VOA Thailand in the Lower Mainland

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VOA Thailand in the Lower Mainland

Postby Toomas Losin » Sun Sep 16, 2012 3:13 pm

To trans-Pacific DXers VOA Thailand on 1575 kHz isn't a rare station — its one megawatt transmitter sees to that. However, propagation and geography still come into play as I'd previously recorded 1575 all night a few times but never heard anything but noise; that changed this weekend.

Friday and Saturday evenings began very nicely with unusual conditions. KICY Nome dominated 850 both nights, blowing away KOA Denver and becoming a regular rather than a rare catch. The Japanese stations made a very nice appearance both nights with 774 Akita being the strongest. I was at the radio both evenings and the 4 kHz het on 774 was incredibly loud on Friday but on Saturday propagation from KTTH Seattle must have been weaker because the het was weaker too. I was actually in another room when 774 first faded up and the whistle told me that it was sunset in Japan; time to stop whatever I was doing because the trans-Pacific show had just started.

Saturday night at the height of the show as I was tuning across the band listening for hets I had a strange feeling about the broadcast band. The band felt unfamiliar, as if I were at a different location a few hundred kilometres away with still-familiar stations but with never-before-heard stations on the band too and they were weird because they weren't on frequencies ending with zero. Maybe it all felt dreamlike because by that point it was 03:30 PDT and the caffeine was wearing off. Hmm, people who only record with an SDR may not experience this!

On both nights I recorded 1575 after going to sleep; sunset in Thailand hadn't happened yet and I was tired. Friday's recording had moments with voices; exciting, but not proof. However, Saturday's recording had the big payoff: Extended moments of voices and music and then a clear 1 kHz interval signal followed by Yankee Doodle and the "VOA News" ID at 1230 UTC with the URL "voanews.com/lao", followed by an hour of material which had a lot of fading but the signal was there often enough and intelligible enough to keep the level of excitement high. It all ended with our sunrise. Very exciting! My farthest MW station at 11800 km.

What's nice about 1575 is that the frequency is reasonably far away from any strong locals so that it's mostly free from splatter. Being well-positioned half-way between 1570 and 1580 puts the hets at 5 kHz which can be filtered easily. The splatter situation could change with the 1550 KRPI move, so listen now!

This was all with the R-71a and Pennant. Before I went to sleep I took the Grundig G8 outside to see if it would hear Japan on 774 barefoot but there was nothing. This weekend I had tried coupling the Pennant to it but the strong local signals drove it into blocking or severe desense. I'll need to try again with a preselector.
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Re: VOA Thailand in the Lower Mainland

Postby Eldon-Mr.CFAY » Mon Sep 17, 2012 3:40 am

Greetings Everyone,
Again Toomas you have made the grade well!!!! What a great catch, VOA Thailand and in the lower mainland to boot!!! Yes thats real nice. Band conditions have improved a lot here, we did some dxing here on the weekend but not as much as planned. Had far more trading and talking about surveys and coverage maps going on. Did some dxing on FM and AM down at the Cobourg Pier over Lake Ontario around sunset Saturday night, some interesting stuff coming in and it was even quieter there than in Baltimore. ITs quiet here too. Had WMIC 660 Sandusky, Michigan coming in fairly well before sunset., I think they are a daytimer and only 1 kw. at best. WSM 650 Nashville was stronger than usual and they come in fairly often but were gangbusters here Saturday night, Grand Ole Opry Time. WSB 750 Atlanta came in well too. 740 AM Toronto is not much of a splatter problem here at night except on poor AM radios. Also WWL 870 New Orleans blasting in after sunset. On 1600 NYC WWRL was coming in better than usual too Saturday night. Those among others. I am sure some of the cubans and carribeans were there on certain frequencies but did not try for them. It was quite good dxing after dark Saturday night and very quiet noise conditions here too.

Again Toomas congrats. on hearing Thailand on the AM BCB. Band, good stuff, I would be interested in knowing what you consider your best AM station heard from the USA is whether its a low power daytime only AMer or a real distant AM from Florida or something. Gee its great to see your postings, nice surprise DX, wonder what you will hear next??

73s, Eldon
Bye . . Mr. CFAY "Frequently On The Frequency"
The CFAY Website: http://cfayradio.wordpress.com
CFAY Radio: http://tinyurl.com/l9qqmh
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Re: VOA Thailand in the Lower Mainland

Postby Toomas Losin » Mon Sep 17, 2012 8:20 pm

Thanks, Eldon. The one megawatt power has to help a lot with Thailand, especially as the path is mostly over land — that was a shocker when I looked at the map. I had been wondering if the local mountains would be a problem but the path to Nome is even further north and those signals made it. Hearing both gives me hope to hear the far-east Chinese and Russian stations.

Sunday evening I found that the magic had disappeared. On 850, KICY was gone but so was KOA for the most part, with KHHO Tacoma showing up when I checked briefly. CKMW Morden was better than average but I heard no hint of the Ontario stations. There was nothing from Japan after their local sunset.

Splatter from CHMJ 730 kept me from trying for Tahiti on 738. I half-heartedly recorded 567 trying for New Zealand but I had heard no het so I expected nothing and got nothing. There was splatter from 570 so I recorded the lower sideband. Not using AM meant there was no 3 kHz het from a beat with 570 so I had no hint where there might be something. An SDR would be nice for this sort of task, to record the entire signal and then demodulate it the best way after the fact.

I like distance so I'd love to hear Florida, New York, Boston, or Newfoundland but either the antenna patterns aren't good or when they are there's a strong local. Toronto was a holy grail of mine for 25 years (20 of which were inactive) until hearing CHHA 1610 in May. My furthest continental US station is WWL, the most eastern one is WJR 760 Detroit, the farthest and most eastern Canadian is CKDO 1580 in Oshawa. For content, I liked hearing the farm reports on WHO; that was not the sort of stuff we hear locally, but I haven't heard that station since CJUP 800 moved to 1040! It's so sad that one typically can't listen to a DX station for very long before it fades out.

I have a fondness for WWL because it's a "W" and it's what I call the "easiest farthest" US station to hear thanks to its pattern. KGO is the easiest-farthest for beginners (just beating out KFBK for the title) but anyone getting serious quickly graduates to finding WWL. In my case I heard the CBS Radio Mystery Theatre on KFBK one night after tuning to it by mistake in the dark and marvelled that it was coming from Sacramento; that's how this beginner got started.

Low powered stations are an interesting challenge, although often they contribute to the noise floor and distract when I'm trying for something further. KVNS Brownsville on 1700 isn't really low-powered but it's a nice catch when conditions have pushed XEPE aside. KRND 1630 Cheyenne isn't frequently heard but is a pleasure when it is, the music makes it through even though it's so faint; listen for "La Jota Mexicana". Then there's that TIS station in Blaine on 1630 (WQHG816) which I haven't heard in a year; that might be due to the Pennant's null pointing that way.

I believe the biggest difference in my reception of the distant signals is the external Pennant antenna rather than the loop antenna I used indoors for years. The loop did receive Japan when conditions permitted it but my impression is that the Pennant is performing better.
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