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[IRCA] Report from Tauranga, New Zealand
Haven't checked in for a few days, mostly because we've been doing a lot
of touring and there hasn't been a lot of time for DXing. In
Wellington, I had a wonderful day with David Ricquish who kindly spent
half of his day taking me around this wonderful city and showing me all
of the radio sights of the city. David has an absolutely encyclopedic
knowledge of radio in the region and I was delighted in his immediate
responses to my barrage of questions. We started the morning with a
tour of RNZI including meeting with Adrian Sainsbury, host of RNZI's
Mailbox program, as well as an introduction to Myra Oh, his co-host (a
very charming lady who was busy with her on-air duties). David went on
to describe the radio scene in the country. Basically, for a DXer from
afar, it's not a very pretty picture. Call signs have pretty much been
done away with, and there are only a small handful of nation-wide
networks. No TOH legal IDs, and the only local content are the
occasional inserted local ads. I must admit that the content of several
of the networks are not my cup of tea. For instance Radio Trackside
mostly just has play by play horse races (yawn!). Another network is
"The Word" which has non-stop Bible reading. The are precious few local
stations anymore. One is Village Radio on 1368 in Tauranga which I
recorded for a good hour, as this frequency is mostly dominated by Radio
Live in Napier. Village Radio had a wonderful oldies format and a full
local ID at 5:00 pm local and a call sign as well, 1XT. Refreshing to
say the least. They apparently broadcast with 400 watts during the week
and 900 watts on weekends (since they bleed onto cell phones), using a
simple dipole antenna. John Durham in Tauranga provided me with a link
which is:
http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/fozzie/id18.htm . Might be worth a
try. David told me that there are only 2 local AM stations left in the
nation. I do have to ask him about the various stations listed in PAL,
though, as many of them do sound local. David?
By the way, David (and Adrian) were also a goldmine of information about
Pacific Island stations. For instance, 2AP in Samoa on 540 is running
2.5 kW and the facility is held together by "rat dung". Cook Islands on
630 is likewise running at 1/2 power. The Solomon Islands SW
transmitter on 5020 is back on the air thanks to the technical
assistance from Adrian who was able to tweak the transmitter back to
5020 from previous 5018v. It's the 9 MHz transmitter tuned down to 5
MHz (very old). Vanuatu 3945 will shortly be adding 5050 for the day
frequency, and plan 7260 during the winter.
As always, I would recommend anyone who is traveling in this area of the
world to bring their portables and enjoy what the region has to offer on
the radio. Being so far from North America and Europe, I think that our
fellow DXers appreciate us making the effort to contact them as well.
One more interesting anecdote: The ODXA journal came close to being
printed and mailed from New Zealand a few years back, as it was cheaper
than doing the same in Ontario! Amazing!
Finally, I learned that the Radio Heritage Project (which hosts the
invaluable Pacific Asia List) is a labour of love initiated by David
Ricquish, who's given up his previous travel, radio and television
career (along with his wife) to devote his time fully to this wonderful
project. I encourage everyone to support this vital project!
73s from the South Pacific,...........Walt Salmaniw
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