More E Skip

Around noon today, signals started popping up on normally quiet 90.9 MHz. And an hour later, I had three new entries in the log.

1600 Z, WJKV in Jacksonville, Florida, transmitting 41,000 watts, 920 miles to the south-southwest

1620 Z, KTBG in Warrensburg, Missouri, transmitting 100,000 watts, 1129 miles to the west

1646 Z, WAQV in Crystal River, Florida, transmitting 5,000 watts, 1021 miles to the south-southwest

I heard a few other stations, but could not identify them. One of the unidentified dubbed itself “Wild Radio,” but I have been unable to match that slogan with any 90.9 MHz radio stations. If anyone has a clue, please clue me in, too. 

All were received with my ICOM IC-R8600 receiver and ICOM AH-7000 discone antenna.

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.

Mid-February Report

Conditions have been good and bad and even when they are good, I only managed to log two new AM stations since my last post.

WAKM on 960 kHz transmitting 75 watts, 848 miles to the southwest from Franklin, Tennessee.

WSSV on 1160 kHz transmitting 575 watts, 97 miles to the north-northwest from Mechanicsville, New York.

Both were heard with my ICOM IC-R8600 receiver, WAKM with my ICOM AH-7000 discone antenna and WSSV with my 128-foot Loop on Ground (LoG) antenna.

Nine years ago, I logged WPQH451 on my Subaru’s radio from my employer’s parking lot in Wallingford, CT. WPQH451 is a 10-watt traffic information station located in Rocky Hill, CT that I could never hear from home until recently. Don't know if they made some equipment changes or what, but now I can hear WPQH451 all the time 14 miles from my home station on Compounce Mountain in Wolcott, CT. 

90.9 MHz. 10-watter

Made another catch on 90.9 MHz.

Sitting on the front porch Friday evening reading emails while monitoring 90.9 with my C.Crane CCRadio3 receiver, I heard a weak signal when I pointed the whip antenna to the south. Move the antenna 15° either way and the signal disappeared, but pointing it dead south, the signal was good enough to hear its format (Christian religious) and its identification: WMHR relayed by W215BT in Riverhead, Long Island, 54 miles to the south transmitting 10 watts!

WHRM - Wausau, WI

At 2040 UTC Thursday, I logged WHRM on 90.9 MHz from Wausau, Wisconsin, 871 miles to the west-northwest using my ICOM IC-R8600 receiver and ICOM AH-7000 discone antenna. I assume the reception was via E-skip. The 871-mile path is my second best DX on the FM band!

Another Good Night

Four new loggings in one night, so I'd say it was a "good night!"

2019-10-15 at 2244Z on 780 kHz: WCKB, Dunn, NC, 7000 W, 534 miles SSW

2019-10-16 at 0347Z on 250 kHz: navigational beacon UAC, Poste Montagnais - Eric Lake, QC, Canada, 500 W, 786 miles NNE

2019-10-16 at 0358Z on 334 kHz: navigational beacon YER, Fort Severn, ON, Canada, 200 W, 1191 miles NNW

2019-10-16 at 0410Z on 364 kHz: navigational beacon ZHZ, Halifax - Split Crow, NS, Canada, 25 W, 519 miles NE

Caught WCKB just as they were signing off and was amused that they pulled the plug in the middle of the sign-off announcement. I guess somebody was anxious to go home!

Heard lots of other good stuff that was already in the log. The usual trans-Atlantics and most notably, Cuba (Radio Rebelde), which was so strong on 710 that it left WOR in the dust.

Equipment used: ICOM IC-R8600 receiver and ICOM AH-7000 discone antenna for WCKB and 80-meter inverted-Vee antenna for the navigational beacons.

USA's First Black Radio Station

In 1948, Memphis AM radio station WDIA became a community voice and a rock ‘n’ roll star-maker.

Read all about it here.

500

I logged my 500th AM station this evening! And appropriately, I did it the old school way. Instead of listening to a top of the hour recording of the whole AM band, the radio was tuned to 1600 and I listened to three or four stations mixing it up. At 2316Z, as clear as a bell, I heard the musical ID of WAYC transmitting 2700 watts out of Bedford, Pennsylvania, 310 miles to the west-southwest.

Coincidentally, Bedford is the half-way point on my annual 700-mile trek to Hamvention and on many of those roadtrips, I have stayed in a motel about a mile up the road from the WAYC transmitter.

Now on to the next 500!

(Equipment used for this logging were the ELAD FDM-S2/SW2 receiver and HyGain 18AVT/WB-A antenna.)

Six on FM

Not much of interest on the LW and AM bands last night, so I tuned up to the FM band where conditions seemed to be a bit enhanced and I logged two new stations. I revisited the FM band this morning and this afternoon. Conditions still seemed enhanced and I logged four additional new stations.

96.900 MHz: WPRF in New Britain, CT, a low power FM station (LPFM) transmitting 49 watts, 9 miles to the east-northeast playing Spanish music

97.700 MHz: W249DP in Ware, Mass., transmitting 200 watts, 47 miles to the northeast, a WARE translator playing "real oldies 1250"

103.700 MHz: W279CI in Danbury, CT transmitting 251 W, 32 miles to the southwest, a WDAQ translator playing contemporary music

103.900 MHz: WRCN in Riverhead, Long Island, NY transmitting 1.4 kW, 55 miles to the south, with a right-wingnut talk format

104.500 MHz: WXLO in Fitchburg, Mass. transmitting 37 kW, 83 miles to the northeast, playing contemporary music

105.500 MHz: WQGN in Groton, CT transmitting 3 kW, 48 miles to the east-southeast, playing contemporary music

Equipment used: ELAD FDM-S2/SW2 SDR receiver/software and ICOM AH-7000 discone antenna

Five New Ones

Vintage WFMD verification letter Bob Schmarder's Old Time Radio DX Page

After a very slow spring, I finally logged some new LW/MW/AM stations.

📶   WCCM (0400 UTC June 14) on 1570 kc transmitting 140 W from Methuen, Massachusetts, 115 miles to the northeast.

📶   LW (0242 UTC June 28) navigational beacon on 402 kc transmitting from Lawrence, Massachusetts, 113 miles to the northeast.

📶   WRNJ (0400 UTC July 1) on 1510 kc transmitting 230 W from Hackettstown, New Jersey, 113 miles to the west-southwest. This logging was possible due to the shutdown of Boston's WMEX.

📶   WNRI (0500 UTC July 7) on 1380 kc transmitting 18 W from Woonsocket, Rhode Island, 80 miles to the east-northeast.

📶   WFMD (0500 UTC July 7) on 930 kc transmitting 2500 W from Frederick, Maryland, 282 miles to the west-southwest.

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

seventy-seven double-you aye bee see

When I was a teenager, I was an avid listener of AM radio station WABC in New York City. Day and night, it was loud and clear in Waterbury and my radio was tuned to 770 kc most of the time.

Awhile back, I purchased a DVD titled 1960’s WABC Radio Airchecks. In addition to airchecks, the DVD contains 75 hours of pure nostalgia from 77 WABC including “Actual Broadcasts By Big Dan Ingram, ‘Cousin Brucie’ Bruce Morrow, Ron Lundy, Scott Muni, Chuck Leonard & More,” like the Cousin Brucie theme song sung by The Four Seasons or the old Palisades Amusement Park commercial.

Seventy-five hours is a little much to listen to in one sitting, so I loaded the contents of the DVD into my iPod (by way of iTunes) and I hear random selections during my daily commute.

A 16-minute segment from October 7, 1964, with Dan Ingram spinning the platters was very entertaining and enlightening.

Here are some items of note from the broadcast:

📶   Telephone numbers still used two-letter alphabetical prefices, for example, "PL 5-1516" instead of "755-1516" (in this example, the "PL" was short for "plaza").

📶   Mailing addresses still used one or two-number postal zones instead of ZIP Codes, for example, "Waterbury 6, Connecticut" instead of "Waterbury, Connecticut 06706."

📶   Firestone advertised snow tires: $24.24 for a pair.

📶   During the broadcast, Dan Ingram announced score updates from the World Series. On the air, he admitted rooting for St. Louis (against the hometown Yankees). Can you imagine an on-the-air personality rooting against the hometown team today? (I can’t.)

📶   This broadcast was during the height of Beatlemania and there were two commercials in a row: one for a contest to win a Beatles poster, followed by a commercial for the Beatles' appearance on Shindig! Both commercials used snippets from the Beatles’ hit She Loves You. Following the commercials, Ingram says, “Well, I guess it was inevitable” and the next song you hear him play was She Loves You.

Fun, fun, fun!

Three So Far This Year

I have been listening everyday and hearing a lot of DX, but almost all of it is already in the log. For example, the BBC carrier on 198 was strong enough last night that I could actually hear audio, but BBC on 198 has been in the log since 2012 (5 years ago to the day).

Since the first of the year, I have had three additions to the log:

📶   YAT on 260 kc transmitting 125 W from 'Wapisk' Attawapiskat, ON, 898 miles to the north-northeast

📶   WTEL on 610 kc transmitting 5 kW from Philly, 270 miles to the southwest

📶   WSPG on 1400 kc transmitting 1 kW from Spartanburg, SC, 669 miles to the southwest

All three were logged with the ELAD FDM-S2/FDM-SW2 receiver and the ICOM AH-7000 discone antenna.

WCBS 880: 50 Years of News

Without a doubt, I listen to WCBS (880 kHz) more than any other AM radio station. This year is the 50th anniversary of the station's switch to an all-news format. To celebrate the switch, the station will have a variety of related presentations on their website and on the air throughout 2017.

December 30, 2016, I knew conditions were excellent when I could hear DDP, the navigational beacon in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I have not heard DDP since I originally logged it five years ago.

The previously-logged trans-Atlantic stations were stronger than I have heard them in the past. France on 162, Morocco on 171, BBC on 198, Radio Monte Carlo on 216 and Algeria on 252.

I found these excellent conditions when I turned the radio on at 0600 UTC. About 20 minutes later, power went out and all the neighborhood QRN went with it. Since my ELAD FDM-S2 is powered by my computer's USB port, I was able to continue enjoying the excellent conditions until the battery power in my laptop dissipated about 90 minutes later.

New stations logged:

→ Navigational beacon MT on 209 transmitting 500 W from Chibougamau, Quebec, 570 miles to the north.

→ Navigational beacon ZEM on 338 transmitting 25 W from Eastman River, Quebec, 778 miles to the north-northwest.

→ Navigational beacon YXL on 349 transmitting 1 kW from Sioux Lookout, Ontario, 1078 miles to the northwest.

→ Navigational beacon OW on 395 transmitting from Stoughton, Massachusetts, 99 miles to the east-northeast.

→ Navigational beacon ZST on 397 transmitting from Alpine, New Brunswick, 430 miles to the northeast.

→ Broadcast station WPWA on 1590 transmitting 1 kW from Chester, Pennsylvania, 179 miles to the southwest.

→ Broadcast station WMGE on 1670 transmitting 1 kW from Dry Branch, Georgia, 845 miles to the southwest.

Equipment used: ELAD FDM-S2/SW2 SDR receiver/software and 80-meter inverted Vee antenna

By the way, during this session, I briefly listened to the news at the top of the hour on WTIC (1080 in Hartford) and was very surprised to hear an advertisement from C.Crane for their AM, FM and SW radios. I don't ever recall hearing an ad for radios on the radio before.

I'm with Snoopy

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.

On the Car Radio

Driving to work Friday morning (1030 UTC), I was monitoring 680 kc for anything unusual. The usual (WRKO) was overtaken by the unusual for about 30 seconds: WAPA transmitting 10 kW from San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1655 miles to the south-southeast. Equipment used was the stock radio and antenna in my 2007 Subaru Outback Sport.

WOMR on the radio again

Yesterday, as I headed out to buy groceries in my 2007 Subaru Outback Sport, I hit the button preset for WLNG on 92.1 MHz on the AM-FM radio and drove down the north side of my 1,000-foot mountain, which is not favorable to WLNG, 50 miles to my south-southeast. Yet, WLNG hung in there as I descended the mountain and continued my drive through the relatively flat river valley of ESPN-land.

I was paying more attention to the traffic than the radio, but sitting at a red traffic light about 2 minutes after my descent, it occurred to me that the female announcer now on the radio was not a voice I had ever heard on WLNG. In passing, the announcer mentioned the station's call sign: WOMR, which is on the tip of Cape Cod, about 145 miles to my east-northeast.

After the light turned green and I continued on my journey, WOMR hung in there for about a half mile, then gave up the frequency to WLNG.

For what it's worth, WLNG and WOMR run similar transmitter outputs, 5300 and 6000 watts respectively and neither is line-of-sight by any means in ESPN-land, so there was some enhanced radio conditions yesterday morning.

This is not the first time that I have heard WOMR in my neck of the woods, but it is always interesting when I do.

Good Weekend

Radio conditions on the AM band were very good over the weekend and I have top-of-the-hour recordings that will take me awhile to peruse for new station loggings. So far, I have found four new ones from 0600 UTC on October 1.

KFSW in Fort Smith, Arkansas, transmitting 1 kW on 1650 kc, 1240 miles to the southwest.

Radio Rebelde near Havana transmitting 5 kW on 1620 kc, 1388 miles to the south-southwest.

WCOJ in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, transmitting 5 kW on 1420 kc, 187 miles to the west-southwest.

WITK in Pittstown, Pennsylvania, transmitting 500 watts on 1550 kc, 148 miles to the west-southwest.

I also logged one new navigational beacon

YRR in Greely, Ontario, transmitting 25 watts on 377 kc, 283 miles to the north-northwest.

All heard using an ELAD FDM-S2 with an 80-meter inverted Vee antenna.

Navigational Beacons Galore!

I never heard so many navigational beacons on LW as I heard on my top-of-hour recording at 0500 UTC today. Most of them were already in my log, but I did add two new ones:

ZMX on 317 kc, transmitting 20 watts from St. Janvier, Quebec, 288 miles to the north-northwest.

UWP on 323 kc, transmitting 1,000 watts from Argentia, Newfoundland, 1012 miles to the east-northeast.

I also logged a new AM broadcast station near the top of the band:

WWCS, "Yahoo sports radio 540," on 540 kc, transmitting 500 watts from Canonsburg, Pennsylavania, 389 miles to the west-southwest.

As usual, equipment used was an ELAD FDM-S2 with an 80-meter inverted Vee.