Shortwave listening and everything radio including reviews, broadcasting, ham radio, field operation, DXing, maker kits, travel, emergency gear, events, and more
We are pleased to advise that as part of our 50TH Anniversary celebrations, Radio 4KZ shortwave 5055 kHz commenced transmission yesterday afternoon. Reports have come in from as far as Monterey, California USA.
Unfortunately, during the next 2 weeks we will be running on half power at 500 watts.
Transmission is from the 4KZ (am 531 – 8kW) & 4AY (am 873 – 1 kW) site at east Innisfail in Tropical North Queensland. We use a USA made LPB 1.2 kW shortwave transmitter feeding an Inverted V antenna at about 14 metres high at the peak. The transmitter audio is via an Australian-made Crusher digital audio limiter.
The system is designed to cover the Cape York area of Queensland and the Northern outback. Fortuitous reception is available at times over a much wider area.
Transmission hours will be approximately 0500 to 2300 hours GMT (3pm to 9am Queensland time.)
We welcome reception reports. All confirmed reports will receive a 4KZ shortwave QSL card. No return postage is required.
Or by regular mail to: Radio 4KZ, PO Box 19, Innisfail Queensland 4860 Australia.
Excellent! I will certainly do my best to put 4KZ in the logs, but it will be a challenge doing it from the east coast of the US. Still, perhaps propagation will surprise me one evening!
For more about 4KZ on shortwave, and to follow updates, simply follow the tag: 4KZ
SWLing Post contributors, Golan and DanH, have both reminded me in comments that RadioWorld Canada has a fantastic price on the excellent Eton Satellit (the original, non-executive version).
If you live in Canada, or better yet the GTA, you should purchase directly from RadioWorld Canada on their website or in their store–only $99.99 CDN! Click here to view the product page at RadioWorld.
As DanH notes, if you live in the USA, you can also take advantage of this sale via eBay:
The price is approximately $108 US with free shipping via UPS–a fantastic value.
As Oxford Shortwave noted earlier today, the “brilliant” Eton Satellit is his “mainstay travel receiver.” He chooses the Satellit over other receivers in his arsenal for tropical DXing.
If you’ve been considering a Satellit, bite the bullet while RadioWorld still has stock!
The 4KZ transmitter is located in Innisfail, Australia
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Phil Brennan (VK8VWA), who notes that 4KZ started broadcasting today in Australia. Phil notes:
At last! ID for 4KZ confirmed at 0750 [UTC] Wednesday 20 December on 5,055 kHz.
Thank you, Phil–and thanks for following this development so closely over the past few weeks.
I tried tuning to 5055 kHz at my home in eastern North America, but of course conditions weren’t ideal to receive a 1,000 watt AM signal from Australia. I wasn’t ready to give up, of course, so I turned to the KiwiSDR network.
The following recording was made on December 20, 2017 starting around 11:33 UTC on 5,055 kHz . The receiver is a KiwiSDR located in Goulburn, NSW, Australia.
Weather and technology permitting, our programmes on 648 kHz will commence originating from the Ross Revenge at 7.00 AM on Friday 22nd December.
The changed schedule for the day will be :
7am Johnny Lewis
9am Top Fifteen
10am Ray Clark – with the official launch at midday.
2pm Kevin Turner
5pm Resume normal programmes
No doubt Bob Lawrence, Martin Fisher and Jerry Wright will personalise their evening shows to mark the day.
Of course we are delighted to have found and secured what must be the best possible AM transmission site for our service. We thank Cobra Mist Ltd for this facility whilst noting that this is a private site which cannot at this time be visited.
So, another date for the Radio Caroline calendar of events and the inevitable question. Where do we go from here?