3ME Radio Lebanon, Melbourne/2ME Radio Lebanon, Sydney 1638 Verification

Radio Lebanon's 1638 "narrowcast"is spread quite wide and a common guest in Northern Europe. Somewhat uncommon though was that I was able to get local IDs from both the Melbourne (3ME) and the Sydney (2ME) stations - at the same time. Sydney was the weaker one. Owner Sid Merhi confirmed my reception with an email this morning.

KATA Eureka CA 1340 Verificaton

A most welcome verification came this evening. KATA was heard very briefly on October 24 with a legal ID on top of the hour before slipping into the noise again. From the email I received perhaps I shouldn't have heard it: "KATA's tower is short due to lightning storm decades ago. The old owners re-licensed the station with a short tower so it is amazing that you could pick it up at all."

My 90th "graveyard" or Local Channel station.

KPDQ Portland OR 800 Verification

Normally, when one hears a station never heard before, signal strengths are so-so. Not KPDQ. On October 22 they dominated 800 totally for more than three hours, peaking at excellent strengths. A most friendly response came this afternoon. Thanks Tuomo Ahonen for contact info. For the first time I have a 100% Oregon reply rate.

KELO Sioux Falls (not Sioux City) SD 1320 Verificaton

My South Dakota stats rounded a dozen when KELO confirmed my reception this afternoon. KELO was briefly heard on October 8, but with an announcement not to misunderstand - Keloland live doppler weather forecast. Several stations were audible at the time I heard KELO - I also had IDs from CKEC, CHMB, KOZY and KFNZ.

KCKX Stayton OR 1460 Verification

KCKX is not an easy station to hear with 1 kW in competition with KUTI and KARR when conditions favour the west coast. I have heard KCKX a few times though, and this afternoon I received a very friendly response from the station, including sticker scans from KCKX and KWBY-940. Thanks OJ Sagdahl for contact info.

WILS Lansing MI 1320 Verification

WILS came up well on September 27, 2007 with a nice ID. A friendly email this afternoon confirmed my Michigan station no. 20 of 22 reported.

WILS also informed me that they increased their night-time power from 1,000 watts to 2,000 watts effective Friday, January 25. Their daytime power has increased from 5,000 watts to 25,000 watts. In February daytime power beings at 1230 UTC and ends at 2300 UTC. The transmitter facilities are moved 10 miles SW of the former site.

September SDR-IQ Logs

Finally listened through most of the SDR-IQ recordings from September. Some good logs which you can see here. New stations (for me) in bold. Many of the more common stations are not included.

10 Watts From Japan Heard In Kongsfjord

10 watts make a lousy reading light but can travel 7,000 km! On September 19 I heard Kanmon Martis Radio 1651 kHz. Kanmon Martis is operated by the Japan Coast Guard and is a maritime traffic information center for the Kanmon Strait near Fukuoka. The signal was quite good in both AM and USB (1649.5). Thanks Takashi Kuroda for identifying the station. Their grounding system must be exceptional.

ABC Newcastle, NSW 1233 Verification

September 19, 2007 was a good day for hunting Aussies, and I heard ABC Newcastle around the top of the hour at 1700 with local IDs. Email verification came this morning.

That day I also had tentative receptions of 2DU-1251 and 2ZW-1314 - definitively stations worth checking out during similar conditions.

KLSG St.Louis MO 1380 Verification

In the late 70's I heard KWK for the first, and until September 23, 2007, the last time. For relatively irrational reasons I desperately wanted to hear the station again and at last I succeeded when KSLG, as are their present call letters, dominated the top of the hour at 0400. The signal was quite good and I received a (in my eyes) well-earned verification tonight.

KSLG left their ESPN affiliation on December 3 and became The Team 1380. They are presently awaiting approval from the FCC for a call letter change.

KIML Gillette WY 1270 Verification

I heard KIML on October 24 with a very good signal, and their standard full-hour ID "AM 1270 KIML Gillette. The Information Leader In Wyoming For Over 60 Years" was excellent quality. I received an email confirming my report today, with the promise of a "proper" QSL to follow.

KWLM Willmar MN 1340 Verification

Very briefly, KWLM surfaced on top of the hour at 0400 on September 19 with a legal ID before ABC News. News Director JP Cola confirmed my reception today with a very friendly email including a studio-quality legal ID for my collection.

Willmar is very Scandinavian - according to JP Cola the "Johnson" section of their phone book is 4 pages long, and lots of Norwegian and Swedish names on streets, lakes and townships.

Receiver used for this and most of the other recent veries is the RF Space SDR-IQ.

KRSA Petersburg AK 580 Verification

I received a long and friendly email from Greg Lewis today, confirming my October 24, 2007 reception of KRSA. KRSA, previously very difficult to hear, has had a good signal over the Pole this winter, and I was able to send a good quality audio clip to Greg. Greg is at sister station KCAM Glennallen 790 today, but will be moving back to KRSA coming May.

Petersburg was founded by Norwegian Peter Buschman who established a fish processing plant there. Today, Petersburg is a fishing community not very different from many Norwegian coastal communities, around 3000 inhabitants and a seafood industry worth 34 mill USD annually. Petersburg's Norwegian connection can be found in street names (Haugen Drive, Odin Street, Fram Street), shop names like Hammer and Wikan, and their Mayfest. Those capable of reading Norwegian may find this article in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten interesting.

WDGY Hudson WI 630 Verification

I rarely copy station logos to my posts, but this one deserves it. As with KTSM below, I heard WDGY during a short period of excellent spot conditions on September 18, combined with coming daylight taking the momentum out of NRK Vigra (which was said to be running on reduced power in addition). A great surprise. CE Paul Orth sent me a friendly email this afternoon, with a Word QSL-attachment.

It is my "second" verification of WDGY... As a novice DX-er in the 70's I had the thrill of hearing and QSL-ing WDGY 1130, now KFAN. Hudson is located just SE of Minneapolis, which is also their main market.

KTSM El Paso TX 690 Verification

KTSM was heard with a fair signal for 45 minutes on September 18, 2007. A first time for me. A very swift response from Tom Connelly this afternoon confirmed my reception. Conditions were good towards MN/ND and TX/Mexico this night; I noted very good signals from WNAX-570, presumed WEBC-560, KDAL-610 and not least WDGY-630 which made a very surprising visit.

WWRU Jersey City NJ 1660 Verification

Took a while until I was able to get the first official US X-band station confirmed! Not a common guest here but I heard WWRU with a nice signal at Smøla Island in February 2006. George D. Butch, MRBI's Regional Engineer, kindly confirmed my reception with an email today. Thanks OJ Sagdahl for email info. The station went on the air in December 1995, expanding to 24h operation in January 1996.

KKMO Tacoma WA 1360 Test Heard

The test started 0800 today and lasted for 15 minutes. Conditions were very poor, as the usually dominant KKMO was almost not audible; WTAQ was the strongest station on 1360 and also KKBJ was heard. I heard the sweep tones and 1 kHz tone. I heard none of the station identifiers but they may have been voice and not morse. The sweep tones were by far the easiest to hear. Thanks Jim Pogue and CE Monte Passmore on KKMO for conducting this test.

Some minutes after KKMO resumed to normal programming I am actually hearing KKMO much better...

KRTA Medford OR 610 Verification

"Confirmed!" was the short and to the point message from Brian Fraser, Director of Sales, in response to my emailed report this afternoon. KRTA "Radio Sensación" had nice signals a few days last October; at one instance I was able to record a 30-second pre-recorded ID with superb signal strength. A most wanted station.

KGRV Winston OR 700 Verification

KGRV was heard very briefly and not at all strong under KBYR Anchorage on October 22. It took a few tries but today KGRV's GM Phil Morrow confirmed my reception. Incidentally my 40th Oregon station (of 42 reported) and 500th mainland US station (of 554 reported). Think I'll celebrate with taking my Icebugs on a nice jog...

Norwegian DX-ers Popular With CBC

On the links to the right you will find two interviews; one with me from October 2007 (CBC Prince Rupert BC 860), and one with OJ Sagdahl from today (!) on CBC Moncton 1070. They are a bit lengthy so expect some download time. Moncton set their 106.1 FM transmitter in operation yesterday and will leave AM 90 days from now.

More files will be uploaded as time permits.

KKNX Eugene OR 840 Verification

I heard KKNX a few minutes on October 22, 2007 giving their "Solid Gold Radio 84" moniker before losing ground to the more common KSWB. Last night I received an email from owner John Mielke who confirmed my reception. John informs that KKNX has gone digital. They also have a 32-kbps webcast from radio84.com.

KWSU Pullman WA 1250 Verification

I heard KWSU for the first time last Saturday while running my Perseus SDR remote by using LogMeIn Pro. I recorded the full-hour ID from KWSU using Total Recorder on my home PC. There is a risk of the occasional audio drop-out using this technique though.

General Manager Dennis Haarsager, of Norwegian origin and OJ Sagdahl's distant cousin, confirmed my reception with an email this afternoon.

Weather in Kongsfjord was awful at the time so I am glad that I didn't need to spend time there...

My Perseus Impressions

My impressions on the Perseus SDR is published on kongsfjord.no. It's a bit of a work in progress since I plan to update it should there be software updates or if someone finds errors in the article.

Flex-5000A Given "Best SDR" Award From WRTH - Why?

The 2008 edition of World Radio TV Handbook did a review of the Flex-5000A SDR, a follow-up from last year's review of the FlexRadio SDR-1000 which has now been discontinued. Somewhat to my surprise, the Flex-5000A has been given the "Best SDR" award from WRTH. My surprise is founded not on the qualities of the Flex-5000A (of which I can say nothing, since I don't own one), but on the competition. Surely, when one SDR is rated "best", it must have been compared to the rest of the SDRs on the market. Has it?

One can wonder. The WRTH HF Receiver Guide 2008 (page 23) lists the two Flex SDRs, the Elad FDM77 and a few Winradios. The CIAOradio H101 is not listed. The DiRaBox DRB30 is not listed. The RF Space SDR-14 is not listed. The RF Space SDR-IQ is not listed. And maybe there are others that I do not know about. The WRTH is of course excused for not having listed the new Perseus. I am particularly puzzled by the omission of the two SDRs from RF Space. The -14 and the -IQ have been widely acclaimed by dedicated DX-ers worldwide, hence one would assume that an authoritative publication like the WRTH would find interest in reviewing them. Not so.

I am not taking sides as to which is the best SDR of 2008. I am simply saying that a number of candidates didn't get the chance to run.