Dust Settling

After months of family health issues, the dust is finally settling and I can hunker down next to the radios to hear what I can hear.

In the past few days, I made two new entries into the log.

WMEX is a new call sign for a previous entry (WWZN). Transmitting 50 kW from Boston (104 miles to my north-northeast), it had a solid S-5 signal here on 1510 kc on December 1 at 2345 GMT.

WAIK is a real brand new one for the log. Transmitting a mere 55 W from Galesburg, Illinois, 902 mile to my west, their signal on 1590 kc wavered between S-0 and S-2, but I heard their station identification at the top of the hour on December 9 at 0000 GMT.

Both loggings were made using my C.Crane CCRadio 2E Enhanced receiver and Terk Advantage antenna.

By the way, rumor has it that I will be gifted with a radio on December 25: the brand new C.Crane CC Skywave AM, FM, Shortwave, Weather and Aviation Band receiver. If the rumor is true, you can expect my review of the radio here in the near future.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I used to enjoy watching the New York City Thanksgiving Day parade — the bands, the floats, and especially the big balloons. I would be glued to the television set from the beginning to end, but not anymore.

It has been a long while since I enjoyed watching the parade on TV.

Today, the telecast is not coverage of a parade. Rather, it is a blatant wall-to-wall advertisement for the current musicals playing on Broadway or the latest boy or girl band that Disney is trying to promote.

No thank-you.

I actually saw the parade in person a few years ago and enjoyed it immensely. Too bad I can't enjoy it on television any longer.

Happy Thanksgiving anyway!

All is well

Recently, I have received e-mails from some of you asking if I was OK in light off the fact that I have not posted here since October 10. (Thank you for your concern.)

Good news is that I am OK.

Bad news is that there have been a couple of health issues in my immediate family that have required a lot of my attention taking me away from my radios and the blog.

Good news is that there is light at the end of the tunnel. The health issues are finally getting resolved and I will have some free time for my radios and the blog. So stay tuned!

WCHR 1040 AM

Heard a preacher on 1040 kc last night at 2305 UTC and it turned out to be a new station for the AM log: WCHR in Flemington, New Jersey, transmitting 1500 watts 131 miles to my southwest putting an S0 to S3 signal into my CC Radio 2E and Terk Advantage external antenna.

Also heard a Spanish language station on 1050 kc that I failed to identify. I was pretty sure that it was not WEPN which I already have in the log. Other possibilities were WBQH and WVXX, but what I heard on the air did not match what those stations were streaming on the Internet. I will listen for it again tonight.

Dayton’s WONE

I go to the Hamvention in Dayton every year, so it was cool to log a Dayton AM radio station last evening at 2247 UTC: WONE transmitting 5 kW on 980 kc, 656 miles to my west southwest. Signal was S0 to S2 into the CC Radio 2E and Terk Advantage external antenna. WONE’s transmitter is located in Woodbourne, a suburb south of Dayton, just about one mile from the banquet hall where I attend the TAPR-AMSAT annual banquet each year during Hamvention.