U.S. Punjabi border station to become 50KW blowtorch

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Re: U.S. Punjabi border station to become 50KW blowtorch

Postby erratics » Thu Jun 28, 2012 7:00 pm

"
Dan Sys wrote:Actually the entire northwest corner of the peninsula on the U.S. side where Point Roberts is located is still very rural in nature. From what I gather looking at the coordinates from the FCC site this is exactly where the KRPI towers will be located (a stones throw from the Canadian border)."

CHHA 1610.....Great catch Toomas! As far as I know they are still operating with 1,000 watts nights. They do have a cp to increase night power to 6,250 watts though but that change is not reflected on the I/C database yet. I just gave it a shot from my QTH in Aldergrove and was greeted with a bunch of atmospheric noise.


I guess the land is cheap enough and worthwhile in Pt. Roberts to establish an AM station to go after Vancouver. I gather the East Indian community in Abby will be the primary loss with this change since there's no way this station when they move their transmitter will make it there.
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Re: U.S. Punjabi border station to become 50KW blowtorch

Postby Eldon-Mr.CFAY » Fri Jun 29, 2012 11:16 am

Greetings Everyone,
Regarding KRPI's new transmitter site in Point Roberts. Currently i can get KRPI 1550 in Langley City quite well during all daytime hours. At night it is a little weaker and I can usually null it to receive Vancouver Washington also on 1550 at night. In winter or fall it is quite easy to do and sometimes the Vancouver, Washington station just booms in over them at night in winter months. Thats from the Ferndale, Washington site currently being used. Having well over 4000 radio station coverage maps in my collection and being extremely interested in AM radio station coverage and dxing for over 35 yeaars I follow station coverage closely. Also took a radio broadcast engineering course years ago and the technical aspects of AM radio interest me a lot!

Anyway getting back to the new KRPI 1550 Point Roberts site I just checked the Radio-Locator proposed contours. It appears that this station will put in a pretty good signal in the Fraser Valley out towards Abbotsford and Alderrove in the daytime with primary and secondary coverage. However at night it is some reduced in that direction. Taking a look at the night coverage contours my educated guess would be that we will probably hear it with slightly less signal strength in Langley City at night than now. So you will probably hear some sort of Vancouver, Washington interference and itwill probably be quite strong some nights in the Fraser Valley. I noticed that there is a slight null to the east for the proposed night coverage of KRPI. I am wondering what station they are protecting because Spokane, Washington 1550 AM has been off the air for years now!!!! Unless its protection on a frequency there for possible future stations. North Dakota has a station on 1550 too that I think is about 10,000 watts, used to be called KQWB and had a neat top 40 music chart!

By the way I have quite a few duplicate original coverage maps from radio stations, The 4000 are counting one per station but it is well over that. Any one interested in trading or buying some feel free to get in touch with me by email, private message or check out the cfay website for address in Langley. I am currently in Ontario on business and a long overdue vacation but will be back in Langley by early September. However a lot of the radio station collection stuff is here. So again feel free to contact me. Will get back to you as soon as possible.

In the meantime take care. It will be interesting to see how well that new site in Point Roberts does get out up the Fraser Valley. Does anyone know how soon KRPI will be broadcasting from Point Roberts??? I have had several USA radio friends ask me that.

Take care everyone, 73s Eldon
Bye . . Mr. CFAY "Frequently On The Frequency"
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Re: U.S. Punjabi border station to become 50KW blowtorch

Postby Dan Sys » Fri Jun 29, 2012 1:46 pm

Most of the fleet of cabs in Aldergrove proudly display KRPI stickers. If that's any indication I would say the station is quite popular among the South Asian community in the Fraser Valley. However as Eldon observed in Langley the signal at nights isn't that great out this way either despite the fact that Aldergrove is only about 15 miles away from their transmitter site.
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Re: U.S. Punjabi border station to become 50KW blowtorch

Postby Tape Splicer » Sun Jul 22, 2012 6:00 pm

Related to this thread is this "YouTube" item:
============================================================

"1550 KHz KRPI Ferndale, WA. DX Test | Medium Wave DX | Perseus SDR from Michigan".

From the 'YouTube" page ...

"Uploaded by kilokat7 on Feb 26, 2012
KRPI DX test as heard from my location in West Michigan. Morse code (CW) IDs heard as shown in this video, unfortunately no voice IDs heard, but a new log nonetheless and my first time hearing anything from Washington state!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dskYmr0OBBU
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Re: U.S. Punjabi border station to become 50KW blowtorch

Postby Dan Sys » Sun Jul 22, 2012 8:10 pm

Wow, what kind of a receiver does this guy have? Looks like you might need a university degree to figure out how to operate it.
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Re: U.S. Punjabi border station to become 50KW blowtorch

Postby Tape Splicer » Sun Jul 22, 2012 9:51 pm

You're right Dan - That is quite an advanced system. It looks like something out of a Tom Clancy novel. It appears to be a digital representation of the audio signal. It looks like a "waterfall" from the sonar display on a submarine. It's way beyond me - The ears are still the best thing for DXing.
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Re: U.S. Punjabi border station to become 50KW blowtorch

Postby Eldon-Mr.CFAY » Mon Jul 23, 2012 1:20 pm

Greetings Everyone!!!
Wow!!!! I agree that is some kind of receiver Dan. You know I totally agree with you on this point Tape Splicer, the ears are the best thing for dxing! Although some advanced displays with communication receivers can help if you can interpret them accurately!!! I personally like the old fashioned way of dxing AM and FM using the a sharp ear!!!! What I am curious about is when KRPI did this code dx test, the date on the You Tube video was Feb.2012, wondering if it was then. Most of the time when I have tuned by 1550 out in Langley at night checking the frequency they just have regular programming. Quite often I will null them to see whats there besides Vancouver, Washington.

By the way on a related note to dxing I read your reception up in Courtenay, quite interesting but quite a few of those stations I have heard in Langley at night. However Courtenay appears to be a pretty good dx location. A good friend of mine who is orginally from Maple Ridge and has been a dxer since the 1070s, he got some really great QSLs on AM growning up in Maple Ridge lives in Courtenay. He has lived there since getting married and moving there in 1988 and has dabbled with dx on AM from there on and off since. He was telling me a few months ago he could hear quite a few Alaska AM stations from there including Ketchikan 930, and Fairbanks and Anchorage quite well, much better than he ever heard them in Maple Ridge years ago. So it appears that some stations from the northwest come in quite well there. I would imagine the AM band to be fairly quiet noise wise so some of the stations you heard are probably more easily recieved there than in the Greater Vancouver area including Langley. The more powerful AMs like KGO 810 and KFBK 1530 as well as KSL 1160 are regulars each night in Langley with local-like signals most evenings except if there is a bad thunderstorm or high static levels on the band in the summer or late spring! I have never actually visited Courtenay or dxed there, got to Hornby Island and Denman about 30 years ago and stayed overnight there. Didn't really do any serious dxing there but I did do a quick AM bandscan and it was very quiet on the AM band with a low noise level. My friend Dave wants me to make a trip up to Courtenay and Campbell River so when I get a chance I*m going to do that. My Dad (who passed away in August 1993) was born in Campbell River and grew up on Quadra Island. He used to tell me about all the stations he used to get at Granite Bay, on Quadra Island growing up there in the 30s and 40s. They had an old tube RCA console radio as well as a smaller tube type table radio. He was telling me there was plenty of room in rural Granite Bay for a longwire antenna. My Dad was not really a serious dxer but back in those days everyone listened to the radio more because of no tv yet!!!! I really have to visit where he grew up because after all these years I have never been there. It would be very interesting to dx not only in Courtenay but Campbell River and Quadra Island.

By the way has KRPI 1550 Ferndale done any dx tests after Feb. 2012 that anyone knows of??? I wonder who this dxer in West Michigan is??? I know a lot of USA dxers and most of them have been doing it for quite awhile. I think there is a dxer whom I do not know but have heard of named Harold F. but I am not sure that he lives in West Michigan, I think it was closer to Detroit. Anyway he has some pretty elaborate communications receivers and I think he has heard and verified some pretty low power pirate stations on AM and Shortwave from stuff I read over the years in radio magazine columns.

Anyway interesting stuff! You brought up a good idea of dxing on vacation or trips Tape Splicer! I wish I had more time to seriously do it here in Ontario but have quite busy even though what I have heard is certainly fantastic and a bit overwhelming, so many stations to listen for here.

Take care everyone, best of dx to you too this summer!!!! FM and TV is at its peak season for dx right now. I saw a Timmins Ontario TV station a few times with glorified Rabbit Ears on my Zenith Black and White in the house here in Baltimore, Ontario. Reception was quite good and Timmins is nowhere near Cobourg, Ontario!!!! So definitely the time to check things out over the air for FM and TV DXing fans!

73s Eldon
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Re: U.S. Punjabi border station to become 50KW blowtorch

Postby Toomas Losin » Mon Jul 23, 2012 8:09 pm

That DXer in Michigan is using a Perseus SDR. I want one but my budget is saying it's overpriced and I don't know if there's software for Linux. This technology is the future of everyday radio sets; currently it's high-end but it is trickling down. Take the Grundig G8 as an example; it's implemented using SDR features rather than the sort of circuitry that one would find in a "normal" radio. It's all digital signal processing rather than dedicated circuitry.

Eldon, I heard the entire KRPI test. It ran Feb 26 from 08:58 to 09:31 UTC. I don't believe they've tested since then.
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Re: U.S. Punjabi border station to become 50KW blowtorch

Postby jon » Mon Jul 23, 2012 9:18 pm

SDR=Software-Defined Radio. In my view, having never actually used one, the biggest value of an SDR is that you can record multiple frequencies at the same time.

Why is that important? Because "openings" (brief windows of time) for DX from a specific location usually occur at the same time. Whether it is, on the AM Broadcast Band, Australia in the middle of the night, or Nampa, Idaho, from Vancouver at high noon in the winter.

As to the earlier comments that Ears are more important than improvements in Equipment, I would strongly disagree. In a large Urban area, speaking from personal experience, the CCRadio-EP with TERK tuned AM Loop and an audio amplifier is better than the Lafayette HA-230 with 4' tuned box loop I had in the late 1960s. At less than one twelfth the price, if you take inflation into account.

As well as the multi-frequency monitoring of SDRs, and the capability of simultaneous recording all those audio streams on a computer, there is now the ability to eliminate a local station and hear what is underneath (on the same frequency) by a type of phasing. A Vancouver DX'er (Bill Wilson is the name that comes to mind, but I could be wrong) in the late 1960s was in Physics at UBC, came up with the idea, but now there is equipment you can buy to do it. I know of two reception reports in the last few years at CHQT-880 in Edmonton from listeners quite close to the Seattle and New York City stations on 880. The typical setup is two loop antennas pointed in different directions, where you subtract the audio of the one getting only the local station from the other that is doing its best to null out your local station.

I am sure there are other techniques. Graphic equalizers could make it easier to make out a hard to hear ID on a recording by trying different settings. Noise elimination software can also get rid of consistent background noise, which would also make things easier to hear.
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Re: U.S. Punjabi border station to become 50KW blowtorch

Postby Eldon-Mr.CFAY » Mon Jul 23, 2012 10:28 pm

Greetings Everyone,
Interesting Discussion. Thanks Jon for your insight into this discussion. Also thanks Toomas for letting me know about the KRPI testing. As far as phasing signals go we had worked on loop antenna designs and dual loop antennas, ferrite and air-corp loops back in the 1980s both at my Calgary Alberta workshop and out in B.C.. Had mild success with them even near downtown Calgary. We never marketted one but certainly came close to it and I still have designs using electronic timing circuits etc. to do just that. When I get more time I am going to do even further research and carry on with some of the ideas we left off with in the early 1990s.

Yes much of what you said about computer technology finding signals underneath by nulling out semi-local stations on the same frequency etc. may well be true. However I am just not into SDR receivers. I would not buy one even if I could afford ten of them. I have seen the reviews etc. about them but they just don't appeal to me for dxing. I like the idea of more simplistic old fashioned type dxing. I certainly think your ears and even your eyes can be of major benefit when searching out weak signals. However I am certainly not against using more advanced and sensitve receivers, phasor loop antennas and even more advanced antenna techniques. They can certainly make a big difference and improvement to dxing. However they are only as good as the user using them and how good your eyesight and hearing abilities are when dxing!!!!! There is something kind of nostalgic about using those old communication receivers that makes dxing fun like your old Lafayette Jon or an Hammarlund HQ-180. I*m a big fan of tube technology still!!!! I notice that the one of the latest London Drugs Flyers has a big page thing on vinyl records that are making a comeback too, London Drugs is selling them again at 17 to 27 bucks each plus turntables to play them on. London Drugs is all across Western Canada but not yet anywhere in Ontario however they told me out in Langley they plan on moving into the Ontario market in the next several years.

So even though I really love wi-fi radios and streaming audio by that method and to some degree listening on the computer via the station websites I certainly don't consider that dxing!!!! Even though you can hear over 12,000 radio stations worldwide on the wi-fi radios I have. Getting back to phasing I can remember having two antennas, one was a random wire of maybe 50 feet on the floor in the house in Surrey and a loop antenna, I think it was an air-core one and somehow by primitive coupling I had a portable radio which may have been a TRF 655 which is quite sensitive, when you moved the wire on the floor and had it more dominant as the antenna 1590 brought in KTIL Tillamook real well. When you disconnected the wire antenna and used the loop from the same direction KSND or whatever the calls were in Seattle at the time blasted in from the south. Quite fascinating stuff and this was from exactly the same position in the house where I was dxing. In Calgary back in the 1980s at night using a more sophisticated phasing system of two loop antennas I was able to null 660 CFFR (back when they were a music station) to get a weak signal of KTNN Window Rock, Arizona on 660 also. It was difficult because of some of the electrical wiring in the building where my office and workshop were but it did work!

A friend of mine in Oregon who has heard and verified over 3000 AM band radio stations from a lot of different countries swears by his DRAKE Communications receiver. I think its the DRAKE R-8. I have the Drake SW-8 Communications receiver which I don't consider as good, its okay and has the FM Band but the other one is better I think. Unfortunately Drake does not make the communications receivers anymore so you would have to buy a used one. I know some dxers do use the SDR connected to computer radios but to me it just does not seem like real dxing as I have known it. Even with the wi-fi radios Jim (Ve7Rox) and I used one to hear the programming of KLOG 1490 Kelso and WWL 870 New Orleans in Murrayville while portable (one of my Grace Wi-Fi Radios is portable and uses double A regular batteries) on an open wi-fi signal at night at the library there. We then went a few blocks away to Denny Ross Park in Langley Township and did some dxing knowing what programs WWL and KLOG had on which did make identifying the stations easier!!! Denny Ross is a great place to dx in Langley Township with low noise levels and even room for a beverage antenna at night. We actually strung one up there about four years ago on Sunday night and it worked well about 11 PM to 1 AM. Very nice quiet park and we used headphones for dxing there so as to not disturb anyone. My Oregon DX friend likes his Drake so much he spent quite a bit of money getting it totally overhauled not that long ago and shipping costs. He got it back and its as good as new!!!

So as I said I am not against newer technologies helping the dx hobby at all but I do think your ears and eyes do play a major role as well. Everyone has their own favorite receivers and antennas of course and so do I. For some dxers relying more on radios with computers might be fine. I have several Grundig portables including the G5 and G8 here in Ontario and they do work well for long distance dxing on AM and FM. The G5 has a couple of minor physical problems I noticed with the case etc. and telescopic whip for fm but as far as the dxing capability it and and the G8 are good. I tend to like the G8 more with the portable traveller panel in the front that comes up. The G5 does not have that.

Anyway better post this, getting late here in Ontario. Good Dxing to you whatever you use! 73s from Eldon
Bye . . Mr. CFAY "Frequently On The Frequency"
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