DXpedition AKA family getaway

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DXpedition AKA family getaway

Postby Tape Splicer » Mon Jul 16, 2012 6:10 pm

On a family getaway I had the chance to spend a few late evenings on a patio in the Comox valley tuning up and down the dial in search of stations that are not heard on the mainland.

I was using a Grundig G8 - what a nice little radio the fine tuning is fantastic. The stations were tuned in over a three night period from 10 pm to midnight each night totaling 6 hours spent on this project.

I picked up stations from Washington, Oregon, California and 1 from Alberta... (CBC radio 1 CBR from Calgary AB.)

All the metro Vancouver stations came in loud and clear. 1550 KRPI Ferndale WA was heard with equal strength as KKOV Vancouver WA.

What I found interesting is that many stations did not use their legal call signs, what I heard were frequent "branding" statements eg: "Freedom radio...", "ESPN radio....", "Disney radio...". "Bloomberg radio"... I also heard several syndicated programs in the over night hours such as "Coast-to-Coast AM" etc. Very little local "live' programming.

For what it's worth here is the list of stations that I picked up.
1640 KDZR Lake Oswego OR. 1620 Renton WA. 1580 KGAL Lebanon OR. 1550 KKOV Vancouver WA. 1530 KFBK Sacramento CA. 1520 Snohomish WA. 1510 KGA Spokane WA. 1480 KBMS Vancouver WA. 1460 KUTI Yakma WA. 1430 KYKN Keizer OR. and KKPZ Portland OR. 1420 KITI Centralia WA. 1380 KRKO Everett WA. 1300 KKOL Seattle WA. 1290 KUMA Pendleton OR. 1190 KEX Portland OR. 1120 KPNW Eugene OR. 1050 KBLE Seattle WA. 1010 CBR (CBC Radio 1) Calgary AB. 820 KGNW Seattle WA. 810 KGO San Fransisco CA.

There were several spanish language and religious stations heard that I was not able to get call signs for

I Had a great time on the patio as the 30 degree plus temperatures went down and the sound of an AM band that is very much alive crackled in my ears.
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Re: DXpedition AKA family getaway

Postby Dan Sys » Tue Jul 17, 2012 7:48 am

There were several spanish language and religious stations heard that I was not able to get call signs for


What frequencies were those on Tape Splicer? I can probably figure out what you heard.
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Re: DXpedition AKA family getaway

Postby Tape Splicer » Tue Jul 17, 2012 8:36 am

Hi Dan; Thanks for the ofter... I concentrated on stations that I could understand and let the others go by the way. My thinking was pin down the stations call letters or location While DXing the old fashion way and move on. I did make use of "Radio Locator" to confirm my list after I got home, so I could post a list that was as complete as possible.
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Re: DXpedition AKA family getaway

Postby Tape Splicer » Tue Jul 17, 2012 9:35 am

Detective Dan... After pocking through the round file I found my list of stations. Here are the frequencies and how I "tagged" them:

1520 - Spanish, 1330 - Religious, 1310 Spanish, 1210 Spanish,
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Re: DXpedition AKA family getaway

Postby Tape Splicer » Tue Jul 17, 2012 10:36 am

Using "Radio Locator" again, here is my best guess as to what I heard.
First of all the above "1520 - Spanish" should have read 1560 - Spanish. This might be KVAN Burbank WA. 1330 - Religious could be KKPZ Portland OR. the Spanish station on 1310 could be KIQQ Barstow CA. or KFVR Crescent City CA. and finally the 1210 signal could be KMIA Aubern WA.
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Re: DXpedition AKA family getaway

Postby Dan Sys » Tue Jul 17, 2012 11:38 am

I would say that 3 out of your 4 assumptions are right on. The one in doubt is 1310 which I'm willing to bet was KZXR in Prosser, WA. It has a Regional Mexican format and puts out a strong signal towards this direction, even at nights with only 66 watts they dominate 1310 believe it or not.
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Re: DXpedition AKA family getaway

Postby Tape Splicer » Tue Jul 17, 2012 11:54 am

Dan, I have no problem with your assumption; I just twist the knob and listen to what is out their. Had I not had the computer, to search out the stations on "Radio Locator" I would have just uttered a hummmmm and moved on.

The reason I decided to sit on the patio and knob twist is that I was curious about what could be heard on either side of the local Vancouver area stations.

Has any one else done a little DXing while on vacation this summer?
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Re: DXpedition AKA family getaway

Postby Dan Sys » Tue Jul 17, 2012 1:10 pm

DX'er Lee Freshwater has a fairly accurate AM listing available on the net:
http://www.amlogbook.com/freq/freq.htm
Might save you a bit of time not having to dig around the Radio Locator site looking for information.
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Re: DXpedition AKA family getaway

Postby jon » Tue Jul 17, 2012 1:39 pm

I echo Dan's recommendation. Only thing missing for the casual AM DX'er in Western Canada is Mexican stations.

Also noting that Lee hasn't updated it in nearly a year, which is unusual for him. Hope that he is not experiencing problems.
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Re: DXpedition AKA family getaway

Postby Tape Splicer » Tue Jul 17, 2012 2:09 pm

With the "Brain Trust" on RW/CRN there is no need for putting out the bucks for "World Radio TV Handbook"
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Re: DXpedition AKA family getaway

Postby Toomas Losin » Tue Jul 17, 2012 9:09 pm

jon wrote:Only thing missing for the casual AM DX'er in Western Canada is Mexican stations.

The easiest may be XEPRS 1090 and XEPE 1700 although they're not daily visitors. Unfortunately, both are ESPN in English so the only chances for any culture are the spanish ID's during ESPN's oh-so-very-brief TOH ID slot and the Mexican national anthem at midnight.

XEPRS 1090 dukes it out with KPTK Seattle and sometimes wins! XEPE 1700 is clear, reception permitting, although when things are just right KVNS Brownsville will poke through as a nice surprise.

Back in the 80's it was a very good bet that a Spanish-speaking station heard in the Lower Mainland was Mexican. I was shocked when I took up the hobby again two years ago to find that the situation had changed, with flea-powered stations in Washington airing a Mexican format. Mexican stations were a holy grail for me at the time, like Australia is now.
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Re: DXpedition AKA family getaway

Postby jon » Tue Jul 17, 2012 9:28 pm

Toomas Losin wrote:Back in the 80's it was a very good bet that a Spanish-speaking station heard in the Lower Mainland was Mexican. I was shocked when I took up the hobby again two years ago to find that the situation had changed, with flea-powered stations in Washington airing a Mexican format. Mexican stations were a holy grail for me at the time, like Australia is now.

In the 1960s, most Mexican stations heard easily during evenings in the Lower Mainland were in English. Except Sunday evenings when they all had to run national programming from Mexico City in Spanish. And hourly IDs.

If you heard a station in Spanish in the evening in the mid-1960s, it was more likely from Cuba. Or aimed at Cuba, from the U.S. That was before the 1-A U.S. clear channels started getting second stations in the West, and a turn of the directional antenna or just a bad night for the North East U.S. might be a good night for reception from the Caribbean.
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Re: DXpedition AKA family getaway

Postby Tape Splicer » Wed Jul 18, 2012 12:06 pm

jon wrote: Also noting that Lee hasn't updated it in nearly a year, which is unusual for him. Hope that he is not experiencing problems.


It would appear that that there are updates to this site located in

Database Updates: http://amlogbook.com/changes/change3.htm

here is a Excel download from the update page. http://www.amlogbook.com/changes/AM.xls
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Re: DXpedition AKA family getaway

Postby Dan Sys » Wed Jul 18, 2012 1:26 pm

The Mexican government does (did) have an AM/FM database that I have downloaded in the past, but I'll be damned if I can find it again. However while digging around this morning I did find an excellent Mexican AM list from 2008 that DX'er John Callarman put together (via the DXing Info site):
http://www.dxing.info/lists/2008_MEXICO ... quency.pdf
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Re: DXpedition AKA family getaway

Postby jon » Wed Jul 18, 2012 2:14 pm

Really good list! I notice that XEMO-860 is listed as AM Stereo. Brings to mind XETRA-690, running AM Stereo in the late 1960s. They just used the left and right sidebands.
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