My Four-Day Weekend

0900 UTC Monday morning was productive. I heard Jacksonville, Florida's WBOB on 1330 kHz again and added two new stations to the log:

WBTN on 1370 kHz transmitting 85 watts from Bennington, Vermont, 89 miles to the north-northwest.

WPLM on 1390 kHz transmitting 5 kw from Plymouth, Massachusetts, 118 miles to the east-northeast.

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

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I finished installing my vintage Hy-Gain 18AVQ vertical antenna today. After connecting the antenna to radio, I immediately noticed that the noise floor was much lower with the vertical than with my 80-meter inverted Vee. I look forward to giving the vertical a workout the next few nights.

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I attended the Boxboro Hamfest Friday and Saturday and had a good time meeting up with old friends and making some new friends, too. The weather was perfect and I spent some time perusing the flea market, but I did not buy anything. Indoors, I bought a Powerpole tool kit and an assortment of Powerpole terminals to help me begin Powerpolling my radio shack. 

WBOB in Jacksonville

WBOB, 600 kc, Jacksonville, Florida, ran a test from 0500 to 0800 UTC Sunday. I had my doubts that I would hear them (WBOB is 924 miles to my south-southwest), but I stayed up anyway and was rewarded with a new log entry.

I began hearing WBOB at 0516 UTC and monitored 600 kc until 0605 UTC. During that time, I heard voice and Morse Code station identifications, as well as, music (the Price is Right theme song), a variety of tone sweeps and telephone busy signals. WBOB was competing with local WICC and an unidentified Spanish station (it may be Radio Rebelde in Cuba), but I managed to hear "something" from WBOB most of the 49 minutes I monitored 600 kc.

I e-mailed a reception report, which the station already confirmed and promised a QSL card real soon now.

I used my Elecraft KX3 with the 80-meter inverted Vee dipole most of the time, but the signal was so good that I tried listening with my C.Crane Skywave receiver using its stock internal antenna and heard a voice ID loud and clear.