My subscription to Life expired, but I still have a subscription to Mad.

Thursday, September 10, 2015

DX on 1320


I have not posted here for over two weeks because my family and I had been dealing with the impending death and finally, the actual death of an immediate family member, who passed away early Labor Day morning.

After spending most of two days making arrangements and fielding phone calls, I needed a break. So last night, I grabbed my CCrane CC Skywave receiver and plopped myself in a lawn chair outdoors to see what I could hear.

There are a few AM channels in my log that only list one station because those logged stations are too close and/or too powerful to permit me to hear anything else. 

One of the usual suspects is WATR on 1320 kc. When I was growing up, I lived one block away from the WATR antenna farm and WATR was the only thing I could hear on my crystal radio. Now I live 7 miles away from WATR, so last night I thought I would work on 1320.

No matter which was I positioned the Skywave, I could not null out WATR completely, but I was able to position the radio so I could peak another signal that was also on 1320. 

The other station was broadcasting the Red Sox game. The only station in the Red Sox radio network on 1320 is WCVR in Randolph, Vermont, so I thought it was most likely WCVR.

I never heard a station identification, but after the game, there were ads for businesses in Randolph and nearby Waterbury, Vermont, so that confirmed it for me and I put WCVR in the log at 0255 UTC running only 66 watts, 160 miles to my north.

A nice catch, but there's more! 

While I was trying to identify WCVR, I could occasionally hear another station playing Middle Eastern music that was most likely not emanating from this side of the Atlantic. Checking the World Radio TV Handbook this morning, I might have heard a station in Iran about 5600 miles away (Radio Tabriz transmitting 50 kW from Joifa on 1323 kc).

Now that would be a very nice catch!

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