New Loggings with New Radio

I have been AM DXing with a new radio, the Qodosen SR-286 AM/LW/FM/SW portable. One attractive (to me) feature is the ability to electronically disconnect the internal AM/LW antenna and use an external antenna via a jack on the side of the radio. 

I took advantage of this feature and connected the SR-286 to the DX Tools Quantum Loop QX antenna, which is an amplified external ferrite antenna on a mount that allows you to rotate the antenna for maximum (or minimum) signal reception.

I used this combination for a few evenings and I was impressed hearing many DX stations, but nothing new for the log until the last two nights when I logged the following new entries:

WIZR transmitting 28 watts on 930 kHz from Johnstown, New York, 118 miles to the north-northwest,

WVAE transmitting 1000 watts on 1400 kHz from Biddeford, Maine, 197 miles to the northeast.

WFLI transmitting 2500 watts on 1070 kHz from Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, 811 miles to the southwest.

WCBS 880 Going Away

ESPN is shutting down all-news radio station WCBS, 880 kHz in New York City. Although we live 68 miles from the WCBS transmitter, it is like a local station here and it is my station of choice in the Subaru. It will be a sad day when they finally pull the plug at WCBS.

Although it has been one of my favorite stations for a long time, I only wrote about it here once. In honor of WCBS’s imminent demise, I am repeating that May 2019 post here now.

AM Radio at Dawn on I-80

The second leg of my drive home from Hamvention began at 6 AM, about 5 minutes before sunrise on Monday morning in Hubbard, Ohio. Since nighttime propagation was still in effect, I was curious as to what the AM flamethrowers on the East Coast sounded like in the Midwest.

First, I tuned to 880 to listen for WCBS. My favorite news station was in and out vying with an unidentified religious station.

Next, I tuned to 1010 to listen for WINS, my other favorite news station. I was surprised to find 1010 completely dead.

I tuned up to 1080, the home of WTIC, my local flamethrower and it was loud and clear with no sign of another station on frequency. I was impressed.

1700 was my next target. Hoping to hear WJCC – not a flamethrower, but a 1 kW FLA station I heard mobile in Connecticut. Instead, I found the reborn WRCR with a weak, but solid signal.

I tuned back to 880 to see how WCBS's signal behaved as the sun rose. For nearly a half hour, WCBS hung in there. Most of the time, it was very weak, but occasionally, it was solid for a minute or two. It finally dropped out of sight at about 6:45. I did not hear WCBS again until I was in Eastern Pennsylvania four hours later.  

TAPR News

PSR #156 Online Now

The Summer 2023, #156 issue of TAPR's quarterly newsletter, PSR, is now available by clicking here. 

2022 DCC Papers Online Now

The paper presentations of the 2022 ARRL and TAPR Digital Communications Conference (DCC at Charlotte, NC) are now online at https://tapr.org/41st-arrl-and-tapr-digital-communications-conference/

WWAC

Sundown Wednesday, I heard oldies on 1020 kHz, a place where I normally don’t hear oldies, so I hung back and waited for a station ID. The station identified between each song and it took a few songs before I figured out the ID: "wibbage."

It took some Googling on the Internet to figure out what was wibbage.

“WWAC began operations in the mid-1960s as WSLT on 1520 kHz, featuring such notable radio hosts as Larry Keene, Phil Sheridan and Bob Everland. The call sign was changed to WIBG in 1978 after the call went out of use in Philadelphia. The station broadcast with various formats over the years including MOR, Top 40, oldies and country. In the early 1980s WIBG moved their transmitter and tower from Somer's Point to Palermo, changing its frequency to 1020 kHz in the process. The call letters were changed to WWAC in 2021. Today WWAC airs "Wibbage Gold", a tribute to the original "Big AM 99 in Philadelphia with 50s/60s oldies music and local talk on the weekends.” (Source: WIBG.com)

So it turns out I logged a new one: WWAC transmitting 680 watts on 1020 kHz from Upper Township, New Jersey, about 190 miles south-southwest of here using the ICOM IC-R8600 receiver and 120-ft Loop Underground (LUG) antenna.

July 7 E-skip

Mid-afternoon Sporadic E / E-skip noted here today. Relogged two stations on 90.9 MHz:

1930 UTC, WJKV in Jacksonville, Florida, transmitting 41,000 watts, 920 miles to the south-southwest

1950 UTC, WOWB in Brewton, Alabama, transmitting 100,000 watts, 1057 miles to the southwest 

Both were received with my ICOM IC-R8600 receiver and ICOM AH-7000 discone antenna.