Halloween Loggings

WFME on 1560 kHz moved about 15 miles west from Queens, New York, to West Orange, New Jersey, and have been running a continuous test from their new transmitter site. In the evening, they are easy pickings and I entered them in the log at 0330 UTC on October 31. The new transmitter site is about 90 miles to the southwest.

Also on the 31st (at 0408), I logged a new navigational beacon: WG on 248 kHz in Winnipeg, Manitoba, 1300 miles to the northwest.

Both loggings were with the ICOM IC-R8600 and Hy-Gain 18AVT/WB-A vertical antenna (for WFME) and the 120-foot Loop on Ground antenna (for WG).

Out with the Old, In (the Log) with the New

WFME (50,000 watts on 1560 kHz in NYC) recently announced that it was going off the air. For days, it repeated a 15-minute loop of religious programming and an announcement about its impending demise.

Over the weekend, rumor was that they were pulling the plug Monday morning, so while I did this and that in the shack, I had the IC-R8600 tuned to 1560. After the loop played again at 11:15 EST, there was a brief generic station identification followed by dead air. WFME was gone.

I listened to 1560 for something new switching between the four antennas connected to the IC-R8600, but heard nothing. At sunset, it was a different story – there were two or three stations fighting it out and I managed to identify one of them as a new entry in the log: gospel music station WGLB in Elm Grove, Wisconsin transmitting 250 watts, 775 miles to the north-northwest.

I did not identify the other stations and will try again tonight.

The Party’s Over!

I had a very productive sunrise drive to work on Friday and logged three new stations with the stock radio in my 2007 Subaru Outback Sport:

- WSJP on 1640 kc transmitting 1 kW from Sussex, Wisconsin, 785 miles to my west-northwest

- WKKX on 1600 kc transmitting 33 watts from Wheeling, West Virginia, 418 miles to my west-southwest

- WHGT on 1590 kc transmitting 58 watts from Maugansville, Maryland, 286 miles to my west-southwest

Sunday evening, I logged a brand new station with the C.Crane CC Skywave:

- WFME on 1560 kc transmitting 50 kW from Queens, NYC, 81 miles to my south-southwest. 

Logging WFME means the party is over! WFME takes over 1560 from the dearly departed WQEW. During the transition from QEW to FME, for about ten days neither station was on the air and I logged four new stations that I would unlikely be able to hear if QEW or FME were on the air. It was fun while it lasted!