1710 TIS

Earlier this week, there was a discussion on the International Radio Club of America (IRCA) e-mail list about the low level of activity on 1710 kc. During the e-mail exchange, some folks listed the stations that they had heard on 1710. Among those stations was the Travelers Information Station (TIS) for the Springfield Armory National Historic Site.

Springfield is less than 40 miles away as the crow flies, so I thought that that TIS was my best shot at logging something on 1710.

I began monitoring 1710 on the car radio during my daily commute to and from work, but did not hear any intelligence.

At home, I did the same with the KX3 switching between antennas to hear what I could hear.

Tuesday evening with the KX3 connected to the C.Crane CC twin coil ferrite antenna, I could hear a station down in the mud, but it was too weak to make any sense of it. Wednesday evening, conditions were better and I heard a woman describing the Armory and giving directions to the Armory from the nearby Interstate highways. Her announcement was on a continuous loop and was repeated every minute or so.

The Springfield Armory is 38 miles to the north-northeast and their TIS is transmitting a maximum of 10 watts. Looking it up on the FCC database, there is nothing listed for this station, so I have no call sign for it, but nevertheless, it is now in my log.