Tiwai DXpedition 2003

For over 30 years, nestled between the southern Pacific Ocean and the Awarua Bay lagoon on tussocky, swamp country, the house at Tiwai Point has been a mecca for DXers.

For those who haven’t been there, it is an old farm house – made of concrete, with three bedrooms, a kitchen, living room, bathroom and a long drop outdoors. The nearest electricity is 5km away. A coal range heats the water. It is not as primitive as it seems, but that is not important – what is, is what can be heard from the house.

Six permanent aerials radiate towards, Nth and South America, Europe and Asia, between 300 and 600 metres in length.

The full history of the house at Tiwai is being written at present by Steven Greenyer, although some information is to be found on the NZ Radio DX League website. The Southland Branch hosted a get-together of DXers over Easter. Twelve keen listeners gathered at the Tiwai house for probably the last time and shared the delights of what could be heard from there. They came from far and wide: a number of ex-Southlanders came home – Ray Crawford from Brisbane, Tony Magon from Sydney, Sutton Burtenshaw from Hamilton, Frank Glen from Christchurch and Steven Greenyer from Timaru, David Norrie and Bryan Clark came from Auckland, Stu Forsyth from Wellington, Paul Ormandy and Peter Grenfell from Oamaru, Arthur de Maine from Kakanui and Paul Aronsen, the local viking, came across from Wallacetown!

 

For those of us who were visitors, it was an eye opening experience to sample what used to be heard on Mediumwave on a very regular basis. Shortwave wasn’t bad either, with El Salvador on 17835 and the Mexican on 2390 being good catches. However, most present were MW Dxers and had no time for shortwave! I had been to Tiwai three times previously, but had never heard signals the way we did on this occasion.

Most were there from Thursday to Easter Monday. Each evening the conditions varied considerably with the best DX being heard Thursday to Saturday. Conditions tapered off after that. Highlights were many and it is hard to list them, however this is some of what we Heard:

 

162 19.05 TDF Allouis, France Fair with FF sports pgm, past 20.00 19/4
171 18.24 R.Rossii Oyash, Russia Fair with talk and mx 21/4
530 08.14 R.Vision Cristiana Turks & Caicos Poor in SS in the NZ slop 17/4
580 08.00 KJAL American Samoa Poor with choir singing, mixed US newstalk stn. 20/4
585 04.03 7RN Hobart Good with Radio National 17/4
600 09.34 KOGO San Diego, CA Radio 600 KOGO stn promo, then C to C talk 18/4
640 07.40 R.Progreso, Guanabacoa Cuba Fair with talk on health issues in Cuba 18/4
640 0746 KFI Los Angeles CA Promo for “most frequent traffic reports”, vgd 20/4
670 08.04 WWFE, Miami, FL Miami, FL La poderosa seis setente’ Fair. R.Dr at 08.36 18/4
670 08.28 WSCR Chicago, IL Fox Sports Radio, ‘The Score’, ex WMAQ 20/4
680 08.19 KNBR San Francisco, CA Fair with baseball commentary 20/4
680 07.00 YVQR, R.Continente Cumaná, Venezuala Fair, frequent ids and time checks 20/4
770 05.17 HJJX, RCN Bogota, Colombia Fair, // with 980 HJES, Cali 18/4
780 04.36 OAX4X, R.Victoria Lima, Peru Running la Voz de la Liberación, religious 19/4
800 09.00 PJB TWR Bonaire ID as R.Trans Mundial, fair 17/4
837 19.47 IRIB Esfahan, Iran Mx and talk in Farsi 19/4
837 19.47 R. Lebanon Amchit Mostly tlk about Iraq, o/Esfahan 19/4
840 05.02 R.Nacional Panama Fair with band mx, freq ids between tracks 17/4
840 0600 WHAS Louisville KY News, mixed Panama 18/4
850 04.53 R.Net Bogota, Colombia Fair with ID and nx items 17/4
850 04.55 R Nacional del Peru Lima, Peru Peaking over R.Net with id 17/4
920 06.18 R.Lobo Unidentified Fair ids in SS, frequent timechecks UTC-5 19/4
940 08.50 KWRU Fresno, CA Good with Unica in SS 16/4
950 04.55 R Nacional, Penonomé Panama Light mx and id // 840 18/4
990 19.16 R.Sawa Cape Greco, Cyprus Mostly talk in AA through Fifeshire & BBC Chinese 18/4
1000 04.31 HJAQ, RCN Cartagena, Colombia Good with id 19/4
1050 0932 KCTC San Mateo CA Sports news, commentaries, id as “ESPN Radio”. 18/4
1107 18.53 JOCF Kagoshima, Japan Fair with talk mixed 2EA 17/4
1110 05.36 WBT Charlotte, NC Fair with good ids ‘Newstalk 1110 WBT’ 20/4
1110 09.40 XERED Mexico City, Mexico Fair with SS, briefly 16/4
1130 05.30 HJVA Vida AM SF de Bogotá, Colombia Good with Id and pops 18/4
1140 09.50 HJDL R.Paisa Medellin, Colombia Fair with mx and frequent ids 18/4
1140 09.00 XEMR Monterrey, Mexico Good with religious pgm in SS 16/4
1140 0720 KHTK Sacramento CA Id as “Sports 11-40, KHTK”, mixed SS. 20/4
1150 07.40 KXTA Los Angeles, CA Sports commentary – fair 16/4
1180 1104 Radio Marti Marathon FL Strong all evening, fades in around 0400 20/4
1190 07.45 KEX Portland, OR Good, id as ‘Newsradio KEX’ then talk on Iraq war 20/4
1190 07.58 HJCV R.Cordillera, Bogotá Colombia Todelar’ n/w id and latin old time dance mx 18/4
1200 10.20 WOAI San Antonio, TX Fair with Newsradio 1200, WOAI id 16/4
1295 18.50 R.Omdurman Sudan (Tentative) Weak in AA 19/4
1310 08.15 R.Maria Panama Fair with gregorian chants, regular 17/8
1320 06.28 WJGR Jacksonville, FL (Tentative) Fair/poor with talk on flight. 20/4
1320 06.15 R.Nacional Peru Very good with classical mx – lots of popular tunes! 19/4
1320 06.30 XEJP, Track 1320 Mexico City, Mexico Regular ids, including Radio A and Track 1320 20/4
1323 18.57 CPBS Xinjiang, PRC Tentative with CC talk 17/4
1330 05.00 HIRV, Vision Cristiana S. Domingo, Dom Rep (Tentative) ID and a NY address at 05.00 19/4
1360 07.00 WKAT Miami, FL Good with classical mx, ‘Classical 1360 AM’ 17/4
1360 06.30 WMOB Mobile, AL Fair Inspirational mx & id over WKAT 18/4
1368 19.10 R.Thailand Nan, Thailand Male and female chatting in Thai, mixed 2GN 17/4
1370 06.00 R.Mundial Bogota, Colombia Sport commentary until at least 07.00 18/4
1380 07.40 R.Corporación Santiago, Chile Religious talk – good 19/4
1390 04.50 Voz Evangelica Honduras (Tentative) Weak/ fair with religious pgm 19/4
1390 0504 KLTX R. Nueva Vida Long Beach CA pr-fr with SS religion 21/4
1420 05.36 HJHK R. Reloj Manizales Colombia Fair with jingle and station promo 18/4
1440 19.10 BSKSA Dammam, Saudi Arabia Fair over Nzers with AA talk 18/4
1460 09.26 KREA Honolulu, HA (Presumed) with talk in KK 18/4
1470 08.00 CPN, Lima Lima, Peru Good with SS religious pgm 17/4
1480 11.58 KYOS Merced, CA Several ids before the hour. Also hrd at 0658 20/4. 17/4
1480 12.00 XETDK Monterey, Mexico Fair with full id 17/4
1480 07.05 WVOI Marco Is, FL The Music of Your Life, the Best Songs of all time’ 18/4
1480 05.11 WMDD, R.Tropical Fajardo, PR Poor, Ids with FM freq. 19/4
1480 05.18 WTEL Augusta, GA Poor, peaking over others with ids for // stn WRDW 20/4
1480 06.56 KVNR S.Ana, CA Fair over mix with VV talk and mx 20/4
1490 09.00 HCSM5 R.Santa Maria Azogues, Ecuador Good, over top of R.Modelo 19/4
1490 09.00 R.Modelo Guatemala (Tentative) Fair with talk 19/4
1490 07.33 R.Reforma via R Dinamica Caracas, Venezuela Fair with Religious prgm – many ids 19/4
1490 09.57 YVXD La Dinámica Caracas, Venezuala ID over mess 19/4
1520 04.30 Ecos del Palmar Colombia Fair with songs 19/4
1521 18.42 BSKSA Duba, Saudi Arabia Weak with talk under NZ 19/4
1540 05.55 R.Bahamas Bahamas (Tentative) Fair with gospel mx 18/4
1560 07.15 WQEW NY City, NY Fair with R.Disney 17/4
1566 19.36 AIR Nagpur, India Lady talking, but under 3NE – fair at best 18/4
1580 08.00 HJQT, Radio Mar Bogota, Colombia Good with religious pgm 19/4
1583.4 19.07 2EC Narooma Australia Wx details and pops 19/4
1590 11.38 Unid. USA Fair with R.Disney 17/4
1620 04.55 WDHP Frederiksted, USVI VG religious pgm, BBC WS from 0500 then local pgm 17/4
1640 05.27 WTNI Biloxi, MS Fair, but excellent at 10.44 17/4
1640 06.59 KDIA Vallejo, CA Pgm preview for religious show – fair 17/4
1650 10.50 KDNZ Cedar Falls, IA Mixed with others – fair 17/4
1650 11.40 KBJD Denver, CO Good with local nx, mixed KWHN. ID as ‘KNUS’ 17/4
1650 11.33 KWHN Fort Smith, AR Early morning show – good 17/4
1650 0548 WHKT Portsmouth VA Radio Disney format, local ident before the hour. 20/4
1660 05.07 WGIT, R.Gigante Canovas, PR Good Off with Star Spangled Banner @ 05.15 1/2 17/4
Strong in SS at 0945, ident in SS prior 1000. 19/4
1660 09.56 WWRU Elizabeth NJ Fair but mixed in SS 17/4
1660 08.00 WCNZ Marco Is, FL Good with Newsradio 1660 ids 16/4
1660 0833 KXOL Brigham City UT Ident and oldies, fair, not as good as last year. 20/4
1670 0847 WRNC Warner Robins GA SS gospel, EE ident on the hour, good. 20/4
1680 11.01 KRJO Monroe, LA Excellent with a lot of Ids ‘Yr stn Rejoice 1680’ 17/4
1680 08.15 WTIR Wintergarden, FL Excellent with travel info, every night. 17/4
1690 11.40 KDDZ Aravada, CO Fair with Disney 17/4
1690 07.35 KSXX Roseville, CA Good in SS (NB: Call is KFSG now) 16/4
1690 09.52 WPTX Lexington, MD CNN Headline nx, legal id just prior to 10.00 20/4
1700 09.38 Unid. ? Relaying BBC in SS 17/4
1700 11.15 KQXX Brownsville, TX ID as Oldies R., Hits & Memories Fourfold -Good. 17/4
1700 06.00 WJCC Miami Springs, FL Fair, blocked 06.03 by KQXX 20/4
1700 12.10 KTBK Sherman, TX Fair with weather 16/4

It was interesting too to see the receivers in use: 4 AOR 7030(+)s, 3 Drake SPR4s, 1 Yaesu FRG 8800, 1 Palstar R30, 1 Icom R71E, 1 Grundig 650 and 1 Sony ICF 6800W. All performed admirably in the good conditions.