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.

Cuba!

UTC 0300 top-of-hour on October 12 was very productive.

I was thrilled to log WFLF on 540 kc transmitting 46 kW from Pine Hills, Florida, 1032 miles to the south-southwest.

And then I logged five Cuban stations:

Radio Rebelde on 600, 610 and 620 kc and Radio Progresso on 640 and 690 kc. All five are around 1400 miles to the south-southwest.

As usual, the receiver was the ELAD FDM-S2 / ELAD FDM-SW2 and the antenna, an 80-meter inverted Vee.

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.