Saturday, March 26, 2011

The Kansas invasion continues in Enontekiö - KTOP 1490


As I wrote earlier March 6th offered some nice catches on ENOX26. I have checked some of the files on this morning with decent results and it will be interesting to see if there will be more new ones for me on the March 6th -files.
KTOP Topeka, KS on 1490 kHz faded in this very morning with a TOH ID and later with the ESPN programming. The signal was clear and I recorded a short mp3 audio and emailed it along the reception report to the station. It took only a few hours to receive a verification and a couple of other emails from KTOP. This was my second new KS -station this morning and KTOP became my KS #15.


Wednesday, March 23, 2011

KFH Wichita, KS 1240 surprised with a huge signal on ENOX26

March 6, 2011, the last morning of ENOX26, turned out to be a quite good morning for NA Dxing after all. A few nice catches have been found especially on the GYs. Among those goodies was KFH from Wichita, Kansas on 1240 kHz. In this same morning and within a very short time I identified KCCR, KBIZ and KFH - all on 1240 kHz. KFH - formerly KNSS was heard every now and then back in the 80's and 90's but nowadays KFH has been quite a rare catch.
KFH had a huge signal this morning and the station manager was amazed about that. He verified my report and the mp3 audio in a few hours.

Monday, March 21, 2011

KBIZ Ottumwa IA 1240 - Your News and Information Leader


My last morning on ENOX26 (March 6, 2011) offered some nice stations as well. On 1240 kHz was a good frequency with a few K -stations audible. One of those stations was KBIZ Ottumwa IA which faded in just on the top of the hour with a complete identification. What surprised me a bit was the fact that there wasn't any network news on the the hour but instead of that the station carried Fox Sports Radio programming right after the announcement.
KBIZ has been heard quite frequently in Scandinavia. However, this was the first time for me to pick up KBIZ. KBIZ verified kindly with a couple of emails in 2 days.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

KGEZ Kalispell MT 600 kHz - back to its old glory?

John Hendricks at his home in Kalispell.

I spent seven days on ENOX26. Unfortunately only two days and mornings were worth listening since the solar weather turned to very bad actually right after I arrived in Enontekiö. However the first morning, February 28, was quite interesting and some real surprises faded in.
One of those nice catches was KGEZ on 600 khz. It has been silent for some time but just recently the station got a new owner and a station manager and has begun broadcasting again.
A main character behind the new KGEZ is a veteran broadcaster John Hendricks who was actually behind the mic at the time I picked up the station. John also verified my report with a kind email message. Thank you John for your nice reply!
I found an interesting story behind John Hendricks and the new start of KGEZ:

John Hendricks guesses he was about 5 when he broke loose from his mother during a trip to the dentist and bounded into the KOFI radio station that at the time was housed in the same Kalispell building.
Those next few minutes would set the stage for a career in radio as he gazed wide-eyed at the microphones and on-air equipment.
“That was it,” Hendricks recalled. “I knew at age 5 that this would be my life.”
And it was.
Hendricks, 61, returned home to Kalispell a few years ago after an illustrious career that catapulted him to fame as the first director of programming for Great American Country. He hosted nationally syndicated shows, both on TV and on radio with the “John Hendricks Overnight” show.
In his Kalispell home, office walls covered with framed photographs of him and various country music megastars attest to his success.
Hendricks isn’t basking in retirement just yet, though.
He’s got his eye on a potential radio project that would bring his life full circle if it materializes: Hendricks would like to acquire KGEZ Radio once the station works its way through bankruptcy court.
“I think it would be a great project,” Hendricks said. “There’s a lot of richness in the Flathead Valley that could be captured on-air again and I think KGEZ could be that medium again.
“What I have in mind is very different than what’s currently on the air,” he said, not wanting to tip his hand too much about future plans. “I’d like to bring the station back to its old glory.”
KGEZ, the second radio station licensed in Montana, was Kalispell’s only radio station for more than three decades in its early heyday. Most recently it was owned by John Stokes, but in September 2009 a federal bankruptcy judge ordered the controversial radio personality to turn over his assets, effectively shutting down KGEZ.
SOME OF Hendricks’ success came from being in the right place at the right time, but he also honed his skills along the way, even if he didn’t know it at the time.
Three days after graduating from high school, Hendricks joined the U.S. Air Force and completed a tour of duty in Vietnam in the late 1960s. He handled sentry dogs in Vietnam and later came back to McChord Air Force Base near Tacoma, Wash., as a staff sergeant in charge of the sentry dog program.
“One of the best things I learned from the military was they teach you how to interact with people and how to be a leader,” he said.
Once his military service was done, Hendricks wasted no time getting into radio, even though his family wasn’t on board with his career choice.
“Everybody tried to talk me out of it,” he recalled. “They didn’t believe a person could make a living at it. They thought I’d eventually get it out of my system.”
Teaching seemed like a good backup plan if radio didn’t work out, so he got history and political science degrees and a minor in secondary education from St. Martin’s University in Olympia, Wash. But in hindsight, the $1,100 he spent to go to broadcast school and get his license was the best investment he ever made.
He worked as a sales manager and general manager of several smaller-market stations in Southwest Washington to begin with. Those early years also included a very short stint at a station in Tillamook, Ore., a big dairy area where the morning show played Swiss yodeling music “so the cows milked better.”
That gig didn’t last long.
Hendricks — whose surname Hendrickson was shortened to Hendricks for on-air ease — then decided to focus his career as an on-air performer, first at KUBE in Seattle, where he “had a really good run” in the early 1980s, then at KIMN in Denver, one of the original giant Top 40 stations.
“I got good,” he said. “I worked at it and I brought a desire to it.”
KIMN was a dinosaur at the time, though, and when the station became KYGO and switched to country, Hendricks thought his career was over. The truth is, it was just starting.
It was at the Denver station that he originated and developed an award-winning 7 p.m. to midnight show that has been emulated in every major market in America. It was also the summer of 1989 and Garth Brooks had just come to town.
“I emceed his first three shows,” Hendricks said. “Nobody knew who he was.”
Clint Black was another country singer who jumped to stardom around the same time, and Hendricks was there.
“They were baby acts back then. We were redefining everything, and Garth literally redefined country music. No one else was doing what we were doing,” Hendricks recalled. “Garth was kick-butt country. I was so, so fortunate. It was 20 percent [my] skill and 80 percent being in the right place at the right time.”
IN THE early 1990s the savvy Hendricks jumped into the national arena when he was asked to design a country music video channel for television and Great American Country was born. There seemed to be no end to country music sensations who wanted to be a part of the show — Shania Twain, Kenny Chesney, Randy Travis, Reba McEntire and so many more.
Hendricks became friends with many of them.
Life was coming at Hendricks fast and furious, though. Ninety- to 100-hour work weeks were the norm, along with rich restaurant food. The train was headed right at him.
“It was so much fun I didn’t notice I was sleeping only two to three hours a night,” he said.
He took a break from his career in 2001 to spend time with his family after the sudden death of his mother during open-heart surgery.
Just six weeks after his father’s death the following year, Hendricks himself had a heart attack. Doctors patched him up with a couple of stents, but it was time to take life a little easier, so he formed John Hendricks Broadcast Services and began consulting with radio stations, record companies and musicians.
He returned to Kalispell in 2004 and it wasn’t long before he was hosting a morning show on KOFI, the same station that had thrilled him as a young child.
One more opportunity came his way a few years ago when New York City’s Music Choice needed someone to head its new Country Music Division and people in Nashville said he was the man for the job.
“It was a crazy left turn in my life, but one I couldn’t refuse,” he said about the time he spent in Lower Manhattan.
Hendricks is now back home in Kalispell and has resumed his consulting work.
He’s a single father with two grown children and an 11-year-old grandson. He loves the outdoors and now has the time to enjoy fly fishing, backpacking, golf and organic gardening. Community and church are important, too, and he enjoys being a part of the Bethlehem Lutheran congregation and the Elks Lodge.
There are dreams to come, he assures. Just stay tuned
.

Friday, March 18, 2011

WCLE Cleveland TN 1570


WCLE became my TN #6 and my 3rd new TN in this season. Firstly I heard WDIA 1070 then WENK 1240 and now WCLE 1570 that came in loud and clear for about an ½ hour on ENOX24. WCLE seems to be way off its nominal 1570 kHz. When I captured the station the exact fq was 1570.0218 khz and its peak was clearly seen on SpectraVue's display.

It took a couple of attempts before WCLE verified. Finally I received a kind and complete verification in an email message.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

KAGI Grants Pass OR 930 kHz


KAGI is a part of Jefferson Public Radio News and Information Service in Southern Oregon and Northern California. This station is very seldom heard in Scandinavia. However, it has been picked up at least once before in Finland.
This time KAGI's signal was clear but not very loud. An Alaskan KTKN mixed up with KAGI and also KSEI Pocatello, ID faded in a bit later on the frequency with ESPN programming.

KAGI's Executive Director verified my report first with a prompt email message and later with a decent QSL -card. He also send me a copy of fine "Jefferson Monthly" magazine.


Wednesday, March 16, 2011

KHWG Fallon NV 750 kHz was heard amazing clear on ENOX26


"K-Hog" as KHWG likes to call itself came in very clear and loud on ENOX26 in February. KFQD and KXL tried to take over the frequency but after all K-Hog dominated on 750 kHz clearly on the top of the hour. This was the first time I picked up the station although it has been heard in Scandinavia earlier a couple of times.
DJ Frank Atkinson verified my report and he attached also a couple of photos on the station and Nevada. In the picture you can see Frank on the left in the KHWG studio in Fallon.
Thanks for the nice answer Frank!


KTDD "The Toad" bounced to Enontekiö

KTDD San Bernardino on 1350 kHz was heard nicely on ENOX26 in the end of February. The station played fine country songs like "Mama, Don't Let Your Boys Grow Up To Be Cowboys" and gave a TOH ID: "Genuine Country music, KTDD Riverside - San Bernardino - 1350 The Toad". At the time 1350 kHz was very crowded other NAs as well. At least KTDD, KTIK, KRLC and KSRO identified within 10 minutes.
KTDD's V.P. verified with email in two days.

Friday, March 11, 2011

LEM 304 - Fastest SDR DXpedition ever?

by Hannu Niilekselä (HN), Vantaa

This pedition wasn't intended to make SDR/DX history the way it did. The target was to encounter at least moderate CX towards NA –potentially also some daytimers, due to the favourable change of broadcast times on March 1- with some MW aussies as a bonus.

But it doesn't always go as in the movies and this pedition writes history by being the first(?) DX-pedition where all the files have been checked and destroyed during the pedition and the log ready for publishing on the last day of the pedition.

On the background you'll find some cold facts: There was some CX only in the first three days and only a couple of hours per day. So in the last days of the pedition there was 15-18 hours to check those first three days…

Still some CX was found

Durin the couple short TA cx towards NA, it was wide open from Florida to Hawaii. Strongest signals came from the Rockies and West Coast, called as ”Ylämummo”. Even if East Coast seemed to be weak at live listening, the best parts were found from there from the first morning of the pedition.

Some local noise issues and one break in the automated recording at prime time in the first morning added to the challenge of digging up something worthwhile.

It has been long time ago, when we had a nearly total break towards NA for 5 days, but LEM304 saw and heard also this come true in this season.

But anyway some nice stations were heard and also X-band aussies tried to come through. Below 1611 kHz only 4QD Emerald was audible.

The new netSDR worked out fine and seems to be an excellent receiver. Perseus is close to the netSDR, but real critical benchmarking couldn't be done due to the lack of good material ...

Tuomo Ahonen arrived two days later on ENOX and we made some comparisons on February 28, when Rockies-West Coast had some nice signals. The distance is just some 80 km, but the differences with some individual stations heard were remarkable: On LEM no trace of KAGI-930 or KACH-1340 (which station came in booming on ENOX). Instead KSEI-930 and KYLT-1340. On the same hour no trace on ENOX of KGRZ-1450.

This just enforces some earlier experiences of the remarkable differences even on very short distances during disturbed conditions.

LEM304 loggings (link)

Tuesday, March 08, 2011

ENOX26

ENOX26 was not success at all. Very active and bad solar weather kept NAs away for the most of the time. However, some nice catches came thru after all. Please, find here the first draft of ENOX26 loggings.

Thursday, March 03, 2011

ENOX26 - currently active solar weather



Poor conditions lately on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday because of the very active solar weather. So I have had plenty of time to go thru the files from Monday recordings. Nothing special results but however, I managed to pick up KGEZ Kalispell, MT on 600 kHz. This one has been inactive since September/October 2009. Recently the new owner has begun broadcasting again and it was heard instantly on ENOX with great standards and frequent announcements.

Here is a 750 kHz screenshot taken on Monday, Feb. 28, 2011 on ENOX26. It is very interesting to chase stations with NetSDR and SpectraVue software since the display shows all the time signals on different offsets with 0.73 Hz resolution. The four strongest signals can be marked with the different colors by the user.
TuA


Tuesday, March 01, 2011

ENOX26 started Sunday evening

I arrived in ENOX DX-location last Sunday. I set up equipment and tested antennas. Everything was OK - all antennas and a brand new NetSDR worked fine.
Monday morning offered some nice catches mainly from the west. Tuesday night and Tuesday morning were poor. Hopefully conditions get better as the week continued even if the predictions are not very promising.
Best catches so far are KTDD-1350, KHWG-750 and KAGI-930
Weather; clear and sunny. Yesterday's high -1C. This morning we had -10C .
TuA