RE: [HCDX] Radio Cook Islands (shortwave)

["Guy Atkins" <dx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Kia Orana Niki,

Back in late 1992 or early 1993, DXers were puzzled as to the disappearance
or lack of loggings of Radio Cook Islands on its 11760 frequency in the 25
meterband. I was curious, too, as RCI was one of my favorite stations to
enjoy when the ionosphere cooperated.

In April of 1993 I won an award at my workplace that allowed me to take a
trip to the destination of my choice. After some consideration, I chose the
Cook Islands. Part of my reason was to visit the studios of Radio Cook
Island and investigate for myself.

Once on the main island of Rarotonga I discovered that RCI was booming in on
630 kHz mediumwave, but was no where to be found on or nearby 11760 kHz. I
listened day and night over the first half of a week for the signal, without
success.

On a beautiful, warm Thursday morning in the Cooks, I strolled through
downtown Rarotonga and easily located the facilities of RCI. I introduced
myself to the receptionist, and explained my curiousity at the absence of a
shortwave signal from their station. She became a bit upset, and INSISTED
that they were on the air on shortwave-- she rustled a newspaper in my face
and pointed to their advertisement: "Radio Cook Islands, 630 MW, 11760 SW".
Of course we're on the air, she said, "it's right here in the paper".

Eventually I spoke with two engineers, who told me that a transmitter fire
in a local "telecomm" building (shared with Rarotonga's phone company
equipment) had burned down the RCI shortwave transmitter some months
earlier. I don't recall if they mentioned a date, but I got the impression
it had happened four or five months before my visit (the gentlemen were very
soft-spoken in English with a strong Rarotongan accent). They also said that
they had no plans to rebuild or return to shortwave; the nation was served
well with their network of FM transmitters and repeaters. After thanking the
engineers for the information, I was able to get them to pose in the
entrance to the RCI building for a photograph.

Later in the day I found the old foundation of the small telecomm building
near a city square. The concrete pad showed obvious burn marks and scorches.

Before I left the Cook Islands I made a 90-minute "local" quality cassette
tape of Radio Cook Islands mediumwave programming, since my Rarotongan
Resort location was only a few miles from the 630 kHz transmitter. I used a
Grundig Satellit 500 and a Marantz PMD-221 recorder. For me, it's a very
nice audio record of my visit. The tape includes both sign-on and sign-off
announcements, IDs, national anthem and hymn, local advertisements, local
news & weather bulletins, and a lot of that great Cook Island music! RCI's
broadcasts sounded much like the SIBC (5020 kHz) does today-- lots of local
flavor. Perhaps I could transcribe this to a monaural, low-bitrate MP3
recording(s) for sharing with others if there's any interest.

I enjoy DXpeditions to the Washington State coast 3-4 times per year, and I
always check out 630 kHz for the possibility of Radio Cook Islands. I've
heard lots of interesting mediumwave DX signals from the coast using
directional Beverage antennas, but I've yet to hear the Cooks on 630. To my
knowledge, the last confirmed logging of the Cooks on MW was by Patrick
Martin of Seaside, OR in the 1980s. I've logged Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Tahiti,
etc. a number of times on mediumwave, but unfortunately only domestic USA
stations on 630.

Here's a very good article with photos about Radio Cook Islands:
http://radiodx.com/spdxr/Cooks.htm   If you're interested in radio from
elsewhere in the Pacific, this web site will have your attention for many
hours!


Guy Atkins
Puyallup, WA USA




-----Original Message-----
From: hard-core-dx-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:hard-core-dx-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Sunny Beach
Lodge
Sent: Monday, October 27, 2003 11:21 PM
To: hard-core-dx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [HCDX] Radio Cook Islands (shortwave)


Kia Orana

My name is Niki, I 'm new to the Hardcore DX List, in fact I'm new to this
whole DX thing.  I read an article from a Wavescan program in 2000, about
Radio Cook Islands on shortwave.  That's history now, it seems I was 10
years too late.  But I've been wanting to find out more about this shortwave
service, and what happened when it went off the air.  What kind of programs
did it air.  Perhaps some of you might have recordings of this station.
I look forward to hearing from you folks!

Regards
Niki


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