Yet Another Good Night

Conditions have been very good this past week.

Saturday evening, the 162-MHz NOAA weather radio band lit up and I was copying at least one station on each of the weather radio channels, which is not normal. Nothing new to enter in the log, but I was very surprised to find that band opened at this time of year and that time of day (2330 UTC).

Later in the evening, I noticed Cuba’s Radio Rebelde besting WHAM on 1180 MHz. Again, not a new log entry, but I did copy two other stations that were new to the log:

WQLR “The Fan” on 1660 kHz transmitting 10 kW from Kalamazoo, Michigan, 650 miles to the west-northwest

Navigational beacon ZNS on 385 kHz transmitting 25 watts from Halifax, Nova Scotia, 531 miles to the northeast.

The ICOM IC-R8600 receiver, ICOM AH-7000 discone antenna (for WQLR) and 80-meter dipole antenna (for ZNS) were my ears of choice.

More Es and Not

Es

Early Wednesday morning at 6 AM EDT,  Mike, KA3JAW, in Easton, Pennsylvania, was hearing Alabama and Missouri stations on the citizen band. Then an unknown city in Wisconsin (minimum 663 miles) and Chicago (650 miles) at 6:30 AM.

Three hours later during the mid-9 AM hour, 6 meters opened up to Sheboygen, Wisconsin (674 miles).

At 10:07 AM, Es were plowing through the lower FM broadcast band on 88.3 with the first station identified as Cornerstone University, WCSG with RDS [5BCA] in Grand Rapids, Michigan (562 miles to the northwest).

Twenty minutes later, the second station rolled-in: The Faith Center, WFEN, "The Lighthouse" with RDS [6251] from Rockford, Illinois (727 miles to the west-northwest).

Not Es

Meanwhile, at WA1LOU, there were two additions to the log.

June 3 at 1826 UTC, WWF48 on 162.525 MHz, the NOAA weather on Mt. Greylock, Adams, Massachusetts, 70 miles to the north. Normally, 162.525 is dead quiet here. When propagation is good, I usually hear WNG575 on Pack Monadnock, Petersborough, New Hampshire, which is 30 miles more distant than Mt. Greylock, so go figure!

June 8 at 1205 UTC, WEER on 88.7 in Montauk, Long Island, New York, transmitting 1700 watts, 65 miles to the southeast. Normally, 88.7 is occupied by WNHU, the University of New Haven station, 23 miles to the south, but WEER was stronger than WNHU for awhile on Saturday morning. 

Equipment at WA1LOU: ICOM IC-R8600 receiver and ICOM AH-7000 discone antenna.

Like it's 1978

Cleaning the garage, I found this photo of me in my radio shack in 1978.

It was strictly a VHF and UHF operation back then. On the desk was a Gonset Communicator 2-meter AM transceiver (that I have no recollection of owning!), a Motorola UHF commercial transceiver converted for 450 MHz FM and an ICOM IC-230 2-meter FM mobile transceiver (under the antenna rotor control box).

On the shelf was a Wilson 2-meter handheld that was responsible for kicking off my ham radio writing career. I added the Touch-Tone pad to the Wilson and wrote a how-to article that Wayne Green, W2NSD, published in 73 Magazine.

Next to my knee was a Gonset 2-meter 500-watt amplifier. My fledgling beer can collection was on the shelf behind the Wilson.

I still own the Heathkit SWR/power meter and the table under the amp. Everything else is long gone. (Wish I still owned the amp!)

NOAA Radio Times Three

On the morning's of July 4 and 5, NG0E's APRS map indicated that there were VHF band openings along the East Coast.

On the air, I logged three new stations on the NOAA radio channels that are quiet here during normal conditions:

162.425 MHz: WNG574 - Gloucester NOAA Radio in Essex, Massachusetts, 130 miles to the northeast

162.450 MHz: WXM60 - Howell Township/Lakewood NOAA Radio in Southard, New Jersey, 120 miles to the south-southwest

162.450 MHz: KZZ40 - Deerfield NOAA Radio in Deerfield, New Hampshire, 136 miles to the north-northeast

Equipment used: ICOM IC-R8600 receiver and ICOM IC-AH7000 discone antenna.

VHF DX

Art, W1AWX, lives in Eastern Mass and occasionally sends me frequencies of VHF activity in his neck of the woods to check at my QTH here 90 miles away in Central Connecticut. At the Boxboro Hamfest, Art said he would send me the frequency of the Mt. Monadnock State Park Search and Rescue repeater output (151.385 MHz) in southern New Hampshire to check out.

Mt. Monadnock is 95 miles away and I had doubts that I would hear the repeater. But one afternoon, I tuned my ELAD FDM-S2/SW2 receiver (connected to my ICOM AH-7000 discone antenna) to 151.385 and about an hour later, I heard some traffic on that frequency that jived with state park search and rescue chatter.

I reported my success to W1AWX and he suggested I check the repeater's input frequency (159.375). Hearing the repeater output is one thing, but hearing stations on the repeater input seemed unimaginable in light of the fact that stations on the repeater's input probably are transmitting less power with less efficient antennas than the repeater.

I tuned my receiver to the repeater's input anyway and a few minutes later, I was very surprised to hear a station with state park search and rescue chatter on the channel!

E-Skip Time

Yesterday, Mike Schaffer, KA3JAW, alerted me that E-skip season is upon us.

Mike wrote, "Es season in western EU started on Sunday, May 14th. Es season in US started yesterday, along the west coast inland towards Texas. Today Es started in Virginia and reached as far north as Wisconsin."

So today, I began monitoring the VHF Propagation Map and all day long so far (it's 1700 UTC now), there have been big openings in the southeastern USA. The map does not differentiate between types of VHF propagation, but whenever a big red footprint appears on the map, it is worth investigating if you are under that footprint.

WTIC on 161.76 MHz

Wednesday evening, I was listening to the local NOAA weather station on 162.4 MHz (WXJ42 in Meriden) with the ELAD FDM-S2/SW2. The waterfall display showed activity on all seven NOAA weather channels, which is typical from my location. I also noticed another signal down the band a ways... on 161.76 to be exact.

I tuned in the signal and was surprised to hear the voice of Joe D'Ambrosio, who does a sports talk show on WTIC AM (1080 kHz). It sounded like he was doing the show on the air, but on FM instead of AM and on 161.76 instead of 1080. So I grabbed the nearest transistor radio and tuned it to WTIC AM. Lo and behold, there was Joe D doing his show, but delayed by about 15 seconds from what I was hearing on 161.76.

My initial thought was that I was hearing a radio relay from the WTIC studio to the WTIC transmitter.  The studio is in the valley below my QTH about 6 miles away, while the transmitter is 12 miles away.

I revisited 161.76 MHz Thursday evening and the signal was still there, but now the volume of the signal's audio was low. After about 15 minutes, the volume of the signal's audio jumped up in strength as its contents changed from talk radio to news. This just confused matters.

Researching the mystery, I found in the 1994 edition of the Connecticut Scanner Guide that 161.76 was assigned to Chase Communications. Chase was the previous owner of WTIC, so that made sense.

How they are using 161.76 is still a mystery. I am sure there is a simple explanation, but I don't know what it is.

K1EM RIP

I was shocked when I read in Friday's newspaper that K1EM had died on Tuesday.

K1EM, Clem Paskus, and I go back a long way. I first encountered Clem during a VHF contest back in the 1970s and I probably logged him in nearly every VHF contest I participated in after that.

Clem lived in Terryville in my grandparents' neck of the woods and when I moved to Compounce Mountain, we were only four miles apart as the crow flies, but I usually only saw Clem face-to-face at the Dayton Hamvention, 605 miles away as that same crow flies.

Another time I ran into Clem was at a big polka bash here in town, where he was attending with his wife. I was not surprised to see Clem there because Clem and I were Poles; he often called me "Stash" or "Stashu."

Funny how you become friends with someone you meet on the air, but you have no idea what they do in the real world. Back about 15 years ago, I was changing channels on the cabled television and while passing by the public access channel, I noticed someone who looked like Clem. So I hung back to see if it was my old radio friend and indeed it was. Clem was speaking at a town meeting and he was wearing a police uniform. Turns out that not only was he a policeman, but he was the chief of police!

I missed Clem on the air and at Hamvention the last few years. Little did I know he was seriously ill. Now I will miss him forever.

Do widzenia, K1EM.

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Tropo Opening Yesterday?

Anyone notice unusual propagation Saturday morning? I was taking my wife grocery shopping at about 10 AM EDST and tuned the FM radio to 102.10 to listen to WAQY in Springfield, MA, which is literally line of sight less than 35 miles from my location.

Instead of hearing WAQY's loud signal, I could hear two or three other stations competing with WAQY on 102.1. Since I was driving my car and on a mission with my wife, there was no opportunity to DX.

My guess it was a tropo opening. Anyone else hear anything DX-interesting?

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