More Taxed Loggings

As I continued working on taxes on Thursday, I logged three new stations:

WATD on 1460 kHz at 2145 UTC transmitting 5,000 watts from Brockton, Massachusetts, 100 miles to the east-northeast

WLMC on 1470 kHz at 0030 UTC (Friday) transmitting 147 watts from Georgetown, South Carolina, 667 miles to the south-southwest

WNAU on 1470 kHz at 0120 UTC (Friday) transmitting 500 watts from New Albany, Mississippi, 1001 miles to the southwest

All three had oldies formats and all were heard on my ICOM IC-R8600 receiver and ICOM AH-7000 discone antenna.

A Taxed Logging

While I sit at my MacBook Pro running Turbotax to do my family's taxes, I tune up and down the AM/MW radio dial of my ICOM IC-R8600 receiver, which is sitting next to my computer. I tune to a frequency with a weak station and just let the radio sit there for awhile to see whet transpires as I work with Turbotax.

I don't usually do much IC-R8600 listening during the day, so I am not surprised to find some new stations to enter into the log (two new ones on Sunday and another new one on Wednesday).

WGHQ was Wednesday's catch of the day. Transmitting 1,000 watts on 920 kHz from Kingston, New York, 56 miles to the west-northwest, this was a difficult catch because WGHQ was running neck and neck with WHJJ transmitting 5,000 watts from Providence, Rhode Island, 80 miles to the east. I had to listen to WHJJ's broadcast of Lush Rimbo for over a half hour before I was able to identify WGHQ.

Antenna used with the IC-R8600 was my ICOM AH-7000 discone.

Not the past tense of "go"

WENT 

A half mile down the road, a car hit a utility pole and knocked out power at 2:45 AM. I slept through the power outage until about 5 AM when the house started cooling down and I woke up.

After I called the electric company, I went to the shack to listen to the radio without noise. The LW band was packed with stations, but I did not log anything new. The AM/MW band was humming, too, so I set up my ELAD FDM-S2/FDM-SW2 receiver to record four minutes at the next top of the hour (6 AM) and I went back to bed to warm up under the covers.

Reviewing the top of the hour recording, I logged two new stations.

WPVQ, "The Outlaw," on 700 kHz, transmitting 2,500 watts from Orange-Athol, Massachusetts, 74 miles to the north-northeast.

WENT on 1340 kHz, transmitting 1,000 watts from Gloversville, New York, 120 miles to the north-northwest. (It is the first new graveyard logging since August.)

Antenna: 80-meter dipole

Power returned at 9:45 AM.

VOA 77 Today

Today marks the 77th anniversary of the establishment of America’s largest international broadcaster – Voice of America.

Read all about it here.

Recently Logged

Freezing rain and high winds resulted in a power outage in my neck of the woods Monday. I love the sound of a low noise floor in the morning and I logged three new navigational beacons among the 15 I could hear during the power outage that I normally cannot hear otherwise.

CAT on 254 kHz transmitting 25 watts from Chatham, New Jersey, 99 miles to the southwest

SW on 335 kHz transmitting 50 watts from Stewart Air National Guard Base, New York, 67 miles to the west.

FR on 407 kHz transmitting 25 watts from Plainview/Farmingdale, Long Island, New York, 65 miles to the south-southwest

Also added ZZR to the log on January 11 on 317 kHz transmitting 30 watts from Quinte West, Ontario, 290 miles to the north-northwest

All four were received with an ELAD FDM-S2/SW2 receiver and an 80-meter inverted Vee antenna.

Also added WPTK to the log on January 16 on 850 kHz transmitting 5kw from Raleigh, North Carolina, 512 miles to the southwest.

And on January 17, I added CHUM on 1050 kHz transmitting 50,000 watts from Toronto, Ontario, 363 miles to the north-northwest.

Both were received with an ICOM IC-R8600 receiver and an ICOM ICOM AH-7000 discone antenna.