Winter is breaking up. Or, at least it seems to be breaking up.
And I'm fine with that. Now, I expect at any time to hear on my Sangean PR-D4W's NOAA weather broadcast that soon enough it will be 20F or less again, and once more I'll have to wear sweaters around the house because of the cold... But the fact that most of February so far has been moderate -- for us here in Western WA -- is encouraging.
We even have had two or three days where you could actually see the Sun. Imagine that.
I used to love Winter. When I weighed 20 pounds more back in 2007-2011, Winter cold didn't bother me so much. When I quit drinking beer every day (quitting drinking was easy. I just replaced it with more black tea), and when I lost the 20 pounds, the first thing I noticed was the cold. And heating is expensive, a lot more expensive than running a bunch of fans in the Summer.
So I guess I am looking forwards to Spring, although over the past few years, Spring has been a bit cold and rainy. I'll live with it. It beats 10F or lower temperatures on my front porch. And recently, we actually did see the Sun!
The first day it happened, a week and a half ago, I got out on my bike. I had my trusty phone with me, and took a couple pictures of two of the views off the trail. One pic came out better than the other -- it shows the sunshine lighting up the area around the big cottonwood tree.
The other pic, of the frog pond, was more dull looking -- but that's phone cameras for you. They don't always make things look better, or as good as, real life.
MIA from my radio since the mid-2010's, KTKN 930, Ketchikan, Alaska, used to come in at least 2-3 times a week with Hot Adult Contemporary music and a distinctive sound to its modulation that made it stand out from the other stations on the channel. I haven't logged it since probably 2014 or maybe 2015. Such has been the state of MW DX in my locale the last several DX seasons. The sunspots are up, but DXing isn't. Still -- I'll take what I can get.
MEDIUM WAVE / AM BAND = FAIR TO MEDIOCRE
With Some Programming Standouts
On the radio side of things, MW DX has been fairly blah. I hear the same 200-300 stations a night, with few surprises. I'm glad I'm still hearing those 200-300 stations, but in 2012 I was hearing Rebelde out of Cuba on 1180 and KVNS out of Brownsville, TX on 1700 and a station in the X-band out of Fort Smith, Arkansas and KTKN 930, Ketchikan, Alaska -- you get the idea.
All of those stations are still on the air. The problem is that the ionosphere is not cooperating like it was in 2012.
This DX season is a "DX season". That's all I can say about it.
But there are still things to hear on my PR-D4W that make long distance MW listening fun at night.
KEJB 1480's logo -- former KGOE (News/Talk) and former KRED (Country, and before that full service, with Rock/Top 40 at night). KEJB comes into the Seattle region amazingly well at night, and early mornings. A DXer in Alaska hears them a lot, too.
There's a station out of Eureka, California, called KEJB, on 1480, that plays 1960's-1970's oldies, and they seem to have local commercials, as well as an FM translator, so they must be making enough money to stay in business. They come in well during the early morning hours, and the music sounds good on my Sangean PR-D4W through headphones. Like another night time / morning station I like -- CJYM, Rosetown, Saskatchewan (1330 AM) -- KEJB plays a fairly wide variety of Classic Hits and oldies, ranging from unknown gems from the early 60's (who was Tony Shondell, anyway?) to Lou Rawls to some Yacht Rock (Boz Skaggs) to the standard late 60's, Motown and psychedelic 1966-68 era pop stuff.
Here's a link to KEJB Eureka's stream.:
I also tune into 1270, where it's usually the Catholic station out of Idaho (KTFI, Twin Falls) mixing with Longview, Washington's KEDO (Talk / Fox Sports) or one of the three music stations on the frequency that come in from time to time: KVMI Tulare, Calif., KAJO Grants Pass, Oregon, or KXBX Lakeport, California. KVMI plays Adult Contemporary, so you hear a lot of pop from the 2000's through 2020's, KAJO is Classic Hits, and KXBX is Classic Rock / Classic Hits. I don't always hear the music stations clearly, but it's like fishing -- you never know what you're going to hear.
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Over the past couple weeks I've heard KAJO Grants Pass most of the time playing music on the channel, usually in the morning, and KXBX Lakeport came in really well late one night, although hearing KXBX is rare here.
Lakeport, California, is in the hills, next to Clear Lake, a large, natural lake that is not too far from Ukiah, which is the point on Highway 101 where the typical "California weather" starts. When you drive down 101 from Oregon, everything's green until you hit Cloverdale and Ukiah. Then the weather feels like California, dude.
As far as "good" DX, I've heard WCKY 1530 poking through behind KFBK Sacramento a couple times; KFSB, Relevant Radio (a Catholic network) in San Francisco at least twice -- dominating the channel on 1260, which was surprising (it was a new logging for me, actually); and KCNZ Cedar Falls, Iowa on 1650 was audible once with Fox Sports Radio. All of these were with my PR-D4W and my milk-crate loop.
RE: The Sangean PR-4W
I've mentioned my Sangean PR-D4W several times here. I got it new a year or so ago, and I've finally worked up an article on it, which I'll probably post in the near future. It just needs some pictures.
I think the PR-D4W is the best AM-FM-Weather Band radio you can get for the money. It's a superstar on MW/AM. Hands down. I'll talk about it more at length in the review article, which -- internet willing -- I'll post within a couple weeks.
An example of how cold it was earlier in the Winter, when it got down to around 10 to 12F outside. The inside of one of my windows (in one of my unheated rooms -- I do not heat them all, to save electricity) had some icing in the corner.
I've also been reading a lot of books lately -- fiction and non-fiction. Everything from Tom Clancy to Michael Crichton to one-off action novels by guys like Scott McEwen, Jeff Long and Max Brooks, to Rudyard Kipling, to Sir Richard Francis Burton, to WW2 history books by authors like Mark Arnold-Forster (his The World At War is probably the best single WW2 history book one can read). I may have a book review article to post before Spring hits. Ya never know.
LIGHT RAIN ON SUPER BOWL SUNDAY
As I started the main draft of this article, it was early Sunday evening, with the Super Bowl playing on my PR-D5 (my writing den radio). The game was on KJR 950 AM and KJR 93.3 FM.
After finishing up the draft, I worked on some fiction and was listening to end of the close game between the San Francisco 49'ers and the Kansas City Chiefs. I rooted for the 49'ers, as they're the West Coast team, and their quarterback (for my overseas readers, that's the guy who throws the ball), Brock Purdy, is one who was overlooked for so long. The game was very close, especially during the second half. The fans definitely were getting their money's worth. No matter who wins an NFL game, a close game generally is fun to listen to or watch.
Earlier I rode my bike in the light sprinkle of rain (around 50F degrees), and I had my XHDATA D-219 in my coat pocket, listening to the game. A bunch of houses around here had numerous cars parked out front and on the street, obviously having Super Bowl parties.
As my overseas readers probably have figured, the Super Bowl is a very big deal here in the US, even for people who aren't NFL football fans. To Americans, it's like the final game of the World Cup, I suppose. Super Bowl time is party time. And this year, the game was tied, and went into overtime. Kansas City won by a touchdown scored late in overtime.
Valentine's Day is, of course, here and gone. As I started writing this, it was only a couple days away. To me Valentine's Day is basically a non-event, as it is to millions of Americans and Canadians (and Europeans, too, as they seem to have adopted the holiday). I know that in Sweden they call it All Hjärtansdag or something like that (yes, I do know a little Svenska).
The day is great for those to whom it applies. That's all I shall say of that.
Until next time, my friends,
Peace.
C.C., February 10th and 11th, 2024. After some editing, published to the Blog on February 14th -- All Hjärtansdag. Or something like that. :-) I cut a section out, added pics, and posted it on the 15th. I was going to post this on Valentine's Day, but that's the breaks. :-)
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