 1450 1490...it was mindboggling to realize that all of the jumble on those six frequencies were mixes of stations at least 2,300 miles away and no more than 1,000 watts.

Alaska was EASY. During both of my very brief efforts, Anchorage on 750 as well as Nome on 780 were both easy; one night Nome was fighting it out with Reno and the other night Reno wasn't there. I heard a third Alaskan but I forget who; maybe it was one of the Fairbanks (660 or 820) in the splashover from adjacent Honolulu stations?

At one point I had Spanish (probably a Mexican) on top of 1230, and on 1340 KOMY Watsonville CA was the first to fade in on that spot.

I was rather surprised to hear Anguilla (Caribbean) on 1610, and CUBANS on 530 and 570. I also had something sounding very "dry" and noncommercial on 1290 in Spanish, which was probably Mexico City (which I think is educational)...or another Cuba station?? I'm actually leaning toward Cuba, because I don't remember actually confirming any other Mexico City signals.

At one point I was sitting on 740 with San Francisco there and, for three or four minutes, a station tried to fade in, playing adult standards. I know what that was!! Surely it was CFZM (or was it still CHWO then?) Toronto, but I lost it before they ever said anything.

Dr. Richard E. Wood USED TO live near Hilo, and some of the stations he heard there were truly amazing! I think one station he picked up was Namibia (Africa) on 747, which was almost exactly on the other side of the world from him, and he even heard 500 and 1000 watt stations from places such as Kentucky and South Carolina. I say "used to" because he died a few years ago.

Back in the day (1962 to 1966) I heard seven Hawaiian radio stations from southeast Michigan: 650*, 760, 870*, 1040*, 1090, 1210, 1270. * means heard more than once. I was always surprised that I never heard K-POI (not even suspected). In 1971 I heard an eighth Hawaiian station 940 from Michigan, when I was visiting somebody in far southwest Michigan.

My farthest station heard in the past half century from a permanent location, though, was Tonga 1017 heard from here in west central Illinois, back in in I think 1990. However, in 1986 I had a longwire site set up between Fairbanks and Nenana, Alaska - stuff heard from there was amazing, such as Cook Islands on 630, Invercargill NZ on 1224, a 2000-watt Tasmanian on 900 two Monday mornings in a row (when KNUI went off), 1000-watt Tyler TX on 600 and WACO on 1460. One morning I had Nova Scotia pounding in on 1410, Moncton on 1220, etc. I think I heard 106 Australians from Alaska...and all 25 (or however many there were) Hawaiian stations were picked up IMMEDIATELY, even the elusive Kealakakua 790, as well as stations co-channel with Anchorage stations. At one point, before my local station there (KJNP/1170/North Pole) dropped their carrier for the night, I could already hear a 400-watt New Zealand station behind them.