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

Saturday, January 2, 2021

New Year, New Logging


WCPH ran 2-hour tests during the early mornings of December 26 and January 2. I missed the December 26 test, but did catch the January 2 test for about ten minutes. Here is my log for the test.

0155 EST Alarm clock sounds

0156 EST Power up receiver. 

0156 EST Hear WHKW religious talk, a station in the mud playing music and some sweep tones. Discount sweep tones as some kind of anomaly because test was not supposed to start until 0200 EST.

0200 EST sweep tones

0202 EST Morse code too weak to decipher followed by clear code “WCPH WCPH”

0203 EST sequence of 5 or 6 tones rising in pitch

0204 EST Morse code too weak to decipher

0206 EST sweep tones

0207 EST slow Morse code “V V V … WCPH WCPH WCPH”

0209 EST sweep tones (strong enough to see on waterfall display)

0210 EST Morse code “V V V  V V V  D I (sic) WCPH WCPH…”

0211 EST Back to bed

Receiver: ICOM IC-R8600

Antenna: 128-ft Loop on Ground (LoG)

Location: Wolcott, CT, USA – 761 miles to WCPH transmitting 1000 watts from Etowah, Tennessee. Not a new state on AM, but a new station on AM – first new one in 2021!

UPDATE: I learned that the test started one hour earlier than originally scheduled, so the sweep tones I heard (and discounted) at 0156 EST were actually part of the test.

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