Three Adds

UPDATED BELOW

Three new entries in the log – two AM and one FM – the two AM courtesy of my new 128-foot Loop on Ground (LoG) antenna.

WKBK on 1290 kHz in Keene, New Hampshire, transmitting 5 kW, 97 miles to the north-northeast

WETB on 790 kHz in Johnson City, Tennessee, transmitting 72 watts, 626 miles to the southwest

WATR on 97.7 MHz. This is a new FM outlet for longtime AM station WATR, which is located two blocks from my parent’s home in Waterbury, Connecticut. They are in test mode for a few hours each day and I don’t know how much power they are running, nor their transmitter’s location. (I asked by email, but received no response.) Assuming they are transmitting from their AM transmitter site in Waterbury, they are 8 miles to the south-southwest.

Equipment used: ICOM IC-R8600 receiver for all three, 128-foot LoG antenna for the two AM stations and ICOM AH-7000 discone antenna for the FM station.

Update: WATR FM on 97.7 MHz is a translator for WATR AM (1320 kHz). Its callsign is W249DY and it is transmitting 250 watts from West Peak in Meriden, Connecticut, 7 miles line-of-sight to the southeast.

The Polish Eagle Show

Sophie and Victor Zembruski

All my grandparents were born in Poland. As a result, the Polish language was the first language in my parent's homes and when they married, they continued speaking Polish in their newlywed home.

When I came along two years later, they were still speaking Polish and as a result, Polish was my first language. English became my second language when television entered our home.

Just as the Polish language was spoken in my home, Polish music was heard on the radio in my home.

We often listened to Andy Szuberla on Saturdays broadcasting from WACE (730 kc) in Chicopee, Massachusetts and Stan Ozmak on WRYM (840 kc) in New Britain, Connecticut, who did his show live from the Polish National Home in Hartford on Sundays. But we religiously listened to the Victor and Sophie Zembruski's "The Polish Eagle Show" every Sunday morning broadcast from WATR (1320 kc) located two blocks from my home in Waterbury.

We were loyal to the Zembruski's radio show. Victor and Sophie Zembruski were distant relatives --- Victor's sister was married to my mother's brother, my Uncle Ray. Also, Victor and his Polka band played at my parent's wedding reception.

Victor started "The Polish Eagle Show" in 1934. Sophie joined Victor on the air soon after.

Nathan Zembruski

Victor had a stroke in the early 1960s, so Sophie did the show solo until her 90th birthday in 2008.

Victor and Sophie's daughter, Loretta Hoxie, took over and continued spinning polkas from 8 to 10 AM every Sunday until September 1, 2013.

Nathaniel Zembruski took over the hosting duties for the next seven years until he decided to end the show as his junior year of high school concluded. The last show aired this morning, May 31, 2020, after an amazing 86-year run!

First Top-of-the-Hour After Dark

Monday evening, I recorded the first top-of-the-hour (9 PM EDST) after local sunset and heard two new ones for the log:

• WWTR on 1170 kc transmitting 600 watts from Bridgewater, NJ, 113 miles to my southwest
• WDER on 1320 kc transmitting 1,000 watts from Derry, NH, 120 miles to my northeast

The WDER catch was particularly nice considering 1320 is occupied by local station WATR, which is strong here day or night (5 kW or 1 kW, 5 miles away).

Equipment used: ELAD FDM-S2 receiver, 80-meter inverted Vee antenna

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!

The Polish Eagle Show

Sophie and Victor Zembruski

All my grandparents were born in Poland. As a result, the Polish language was the first language in my parent's homes and when they married, they continued speaking Polish in their newlywed home.

When I came along two years later, they were still speaking Polish and as a result, Polish was my first language. English became my second language when television entered our home.

Just as the Polish language was spoken in my home, Polish music was heard on the radio in my home.

We often listened to Andy Szuberla on Saturdays broadcasting from WACE (730 kc) in Chicopee, Massachusetts and Stan Ozmak on WRYM (840 kc) in New Britain, Connecticut, who did his show live from the Polish National Home in Hartford on Sundays. But we religiously listened to the Victor and Sophie Zembruski's "The Polish Eagle Show" every Sunday morning broadcast from WATR (1320 kc) located two blocks from my home in Waterbury.

We were loyal to the Zembruski's radio show. Victor and Sophie Zembruski were distant relatives --- Victor's sister was married to my mother's brother, my Uncle Ray. Also, Victor and his Polka band played at my parent's wedding reception.

Victor started "The Polish Eagle Show" in 1934. Sophie joined Victor on the air soon after.

Victor had a stroke in the early 1960s, so Sophie did the show solo until her 90th birthday in 2008. Victor and Sophie's daughter, Laurie Hoxie, took over and continued spinning polkas from 8 to 10 AM every Sunday for the last five years.

Laurie decided to retire and she pulled the plug on the show yesterday after an amazing 79-year run!