Mid-February Listenings

There has been some interesting propagation in my neck of the woods lately.

Saturday evening, Morocco's Radio Mediterranee Internationale on 171 kc was stronger than usual – probably the strongest I ever heard it.

This morning at the crack of dawn, I tuned my car radio to 1070 kc just for the heck of it and was surprised to hear two stations. Usually backwash from WTIC on 1080 interferes with everything on 1070, so either conditions were very good this morning or WTIC had their IBOC turned off. I was only able to identify one of the two stations, CHOK in Sarnia, Ontario, which I had previously logged with my C.Crane CC Skywave receiver.

I have logged some new stations recently:

📶   WBPZ (1100 UTC February 12) on the 1230 kc graveyard frequency transmitting 1 kW from Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, 237 miles to the west-southwest.

📶   WBYN (0000 UTC February 14) on 1160 kc transmitting 1 kW from Lehighton, Pennsylvania, 153 miles to the west-southwest.

📶   CFRA (0500 UTC February 19) on 580 kc transmitting 30 kW from Ottawa, Ontario, 283 miles to the north-northwest.

All three were heard on my ELAD FDM-S2/FDM-SW2 receiver and 80-meter inverted Vee antenna.

Good Conditions

Conditions on the AM band were good overnight.

Turned the Skywave on briefly before going to bed last night (0300 UTC) and CHOK on 1070 kc had a very strong, solid signal broadcasting the Toronto vs. New Jersey hockey game for the 10 minutes or so I had the radio powered up. It was by far the strongest signal I have heard on 1070 since the Skywave freed that frequency from WTIC on 1080.

Forgot my iPod this morning, so I listened to the radio and discovered that conditions on the AM band were still good during my 35-minute commute to work just before sunrise at 1205 UTC. I did not hear anything new on the stock radio in my 2007 Subaru, but what I did hear was loud and clear ― in particular, WIBX on 950 from Utica, NY, and KDKA on 1020 from Pittsburgh.

WTIC on QST

Nothing new in the log, so, I keep going back to 1070 kc.

Saturday evening, about 2300 UTC, I heard three stations simultaneously on 1070 kc. I identified one as CHOK, but I had no luck identifying the other two. It was very frustrating because one of the two stations was very strong for about 10 minutes (a woman and man were discussing the Boston marathon murder trial).

So with nothing new in the log, I leave you with another item from the WTIC Alumni Site's online museum, a QST cover story about the venerable radio station. By the way, the whole WTIC story from QST is available on the museum's webpage.

1070 Update

At 0000 UTC Saturday (Friday night EST), the chatter that I heard on 1070 earlier in the week was building in strength and peaked for about ten minutes around 0010 UTC when I was able to hear pre-game hockey talk from CHOK. Although CHOK is ready in the log, it is still nice to hear something on 1070 other than WTIC 1080! Anyway, I think I will give 1070 a rest and move on to other AM kilocycles.

(Radio used was the new C.Crane's CC Skywave AM-FM-SW-WX-Air portable receiver.)

Dwelling on 1070

I recently logged three new stations on a frequency (1070 kc) that was previously unusable due to the proximity of a 50,000 watt station (WTIC), that is, its  proximity of operating frequency (1080) and proximity of distance between it and my location (12 miles).

My success on 1070 is due to a new radio: C.Crane's new CC Skywave AM-FM-SW-WX-Air portable receiver that my sister gifted to me on Christmas. I have been so impressed with its capabilities on AM that I have not spent much time on its other bands, but I have noticed that it's sensitivity and selectivity on the FM band is top-notch and probably the best receiver I own in that regard.

Getting back to 1070... during the past week or so, I have concentrated on that frequency trying to catch another new entry for the log (so far I logged CHOK, WINA and WKOK, 488, 384 and 208 miles away, respectively ). I can still hear some WTIC on 1070, but I can null it out by positioning the CC Skywave 90° away from their transmitter site. That position puts WINA in the null (gray on the map) along with WTIC, while CHOK and WKOK fall somewhere in between the null and the sweet spot (green on the map).

By the way, I have the CC Skywave's bandwidth set to 2 kc for AM band DXing, which I find works well for extracting intelligence from weak signals with this radio (bandwidths from 1 to 6 kc in 1 kc steps are selectable).

The last two nights at around 0000 UTC, I heard voices and music occasionally pop up through the noise, but the signal(s) were not strong enough nor long enough to extract any intelligence.

I will keep on trying and keep you posted.

My Christmas Present

Sister Gigi gifted me with a C.Crane CC Skywave receiver for Christmas. As the holiday festivities wound down Christmas evening, I had an opportunity to slip a pair of AA batteries into the Skywave to see how it works.

Whenever I try out a new radio, I have two frequencies I tune to first to give the radio a quick check-out: 92.1 Mc and 1070 kc.

92.1 Mc

My favorite FM radio station, WLNG, transmits on 92.1 Mc, 55 miles away on the North Shore of Long Island. Every portable radio I own requires that I fully extend its telescoping antenna and position the antenna just so in order to receive WLNG.

When I tuned the CC Skywave to 92.1, I could hear WLNG clearly when I touched its antenna. By removing the antenna from its cradled horizontal position and positioning it vertically without extending it one iota, WLNG's signal was solid and stereophonic. I was impressed.

1070 kc

1070 is a dead frequency for me. The 50,000 Watt blowtorch known as WTIC is 12 miles away on the opposite side of the valley transmitting on 1080 kc.  Every portable receiver I own only hears WTIC's backwash on 1070, but not 1090 (go figure), and as a result, my AM radio log has no entry for 1070.

Tuning the CC Skywave to 1070, I did not hear any sign of WTIC, but I could hear the weak signal of a station playing Christmas tunes. Repositioning the radio, I peaked the signal to an S-3 level and at 0437 UTC, I heard the station identification: CHOK in Sarnia, Ontario, transmitting 10 kW from Petrokia, Ontario, 488 miles to my north-northwest.

Wow ‑ I was very impressed! A brand new station in the log on a frequency that was previously unusable using the radio's stock internal antenna!

Merry Christmas to me!