Shortwave Logbook: Spring 2024

My GE Superadio II arises from the dust, literally. I dusted it off, shot some tuner cleaner down the side of the volume control shaft, and fired her up. Worked great. I even logged a new station on her (using a loop) -- WLAC, 1510, Nashville. I also discovered -- after having her since 1992 -- that she has slightly narrower bandwidth than my GE Superadio I. You learn something new every day.

As I first started this article, it was grey outside. It was a moderately cold day in October, and after starting this blog post, I never got around to finishing it. It was originally supposed to cover January through August of this year.

So here it is. Several months later, obviously, and late to the game... I am finishing this article up in early May, 2024, and the loggings I'm listing here -- instead of covering the time since I last posted a "Logbook" style article, will just be a sampling of what I've been hearing over the past couple months. A little bit of this, a little bit of that.

When I first came up with the idea of posting my own Shortwave Logbooks after the demise of the original Shortwave Logbook website that was on the internet since before 2002 when I discovered it, I thought it would be a real fun thing to do. But it got to be a bit painstaking. It's one thing to post what you heard -- a whole 'nother thing to try to make it interesting reading.

I have determined that I will just go through my paper logbooks and list just a few of the highlights, and some of the commonly heard stations here, being that writing extensive logs here on the blog is quite time consuming and I'm not sure how many readers get into the listings.

But still, on any SW forum or talkgroup there are tons of loggings posted, so I suppose there is an interest out there somewhere. 

My cat Boots Jr., who accidently knocked my Superadio II from the top of the refrigerator by tripping over the radio's power cable when she walked across the countertop. The SRII tumbled to the floor, and luckily the only 'damage' was one of the tines on the power plug was bent. The radio was fine. Boots Jr., luckily, was also fine. Boots Jr. died late last year, at age 16 and 1/2. She was a fun little cat.

I'll see you on the other side, my little Bootser.

MY GE SUPERADIO II -- a classic AM / MW Radio

I've posted a pic of my tough, built-like-a-tank GE Superadio II up top because I just fired it up about 3 weeks ago (as of May), and it still works! It's a 1991 built model I got probably in 1992, and it was my refrigerator radio for maybe 10 years until my cat Boots Junior knocked it down onto the kitchen floor. The radio survived perfectly.... one of the tines on the AC plug got bent. That was an easy fix.

So I switched my vaunted GE SRII on after maybe a year or more of not firing it up. The only side effects were three gurgles on the MW side when I tuned it to the local sports station. I attribute that to some dust on the tuner cap -- that can happen, even to tuner caps with metal plates, and the SRII has a smaller metal tuner than the original Superadio did. My Yaesu FRG-7 also had that issue until I cleaned it. Dust and oxidation on metal tuner capacitors will cause some issues before you tune the dial from end to end a couple times. With my GE SRII, tuning the dial back and forth a couple times cleared it up. 

Ever since then, it's worked perfectly.

Like I said in a previous article -- RADIOS ARE MEANT TO BE PLAYED. Fire the older ones up at least once a month, or once every other month, and let 'em run a while.

As for the GE SRII itself, it's a very good MW DX'er. Some say it's one of the best. I have found all three Superadios to be more-or-less equally good (I am one of those guys who has a really good GE SR III) -- any differences in performance, aside from some audio ones, are hard to discern.

The SRII seems to have slightly narrower bandwidth than the SRI, and a little more volume. The SRIII has slightly narrower bandwidth than the SRII, and similar volume to the SRII. However, the SRII is easier to tune than either the SRI (slightly wider bandwidth) or the SRIII (narrower bandwidth with very cramped channels between 1300-1500 kHz).

For Superadio fans, the famous "Earmark" site has info on all three Superadio models, including schematic diagrams to mull over, to spot the differences in circuitry. The man who runs the Superadio site is a tech who knows radios, and knows Superadios.

The GE Superadio Tech Page (earmark.net)

SOMETIMES MINIMAL EQUIPMENT IS BEST

Although I didn't use my SRII on any of the following loggings (except one section that I've dedicated to my SRII's reactivation), they were done with similar equipment -- regular AM/FM and AM/FM/SW radios, most of them moderately priced when new. All of my loggings are done with minimal equipment, really. A couple small portables off their whip antennas, or my older AM-FM-SW portables with my 25 ft / 10 meter indoor wire clipped to their whip antenna. No amplified, factory made, outdoor loop antennas here. First off, I can't afford one, and second off, I really don't feel the need for one.

I try to get the most that I can off the minimal radio equipment I have.

My Panasonic RF-B45, one of the best radios I've got. It's a star on MW, as it will DX very well even without aid of an external loop. For a while it was a bit hedgy on Sideband & CW, when the BFO clarifier was acting up, but a few shots of DeOxit cleared most of that up. It still doesn't favor the edges of the control's reach, but the BFO works, so I'm happy enough with it.

Panasonic made great radios. Too bad they stopped making them.

I also have to shoot a little DeOxit down the back side of the volume control wheel from time to time, but a lot of radios need that after some time of disuse. The radio is a 1996 model -- 28 years old, and it's gotten a fair bit of use over the years since I got it at the "Electronics Universe" store down in Auburn, right before it closed, in early 1997. So, a bit of 'care and maintenance' is sometimes called for. :-) A couple of my loggings on MW this listing were done on my trusty RF-B45.

OVERVIEW: Medium Wave is an Improvement over 2018-2021 For Sure

Aside from CKJR 1440's format flip, KVON 1440's appearance in KYVL/KMED's disappearance, and cameo appearances of Salinas, California's KION 1460 in ESPN Yakima's absence, the only notable thing I've noticed on MW lately is that X-band seems to be coming in a little bit better at night. After several years of barely hearing Rock station KBRE 1660, Merced, California, it's been coming in fairly regularly on my radios strong enough for me to enjoy the Rock music they play. Of course, with varying degrees of signal strength and readability.

After years of using my Grundig G2 (which I bought in 2014), I recently discovered that during very poor Shortwave reception conditions, clipping a wire antenna to the whip actually brings weak stations out of the mud, with no overload! During normal SW conditions, adding a wire can definitely overload the G2, but if SW conditions are grainy and crappy -- like they were the morning of the 22nd of April -- clipping my indoor, 25-30 ft. wire antenna to the whip brought out Radio France International's broadcasts in French to Africa, making them readable, and I was also able to read Radio Exterior de España's broadcasts in Spanish, to the Americas, as well. You learn something new every day. So, the motto is -- experiment!

Shortwave Has Improved Also -- But.......

Shortwave has been a mixed bag. Over the past year, conditions have obviously improved, especially when compared to 2020 and previous, when much of the Shortwave band was mediocre on a good night or morning.

The high HF ham bands (20 Meters, 17 Meters, 15 Meters, 12 Meters, 10 Meters, and the CB Sideband Outband (27425 - 27550 or so) have been touch and go, with some mornings, afternoons and evenings being better than others. It's not terrific most of the time, but there are some stations to hear. 30 Meters, one of my favorite bands to check out, is touch and go also. When Pinneberg, Germany's RTTY comes in on 10100, I know that the band will be "in". Same thing with NAU, the US Navy RTTY station on 10153. Unfortunately a neighbor's solar installation covers a sizeable chunk of 30 Meters with squirrely noises between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., but those noises cut off in the early morning, and if there's CW on the band I still usually can make it out through the RFI, as the RFI doesn't cover the entire band.

One thing I've noticed is when tuning some of the lower ham bands -- 40 Meters, 80 Meters and 160 Meters -- there appears to be a relative dearth of activity when compared to previous Solar Cycle peaks. 80 and 160 especially seem to be devoid of signals when compared to 1980, 1991, 2002, and even 2011-2012 when I remember hearing a LOT more activity on those bands. 160 Meters was never a hot, popular band but 80 Meters was usually well populated with QSO's any night, including summertime, when one had to listen through the static crashes to hear the guys talking.

The last few evenings which I've tuned through 80 Meters, even when conditions are pretty good, it's been like a ghost town, with maybe 3-5 QSO's, and even the CW (Morse Code) section is pretty spare. In 2002 it was highly active, and during earlier decades it was often packed with signals between 3850 and 3990 kHz. It's like visiting a Main Street which used to be lively with shops and shoppers, but now is half boarded up.

The 40 Meter Ham band is still holding up reasonably well. But I think that the combination of propagation and the declining number of active hams in the US is causing more and more of the bands to be devoid of activity compared to earlier times.

Well, enough talk. Here they are -- a small sample of loggings.:

My 1995 GE Superadio III, which I bought new in 1995 or 1996, and my Sangean PR-D4W, which I got new two years ago. Both are equally good on MW DX, and sound great through a decent set of headphones. I think headphones are basically necessary if you want to DX the MW and SW bands. You hear so much more than you get through the speaker. The GE Superadio series sound great through headphones because of their performance, as well as the tone controls, and the PR-D4W has excellent sound, and the bandwidth controls on AM act like a 'tone control'.

MEDIUM WAVE / AM BAND FIRST.

I'll start out with Medium Wave, which is my main radio band to distance-listen.

The ionosphere has been at least a little bit friendly to MW DXers this past year and a half, although the big DX hasn't really kicked in like it did between 2011 and 2015 (the peak of the last Solar Cycle). Supposedly we are closing in on the 'peak' of this Solar Cycle. It sure doesn't seem like peak solar cycle conditions, however, when I switch on my MW radios.

That said, it's tons better than it was in 2017-2022, on both MW and SW, when many nights sounded like perpetual summer or Nuclear Winter radio conditions. We did have a massive Solar Flare that hit the Auroral Radio Zone on the night of May 10th, which turned most of the DX channels on MW to static (the locals, and close regionals were fine), and SW was dead, dead, dead, on all bands, except Radio Educacion, located in Central Mexico, was barely detectable on my Panasonic, Tecsun, and XHDATA D-328 (all using my indoor wire).

I'll place these loggings in no particular order -- if I try to do it any other way, I'll never finish it. Signal strengths are estimates, without the full SIO designation. S5 is local strength, S1 is just readable, S2-4 is somewhere in between, with S4 probably being what you'd hear on a dependable, regional station in your state, province, or country.:

CKIR Invermere 870 kHz is a relay AM station for CKGR, Golden, BC -- a bigger town in the Central Interior of BC, on the Trans Canada Highway. Bounce Radio is a format native to Canada, replacing the older "EZ-Rock" format that actually was quite good. The Bounce format is more rock and classic hits based.

870 kHz -- 1127 p.m. PDT -- CKIR, Invermere, BC Canada -- (English) -- S2-S3 -- The first time I ever heard this station located in the Interior of British Columbia was over a decade ago. And CKIR at that time was a real catch, a new station I had never heard before, and even at that, it was extremely weak with just one slogan ID. At the time, CKIR was one of several Canadian "EZ Rock" stations -- stations that played a good variety of soft rock, pop and Adult Comtemporary hits. Penticton's CKOR is a station on 800 that I heard nightly that used to have this format. CKIR, located a couple hundred miles north, doesn't relay CKOR but is part of the same family of stations. Anyway, I first heard CKIR on my GE Superadio 3 (+loop) maybe in 2014. It was very weak, but readable. This time around, earlier last night in fact, I heard CKIR with clear ID's, and S2-S3 signals at times. Normal 870 occupier KFLD Pasco, WA was barely decipherable. It's one of those freak occurrences that make MW DXing so much fun. It's like fishing. You know what sort of fish are in the lake, but you still never know what you're going to catch. I made this reception with my Sangean PR-D4W and loop, although I'm sure my GE SRII would have pulled it in as well. (Sangean PR-D4W, Crate Loop) 7 May 2024

890 kHz -- 11:19 p.m. PDT -- CJDC, Dawson Creek, BC Canada -- (English) -- S4 -- I used to hear CJDC almost nightly in the 2010's. Then when the Solar Cycle dipped I didn't hear it hardly at all. Last night (I'm typing this in the early a.m.) I heard CJDC with near local quality signals. I heard a BC Highway PSA against drink driving, a Pet Oral Health spot by a veterinary clinic, a "one stop for all your tractor and farm needs" store commercial (locations in Dawson Creek and Tumbler Ridge), a spot for the Lido Theatre in Dawson Creek, a promo for Women's Hockey championships on TSN, and a full slogan "Pure Country", going into a modern Country track. It's pretty cool to hear local spots on a DX station -- it gives you a bit of local flavor. Here in Seattle there are no stores advertising tractor parts. (Sangean PR-D4W, Crate Loop) 7 May 2024

1480 kHz -- 9:40 p.m. PDT -- KEJB, Eureka, Calif./ KBMS Portland -- (English) -- S3+ -- I was tuning my XHDATA D-219 on the MW band, using the loop, and instantly heard a really cool oldie, George McCrae's "Rock Your Baby". Now, being that this oldie is also an old R&B hit, I wasn't sure if the station I was hearing was KEJB Eureka (oldies) or KBMS Portland (old-school R&B). It turned out to be KEJB Eureka, which was dominating the channel, with a weak KBMS underneath. KEJB had a jingle, and then played Roy Orbison, and then the Kinks' 1966 hit Sunny Afternoon. Channels like 1480 are kinda cool because some nights you can hear both stations going back and forth, one with oldies, the other one with 70's-90's R&B. On this occasion, my little XHDATA D-219 was holding up pretty well. I've found that it's a good DXer, although sometimes when tuning through the MW band it will latch onto the stronger signals, leaving the weaker ones behind. You can still tune the weaker ones -- it just takes a bit more effort. (XHDATA D-219, Crate Loop) 6 May 2024

A pic of my two newest radios, both very affordable -- the XHDATA D-328 (top) and D-219 (bottom). The top one is great on SW, the bottom one is very good on MW. The bottom one, my XHDATA D-219, is pretty good by itself on MW, and great with a loop. When DXing with it, if there is a section of the MW band with a lot of strong signals, it takes a bit of careful tuning to pick out the weaker signals, but it can be done. I got one of my recent loggings -- KEJB Eureka 1480 -- on the D-219.

1510 kHz -- 1:55 a.m. PDT -- WLAC, Nashville TN -- (English) -- S1-S4+ -- I tuned my GE SRII (with aid of my crate loop) to 1510 to see if KGA Spokane was in well. It was, but there was talk behind it, in English, which was unusual, as the only station I've heard behind KGA is KFSN, Piedmont, California, which is Spanish language and ranchero music. After further listening, I could tell that the station was news-talk. Meanwhile, Ben Maller, Fox Sports talk host, was on KGA. I switched radios to my Sangean PR-D4W, curious to see if the distant talk station behind KGA would come in better. The PR-D4W seemed to resolve the signal a hair better, but overall it was the same, strength-wise. Soon I heard the early morning news show, with Gordon Deal, and then a Leaf Gutter commercial, followed by a liner promoting the mid-morning Clay & Buck Show (a conservative talk show syndicated nationwide), and then an ID: "....talk radio 98.3 and .... WLAC." This was a new station for my log, #612. WLAC is a famous AM station in the US. For years, white kids in the North and Midwest would tune in WLAC at night to hear blues and early R&B that they couldn't hear on local stations. One could say that WLAC had a part to play in the development of early Rock 'N' Roll music. Being a 50KW station, WLAC covered much of the Eastern United States. This is only the second station I've ever heard from Tennessee -- when I was a kid I heard WSM a few times on my Penncrest multibander, and also my old Silvertone upright tube radio my Dad got me at a thrift store, and also on a DX-160 with a 60 ft. wire. 

Two nights after I first heard WLAC, I heard it again on my GE SRII + loop. Haven't heard them since, however. Obviously, MW was delivering over a few good days in late April. (GE SRII, Sangean PR-D4W, Crate Loop) 22 April 2024.

1490 kHz -- 3:08 a.m. PDT -- KYNR, Toppenish, WA -- (English, other) -- S3+ -- KYNR is one of two stations I can pick up (when the ionospheric conditions are right) that plays Native American music and chants (the other station is KTNN 660, Window Rock, Arizona). Although 1490 is a 'graveyard' channel in the US -- i.e. it is one of several AM band channels set up for thousands of 1000 watt, local stations -- KYNR is easy to pick out because of its programming. The music itself is cool. KYNR is run by the Yakama Indian Nation, the letters standing for K-Yakama-Nation-Radio. Toppenish is a small city in Eastern Washington, in the Yakima River Valley south of Yakima. (GE SRII, Crate Loop) 25 April 2024

1520 kHz -- 3:15 a.m. PDT -- KOKC, Oklahoma City, OK (tentative) -- (English) -- S2+ -- The 1520 frequency channel here is usually KXA (KKXA officially) Snohomish, WA, a classic country station north of Seattle that plays late 1980's-1990's country hits. There used to be a Portland, Oregon station that would also be on the channel, but it's been MIA for a few years now. But there is a persistent talk and news station that I keep hearing, beaming East-West, but I never seem to get an ID. I'm certain it's KOKC, Oklahoma City, a station I logged a few times back in the 1980's on my old Sanyo M9926 boombox and a loop. Back then it was KOMA, with a similar format, I think. (GE SRII, Crate Loop) 25 April 2024

The logo for KCLK, Asotin, WA, a sports station on 1430 that serves Asotin, Lewiston (ID), Clarkston (WA) and that arid and agricultural region of Washington and Idaho.

1430 kHz -- 3:10 a.m. PDT -- KCLK, Asotin, WA / KYKN, Salem, OR -- (English) -- S3-S4 -- This channel usually is a mishmash of these two stations, sometimes mixing with KBRC Mt. Vernon, WA, although KBRC wasn't in there this particular morning. KCLK is a sports station in the extreme SE corner of Washington State, maybe 15 miles from the Oregon border and just across the Snake River from Idaho. It's in the dry, desert-like area of my state. KYKN Salem is a conservative talker. When I tuned in this a.m., KCLK had Ben Maller, and KYKN was playing Hugh Hewitt's early morning conservative news-talk show. The local station on 1420 wasn't splattering on 1430 all that much this a.m. (GE SRII, Crate Loop) 25 April 2024

1460 kHz -- 11:15 p.m., PDT -- KCNR, Redding, Calif., KION, Salinas, Calif. -- (English) -- S3-S4 -- This particular evening I took my Realistic DX-375 for a spin on the MW dial and heard a rare station out of Redding, a large city of 100K+ people in Northern Cal. Since KUTI Yakima (ESPN Yakima) was taken off the air late last year 1460 has been a combination of grab-bag frequency and ghost town. This particular March evening I heard a bunch of commercials for Redding area businesses, including an oil change place, wi-fi in Palo Cedro (a Redding suburb), and the Redding airport. KION Salinas, a news-talker that I used to hear when it was KDON (back when I was a kid) was also on the channel. Ever since ESPN Yakima's plug was pulled, 1460 has become a California DX spot. Sometimes another station shows up that plays Mexican music (KRRS Santa Rosa) but they haven't been heard much lately. (Realistic DX-375, Crate Loop) 11 March 2024

KOH Reno is a station I sometimes tune into when I want to hear about what's going on in Nevada. When I was a kid, this station was KCRL, a classical music station. My dad liked hearing KCRL's classical music when we were camping in the desert areas of Eastern Oregon. KCRL's signal covered much of the West. KOH's signal, naturally, has a similar reach. Classical music stations, especially on the AM band, are as rare as hen's teeth. KMZT Los Angeles, on 1260, is a rare exception.

1260 kHz -- 6:20 a.m. PDT -- KMZT, Los Angeles, Calif. -- (English) -- S4~ -- I was doing some writing in my den, and -- as per usual -- I had my Sangean PR-D5 switched on. This morning I was tuned to 1260, to see what was going on the channel. Oregon station KLYC, McMinnville (in the Northern Willamette Valley) recently switched from oldies to Hot AC music, and some of their selection of songs are decent listening. Sometimes during the early a.m. an oldies station from Idaho, KKOO, has strong signals. This a.m., KKOO was MIA but KLYC was in readably. So I was listening to them while typing away. Suddenly, just before or after 6 a.m., I started hearing Classical, symphonic music. It turned out to be KMZT, a station in Los Angeles owned by a guy who loves radio, and loves Classical music. He apparently has a decent bankroll, so he does what he wants with his radio station. Classical music on the AM band is rare. There used to be a station out of Reno, KCRL, which played it, but they switched to other formats before turning into KOH on 780, for a while being KROW playing country music, being that much of western Nevada is cattle country. KMZT was a new station for me, #611. (Sangean PR-D5) 12 March 2024

CKBX, 100 Mile House, British Columbia, made a cameo appearance on my radios in early March. 100 Mile House is in the BC Interior, on the Cariboo Highway, a trunk line that connects Northern BC (Prince George, the Peace River country, Quesnel, Williams Lake, etc.) with the Lower Mainland, where Vancouver and other metro cities are located.

840 kHz -- 10:51 p.m. PDT -- CKBX, 100 Mile House, BC Canada / KXNT, Las Vegas -- (English) -- S3~ (CKBX) A2~ (KXNT) -- I was tuning my Tecsun PL-398 using the milk crate loop and heard a CKBX ID, and promo for their stream, before a modern country song began to play -- "You ask me why you are the way you are... I grew up on a farm..." An hour later I heard CKBX again, and then KXNT, Las Vegas, peeking through on a N-S bearing with the Coast To Coast AM program. This second logging of CKBX was on my XHDATA D-219. 840 used to be a fairly busy and musical channel, dominated by a station out of Seaside, Oregon, KSWB, that played Classic Hits, and another station out of Eugene, Oregon, KKNX, that played oldies and standards. Back then, hearing those two stations was invariable, night after night. When the solar cycle crapped out in late 2017, those two stations disappeared from my radios. I still haven't heard either station since. CKBX is a rare station on 840 for some reason. It's only about 200 miles north of here, but I've probably only heard it 5-6 times total. Catching it on my XHDATA with loop was pretty cool for that reason. As for KXNT, it's rare here. Las Vegas doesn't make it to Seattle very often. When I do hear them, it's usually around 4-6 in the morning, when they boost power and have their morning newscasts.

In 2012, KSWB was a nightly visitor to my radio receivers. It's been completely MIA since late 2017 when the last Solar Cycle crapped out. Hopefully, if/when this Solar Cycle actually improves a bit more, KSWB will yet again return!

KKNX, Eugene is another station MIA from 840 kHz since late 2017. Over the past 8-9 years 840 kHz has been mainly a talk station from Eastern Washington (KMAX Colfax) dominating that channel, or static. It's one of the things I miss about 2012 -- the great pop music, and the MW/AM band was a bit livelier. But you get the DX conditions you get. And as for the music? I suppose that's what YouTube, or MP3's are for.

1340 kHz -- 8:28 p.m. PDT -- KBBR, North Bend OR / tentative KATA, Arcata, Calif. -- (English) -- S3-S4 -- I kept hearing oldies on this channel, with liners for "The Jukebox", and KBBR, North Bend, Oregon is an oldies, "Jukebox" station. North Bend is on the Oregon Coast, and is right next to Coos Bay -- part of Oregon's own "Bay Area". Behind the oldies I heard sports talk, and KATA Arcata is CBS Sports. Being that I couldn't ID the sports network or the station, I left that logging as a 'tentative'. On KBBR there also was a commercial for a business that does concrete and construction -- not only in the Coos Bay region, but also in Medford and Brookings, in other parts of SW Oregon. SW Oregon -- including Coos, Curry, Josephine, and Jackson Counties, is my favorite part of Oregon. Being that Arcata is next to Eureka, California -- just a couple hundred miles down the Coast from North Bend / Coos Bay -- I figure the sports station I heard was probably KATA. Sometimes with MW DX you get reception from certain regions really well. A couple nights after this logging of KBBR I heard it again, playing oldies, along with KIHR, Hood River, Oregon, playing country music, with "98.__" included in their IDs. (Panasonic RF-B45, Crate Loop) 3 March 2024

1330 kHz -- 10:22 p.m., PDT -- KLBS, Los Banos, California / CJYM, Rosetown, SK -- (Spanish / English) -- S3+ -- Usually I tune in 1330 to hear CJYM's classic hits and Can-Con hits, but this evening I heard some old school Romantica and ranchero, mostly on a N-S bearing. Then I heard a KLBS ID. I've logged this station before, but it's extremely rare. Usually it's just CJYM at night, and local, low powered college AM'er KGRG-1 during the day. (Tecsun PL-398, Crate Loop) 4 March 2024

1010 kHz -- 2:32 a.m., PDT -- CBR, Calgary, Alberta -- (English) -- S4+ -- CBR often comes in fairly strong here, as it's a 50KW CBC station that serves southern Alberta. Although it's right next to local 50KW news station 1000 KNWN (former KOMO), CBR often is quite readable. It usually -- despite the splash from 1000 KNWN -- is stronger than CBU, Vancouver, a CBC station which is a couple hundred miles closer. This particular a.m. the BBC was playing, and they had a report on sand mining in Cambodia on the Mekong River, which is causing some issues in the Mekong River for a lot of people who depend on the river for fishing. (Tecsun PL-398, crate loop) 18 March 2024 

1140 kHz -- 12:34 a.m. PDT -- KHTK, Sacramento, California / CHRB, High River, AB -- (English) -- S1-S2 (KHTK); S3-S4 (CHRB) -- Usually CHRB, High River is dominant on this channel, with a mix of religion and country music, and that was the case this a.m. KGEM, Boise also comes in with Catholic programming. This particular midnight hour CBS Sports Radio was also present, making it KHTK Sacramento -- which is fairly rare on this channel most nights. The "Hey, Sacramento!" during a commercial was also a dead giveaway. I've only logged KHTK a few times over the years. I first heard this on my GE SRII, and then used the Tecsun PL-398 to take advantage of the bandwidth switching and reduction of splash from local station KKNW on 1150. (GE Superadio II, loop; Tecsun PL-398, loop) 23 March 2024

My XHDATA D-328, a terrific little SW receiver for the money ($15 US) and surprising performance for such a small package. Clip on an external antenna, plug in your headphones, and you're hearing the world, baby! It comes with a BL-5C rechargeable battery, and the battery lasts a long time. I have a BL-5C charger and a few spare BL-5C's for both radios I have that use these batteries (my XHDATA D-328 and my Grundig G2). The radio will also recharge the battery, via USB cable. 

I logged quite a few stations on my XHDATA on SW this Spring. It's a great little radio!

AND SOME SHORTWAVE LOGGINGS, In No Particular Order Of Importance

9730 kHz -- 0020 UTC -- Radio Romania Int'l, ROMANIA -- (Romanian) -- SIO 1-252FF -- This broadcast is for Romanians in Eastern North America, and whenever I hear Radio Romania in Romanian, whether they're beaming to North America or to Europe, it's a treat because of the cool pop and other music they play. This particular late afternoon the signal was more "Polar" than usual, meaning it had very fast fading, and it was also weaker than usual as well. They played a lot of pop / dance music, the kind that was popular in the early 2010's. The station came in well on three of my SW radios: my Panasonic RF-B45 (on which I first tuned in the station), my Tecsun PL-398 (through its whip, and also by clipping my indoor wire antenna to the whip), and -- ironically -- it came in best on my little XHDATA D-328, with the wire clipped to the whip. The XHDATA is really a great SW broadcast receiver. I listened to Radio Romania's music broadcast Saturday afternoon for about half an hour before I had to go do some chores. The music sounded surprisingly good on my XHDATA through the headphones, which is the best way to DX with this little radio. (XHDATA D-328, 25 ft. indoor wire antenna) 21 April 2024

15190 kHz -- 0110 UTC -- Radio Inconfidencia, Belo Horizonte, MINAS GERAIS, BRAZIL -- (Portuguese) -- SIO 252F -- I tuned into what sounded clearly like a soccer game, play by play broadcast that was either time shifted from an earlier one I heard on Radio Amazonia, or a different game with similar announcing by a man and a woman. This is the first time I heard Radio Inconfidencia, and the fourth Brazilian SW station I've heard during this Solar Cycle (the other three being Amazonia, Radio Brasil Central, and Voz Missionaria). I heard Inconfidencia the next afternoon at 0226 UTC (7:26 p.m. local time) playing an old-style swing music track sung by a woman. (Panasonic RF-B45, wire antenna; XHDATA D-328, wire antenna) 18 & 19 April, 2024

14173 kHz -- 0055 UTC -- TO3Z, Guadeloupe -- (English) SSB -- SIO1-242 -- I was tuning the 20 Meter ham band this March afternoon when I heard W6JN calling a DX station, using sideband (USB). The DX station was hard to hear because the signal was weak, and there was considerable fading. The accent of the operator didn't necessarily help. I kept coming up with misread characters until I finally got the call correct a couple times: TO3Z, which is the island of Guadeloupe, in the French Caribbean. TO3Z made contact with AF4O in Florida, AA6AA in California, and a few others which I could barely read. I haven't heard Guadeloupe before -- at least to my memory. (Realistic DX-390, 25 ft. indoor wire) 3 March 2024

14162 kHz -- 0049 UTC -- EA3AQ, Spain -- (English) SSB -- SIO 141-2F -- On this channel I heard this Spanish ham station working several US stations on sideband, including WB5DW (it might have been WD5TW -- I could have misread it), N0KAF (Colorado), KX2T (Florida), WT8P (Washington State), and W7EOV was calling him. (Realistic DX-390, 25 ft. indoor wire) 3 March 2024

14169 kHz -- 0052 UTC -- PP2CC, Brazil -- (English) SSB -- SIO 242F -- Apparently there was a ham contest on this afternoon because PP2CC was calling "CQ Contest" on SSB, and he got a lot of return calls from US stations, and a Canadian that I heard: W5DX (New York), VE9KPT (called him, not sure if they made contact -- VE9 is the Yukon), WB5DW (Texas), KK6HPB (prob. California), and N5EE (prob. the South Central US). (Realistic DX-390, 25 ft. indoor wire) 3 March 2024

9775 kHz -- 0317 UTC -- Voice Of America, BOTSWANA -- (English) -- SIO-453-4FF -- I tuned into a program in English that was accented. At first I thought it was Cubano English, then possibly Melanesian English, but the talk was about events in Nigeria, Kenya, and South African leader Thabo Mbeki. Then there was an ID: "You're listening to Daybreak Africa on the Voice of America." After the ID there was a report from Johannesburg on the opposition to the ANC. This transmission was to North and Central Africa from VOA's transmitters near Francistown, Botswana. (Panasonic RF-B45, 25 ft indoor wire) 15 March 2024

14200 kHz -- 2356 UTC -- J62K, Saint Lucia, Caribbean -- (English) SSB -- S2-S3 -- I am not sure I've ever heard a station from St. Lucia before. The operator had a California or Midwest accent, and he said he was "down here", which implied he was on vacation possibly. He gave a full "Juliet 62 Kilo" ID and worked quite a few US stations. (Realistic DX-390, 25 ft. indoor wire) 27 March 2024

14217 kHz -- 2348 UTC -- KA7GKN, W0WD, W7SV -- (English) SSB -- S4-S5 -- There were four guys talking about prices going up, the lack of good fish in the stores where they lived, and good, East coast rye bread which isn't available "here" (Arizona). The guy in Arizona had what I call a 'Florida accent', i.e., he sounded like a transplant from the NE US, probably New York or New Jersey. A lot of Floridians are originally from the NE US. They retire there, or go there for the winter months. In this case, the "Floridian" seemed to be in Arizona -- another state with transplants from other parts of the US, including the NE. The rye bread, by the way, was "Chompys" or something like that. I looked it up -- it's a big brand in New York. You learn a lot sometimes by listening to guys on the 20 Meter ham band. (Realistic DX-390, 25 ft. indoor wire) 27 March 2024

24937 kHz -- 0113 UTC -- JA1LLN, Hokkaido, JAPAN -- (English) SSB -- S1-S4~ -- This guy had a varying signal, but was always readable. He's in Hokkaido, and his location is near the coastline, on the NE part of the island, near Kushiro. He was working W9QL (near Chicago) and W9MHC (Indianapolis). JA1LLN was running his radio on stock power, through a five element beam antenna. This was the best reception I've heard of a station on the 12 Meter ham band in a long, long time. Hearing this guy made me get out the atlas and look up Japan to see where he was located. DXing, whether SW or MW, usually makes me look up locations on a map or atlas. It's something I did even when I was 5, when I first heard long distance AM band DX. Long distance radio is like travelling without leaving your chair. It strengthened my interest in geography and other states and countries. (Realistic DX-390, 25 ft. indoor wire) 28 March 2024

15310 kHz -- 1621 UTC -- Bible Voice (Canada), GERMANY -- (poss. Tigriyna) -- SIO-252FFF -- This signal was a "Polar signal" -- lots of fast fading, and it was in a decidedly African language. I heard a man talking, then some EDM pop music, and later on, some folk music that sounded like African Highlife music. There was also a Canadian address for Newmarket, Ontario given before the signal cut off at 1630 UTC. The station was Bible Voice to Somalia, with the transmitter in Germany. I know a lot of DXers don't like religious programming on SW, but many times the programs aimed at Africa and Asia have a lot of interesting music, and hearing the languages is cool. (Tecsun PL-398, 25 ft indoor wire) 1 April 2024

15360 kHz -- 1634 UTC -- Adventist World Radio, SRI LANKA -- (Sindhi) -- SIO-150-2FF -- There was quite a bit of fading on this station's signal, which sounded South Asian because of the language. The music at first sounded Middle Eastern but then I heard the tabla, which is the drum commonly used in Indian and Pakistani folk and classical music. There were also people singing in unison. When a woman began talking, the station began to fade out. The 19 Meter Band was lively this a.m. I don't often hear Sri Lanka -- in fact, I have only probably heard it a couple times in all the years I've DXed the SW bands. In this case, the signal bounced across Eurasia and over the Pole to get to me. (Tecsun PL-398, 25 ft indoor wire) 1 April 2024

15565 kHz -- 1647 UTC -- Radio Vaticana, VATICAN -- (English) -- SIO-353FF -- This reception was a bit fadey, with Polar signals, with a man talking in English, accented English, almost African in accent (but I wasn't sure). He mentioned "the meaning of life..." "God" and "dignity". He also mentioned Pope John Paul II. Then there was an 'Alleluia' chorus, before a man began talking in what was more clearly African accented English. This appeared to be some sort of news report on human trafficking, weapons trafficking, helicopter gunships, and the US and EU not recognising a junta as an actual government. Because of the fading it was difficult to get the whole story. The man ended the program with "Praise Be To Jesus Christ" and there was an orchestral interval signal that sounded like either Handel or Mozart (not sure which). According to EiBi, this was Radio Vaticana to East Africa in English. It came in well on my Tecsun PL-398, but even better on my little XHDATA D-328 off the wire antenna (I hadn't yet figured that the Tecsun also pulls in stations stronger if you clip the wire antenna to the whip). The XHDATA D-328 is a little marvel on SW. (Tecsun PL-398, whip; XHDATA D-328, 25 ft indoor wire) 1 April 2024

Three cats I had back in the late 1990's-2000's. I just found this picture. I had just cleared out an area that had been overtaken by blackberries, and my three cats -- Scooter (front), Boots (Boots #1 -- middle), and Snoopy (in back) all were curious as to what I was doing. I think I took this pic in 2004 or 2005, with my Canon TX camera, which was taking OK pics for a mostly unused SLR. It's odd how time passes. Snoopy disappeared one night in 2006 or '07, just went missing. Boots was killed by a coyote. Scooter died at the vet's office while they were trying to give her saline (her kidneys had been failing). The last two losses were particularly tough. I'm a lot more savvy about taking care of my cats now. I don't let them outdoors much. And I make sure they get plenty of fluids.

IN OTHER LIFE....

The weather here has been surprisingly pleasant. The air is fresh, and night time temperatures are moderately cool -- around 45-50F / 4-5C or so. Some nights have gotten low in temperature, with a couple approaching freezing. Daytime it gets up into the 60's F, and most days have been pretty sunny. During the famous Solar Eclipse we had on April 8th it was thick clouds, so there was no chance of seeing the Eclipse at all, and because Seattle is about 1500+ miles from the path of totality, there was no chance of hearing any Eclipse-caused MW or SW DX. I did tune the 20 Meter Band to hear the guys on the air talking about the Eclipse -- surprisingly, there wasn't much ham activity.

Northern Lights -- second time I've seen them, ever

We also had an aurora recently, which wiped out the SW bands and turned MW into a locals-only affair, with just one or two California stations popping through the hiss -- KFBK Sacramento 1530, and a weak KGO San Francisco on 810. Surprisingly, the only SW station I could hear was Radio Educacion, in Mexico. It wasn't readable, but it was there. I didn't get out to see the auroras but a neighbor took a couple good pics. I got out late on my bike and saw the tail end of them -- these beams of light appearing in the north. Very cool.

Last time I saw an aurora was in the summer when I was a kid, and we were camping in NE Washington, in the Sanpoil Valley. At that time they were just a moving glow. My mother, who was born in Edmonton, Canada, told me about seeing them when she was a girl.

Weather = Warmer, mostly

The hills are getting greener by the day, and although I haven't heard the frogs croaking and chirping at night yet, I suppose it will kick in within a couple weeks. It's a bit late, of course, but better than last year.

I may have been a bit presumptuous in saying earlier this month that this Spring is back to "normal". We've had two nights in a row of freezing temperatures (frosty windows on the cars, and temps down around 29F/-1C). And the trees on the hills are just now where they used to be around April 5th in the early to mid 2010's, when Springs were last "normal".

So we still have a ways to go. But it is nice to see the sun again. :-)

I will close this article with a vid from a song mentioned in the MW loggings -- 70's R&B singer George McCrae's Rock Your Baby. It's a breezy, upbeat track, predating disco by a year or two, while still having just a hint of that disco feel to it (and I wasn't a fan of disco, really). It's McRae's only big hit. The story behind the song is pretty remarkable. Hugh Casey, of KC & the Sunshine Band fame, came up with a demo with two other KC & The Sunshine Band members, and needed a singer who could hit the high notes. They had intended for George McCrae's wife -- Gwen, a soul singer -- to do the task, but she couldn't show up to the session, and George filled in for her. The rest is soul music history.

It's known as one of the first disco hits.

I also mentioned the Kinks' Sunny Afternoon. 1966 was a great rock and pop year -- the Beatles had turned out Rubber Soul and Revolver, Bob Dylan turned out some great singles (I Want You, Rainy Day Women #12 & #35), the Yardbirds came out with their futuristic, Jeff Beck tinged single Shapes Of Things, NW band Paul Revere & The Raiders came out with a string of edgy, punch hits (Kicks, Hungry, Good Thing); the Byrds came out with Eight Miles High, British pop and folksinger Donovan came out with Sunshine Superman and the excellent, proto-psych-folk album of the same name; and the Rolling Stones produced their first album of all original material (Aftermath); the record labels Motown and Stax were going full guns with all sorts of hard hitting tracks -- and last but not least, the Beach Boys came out with Good Vibrations, which -- at the time -- was the most expensive pop single ever made. Underneath all of that, the Kinks were one of those second tier bands that were basically unstoppable. Even though they couldn't tour the US after 1965 due to some legal issues, they still had hits over here. And this track is one of them. It's not your typical, British Invasion cheery mop-top type tune. It's a statement about the class system in the UK in the 1960's, a subject matter that the Kinks' Ray Davies mined a lot in the late 1960's.:

NOW FOR SOME ANARCHY.....

Now I'd like to shift gears before closing the article. I first heard this track on Radio Australia, probably very late 1976 or very early 1977. At that time, Punk Rock -- especially the hard core, UK variety -- was just a rumor here in the NW US. It got a little mention in the rock magazines, but nothing else. We'd heard about the Sex Pistols, but no station here in Seattle would dream of ever playing them. Besides, the early Sex Pistols' singles never made it over here except on import, usually a few months after initial UK release, and there were very few records stores with UK or European records. Suffice to say, Anarchy In The UK was not what I thought it would be. Reading about the band, it sounded like all they did was make noise. Anarchy In The UK was anything but that. Melodically, it reminded me a bit of mid-period, 1965 Bob Dylan, with the guitars turned up way past 11.

I was impressed.

I've got to credit Radio Australia for playing it. If they hadn't, I might not have sought out the import single (imported from France, of all places -- not the UK), and I would not have developed such an appreciation for the Pistols, or punk rock music. I think their Never Mind The Bollocks album is a classic. Here's Anarchy.:

Well, that's it for this time around. After posting this, I'll get back to practicing on my Dean 12-string (Dean Tradition 12 S GN), which I've rediscovered after having it in its case since late 2018. I wrote a lot of songs on it since I originally bought the 12 new in 1996 (for $360). Now I'm trying to relearn / remember those songs. Some of the better ones I recorded and turned into a demo CD called With Flowers (which maybe 10 or 12 people actually have copies of). Other songs I've forgotten. My left hand is still getting used to the wider neck and the string tension.

We'll get there. Hopefully -- if there still are open mikes out there, somewhere -- I might try one. As they say -- you only live once, right?

Peace.

C.C. May 12th, 2024.

The RADIO SHACK 200629 / ATS-505: Fixing an Intermittent Whip-Antenna Connection

A pic of my Radio Shack 200629 radio last year, when I was DXing the 1440 kHz channel. The 200629, an updated Sangean ATS-505, is a good long distance radio for the AM band, especially if you use an external loop.

As I have written here before, I have a Radio Shack 200629 AM-FM-SW-LW portable radio with SSB/CW capability. This radio was first designed in December of 1999, and the design was edited and finalised in 2000. Some time after that, the Sangean company sold the radios as the ATS-505. The radio was produced for over 20 years.

The ATS-505 was intended to be the intermediate range of AM-FM-SW-LW radios, somewhere in between the big models -- ATS-909, and the 909X after that, and the smaller radios like the ATS-404.

Radio Shack, the former American electronics retailer, first issued their badged model of the ATS-505 as their "DX-402". 

A section of the ATS-505 / 200629's RF/IF amplification section. The FM "Front End" chip is circled in blue. Front End chips have RF amplification and some IF amplification and filtering -- basically boosting and filtering the radio signal before it gets sent to the IF chip (upper right center of the diagram), which is the heart of the radio.

Also shown here is the MW/AM antenna (circled in red, bottom center), and the routes the MW signal takes, in pink. The MW/AM in the 200629 is configured like a boombox -- the MW radio signals go from the MW loopstick to the IF chip, from the chip to a mixer IF can & then through the ceramic filter back to the IF chip, where it's processed further before the signal is sent to the Audio amp chip -- and finally, to the headphones and speaker.

By the time the 2010's turned around, the DX-402 went by the wayside, and the "Radio Shack Synthesized World Receiver" was then introduced into Radio Shack's stores. Radio hobbyists instantly recognised it as a Sangean ATS-505, but unlike previous Radio Shack SW radios, this one didn't have a DX-xxx model number.

So it was known by various names. Most of us who have these little marvels call the radio the "200629", because that is the Radio Shack catalog number for the radio.

The 200629 has smoother, chuff-less tuning when you use the tuner knob (it sounds just like analog), and the audio chips are different from the AN7117's the original ATS-505 used. The new audio chips may have a little more power. Aside from that, and the black case (the Sangean ATS-505 is battleship grey), the operation of the 200629 is identical to the previous versions of the 505.

The back of the box my Radio Shack 200629 came in. The front side just has a cellophane window. The 200629 was the last Sangean radio that Radio Shack badged under its own label and sold in its stores. Within 2-3 years after introducing the radio, Radio Shack stores started closing all over the US, ending an era in electronics retail. I got my radio in the Summer of 2013. The store I bought it in closed within six months.

I got my 200629 in 2013. The Radio Shack store (in Wilderness Village, Maple Valley, WA) closed not too long afterwards. At the time, Radio Shack had been going through financial problems -- the electronics marketplace had changed, and brick and mortar electronics stores were going by the wayside. I actually have some fond memories over the purchase. In 2013 life was picking up a bit, and the MW band was loaded with long distance signals. Radio Disney was still on the airwaves, playing pop music, and SW had a lot more stations to hear.

And the pop music of the day was really, really good! 

I still have the box the radio came in.

I have gotten a lot of use out of my 200629 over the years, with very few issues.

I previously wrote a fairly extensive article on the 200629 a few years back. You can find that article here.:

Interrock Nation: MW DXing with the Radio Shack 200629 World Receiver / Sangean ATS-505

In that article I tell you how the radio works, how to get the most out of it, and especially how to DX the Medium Wave band with it, because it's really a sleeper DX radio. The bandwidth is about perfect, really, for an analog IF chipped portable. The tone control works really well, especially for DXing through headphones. The sound is also remarkable through headphones, and it is super easy to DX with this radio while using an external loop.

This is a section of the ATS-505 / 200629's schematic diagram, showing the stereo jack for the Shortwave External Antenna (left center). Below it you can see two diodes, reversed polarity, back to back, going between the 'hot' side of the antenna and the ground. What these diodes do is to conduct static electricity discharges to the ground, keeping them from frying the FET RF amp transistor, circled in orange at top center of the pic. Top left, the arrow shows the line coming from the whip antenna, showing that the connection from the whip is fairly direct.

The signal path from the whip antenna to the first RF amp is shown in pink, and the blue path is from the External SW Antenna jack. The stereo jack switches the whip off when the plug from the External Antenna is inserted into the jack. Inserting a mono plug seems to short circuit the connections somehow, maybe messing with the impedance the radios's RF amp is designed for -- but that is just a guess.

(Pics can be right-clicked and opened in new tab or window to see labels more clearly.)

There are only two weak spots with the 200629, and this may also apply to ATS-505's:

First, if you're listening to the SW ham bands using the BFO, it can overload on really strong signals. The CW or SSB will start to 'chirp'. The solution is to kick in the Attenuator "DX/Local" switch, putting it in local. Or you can just use the whip for reception when the signals are that strong (it's possible that you could wire a small resistor to an alligator clip, and clip it between your wire antenna and the whip antenna, too). It only does this form of overloading on the S5, CW and SSB signals, and there is little, if any overloading on AM broadcast SW or MW. 

Secondly, if you use a mono plug on the end of your wire antenna, sometimes the SW External Antenna jack might cause some occasional feedback of some sort. It seems that the radio's EXT SW ANT jack is stereo, and it requires a stereo plug to work correctly. This issue, overall though, is not debilitating. If you don't have a stereo plug for your wire antenna, you can clip it to the whip and do OK. The circuitry is basically the same. But this issue -- using mono plugs in the stereo EXT SW ANT jack -- may be the same with some ATS-505's or 200629's, especially as the 2000 dated ATS-505 schematic I found online shows a stereo plug for the jack.

I wrote an article on the stereo plug / feedback issue, too. You can find it here.:

Interrock Nation: Radio Shack 200629 Synthesized World Receiver -- how to quickly fix a feedback and whistling noise issue

That said, since 2018 or so, if I listen to SW on my 200629, I just clip my indoor, 25-30 ft. wire to the whip. This is partly out of convenience, and partly because I lost my mono to stereo adaptor plug, and keep forgetting to get another one online.

Clipping the indoor wire antenna to the whip works perfectly for most listening, and from an internal circuitry standpoint, there really is little to no difference -- except I NEVER have gotten the feedback issue by clipping the wire antenna to the whip.

A pic of the Radio Shack 200629 with the back off. At the top, you can see the internal loopstick, which is the antenna for the MW and LW bands. It's 120mm long, and about 8mm thick. Next to it, you can see the solder pad for the antenna terminal. The little prong mechanism -- visible in the other pictures I posted in this article, connects to the whip antenna by friction, and presses against the solder pad, connecting the whip to the radio. That little prong can weaken over time, oxidise, etc. Hence, the surgery required. :-) Some other older Sangeans have similar whip-to-antenna terminal setups -- connection via a little prong mechanism.

Now to the THIRD potential weakness -- and this is something that a lot of older Sangean SW portables seem to have: The whip antenna connection can get wonky. I.e., intermittent. And I'm not talking just the thing getting loose, and needing to be tightened. It acts up, cuts out, goes intermittent, even if you tighten the little set screw. This is after the radio is a few years old.

There's a reason for this. It's fairly well known among Sangean 'classic' SW portable enthusiasts.

Since 1989 Sangean has used a unique way of connecting a whip antenna (and sometimes the battery -- like with the ATS-803A) to their SW portable radios: there is this small, springy prong-like device, a little piece of metal that ends in what can only be called these tiny forks. This springy prong is attached to the whip, and then it touches a solder pad on the main printed circuit board. It's like a little spring-metal connector between whip and the antenna terminal on the PCB.

The springy prong-like thing gets weak over time -- or the prong wears down the solder pad that is on the main PCB. Oxidation on the tips of the prong also probably comes into play. Which means, the connection can go intermittent, because there is less solder for it to press against, and if there is any oxidation on the prong, that will interfere with the connection, too.

A pic of my Radio Shack 200629 with the back off, and the hookup wire I used to make the hard-wired connection between the whip antenna and the PCB's antenna terminal solder pad. The hookup wire is regular telephone 'twisted pair' wire -- very useful for radio projects if you can get it.

I had to hard wire my DX-440 / ATS-803A to overcome this, and I had to do the same thing with my DX-390 / ATS-818. I also hard wired my Realistic DX-370's whip to the PCB, and the DX-370 is a Sangean ATS-800A variant. A pic of this can be seen in a pic of my DX-370 I put in my DX-370 article.

My DX-370 article, with a pic of the wiring, is here.:

Interrock Nation: Medium Wave DXing with the REALISTIC DX-370

I took this pic after soldering the hookup wire to the little prong. After the solder cooled, the wire -- and the solder -- easily slipped off. There was no way to get the solder to stick to the prong. I later tried soldering the hookup wire to the base of the whip itself. That wouldn't take, either. It was then I decided to clamp the end of the hookup wire between the whip and the prong's flat base, basically using the prong's base as a washer. That worked.

Now I've had to do the same operation to my 200629. A few months back, I was tuning the shortwaves and all the signals were weak. Then BOOM! They were instantly loud. Then after a while they cut back to weak again, and then BOOM! they were loud again. It was like someone was flipping a switch. I tested the DX/Local attenuator switch. That wasn't the problem.

The problem was elsewhere. I suspected the connection between the whip antenna and the radio. I tapped on the whip antenna, at the base -- on top of the swivel joint.

BOOM! The signals were back 100%.

That told me one thing: Houston, we've got a problem with the whip antenna connector!

I tightened the whip antenna. That seemed to help. Then it did it again, two days later.

I took the back off the radio and added solder to the antenna solder point on the PCB. That helped for maybe two more days, then it did it again.

It was time to hard wire it and get it over with -- a chore I put off for over a month. I really don't like taking apart my radios unless absolutely necessary. I just get the feeling that there is a limit to the number of times a radio can be dismantled and reassembled before those operations may lead to a failure somewhere in the radio. So I limit it to be on the safe side.

But in this case, I wanted my 200629 to work correctly on SW. So it was a necessary job to do -- time to solder a piece of hookup wire between the whip's base, and the Antenna solder terminal on the PCB.

Here you can see where I clamped the bared end of the hookup wire under the end of the whip, using the prong mechanism's base as a washer, thus making a tight connection.

(If you can't read the type in the pic itself, the pics can be right-clicked and viewed in a new tab or window).

Well, I finally fixed the connection, and this time there was a wrinkle in the process: you can't solder anything to the little prong, because it won't hold solder, and you can't solder a wire to the whip itself, because it won't hold solder either. There was no way I was going to hold the solder gun onto either the whip or the prong long enough to force them to take solder, because it might start melting the plastic case.

The completed fix. The hookup wire is long enough to not mess things up if you have to open up the back of the radio for any reason, but short enough to not keep you from putting the case back together. The wire hard-wires the whip to the Antenna Terminal solder pad. It should last. Every now and then you might still have to tighten the Whip Antenna's set screw, if it works its way loose. The screw is metal, and shouldn't present too much problem. Don't over tighten it, though -- the threads are very fine.

So here is what I finally did: I cut a little piece of hookup wire, and I stuck the bare tip of the hookup wire in between the whip antenna's butt end, and the prong, using the prong as a sort of washer. Then I tightened the little assembly together, basically squishing the bared tip of hookup wire between the whip antenna end and the prong's base.

The little screw that tightens the whip to the body of the radio is metal, as is the whip, so you can tighten it considerably without worrying about stripping it. Of course, I didn't overtighten it -- you're not holding elephants down, you're just securing the whip, hookup wire, and prong together securely. Those tiny threads aren't made for automobile cylinder heads, they're just designed to hold a whip antenna to the radio. So be careful when tightening.

Then I soldered the other end of the hookup wire to the antenna terminal / solder pad on the main PCB.

So far, it's working well that way.

This is a pic of my Realistic DX-370 with the back off. You can see two wiring jobs -- I wired some back-to-back diodes between the antenna terminal solder pad and the negative battery terminal (just off the picture, lower left), to protect the radio from static electricity, and on the right you can see a wire going between the whip antenna and the main antenna terminal solder pad. In this case, the 'prong' device was made of steel, and it was easy to solder the wire to it.

In this pic you can see the DX-370's 120mm MW loopstick, at the top of the radio.

Next morning -- this morning, actually -- I test drove the 200629 on Shortwave, for two full hours or more. I had zero problems. The propagation was a problem -- even though it was 9 a.m., the 20 Meter, 17 Meter, 15 Meter, 12 Meter bands were all dead -- aside from some weak FT8 signals on a couple of the bands -- and the 11 Meter Outband was also dead. Most of the SWBC bands were spare, with the 31 Meter Band fading somewhat rapidly after 9:30 a.m. I did hear some CW on 20 Meters, and some week SSB on a couple channels in the SSB part of the band.

But what I heard was exactly the same on my other radios that I know for a fact work perfectly. So the 200629 was obviously working as it should. And I was able to catch a few SW broadcasts.

I heard China Radio International broadcasting to the Middle East from Kashgar, in Chinese, on 13710 kHz, so I know for a fact that the 200629 is doing its job OK.

And early on, before the 31 Meter Band faded into hiss and static, I heard Radio Free Asia in Korean on 9990 kHz, and Radio Free Asia in Korean with stronger signals on 9910 kHz, an UNIDentified station in non-Cuban Spanish on 9740 kHz; and in the 25 and 21 Meter Bands I heard what sounded like CNR-1 (maybe a jammer) on 11715, what sounded like Viet language on 11715 (Voice Of Vietnam, probably), CNR-1 jamming the Voice of Hope on 13670, and a weak WWCR-3 with a preacher on 13845.

So, the fix worked! My 200629 is back!

This morning, after doing the fix earlier before going to bed, I did some SWLing and the radio worked fine. The fix worked! Here I'm listening to an unidentified broadcast in Spanish on 9740 kHz, at 1703 GMT, April 5th.

DON'T STRESS THE WHIP ON THESE RADIOS -- Just Not A Good Idea

A suggestion: don't swivel the whip on these radios too much, or if you swivel it, lube the swivel, and then whenever you move the whip, do it slowly.

This is because -- to be blunt -- there isn't a lot holding the whip, prong, etc. together. And that fastening screw, even though it's real metal, isn't very big, and the threads are very fine.

In fact, it's probably best not to rotate the whip at all if you're FM DXing. Even with the little fastening screw battened tight, there will be movement of the whip's base inside the radio. I saw this while testing it before putting the radio back together.

Rotate the radio instead. The connection just isn't built for being stressed. Even if you use a little lubricant on the swivel point and the rotation joint at the base of the whip, the whip has such a tight fit that rotating the whip, or swiveling it a lot -- it just is going to weaken the connection over time, and you'll have to tighten it over and over again -- and even though the little screw is made out of metal, I'm not certain just how much re-tightening that little screw is going to take before it starts to strip. As said before, the threads on it are very fine.

So don't overdo it if you use an ATS-505 or 200629.

I have no clue how many 200629's are out there being used. I know that my 200629 article gets about one hit a week or so, so there must be a few of you out there. There was a DX'er in my state who had a DX-402 (the earlier ATS-505 sold by Radio Shack), and his antenna broke. He was an FM DX'er, so possibly he had this particular issue.

Either way, if you have a 200629 or ATS-505, go easy on moving that whip antenna around, maybe lube the swivel so using the swivel doesn't stress the connection to the radio, and if you end up have to do some surgery, it can be done. It's not fun, but it's not really a difficult fix.

This pic I took a few years back for another blog article. You can see the mono-to-stereo adaptor between the Panasonic wire antenna and the radio's EXT Antenna jack. The adaptor, being very small, got lost somewhere. Stereo plugs seem to be a necessity with these radios, as the jack is wired for a stereo plug. The middle terminal apparently switches off the whip. Why? I have no idea. If the whip is collapsed, it won't affect the reception any. It may be an impedance thing. Either way, if you use an external antenna, clip it to the whip, or use a stereo plug with the EXT Antenna jack.

Worse comes to worse, if by chance your ATS-505 or 200629 becomes unrepairable, you could take the whip off entirely, and solder a long bit of hookup wire to the terminal solder pad on the PCB, and then push the wire out through the hole, and clip another piece of stiffer wire to it if needed. But it doesn't have to come to that. I've had my 200629 for 11 years now, and it's doing fine. I am confident that if I reduce moving the whip around a lot, this fix should last. That little bit of hookup wire is squished in between the prong and the whip pretty tightly.

I've said several times that the 200629 is a great MW DX'er. This is despite the fact it's just a glorified boombox, circuitry wise. The IF chip, however, is a high gain one, and if you couple your 200629 with a good loop, and put on the headphones, you'll hear a LOT of DX with this radio.

I just heard WWL New Orleans 870 with it a couple nights back (they're almost a couple thousand miles away), using my homemade Crate loop antenna.

The radio gets the job done. Can't ask for much more than that. And the audio is so good, especially through headphones, that it's not a chore listening to either SW or long distance MW / AM. Good, smooth audio always makes distance listening a lot more fun.

With that, I will close this article. I hope it helped a few DXers out there with ATS-505's and 200629's. Some of this may apply to other, older "classic" era Sangeans, too (1990-2010 era SW portables).

See ya's.

C.C. April 5th, 2024.

ADDENDUM, May 30th, 2024:

As of this a.m. -- well over a month after fixing the radio -- my Radio Shack 200629 is still working well after the fix. I've been using the 200629 nearly every evening or morning to DX the Shortwaves since a day or so after doing the repair, and I've probably put in 15-30 total listening hours on the radio (or more) since the fix, and it's been working perfectly. I simply clip my indoor wire antenna to the whip and it works well, with no intermittents. It's nice when a simple fix can actually work. I'm sure that eventually I might have to tighten the whip antenna's set screw at some point in the future, but the hard wiring / clamped hookup wire fix makes DXing life a lot easier.

Trees = Green; Spring = Normal; the 1993 band The Indians, & 'Indianism'

In Springs past, my neighborhood had maybe 8 different yards with Rhododendrons as beautiful as this bush. This Spring, this one is the only one blooming. There are a few others in the neighborhood that are beginning to bloom, and a couple yards where new owners tore the Rhododendrons out. :-(

The past several Springs have been cold and rainy, to say the least. What used to be a nice season for bike riding and photography turned into cold, wet, and often frosty, miserable times of the year.

Not so this year. Well -- at least it is looking that way. As I write this, it is April 5th, and it is green outside. And I'm not just talking about the evergreen trees that are everywhere, I'm talking about the other trees and plants -- the deciduous ones. 

They usually -- during a normal year, turn the nearby hills green by April 5th. Why that is, I don't know. Probably it has something to do with the latitude here (47.5 degrees N) and maybe the local terrain. When I took Meteorology 101 at the University -- a course I amazingly passed -- one thing they told us about was "micro-climates". In other words, even in a given locale there may be small areas where it's usually colder, wetter, drier, etc. 

These micro-climates can be as extensive as the Rogue-Umpqua, relatively arid, Garry Oak micro-climate that one sees near Roseburg and Medford, Oregon, where the weather is drier and hotter than any other parts of Western Washington and Western Oregon. A micro-climate can also be as small as the shadier side of a neighborhood, if that neighborhood is in a valley or near a big hill.

Cherry blossoms in my side yard. The trees were volunteer, and the cherries are always gone before anyone can ever eat one, thanks to the birds eating all of them.

In my own neighborhood there are several blocks where it's frostier at night, and if I ride my bike at night I have to be careful about the sheen of black ice -- that section of the neighborhood is affected by moisture from the nearby River. And apparently when it's freezing out, that moisture from the River frosts the streets and waysides in that part of the neighborhood -- where in my section there may be some frost, but the streets are clear.

My section of the neighborhood also sees a bit more sun, being further from the hills than the streets just a 300-400 yards / meters south of me.

Also, I've noticed that certain birds hang out in other parts of the neighborhood that don't hang out at my block. Whether this has anything to do with micro-climate or not is a good guess. Brewer's Blackbirds (the normal, small kind of blackbird) like to hang out in a section of the neighborhood about 4 blocks away. On my street it's only Redwing Blackbirds -- which are cool, because of their musical konk-a-reeeee call. 

I used to have a lot of house sparrows visit my yard. They would daisy chain it from the golf course, flying tree to tree, until they got to my yard where I was feeding them. 

Then a lady down the street, who was paranoid about volunteer trees and blackberries, bitched to the city about the plethora of greenery on the berm near the noise-cancelling retaining wall that's maybe 50-60 yards from my house. The city mowed down the blackberries (which protected the birds and rabbits) and wiped out all the small trees that the house sparrows used to stop at when making their way to my yard.

My house sparrow visitors went from maybe 150 or so in an afternoon to zero.

Some people seem to have a real hatred for nature, I guess.

That said, the neighborhood pigeons hang out the next street over, and down about half a block. And there are a couple other spots in the neighborhood where they hang out, roosting on the powerlines. Yet they never hang out on my street. In fact, I can't recall ever seeing them on my block, or even within 300 yards/meters of my place.

A view down a nearby street, with the greening trees on the hills visible. Unfortunately it was cloudy today, and on top of that, my Nikon L32 camera had reset before I put in new batteries, and I used the wrong "Night" setting by accident -- "Night Portrait", the one that doesn't compensate for low light settings, and always uses flash and drains batteries (the correct "Night" setting is "Night Landscape", which never has Flash, and always adjusts to low light settings).

Anyway, this year -- Spring 2024 -- is surprisingly back to normal. The cherry trees are blossoming -- last year they blossomed in May. And surprisingly -- after maybe 5 springs where the trees were one week, then two weeks, then four weeks late -- the hills are already turning green. Last year they didn't green out until May 5th - 8th or so. This year, they are right on time!

Hopefully, that means that the neighborhood rhododendrons will bloom in late April / early May, and I can get some pictures. Last year they bloomed oddly -- some bushes had blooms when others were still budding, and the blooms looked sickly compared to the mid-2010's, when I was taking pictures of them and posting them on my blog here.

Another, close-up view of cherry blossoms. Last year, they were nothing like this, and furthermore, they were more than a month late.

So posted here through this blog article are a few pics of leaves budding. Dull? Yes, but it's nice to see them happening when they should: during the first week of April.

Not much else is happening that I didn't cover in my last article.

A FORGOTTEN BAND -- THE INDIANS. 1993. 

Here's a couple vids, from a band I loved from the 1990's, and like many great bands that I loved during that decade (Engines of Aggression, Blinker The Star, Warrior Soul, Truly, Mantissa, Econoline Crush, etc.) they put out one album which was awesome, and then got dropped. Sucks when that happens. 

This band is one that is largely forgotten, but the music they put out was so remarkable that they should have been huge. The band? The Indians. Driven mostly by one woman's creativity and songwriting, and including the amazing guitar work of a relatively unknown Italian axe-slinger, the Indians put out a couple videos and just one CD. Then they disappeared into the ether.

The Indians were a quartet headed by female singer Angelique Bianca, who wrote most of the songs, sang them, and played acoustic and some electric guitar on them. Angelique definitely had the gift. She still makes music, and has some videos on her own YT channel, which you can find here. A few of the newer tracks she made in the 2010's are really good.:

https://www.youtube.com/@angeliquebianca4629/featured

Here is my favorite song by The Indians, Believe. It is a track that only could have been recorded and released in the 1990s. The recording is massive, and wonderfully done. Back in the 1990's, record companies were willing to put money into breaking acts, and this CD "Indianism", from which this track is taken, is an example of this. And why did they put the money into the recordings? Because a) the songs, and the band, were good. And b) because back then, record companies had the money to put into breaking acts.

The musicianship The Indians displayed was outstanding. The lead guitar player was an Italian guy named "Zeb", and the bass was played by UK bassist Chris Wilson, and the drummer (who posted the Look Up To The Sky MTV video below) was DJ Danny G. A Los Angeles native, Angelique Bianca spent some time in the UK in 1989, which was where she met Chris Wilson. The two spent time working on music, later to come to the US, found drummer Danny G, and then got a recording contract as The Indians. 

And the recording itself? It's larger than life. 

Anyway, here is a "link" to a video of Believe, which I guess Blogger can't play directly, hence the "Video Unavailable" panel -- but if you click on the link inside the panel, it will immediately take you to the one on YouTube (I tried it, it works). Both Blogger and YT are owned by the same corporation. Go figure.:

Here is a link to the CD track on YouTube, which Blogger's searcher couldn't find.:

Believe (youtube.com)

And here is Look Up To The Sky, a 7 minute dreamtrip, rock track, with excellent guitars, cool lyrics, great singing, and psycho-flutes at the ending (actually a Mellotron on flute setting). This song was on the movie Kalifornia. I've never seen Kalifornia, but I was told by a workmate in the radio business that the movie was "weird". I'll take his word on that one.

Here's a link to the actual MTV video The Indians put out for Look Up To The Sky, with a few short clips included from the movie Kalifornia. The recording is good quality, and it's a radio edit. Sadly, it didn't get much play on MTV (if any), or any airplay on the radio that I'm aware of. I know that where I worked the CD was unused. I ended up with a copy of it.

If you get the chance, check out the entire Indianism album on YouTube. It's well worth it. The entire CD is on there, in high quality. Take a journey back to 1993. It was a good time back then, really. Especially for music.

Until next time, my friends,

Peace.

C.C., April 5th 2024

KPNW-FM, 98.9 Seattle's Flip-O-Rama Station -- Flips Again, This Time To Country

KPNW-FM lasted about a year and a half with an Alternative / AAA format. Next!

A few years back, on of our local Seattle area FM stations, Click 98.9 flipped to Rock, call letters KVRQ. They called themselves, unremarkably, "Rock 98.9". I remember wondering what Rock 98.9 could bring to the table, as -- at that time -- we had KISW 99.9 for Mainstream Rock; KNDD 107.7 for Alternative Rock; KFOO 102.9 for Classic Alternative Rock, and KZOK 102.5 for Classic Rock.

As it turned out, KVRQ Rock 98.9 filled the niche between KISW and KZOK very well. They were a fun station to listen to. They played a lot of 80's, 90's and 00's music that the other stations didn't concentrate on, and the music was programmed very well. You could hear Motley Crue, followed by Red Hot Chili Peppers, followed by Linkin Park, followed by Rage Against The Machine, followed by A Perfect Circle, followed by Disturbed, followed by Danzig... you get the idea.

Rock 98.9 was yanked off the air after a year and a half. They had a lot of loyal listeners, like myself (as well as a couple musos I know in the area), but they weren't promoted enough, and consequently didn't get the ratings. They did a few promos at rock shows, but the problem with Rock promotions is that there aren't many current rock stars, and 'classic' artists -- who usually play at the local Indian Casinos and draw crowds of maybe a thousand or so -- don't usually have the same pull that the few, huge classic rock acts like the Stones, Pearl Jam and Metallica have. And apparently having a fifth rock station in the metro just wasn't paying the bills.

The banner which was atop the long defunct KVRQ Rock 98.9 website.

They were a fun rock station. They lasted just a year and a half, to 2 years.

I wrote an article about KVRQ Rock 98.9 here.:

Interrock Nation: KVRQ 98.9 FM -- New Classic Rock Station in Seattle

So, being that Rock 98.9's ratings weren't what the owners, Hubbard, desired, they did what seemed natural: they flipped to Country -- now they were "KNUC The Bull". Why Country, especially in tech mad, anything but farm country, West Coast Seattle, the home of grunge? Well, Country music is the most popular music format in the US. 

The Bull got ratings, but they never beat their main competition, a longer established station on 100.7 called The Wolf. The Bull's promotions were mainly at Country shows. Country radio is one of the few remaining formats where word of mouth, and or promotions at shows works. This is because Country is one of the few remaining formats that has big stars. But even with a popular morning show, and whatever promotion they were doing, The Bull's ratings began to drop after about a year. 

The station was then flipped to KPNW-FM, an alternative / AAA (Adult Alternative) station. A lot of the radio guys on the radio forums I go to thought KPNW-FM (there is a KPNW-AM, a talk station in Eugene, Oregon, about 350 miles south of here) might be a non-starter. AAA is a dying format nationwide, and there are AAA channels on the streaming services that have gained the listeners that the Over-The-Air radio stations cast off when they flipped to other formats in the 2010's. The Pandora app on my smartphone has an AAA channel. I'm sure the other platforms have them, too.

That said, KPNW played an interesting mix, and, once again, just like Rock 98.9 before them, they got some loyal listeners. I listened to KPNW-FM a lot. It wasn't always my cup of tea, but they played a decent mix of music. The station wasn't promoted much, however. There were no KPNW billboards, no KPNW placards on buses, few, if any ads in local online media -- nothing like that.

In other words, they weren't exactly creative in their attempt to reach all the alienated AAA listeners.

It was another case of Radio thinking "If we just put it on the air, the listeners will show up, as if by magic." That might have worked well in 1985, when FM listeners tuned around a lot, but it doesn't work so well in 2024, when FM listeners don't tune the dial much. Most radios in newer cars, for example, don't really have dials. You have your favorites, and punch the virtual buttons on the dashboard screen. Also, many listeners use streaming services a lot. 

Radio somehow hasn't figured this out yet. More on that later...

Anyway, KPNW's ratings started low and then kept going lower.

The logo for The Bull last time around, when it was KNUC 98.9 FM. The new logo is similar. I posted the older logo here because I think it looks a bit cooler.

On a radio forum I go to, where a lot of pros hang out, I asked them why KPNW wasn't promoting their station to gain listeners in an increasingly multi-media, internet dominated world.

In other words, why weren't they advertising? Stations used to do that all the time in previous decades. I used to see radio station billboards, and placards on the sides of buses. The concept of advertising a radio station seemed to work back then -- why not now?

What I got back from the experts was the keyboard equivalent of a shrug. Experts there said that KPNW was indeed promoting. They were giving away tickets to shows. They may have had some sort of presence at some musical events (what type of presence isn't really clear). 

I said "But.... what about advertising, though?" Radio used to advertise heavily -- and now, with so much competition from streaming platforms like Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, ApplePlay, and other platforms, advertising seems like a no-brainer.

No, said the experts. That's not how it's done. You do what KPNW did -- ticket giveaways. "That's how you reach their potential listeners."

OK, offer ticket giveaways -- but to who? If your potential audience doesn't know your station is present on the FM band, how are they going to get your tickets? The point is to get people to listen to the station, right? How is giving tickets to people who already are listening going to gain more listeners to your station? FM listeners don't troll the band looking for new music like they did when I was a kid. They keep their radio on a couple presets, and -- increasingly -- they use streaming services, streaming playlist, and curated streaming channels (like Pandora's AAA/Adult Alternative channel -- which I can get on my phone through the app) to listen to music.

You've got to find a way to get them to check out your station. They're not going to find it on their own anymore.

Not everyone is a radio nerd. Today, it's more like "What's a radio?"

Anyway, any time I asked questions about KPNW's lack of internet and billboard promotion, I got what seemed to be canned replies. "That's not how it's done in radio," seemed to be the gist of it. "It's word of mouth. That is the only thing that works."

Now, most businesses probably love it when a satisfied customer tells others. So the concept of 'word of mouth'? I get that.

But advertising is a billion dollar business for a reason. Advertising often works.

I shook my head after these interactions with the experts. If THAT is really how the people running radio stations think you promote your content brand with all that internet competition out there, RADIO IS DONE.

Now, I'm no radio expert. I'm a radio blogger / journalist, but I'm no expert. I'll admit that completely.

But I can tell you this: whatever form of promotion KPNW tried -- ticket giveaways, word of mouth, it wasn't working.

As Radio ditches music formats that cater to age 50+ demos, treating the older demographics like they are little more than yesterday's trash, the migration away from Radio to services like Pandora and Spotify continues. Pandora has several channels featuring the AAA/Adult Alternative music that a lot of college educated, older demographics like. They also have several oldies channels, including a surf music channel. They have a smooth jazz channel, too.

 Radio ditches 'em, Pandora hitches 'em.

THE INTERNET: IT'S A DIFFERENT ANIMAL. GET USED TO IT.

News flash: The Internet is becoming the dominant form of music consumption, with YouTube, Spotify, Apple and Pandora leading the way. Amazon Music is also a key player. The radio based platforms like IHeart and Audacy have a long way to go to compete, but they're trying.

But when your industry is losing listeners to online platforms, shouldn't it be time to think outside the box?

Whenever I mention the FACT that in 15-20 years the vast majority of the more than 15,000 radio stations in the US will no longer exist, even online, the radio experts respond with crickets.

But it's fact. Online is a different animal. There are visibility issues. There are subscription problems. If you run ads, it can drive listeners / content consumers away from your site, so you have to work around that issue. There are expensive digital royalties for streaming music services -- including the radio ones. Even if you get them to load your "app", your "app" may be lost in the gazillion other icons on their phone's screen.

Online -- even for a radio station -- really isn't plug and play. Especially when you switch off the transmitters and antennas, and your entire operation is just one more website out of millions of them.

And that visibility issue is MASSIVE. It's so easy for any content channel to get lost in the vast internet static. Just ask any online newspaper that still failed. There are a gazillion news sources, valid and invalid, out there -- all that competition for screen time. The competition for the news marketplace today even is global in scope. All those websites, worldwide.

And even a decent local newspaper has issues keeping the lights on. Even national newspapers have problems. Ask the LA Times, which loses tens of millions of dollars a year, and laid off more than 100 staff in the past couple of years. 

The internet is a harsh mistress.

When I bring this up on the radio forums, no one gets it.

And that, in itself, is another problem.

THE 'NEW ECONOMY' ISSUES THAT ALL THAT RESEARCH MISSED

When the Audacy radio corporation bankruptcy was a news issue on the radio websites a couple months ago, one guy asked the experts: Why didn't the big radio companies foresee that the internet media competition would hit them in the wallet? Why didn't they -- with all their blessed RESEARCH and highly paid consultants -- foresee that the internet would drive down advertising rates, because of the infinite number of slots -- you know, all that competition?

The experts really didn't have a good answer. I suppose a lot of what is slamming radio now is post-Pandemic economics, something that nobody could foresee. But it still remains: the Internet has been vaunted as THE FUTURE since 1998-1999 -- just before the Dot-com crash -- when news articles were constantly talking about the "New Economy" versus the "Brick and Mortar" economy. That was 25-26 years ago.

These big radio companies depend on consultants, research, studies, polls, ratings services -- they have all of this expert information at their hands and they didn't see the advertising issue happening, and right now many of them seem to be lost when it comes to the future of Radio.

Personally, I think that if I'm still alive and kicking in 2045, there won't be more than a couple hundred AM radio stations on the air in the US, and more than 3-4 thousand FMs. And those numbers will probably drop, year by year. They may migrate to the internet, and still will probably fail. Because of the economics of streaming. Very few radio stations 20 years from now will have viable, independent streams. 

The vaunted future of every station on the air today having a viable streaming station tomorrow simply will not happen. The economics of competing in an increasingly national and global media audio market, and the complications of internet streaming economics will not support it.

Now, maybe that future dominance of just 5-6 major streaming platforms is inevitable, promotion or no promotion, thinking out of the box, or not thinking out of the box. Maybe there is absolutely nothing radio stations can do to see the end of this century. But that said, it appears that "Radio" -- as we know it -- won't last. It will be streaming networks, on one of the massive platforms. Your local station won't survive. The economics won't support it anymore than it's supporting your local newspaper right now.

And the backwards looking leadership at a lot of radio companies seems to be helping it on its way into the electronic trashcan in the sky.

Either way, this latest debacle here in Seattle on 98.9 is a head scratcher. KPNW-FM looked like a potential money maker -- maybe not a massive moneymaker, as the older Millennials and younger GenX'ers they wanted to reach are in their 40's and 50's, the high end of the sales demographics. But AAA listeners are generally educated, and well-to-do -- not much different from your average Public Radio listener.

I thought that if KPNW-FM advertised and actively promoted their station, they had a chance. Seattle, the home of Grunge and Alternative, would be receptive to Alt and AAA music. The listeners just had to be reached out to, and found. So that they would set the virtual buttons on their car system to KPNW.

But it didn't work out.

There, of course is another wrinkle in this story. Another Seattle FM station, Star 101.5, flipped from AC to Classic Country. They're now "101.5 Hank FM" (not to be confused with the "Hank 101.5 FM" in Dayton, Ohio). They flipped Classic Country the same day that KPNW-FM flipped to Country.

The question is whether a Classic Country station can do well in a city that isn't exactly rural or Country lifestyle oriented. In the 1990's we had two big Country stations (KMPS 94.1, which often topped the ratings, and KRPM 106.1), and a third one that made an attempt (KYCW, Young Country 96.5).

But that was when Country was massive, and their big stars were literally superstars. Garth Brooks, Clint Black, Alan Jackson, Travis Tritt, Shania Twain, the Dixie Chicks, and some others were super popular even outside the Country music arena. But that was the 1990's and early 2000's. The young people who were into Country in the mid 1990's are over 50 now, and advertisers don't care about listeners over 50.

Also, Classic Country, as a music format, is said to be a hard sell to advertisers, as a lot of the listeners are older demographics. So KPLZ's flip from Hot AC -- one of the top radio formats in the US -- to Classic Country could be a gamble.

So what does this all leave for a station like "Hank"? It's hard to say.

I guess time will tell.

For those curious to hear "101.5 Hank FM" in Seattle (not the "Hank 101.5 FM" station in Dayton, OH), here is their website, creatively called "CrankTheHankSeattle".:

101.5 - HANK FM SEATTLE (crankthehankseattle.com)

If you want to check out "The Bull 98.9", here is a link to their stream.:

Number One For New Country - 98.9 The Bull (989bull.com)

If you want to get a feel for what many Seattle listeners thought about 98.9 flipping to Country and 101.5 being turned into "Hank FM", this RadioInk article covers some of that, and the numerous comments below the article are enlightening.:

Two Seattle Stations Go Country As KPNW and Star 101.5 Flip - Radio Ink

My Radio Shack 200629, which I got in 2013, strikes again! I logged WWL, New Orleans with it earlier this evening. The 200629 is a good MW DXer, especially if you couple it with an external loop antenna. The three way tone control works really well. 

With that, I'll close this article. Life is normal. As per usual, I've been MW DXing nightly... Earlier this evening, I actually heard WWL, New Orleans, briefly on 870 kHz, on my Radio Shack 200629 with my crate loop. WWL were playing the Dave Ramsey Show, his theme song "Baker Street" (by Gerry Rafferty) being easy to pick out in the mix. The snippet came up for several seconds and then faded back to unreadable audio behind Pasco, WA talker KFLD.

I hadn't heard WWL in nearly a decade. New Orleans is a long, long distance from here. When I hear WWL, it generally means that the really long distance DX is coming in. So perhaps this present dud of a Solar Cycle is sharpening up!

One can only hope, as Solar maximums are also good for other things, like growing crops. :-)

Aside from that, the weather is improving. I have a few radio articles I'm still working on. I hope this blog post finds everyone out there -- all over the world -- doing well.

Peace.

C.C. April 4th, 2024.