Still More E Skip

On Wednesday, 90.9 MHz was open all morning and I logged four new stations.

1339 UTC: WOWB in Brewton, Alabama, transmitting 100,000 watts, 1057 miles to the southwest

1401 UTC: KLRC in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, transmitting 100,000 watts, 1224 miles to the west-southwest

1506 UTC: WKMD in Madisonville, Kentucky, transmitting 20,500 watts, 830 miles to the west-southwest

1611 UTC: WDCB in  Glen Ellyn, Illinois, transmitting 5,000 watts, 780 miles to the west-northwest

Also on Tuesday at 0000 UTC, I logged a new TIS station on 1630 kHz, WQKY728, a Rhode Island DOT station in Cranston, Rhode Island, transmitting 10 watts 75 miles to the east

Receiver: ICOM IC-R8600, Antennas: ICOM AH-7000 discone, HyGain 18 AVT/WB-A vertical

WQFG689 1710 kHz

WQFG689, 1710 kHz, Hudson County (NJ) TIS in Jersey City, NJ, is running higher power during the virus pandemic and is easy pickens in this neck of the woods. (S-9 on the IC-R8600 and a good signal on the car radio.) If you haven’t logged them before, now is a good time to catch them because they may go back to 10 W once the virus blows over.

Amazing DX

When I can hear the Hudson County (NJ) TIS in Jersey City on 1710, it bodes well for AM band DXing. Such was the case recording the 0200 UTC top-of-the-hour Wednesday night. As a result, I made four new entries in the log... two of them were amazing!

WOBM on 1310 in Lakewood Township, NJ, transmitting 8,900 watts, 123 miles to my south-southwest

WHOL on 1600 in Allentown, PA, transmitting 56 watts, 150 miles to my southwest

WQKJ417 (State of Florida Radio Service TIS) on 1630 in Fort Pierce, FL, transmitting 10 watts, 1063 miles to my south-southwest

WDHP on 1620 in Frederiksted, Virgin Islands, transmitting 1 kW, 1719 miles to my south-southeast

I'm not sure whether 10 watts over 1063 miles or 1 kW over 1719 miles is more amazing, but both impressed me!

Using an ELAD FDM-S2 receiver and 80-meter inverted Vee antenna.

1710 TIS

Earlier this week, there was a discussion on the International Radio Club of America (IRCA) e-mail list about the low level of activity on 1710 kc. During the e-mail exchange, some folks listed the stations that they had heard on 1710. Among those stations was the Travelers Information Station (TIS) for the Springfield Armory National Historic Site.

Springfield is less than 40 miles away as the crow flies, so I thought that that TIS was my best shot at logging something on 1710.

I began monitoring 1710 on the car radio during my daily commute to and from work, but did not hear any intelligence.

At home, I did the same with the KX3 switching between antennas to hear what I could hear.

Tuesday evening with the KX3 connected to the C.Crane CC twin coil ferrite antenna, I could hear a station down in the mud, but it was too weak to make any sense of it. Wednesday evening, conditions were better and I heard a woman describing the Armory and giving directions to the Armory from the nearby Interstate highways. Her announcement was on a continuous loop and was repeated every minute or so.

The Springfield Armory is 38 miles to the north-northeast and their TIS is transmitting a maximum of 10 watts. Looking it up on the FCC database, there is nothing listed for this station, so I have no call sign for it, but nevertheless, it is now in my log.