KBRW-680kHz received in Italy in early morning on Christmas Eve this year! (イタリアで受信されたアラスカ最北の中波局KBRW)

    I found a message on RealDX mailing list that was asking station ID of an unknown station.  The message of inquiry was from Italian MW DXer, Giampaolo Galassi. I listened to an attached audio clip on the news and I confirmed the audio is from KBRW because the announcement was the same one that I could catch in our MW DX-pedition in eastern Hokkaido conducted on this November.
I could hear the announcement "This is KBRW Silakkuagvic Communications Inc..." 
I responded to him quickly with my message " Congratulation on your achievement in catching KBRW!"

    Giampaolo-san and I became Facebook friends, and he accepted that I introduce his achievement in catching KBRW in Italy that is about 7300km from Barrow, Alaska on my blog. Giampaolo-san, thank you very much for your acceptance!

    The figure below shows the propagation path between Barrow, Alaska and his reception site in Italy. The propagation path is almost on the north pole.  He used K9AY antenna to receive the signal of KBRW.  According to Giampaolo-san, the propagation of KBRW is quite uncommon. So for Italian MW DXers, KBRW is one of the very rare MW stations.

    Generally speaking, the radio wave propagation on MW band around north pole is not easy due to Polar Cap Absorption (PCA). They also say that aurora disturbs the propagation too. In this season, very low solar activities can allow the rareness like this.  Fortunately, Kp-index on Dec.24 was less than 1.0. The disturbances in the Earth's magnetic field was very weak.

The propagation path between KBRW, Barrow, Alaska and Italy

   This is an audio clip of received KBRW that Giampaolo-san provided me. He received KBRW at 05:00UTC (06:00 Italian local time) on Dec.24. According to Giampaolo, he could hear KBRW in only a few seconds of time where splash from RNA Spain was less.

KBRW-680kHz received in Italy at 05:00UTC on Dec.24 shared by Giampaolo Galassi.
You can hear "This is KBRW Silakkuagvic Communications Inc,..." at 0:18. (Using a headphone would be much better.)

Once again, Congratulation on your catching of KBRW, Giampaolo san!!
おめでとうございます！ Good DXing!