DXing From The Big Island
By Austin Kelly
Last month I had the chance to log state #50 (visited) and spend a few days on Oahu (where I did no DXing) and Hawaii (where I did). On several mornings I arose early, found what I could, then went back to bed for a few hours. Unfortunately, my only portable won’t go much below 4 MHz, and the 17-tube National exceeded the weight limits for all airlines in the free world. However, I did make a few interesting catches and observations, many of them confirming the article that Richard Wood wrote in FRENDX a few months back concerning DXing from the island of Hawaii.
The east end of the island, near Hilo, is a terrible spot for Asia and the Pacific. A 14,000 foot volcano rises behind you, blocking out almost all signals from the West. Latins abound around sunset, but a quick scan didn’t reveal anything that I hadn’t heard in Chicago (having a room on the west side of the hotel didn’t help either). However, I did drive down to Hilo from the volcano at sunset, and the car radio was full of West Coast medium wave from LA, SF, Seattle, Eugene, Portland, etc., all blasting in. A good beverage (or even a cheap loop) near Hilo should bring in a lot of N. and S. America on MW. It also rains like hell in Hilo. When I go back I’ll bring lots of wire and stay at the Volcano House at the top of Kilauea crater. Away from the hotel there are no power lines, lots of room to stretch an antenna, and you are at the tallest point in 3 directions (a taller mountain is behind you to the North). It would be hard to imagine a more dramatic sunrise or sunset DX location than the crater’s edge with steam rising from the pit below, and Bhutan on your Sony (dream on).
South Point on Hawaii is the southernmost point in the U.S. My first plan was to DX from there one sunrise, but that was canceled for two reasons. The first is an experimental wind powered electrical generating station located on the peninsula. I wasn’t sure why, but the thought of DXing next to large generators just didn’t seem appealing. Also, the road to South Point is 1-lane for several miles; not something to drive in darkness (especially as the car rental’s insurance policy specifically forbids you from driving this road). My mid-day trip to South Point was enough. (Interesting sidelight – public hearings were going on in Hawaii to determine the suitability of building a launch site for space vehicles on South Point).
A much better radio site was my hotel room in Malango’s Hotel on the West side (Kona side) of the island, in the town of Captain Cook, just south of the Kailua-Kona resort area. From the outside Malango’s looks like the kind of place your mom told you to keep clear of, but if the orange carpet and naugahyde in the room doesn’t bother you, it’s very comfortable as well as cheap. Close proximity to the Kona Coffee Museum also helps your DX attitude. I had everything I could want, a third (top) floor balcony looking out to Japan and Australia, a steep cliff dropping just below the hotel on the ocean side, no TV’s in the hotel, and no fluorescent lights. Twenty feet of wire off the balcony facing Kiribati and I was ready.
The first thing you notice is how rapidly Chinese regionals are regarded as pests. At home, it would be fascinating to hear one or two and try to figure out the station and location, and whether or not you could QSL them. In Hawaii your attitude quickly becomes “Damn, another Chinese station. I wanted to hear …” However, it is nice to hear the powerful Indonesian and Pacific stations at local levels, to get Kiribati and Kuching in English clearly, and to hear Sulawesi at sign-off with full ID’s, music, etc. Both Tanpa frequencies, not in parallel, also come in at armchair levels. It’s ironic to hear WWVH under JJY, and way under WWV. With more time and a tape recorder it could be a DX paradise.
Local radio is pretty dreadful, with one exception. The station in Honolulu in 1420 plays all “Hawaiian soul” music, not quite the Don Ho crud but contemporary Polynesian tunes done by local bands. They also run Hawaiian language lessons and ancient Hawaiian war chant type stuff on Sunday Morning. The rock station in Kona on the Big Island is pretty terrible, but their ID is worth taping. They give their call, frequency, location, and then do the same for their two translators, one of which is at the “Hula Hula sheep station”. They are probably telling the truth; the hills overlooking Waimea (the island’s third largest town) used to be used for sheep ranching.
If you are going to the 50th state, bring a radio, wire, and a tape recorder along with your # 25 sun block. Give me a call for advice on where to stay, what to see, and interesting DX possibilities. I also know where the two nude beaches are on the big island (one faces south, one west). Hawaii is a destination you’ll love.
My loggings from Hawaii:
3925 Japan, Radio Tanpa, 0925, 2 YL’s doing an EE lesson (9/25)
3945 Japan, Radio Tanpa, 0925, OM in JP, comedian? Canned laughter (9/25)
4484 USSR, Petro-Kam? 1550, vocal mx in RS. (9/26)
4740 USSR V Afghan, 1615, ME lang and mx. (9/27)
4753 Sulawesi, RRI Ujung P, 1555, Indo mx, than local nx, s/off mx. * 1605 (9/26)
4760 Swaziland, TWR, 1612, hymn in lang. (9/28)
4934 Kenya, VOK, 1600, EE nx by YL. Long speech by pres Moi. (9/27)
4950 Sarawak, RTM Kuching, 1555, ID in EE “This is RTM Kuching.” (9/27)
4980 China, Urumqui, 1550, Ch mx, Ch YL. (9/27)
5035 USSR, Alma Ata, 1625, YL singing with wild percussion. OM DJ in ME lang. //5260. (9/27)
5286 Chad, Radio Mondou, 1615, OM in FR nx. Afro mx. (9/28)
5520 Australia, Radio Australia, 0515, EE World news. Odd freq. (9/26)
5925 USSR, Tashkent, 1640, RS lesson “My parents live a short distance from Baikal.” (9/27)
6560 China, 0920, YL in CH. CH mx. //6540. (9/26)
7770 China, 0940, Ch opera mx. (9/26)
8450 China, 0615, YL in Ch. (9/26)
14968 Kiribati, Radio Kiribati, 0655, EE Magazine, YL in lang, local nx, mnt of Kiribati. (9/28)
15165 China, 1000, East is Red, ID, OM in Ch. (9/26)
(Reprinted from the October 1989 issue of DX Chicago)