WSTL in the Seekonk River

Monitoring 1220 kHz, I logged two new ones, WGNY which I mentioned in my previous post and a Spanish language station that I was unable to identify. 

Radio-Locator listed a few Spanish stations on 1220, but none of them matched up with what I heard. 

I did record about 20 minutes of the station's audio with my IC-R8600 and I finally had time to listen to the recording looking for clues to identify the station. I clearly heard “Providence” mentioned by the female announcer, so I checked Radio-Locator for 1220 kHz activity in Providence, Rhode Island and WSTL was listed as a “Tropical” format station rather than “Spanish.” Listening to the entire recording confirmed that the station was indeed WSTL transmitting 1,000 watts, 82 miles to the east-northeast.

Radio: ICOM IC-R8600
Antenna: 128-ft LoG

New Stuff in Log

On longwave:

RU on 275 kHz, transmitting 25 watts from Salisbury, North Carolina, 575 miles to the south-southwest on November 29 at 0439Z

DC on 332 kHz,  transmitting 25 watts from Washington, DC, 292 miles to the southwest on November 30 at 0556Z

MNI on 381 kHz,  transmitting 25 watts from Manning, South Carolina, 683 miles to the south-southwest on December 9 at 0332Z

ME on 257 kHz,  transmitting 25 watts from Maxton, North Carolina, 593 miles to the south-southwest on December 15 at 0411Z

On mediumwave:

WGNY on 1220 kHz, transmitting 10,000 watts from Newburgh, New York, 61 miles to the west-southwest on December 17 at 2123Z

On FM:

W277DT-FM (WDRC) on 103.3 MHz, transmitting 250 watts from Hartford, Connecticut, 17 miles to the east-northeast on December 2 at 1605Z

All received with an ICOM IC-R8600 receiver on longwave with a 128-ft Loop on Ground antenna, mediumwave with an 80-meter dipole, FM with a ICOM AH-7000 discone antenna.

3047 Miles on 365 kHz

Longwave band conditions were very good overnight and I logged four new navigational beacons including one that represents the longest distance navigational beacon in my log. 

Here are last night's log entries:

At 0512 UTC, AQE on 230 kHz in Greenville, North Carolina, transmitting 25 watts, 474 miles to the south-southwest

At 0516 UTC, EZF on 237 kHz in Fredericksburg, Virginia, transmitting 25 watts, 333 miles to the southwest

At 0521 UTC, UDG on 245 kHz in Darlington, South Carolina, transmitting 25 watts, 624 miles to the south-southwest

At 0542 UTC, PAL on 365 kHz in Guayaquil, Ecuador, 3047 miles to the south. The power output of PAL is not listed. 

PAL's signal was not the weakest received here overnight and I did not think much of it except that it was a new entry in the log. And then I looked it up and was shocked to see what I had worked, bettering my previous navigational beacon DX by almost 1100 miles! Not to mention that PAL was off the side of my new Loop on Ground (LoG) antenna.

The ICOM IC-R8600 was my receiver with the 128-foot LoG.

Slow Week

I am very happy with the performance of my new 128-foot Loop on Ground (LoG) antenna. I heard a lot of DX this past week, but only one new log entry: WSVS on 800 kHz transmitting 10,000 watts from Crewe, Virginia, 414 miles to the southwest at 2139Z on the 20th.

Receiver was the ICOM IC-R8600.

For what it’s worth, the main lobe of my LoG is approximately 105° and 285° according to the antenna’s theory.

Three Adds

UPDATED BELOW

Three new entries in the log – two AM and one FM – the two AM courtesy of my new 128-foot Loop on Ground (LoG) antenna.

WKBK on 1290 kHz in Keene, New Hampshire, transmitting 5 kW, 97 miles to the north-northeast

WETB on 790 kHz in Johnson City, Tennessee, transmitting 72 watts, 626 miles to the southwest

WATR on 97.7 MHz. This is a new FM outlet for longtime AM station WATR, which is located two blocks from my parent’s home in Waterbury, Connecticut. They are in test mode for a few hours each day and I don’t know how much power they are running, nor their transmitter’s location. (I asked by email, but received no response.) Assuming they are transmitting from their AM transmitter site in Waterbury, they are 8 miles to the south-southwest.

Equipment used: ICOM IC-R8600 receiver for all three, 128-foot LoG antenna for the two AM stations and ICOM AH-7000 discone antenna for the FM station.

Update: WATR FM on 97.7 MHz is a translator for WATR AM (1320 kHz). Its callsign is W249DY and it is transmitting 250 watts from West Peak in Meriden, Connecticut, 7 miles line-of-sight to the southeast.