680 to 690

Monitoring 680 kc got me two new ones, CFTR mentioned in the previous post and WINR in Binghamton, NY. Transmitting 5 kW, 150 miles to the west-northwest, I heard WINR out of the blue for about 10 minutes around 2315 UTC on the KX3.

Yesterday morning, I moved the car radio to 690 and listened to a station way down in the mud for about half my commute until CKGM took over the frequency. I never heard a station I.D., but I thought I heard West Virginia mentioned. Looking up West Virginia 690 radio stations, I found only one: WELD, but I had my doubts that it was WELD because it was only transmitting 14 watts at the time.

This morning listening to 690, I heard the station again, but today the signal was much better and I heard the WELD I.D. more than once: 14 watts, 370 miles to the west-southwest on the stock radio and antenna in my 2007 Subaru!

680 News

Sunrise is getting earlier every day now and nearly coincides with the beginning of my morning commute. So I don't know how much longer I will bother chasing AM DX on the way to work. In fact, I almost did not bother to turn on the AM radio this morning because it was so light out when I hit the road, but I did anyway and nabbed a new one: CFTR "680 News" out of Toronto transmitting 50 kW, 360 miles to the west-northwest.

CFTR was up and down throughout my 30-minute commute, but was definitely there until the top of the hour (1200 1100 UTC) when WRKO took over 680 kc with a vengeance. Dunno if WRKO changes antenna patterns at 7 AM or not, but the change was very noticeable. Before 7 AM, I did not hear a peep from RKO, but after 7 AM, that is all I could hear on 680.

Something Different

I have only two loggings on 970: WHCU and WWL in Ithaca and New Orleans, respectively, so I sat on that frequency last night hoping to add a new one to the log. I heard three stations: WHCU, a station broadcasting the Kansas vs. Villanova basketball game and a station way down in the mud playing mid-20th Century MOR.

I never heard an I.D. from the two unidentified stations, but from about 0245 to 0315 UTC, I heard a Morse Code transmission of the letters "RR" once per minute. I had no idea, so I searched the Internet for a clue and the consensus was that it was Radio Rebelde transmitting 1 kW from Sancti Spiritus, Cuba, 1409 miles to the south-southwest. I used my Elecraft KX3 and Terk Advantage antenna for this catch.

That is my third Radio Rebelde logging on three different frequencies, but the first two were traditional voice and music broadcasts; the third was something completely different!

WURD on 900

CHML dominates 900 kc here most of the night, but frequently other stations do battle with CHML and try to takeover the frequency. They always lose, but my goal this week was to log a new one on 900 (in addition to CHML, I also have WGHM in the log for 900).

The top of the hour is the most productive time to nab a new one, so I started listening at 2255 UTC last night and heard two or three stations depending on which antenna I used and which way they were swung (for the two that I can swing).

Once I identified CHML, I nulled it out with my two swinging antennas and I could hear a station down in the mud, but in the clear that was either to my northeast (WGHM?) or southwest (?).

There was no station identification at 2300, but I hung in there and was rewarded a minute later with the I.D. of WURD transmitting 1 kW in Philadelphia, 180 miles to the southwest. I was using the Elecraft KX3 radio and Terk Advantage antenna at the time of the I.D.

Hamvention Special Achievement Award

This news appeared yesterday on the ARRL website:

The 2016 Hamvention Special Achievement Award will go to Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU, of Wolcott, Connecticut, for advocating cutting edge technologies now commonly used in Amateur Radio. Horzepa has authored five books and written more than 1200 pieces for ARRL and TAPR, evangelizing the use of home computers, packet radio, APRS, digital signal processing (DSP) and software defined radio (SDR) in Amateur Radio. Licensed in 1969 as WN1LOU, Horzepa has sampled almost every entrée on the ham radio menu and has served in a slew of roles, including ARRL Connecticut Section Manager. Presently, Horzepa is a director and secretary for TAPR and serves as editor of TAPR’s newsletter, PSR. “LOU” has driven the 735 miles to Hamvention most years since 1978, and looks forward to doing so forever. “My fondest memories of ham radio are rubbing elbows and making friends with the makers and shakers of our hobby who show up at Hamvention every year,” Horzepa said.

I am very honored to receive the award and look forward to going to Hamvention for the award ceremonies!

Lightning on Channel 7

The line of thunderstorms that passed through here around 8 PM last night, passed through NYC a little earlier and made an appearance at the end of WABC TV's 6 PM newscast, as seen here.

970 x 2

970 is another frequency where I have only one logging, so I dialed up 970 on the KX3 Sunday evening at 2242 UTC and heard the station identification for WESO transmitting 1 kW, 59 miles to the east-northeast in Southbridge, Massachusetts. At 2248 UTC, WESO disappeared! I looked up the sunset time and it was 2248, so I assumed that WESO switched to nighttime power (21 watts) when the sun went down. All I could hear after that was WNYM, so I shut off the KX3 and ate dinner.

Out the door at 1130 UTC this morning, I tuned to 970 on the car radio and immediately logged another new one: WZAN transmitting 5 kW, 190 miles to the northeast in Portland, Maine. I lost WZAN about ten miles into my commute to work. (Sunrise was at 1112 UTC.)

1140

I parked on 1140 last night since it is a frequency where I only have one station (WRVA) logged, so I figured it had potential. WRVA dominated the frequency with a weak station playing what sounded to me like opera fading in and out behind WRVA. Doing an Advanced Search on Radio-Locator came up empty as far as any US or Canadian stations on 1140 with a classical music format. Maybe it was coming from beyond North America.

Commuting to work this morning, I tuned the car radio to 1140. WRVA was gone and in its place was a new one for the log: WCJW, "CJ Country," transmitting 2300 watts from Warsaw, New York, 280 miles to the north-northwest.

Dry Spell Ends

Conditions have been very good lately. The Canadians have been loud and clear on my car radio during my morning commute and in the evening, stations from the south and west have been solid on the KX3. But for ten days, I had nothing new to show for it until last night.

ESPN Radio 1270, WDLA, from Walton, New York, dominated 1270 kc at the top of the hour of (2300 UTC) transmitting 89 watts* 120 miles to my west-northwest. Received with the Elecraft KX3 and C.Crane CC twin coil ferrite antenna.

* I go by the book when I list the stations' power. Some will say that WDLA must have been running daytime power in order to be heard by me. Maybe so, but how do I know ― how does anybody know? So I check if my logging occurred before or after sunset/sunrise and list the legal power for that station at that time.