Colombia on 770

Two new loggings to report:

November 8 : WBRV on 900 kHz transmitting 52 watts from Boonville, New York, 179 miles to the northwest. 

November 10: WABC (770 kHz) was off the air for maintenance for about an hour. Band conditions were poor due to a recent sun flare, yet I heard three very weak Spanish language stations and managed to identify one: JX (RCN Radio) in Bogota, Colombia, transmitting 100 kW 2555 miles to the south (photo above).

Both loggings were with the ICOM IC-R8600 receiver and Hy-Gain 18AVR/time WB-A vertical antenna (WBRV) and 120-ft Loop on Ground antenna (JX).

Aurora (November 7 UTC)

Powered up the radio at midnight local time and conditions were good. Lots of DX on the LW and MW/AM bands, but nothing new to log. 

However, I did hear the effects of aurora on a handful of stations including Radio Rebelde and WBBM. Oddly, Radio Rebelde was much stronger than usual and WBBM was much weaker than usual (go figure), but both had the watery echo audio that is characteristic of aurora.

Fun on 1080

Friday at 2150 UTC, I turned the radio on and randomly tuned up the AM band from 860 kHz. When I arrived at 1080 kHz, I found no one there! I live 12 miles from the transmitter site of WTIC, a 50,000-watt IBOC station on 1080 and because of that proximity, I have never logged another station on 1080 except WTIC. I don’t know why WTIC was off the air, but here was an opportunity to log something new on 1080.

Initially, I heard nothing except splatter from WBAL on 1090. Gradually, a gospel station starting building strength, but I never heard a station ID, nor could I match it with any AM radio simulcasts on the Internet. 

A second station appeared, a religious station with a preacher preaching. The signal eventually came up. There was no station ID, but I did match it exactly with WWNL’s Internet simulcast. WWNL is located in Pittsburgh transmitting 25,000 watts west-southwest of this location.

WTIC returned to the air at 2232 UTC with no mention as to why it was off the air,

It was fun while it lasted!

Earlier in the week, Wednesday at 0545 UTC, I logged a new one on 550 AM: WAME in Statesville, North Carolina, transmitting 53 watts, 586 miles to the southwest.

The WAME logging was better DX than the WWNL logging, but the WWNL logging was a once in a lifetime (so far) logging!

Halloween Loggings

WFME on 1560 kHz moved about 15 miles west from Queens, New York, to West Orange, New Jersey, and have been running a continuous test from their new transmitter site. In the evening, they are easy pickings and I entered them in the log at 0330 UTC on October 31. The new transmitter site is about 90 miles to the southwest.

Also on the 31st (at 0408), I logged a new navigational beacon: WG on 248 kHz in Winnipeg, Manitoba, 1300 miles to the northwest.

Both loggings were with the ICOM IC-R8600 and Hy-Gain 18AVT/WB-A vertical antenna (for WFME) and the 120-foot Loop on Ground antenna (for WG).