Two New This Week

Night time conditions have been interesting – hearing lots of DX from the south, like a very strong CMBR from Havana on 530 kHz, but nothing new to add to the log. I had better luck listening for the hour before sunset and logged two new stations this week.

WGFP on 940 kHz transmitting 1 kW from Webster, Massachusetts, 64 miles to the east-northeast.

WENU on 1410 kHz transmitting 1 kW from South Glen Falls, New York, 123 miles to the north-northwest.

Heard with my ICOM IC-R8600 receiver and 128-foot Loop on Ground antenna (WGFP) and 80-meters dipole (WENU).

Four New Loggings

Since my last post, I added four stations to the log.

February 17 at 2140Z, “Classic Country Radio" station WVTL on 1570 kHz in Amsterdam, New York, transmitting 1,000 watts, 110 miles to the north-northwest, 

February 26 at 0420Z, navigational beacon LC on 376 kHz in Columbus (Pickerington), Ohio, transmitting 25 watts, 531 miles to the west-southwest

March 13 at 0458Z, WENR on 1090 kHz in Englewood, Tennessee, transmitting 1,000 watts, 757 miles to the southwest running a DX test for radio hobbyists

March 13 at 0458Z, religious station WILD on 1090 kHz in Boston, Massachusetts, transmitting 1,900 watts, 110 miles to the east-northeast

All stations were heard on my ICOM IC-8600 receiver and 128-ft Loop on Ground (LoG) 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. 

BZ, CL, LUA

Conditions were excellent last night and I added three navigational beacons to the log.

CL on 207 kHz from Charlo, New Brunswick, Canada, transmitting 1000 watts, 544 miles to the north-northeast at 0615 UTC.

LUA on 245 kHz from Luray (Luray Caverns), Virginia, transmitting 25 watts, 355 miles to the southwest at 0557 UTC.

BZ on 407 kHz from Statesboro (Bulloch), Georgia, transmitting 25 watts, 797 miles to the south-southwest at 0522 UTC.

The three were received with my ICOM IC-R8600 receiver and 128-foot Loop on Ground antenna.