1,000 Watts, 1,000 Miles

No sign of aurora today, but conditions on the AM band were very good and I nabbed KCJJ on 1630 kc transmitting 1,000 watts from Iowa City, Iowa, nearly 1,000 miles to my west. I had already logged KCJJ from the home station, but it was nice to copy it from the Subaru on the way to work.

About a quarter mile into my commute, I heard the station ID loud and clear. I stayed on frequency to see how KCJJ’s signal would play the rest of the way to work. The signal was up and down most of the trip, but during the last 10 minutes, the signal kept building in strength and sounded like a local by the time I parked the car in the company yard.

Aurora and WDND

Weird conditions on the AM band on the way to work this morning…

Tuning around the upper 1600s, I heard a couple of stations that sounded very unusual with muddied, watery audio. After listening to the stronger of the two stations for about five minutes, I realized that I might be hearing the effects of aurora.

In the past, I have worked many stations via aurora on 2 meters and even a few on 10 meters, but never on the AM broadcast band. The station I was listening to was using an unfamiliar language. And the forecast was positive for aurora, so it is likely that what I heard was an aurora propagated station, but I was unable to identify it.

After the aurora subsided, I was able to identify a new one on 1620 kc: WDND transmitting 1,000 watts from South Bend, Indiana, 690 miles to my west. WDND was simulcasting a contemporary hit radio format from WNDV FM.

Receiving equipment was the usual: the stock radio and antenna in my 2007 Subaru Outback Sport.

C.Crane CCRadio 2E Enhanced Updated

When I reviewed their CCRadio 2E Enhanced radio here last January, I complained about its default display:

“By far, my biggest complaint is the frequency display. When you tune the radio, the radio displays the frequency, but when you stop tuning, the frequency disappears after a few seconds and displays the time, if the clock has been programmed or nothing, if the clock has not been programmed. To display the frequency again, you must press the Freq button momentarily and again, the frequency disappears after a few seconds and displays the time or nothing!”

“When I am DXing, the frequency is much more important than the time of day, so I would prefer that the frequency was the default display, not the time. Or at least allow the user to select the default display”

C.Crane listens to its customers and I am happy to pass along the news that the default display is now user-programmable, that is you can program the radio to display by default either the time or the frequency! Version 2 of the 2E manual indicates that this is so and an e-mail query to C.Crane confirms it.

No news is bad news

I have been listening, but I have not heard anything new in over a week. With Daily Savings Time kicking in over the weekend, I am now driving to work at dusk, so I expect that there will be many opportunities for DX on the way to work.

For example, Cincinnati’s WLW has been loud and clear on 700 kc each morning and I reheard WSJP out of Wisconsin on 1640 kc this morning. It’s hard to believe they are running only 1 kW!

At home, I am still working out with the C.Crane CC Skywave, but nothing new was heard at home either. But we’ll keep on listenin’.

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!