Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Auds 'n' Ends 11/26/13

Not a lot to report. I've mostly been away from everything for the past few days.






I took this photo of a mural on the side of a building in Grove City, PA. WSAJ is the local college radio station.

* Thanks to everyone who's pre-ordered a copy of the latest Pirate Radio Annual. I've been burning CD-Rs the past few days.
* I haven't received a target date for the books from the printer yet.

* I listened for Chamber Pot Radio tonight, but it wasn't audible here.
* I've received a few QSLs lately and need to post them.
* It'll be interesting to see if the snowstorm that's predicted for the Midatlantic up through New England will impact Thanksgiving broadcasts (whether positively or negatively).
* A lot of people will be listening to TIS (travelers' information stations) stations this week.
* Will the increased TIS audience draw any hobby pirates to 1710 or 1720 kHz for testing?
* I cleaned up the nameplate of the Goldentone radio tonight.
* Twangy Radio said on HFU that he blew up his transmitter, but that replacement parts are on order.


Saturday, November 23, 2013

My weekend loggings 11/22-11/24/13

Receiver: Kenwood R-5000
Antenna: half-wave dipole cut for 6300 kHz

Boom Box Radio: 6850 1316+ Between running around and doing a few things this morning, I saw an announcement from Boom Box Radio, saying that they were on the air. I ran up to the radio room, tuned in, and had a pretty good signal with fades. This was one of their "Breakfast with Boom Box" shows, which is a fun audience-participation concept: On the online forums, when listeners post their loggings, BBR also asks what you had for breakfast. I'm having a variety of cold cereal, but today's responses on ranged from eggs & bacon to beer.

Happy Hanukkah: 6920 2034-2042* Fair signal. Heard a couple of comedians in front of a live audience. Chime interval signal at the end with clear IDs. I haven't heard this station in probably about 15 years. Wonder if they still QSL or if it was simply an old recording and nothing more?

Radio Gallifrey International: 6925U 2212-2223* Heard just before eating supper with The Who "Who Are You?" and an interesting mashup of the Dr. Who theme and Gary Glitter's "Rock and Rock, Part 2" The SSTV image came out fairly well.



Radio Free Whatever: 6945 2338+ Fair/poor with The Doors "Touch Me," ELO "Don't Bring Me Down"

I missed hearing Red Mercury Labs in here...

Wolverine Radio: 6935U 0230+ Weak but steady. Weird conditions tonight. Can hear what sounds like old acoustic blues. It'll be interesting to see if the SSTV at the end can be decoded tonight



Liquid Radio: 6925 0227-0620+ In and out here with trance music. The signal would fade up and reach downright good levels, then slowly fade down and almost disappear for a while.

Friday, November 22, 2013

NA Activity last week: 11/18 to 11/24/2013

I'm post this before the week is finished and compiling it through the week. I'll update the post a few times until I get it all done.

11/18 Monday UTC (Sunday night into Mon.)
Radio Jamba International: 6900 0039-0158
Unidentified: 6966.6U *0510-0542*
Radio True North: 6940 AM 0022-0930

11/19 Tuesday UTC (Monday night into Tues.)
Twangy Radio: 6925U *0147-0155* audio
Unidentified: 6980.2U *0148-0218*
Blue Ocean Radio (Cool AM Radio relay):6930U *0258-0359* 

11/20 Wednesday UTC (Tuesday night into Wed.)
Blue Ocean Radio (Cool AM Radio relay): 6930U 0038-0133*
Unidentified: 6925 *0149-0215* (Radio Free ?) audio
Blue Ocean Radio: 6925 CW 0217
Twangy Radio: 6925U *0235-0249* audio1 audio2

11/21 Thursday UTC (Wednesday night into Thurs.)
Unidentified: 6950.7 0141-0148*
Unidentified: 6969U 2300-2338*
Rave On Radio: 6925U 2349-0052* audio1 audio2

11/22 Friday UTC (Thursday night into Fri.)
Liquid Radio: 6935 *0025-0303*
Captain Morgan SW: 6925 *0203-0243*
Unidentified: 6925 *0303-0318*
Chamber Pot Radio: 6930U 0311-0340
Twangy Radio: 6925U 0331-0346 audio

Unidentified (JFK assassination audio): 6925 *2306-2307*


11/23 Saturday UTC (Friday night into Sat.)
JFK Shortwave 6930U 0007-0038*
YHWH 6075 0100-0231* audio
Boombox Radio 6850 1233-1334* 
WFUQ: 6925L 1835-1844*
My New Underpants: 6925 1900-1918* 
Happy Hanukkah: 6920 2014-2042* 
Radio Gallifrey Intergalactic: 6925U 2202-2225*
Radio Free Whatever: 6945 2310-2351*


11/24 Sunday UTC (Saturday night into Sun.)
Red Mercury Labs: 6925U 0038-0152*
The Late Movie: 6935 *0125-0145*
Wolverine Radio: 6935U *0145-0258*
Liquid Radio: 6925 0200-0703*
JFK Shortwave: 6930U 0212
Unidentified: 6935 0659-0730

Unidentified: 6925U 1315-1339*
WJFK 6949 1812-1817*
WJFK 6949 2046-2055*

 

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

11m SSTV Images from 11/17 to 11/19/13

I've captured a number of images on 27700 kHz, the unofficial SSTV "channel" for outbanders on 11m this week. It's so easy to leave the receiver on this frequency during the day and pull down images...but this is the Hobby Broadcasting blog, not the Outbander blog, so I'm going to cut back a little and maybe feature these images 1-3 times per week.

BTW, with a number of pirate DXers around the US leaving their radios on during the day, I wonder how long it'll take some pirates to run a few SSTV images on 27700 kHz, just to see if anyone's listening and to check propagation on the frequency. Testing here would be a great way to check propagation for potential broadcasts on the mostly empty 13-meter broadcasting band, afterall... Also, I wonder if any of the SSTV outbanders will ever stumble across sites like this one or HF Underground and try some pirate radio broadcasting?

Enough musing, here are those images:






10AD707, Mario, has been a regular on my radio. This image is from Monday, 11/18


14PH065, Henry, has probably been my most regular station from Europe. Image from Sunday, 11/17





This one is from Tuesday, 11/19





2AT563 is a new station for me. He's only the 2nd US station that I've received


Tuesday, November 19, 2013

11/19/13: 2013 Pirate Radio Annual update

As I mentioned about a week ago, I'm now taking advance orders for the 2013 Pirate Radio Annual.

Last Wednesday, I heard back from the printer that they no longer accept proprietary DTP files. It's PDF or nothing. And the printer contact sent some new guidelines for bleeds and image area. What did this mean? After about 15-20 hours of re-laying out the book again, I got it done, re-sent it to the printer and it was accepted on Monday. I skipped getting a sample copy for review, with the hope that it will speed up the process a bit.






As a result of re-laying out the book, it is now coming out at 182 pages.

Oh, I also received a question about the availability of previous editions. 2010, 2011, and 2012 are still available (but 2010 is nearly sold out). These older editions are $15 apiece and the shipping to the US is a flat $3 whether you buy one or four different copies.

Monday, November 18, 2013

Disaster radio: A Goldentone Cathedral Project

11/18/13
I really like junk and history. Maybe one reason why I like junk so much is because it's stuff with a past. Then if it's combined with something that I'm really interested in, like radio, well, I'm hooked. Most DXers that I know aren't really interested in old electronics, so this segment and the other radio restorations might not interest most of the people who check out this blog, but maybe some who are into old radio will find these entries while searching on Google.

Disclaimer: I'm just a radio listener who reads a lot and is probably a little too unafraid of jumping into projects. I learn by making mistakes...and considering how many mistakes I've made over the years, I should probably know a lot more than I do. So, I encourage anyone who reads these restoration entries to check out similar articles from other people and take the good while leaving the bad!

That said, I bought a radio that is just way too much work. I'm hoping for the end result to be a somewhat-flawed, but overall nice-looking radio that works. Is that setting the mark too low? Maybe not, considering where I am with my Emerson tombstone or my Philco 39 (which I'll probably feature on here some other day).

I bought this Goldentone cathedral on eBay. A lot of radio guys complain about eBay, but I think it's mostly great. No one's forcing me to buy anything and it gives me a chance to see a lot of radios quickly that I wouldn't otherwise. One of the complaints is that everyone sells junk there (e.g., all of the people who say "Works--light turns on." Sorry but that fits the definition of a working lamp, not a working radio).

This Goldentone cathedral is definitely junk, but I love the very cathedral-looking front panel and it was close enough that I could get the radio without paying shipping. Also, the seller showed lots of photos, so I knew what I was getting into.

So, here are the photos:




This radio looks like it's been sitting in a damp or wet basement for years. The veneer sides are toast & peeling badly, plus they've rotted at the bottom edge. The trim has popped and the nails are rusty. In front is a black walnut shell that was inside the radio--it was eaten by either squirrels, mice, or rats. Not a good sign.





Here's the back side. The rear case supports are gone and the chassis is really rusty. The positives are that the tubes are here and the speaker cone seems to be intact.

One problem with this radio is that I don't even know anything about the manufacturer. I've found very little on the Internet about it and I haven't found this particular radio. I sure hope that the capacitors are marked well, and with designations that I can figure out!

11/19/13
The cabinet on this radio is so fragile that I'm afraid that I'll break everything apart when I pull out the chassis, so I'm trying to repair it structurally beforehand. My first goal is to reattach the side to the bottom edge. But before I do that, I need to glue the two plys of veneer and a cheap underlayment wood (maybe basswood?) back together and then fix the rotted-away edge.





I wiped a lot of glue between the two plys and squeezed them flat between two boards with 4 clamps. I also used waxed paper to keep the boards from being glued to the plys. Last night, I pulled off the clamps and the plys pressed together better than I'd expected.




Today, I cut a piece of black walnut veneer to glue in where the underply had broken out. The frayed veneer edges require lots of clamps.

11/20/13
Last night, I cut small pieces of veneer to fit into the frayed edge, glued them in place, and filled the edges and the large crack with wood filler. The piece of trim that goes on this side was mashed in on the end (almost as if someone had dropped the radio so that it landed on its front left corner...hmmm...). I mashed it back a bit with a hammer and started filling it in with wood filler.

Today, I started sanding the trim piece and I sanded the extra wood filler off of the side of the cabinet. I tried to pound the nails back out of the trim, but they had taken on so much water for so long that they snapped off rather than endure being pounded back out. I also cut off the protrusion on the end of the trim piece that I had mostly (but not quite) mashed back into place with the hammer.


For this photo, I placed the trim on top of the side of the cabinet (of course that's not where it belongs, but I'm trying not to waste pics here). I'd like to finish sanding the trim and the lower part of the cabinet so that I can glue the whole side back together tonight, but I've got a lot of other things to do and I doubt that I'll get around to it.

11/23/13
I worked on the radio cabinet a lot last night. Although I moved it along, some of the directions where I moved were flawed. At first, everything seemed to go well. I peeled the side back to access the wooden mounting blocks around the edges and glued them.

I pulled the side back so that you can see the mounting blocks along the inside right edge of the cabinet.

As I was pulling back the side, I noticed that the hole in the top exactly matched the edge of the transformer that's mounted on the side of the speaker. While the side was popped out, someone dropped something on top of the cabinet, like a safe or a piano...which smashed the transformer completely through the 2-ply side. I took a picture of this, but it didn't really turn out.

Then, things went wrong. I drilled pilot holes into the trim and then down through the loose side of the cabinet so that I wouldn't split (or further split, in the case of the base) out everything I was nailing into. Despite using finish nails that were about the same diameter as the drill bit, the nails both grabbed and bent when I was nailing it in place. I had to pull the trim piece off the side and yank the nails out. This process messed up the wood putty that I'd been building up in the divot and it broke a piece of out the inside bottom of the trim.

After I pulled out the nails, I tried it again & got everything working and together. All glued, all nailed in place. Whew. But then I notice that I pulled it a bit too tight and the side doesn't quite line up with the groove in the front panel of the radio. Normally, I'd pull it off and start over, but I thought I'd cause more damage than anything if I tried. The side is close to the groove, but it's just not in it.

After these places dried, I pulled off the clamps and decided it would be a good time to start on the smashed-out hole where the transformer broke through the top of the side. I glued it heavily. My clamps wouldn't reach back that far, so I got a couple of longer pieces of wood, pulled out the waxed paper, and clamped it tightly.





It pulled together as good or maybe a little better than I expected. It's too tight inside the cabinet to be able to work, but after I pull out the chassis, I want to try gluing veneer on the underside to give the top more stability before filling the hole in the veneer from the top.

---
I was hoping to take the chassis out of the cabinet today. Both knobs have screws to hold them in place. As much rust as was on the potentiometers, the screws aren't necessary. The knob on what I guess is the tone control came off easily, but the screw in the tuning knob immediately stripped. Looks like I need to drill this screw out. Sigh.

So, I moved my attention to the dial escutcheon. The bottom nail was a bit loose, so I pried it off, which made it easier to pry off the top nail. I popped both of those nails into a sealed plastic bag before I could lose them. It was covered in surface rust. Thick stuff. I thought I'd need an industrial rust remover to strip it down. But I thought I'd try soaking it in white vinegar for an extended period of time to see if I could remove some of it. After a few hours soaking, I checked on the progress and I could see some gold showing! I pulled it out, thoroughly wiped it with a tissue and it looked good (except that most of the gold was gone).

Now knowing that it was originally gold, I spray painted it gold. I sprayed too thick and it removed most of the detail. So, I wiped the paint off and tried again. A few tries and I got it to the point that the escutcheon was gold without losing much detail. My guess is that the escutcheon was originally kind of a bronzey or "old gold" color and that mine is brighter than the original. But I'm OK with that. I took a few pics of this process...

Really rusty



    
After soaking in vinegar for 4-5 hours





After the paint job

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Logs for Sunday 11/17 to 11/18/13

Haven't been by the radio a lot lately (and not having an optimum setup isn't helping), but I'm at the radio now, so I thought I'd log something:

MAC: 6950.4, 2000-2103* Presidents of the USA "Confusion." Technical difficulties: A "wire popped out" and some dead air, followed by bits of music breaking up, 33-RPM record of "I Saw Her Standing There" being played at 45 RPM. Also, some feedback off & on throughout the show. Ishida Ayumi "Blue Light Yokohama." Considered going into rant on health care, but mentioned that these rants are all over the news and that pirate radio should be a distraction from all of these problems. Devo "Turn Around," Elvis "Blue Suede Shoes" kinda skipped right into "Tutti Fruiti," Bobby Riddell "World without Love." Cool, will play some home-recorded records from, probably '40s or '50s (tried, but the one record was apparently blank). Live TCs. Linus reading the Christmas story from A Peanuts Christmas.

Radio Free Whatever: 6950, *2104-2148* On with USSR national anthem, about a minute after the sign off of MAC. Announcers Dickweed and Stephen said tonight's show is all metal & called "QRM" & they'll play music by Lord Tracy, Joe Satriani, Metallica, Helix, Anthrax, Scorpions, etc. Nice signal.

Unidentified: 6955 2157+ As noted by Chris & Curious on HFU, someone is here with music. Really weak signal here and I'm listening in USB. Seems to be getting a tiny bit stronger here, so maybe that trend will continue and I'll eventually get a usable signal. At 2202, the levels came up & I hear "Free Ride" by Edgar Winter

Radio Jamba International (tentative): 6960 0005 Still pretty weak here with bits of music coming through


Saturday, November 16, 2013

NA Activity last week: 11/11 to 11/18/2013

OK, this post isn't ready yet, but the last one of these that I did took much longer than I expected. Also, I've been using UTC time for more than 30 years, but it still takes some time for me to figure out which day what happened with a pile of loggings. So, I'm going to post this before the week is finished and compile it through the week and then just update the post a few times until I get it all done.

11/11 Monday UTC (Sunday night into Mon.)
Unidentified: 6935 0245-0600
Unidentified: 6925U 0347-0405*
Unidentified: 6925U 1336-1353*
Edmund Fitzgerald: 6923 2229-2310*

11/12 Tuesday UTC (Monday night into Tues.)
Radio Totse: 6925U 0730-1238+ audio1 audio2 
Radio Gallifrey Intergalactic: 6925U *2338-2355* audio

11/13 Wednesday UTC (Tuesday night into Wed.)

11/14 Thursday UTC (Wednesday night into Thurs.)
Rave On Radio: 6925U 0020-0133* audio 
Captain Morgan: 6950.6 0226-0315* 
Red Mercury Labs: 6945U 0325-0440

Unidentified 6925U 1250-1301* audio 
Radio Gallifrey Intergalactic 6925U *2300-2309* audio
Radio Free Whatever: 6935 2301-0006
Radio True North: 6924.7 2306

11/15 Friday UTC (Thursday night into Fri.)
Twangy Radio: 6925U *0033-0038* 
Unidentified: 6920 *0108-0132*
Unidentified: 6955 *0136-0156*
Unidentified: 6924.9 *0353-0359* audio
Radio Echo One: 6925 2311-0010*

11/16 Saturday UTC (Friday night into Sat.)
Radio Mushroom: 6925U *0012-0037* audio
Tea Party Radio: 6925 CW *0042-0048* audio
Rave on Radio: 6925U *0209-0242* audio
Unidentified: 6925U *0305-0308* audio
Unidentified: 6925U *0333-0337* audio
Radio Gaga 6925U *1345-1402*
Fake Backwards Numbers Station: 6238.3 1518-1523* audio 
Twangy Radio 6925U *2030-2046*
Metro Radio International: 6950.3 2135
Radio Free Whatever: 6900 *2224-2324* audio
Borderhunter Radio (Europe): 6290 2348-0110

11/17 Sunday UTC (Saturday night into Sun.)
Radio Gallifrey Intergalactic 6930U *0005-0029*
Radio RWTFYWTCM: 6930.37 0013-0045*
Unidentified, 6966.66U, 0024-0105
Twangy Radio: 6925U *0045-0059* audio
Wolverine Radio 6930U *0106-0216*
Radio Totse (NZ) 6925U *0730-1037 audio audio
Radio GaGa 6925U 1340-1402*
MAC: 6950.4 *1852-2102*
Radio Free Whatever: 6950 *2104-2144*
Unidentified: 6955 *2145-2223*
Radio Jamba International: 6960 *2304-0034*
Radio True North: 6924.7 2320-0200+






 

11m SSTV images for 11/15/13

Caught some more SSTV images yesterday. Transatlantic propagation just didn't seen to be there...just a few faint images that were presumably from Europe. But 2DT385 from Texas did well here. I was outside most of this morning and forgot to sit the R-5000 on 27700 kHz, so I might not have many (any) SSTV images up from today.




Thursday, November 14, 2013

11m SSTV Images from 11/14/13

Some more pics from the outbanders. I was starting to think that my R-5000's filter was set too narrow to receive audio that MMSSTV could decode from. I wasn't getting any images, so today I opened the filter to wide and I received a few. Seems like propagation to Europe isn't too hot right now, but Mexico is doing just fine (or at least 10AD707 is):










And then I received this unknown SSTV of angry Donald:







Wednesday, November 13, 2013

NA Activity last week: 11/4 to 11/11/2013

This is a little bit that I hope to do on a regular basis. I think it might be kind of handy for listeners to have the logs assembled like this. If not, well, I'm hoping that it'll help me with creating the PRA every year. Not sure if I'll be able to create these lists every week, but if I can do them even 1/3 of the time, that's a plus. These are not the stations I heard, but a compilation of broadcasts that I found on the various forums, FRW, and anything that I heard and can contribute.

11/4 Monday UTC (Sunday night into Mon.)
WLIS (We Love Interval Signals) 6920 kHz 2335-0003*
Radio Echo One: 6919.5 *0100-0145* 
Unidentified: 6925 kHz *0146-0204*
Radio Totse (NZ): 6925U 0726-1100

11/5 Tuesday UTC (Monday night into Tues.)
Unidentified: 6925U kHz  0357-0402 audio
Red Mercury Labs: 6945U 0416-0420*
Radio Totse (NZ): 6925U 0759-1003
Radio True North (RTN): 6925 1151-1221*

11/6 Wednesday UTC (Tuesday night into Wed.)
Radio True North (RTN): 6924.7 2337-0517*

11/7 Thursday UTC (Wednesday night into Thur.)
Unidentified: 6925U 1257-1306

11/8 Friday UTC (Thursday night into Fri.)
Unidentified: 6930.4 *0052-0116* 
Twangy Radio 6925 USB *0236-0256*
Radio True North: 6924.7, 2342
MAC: 6950.3 2208-2306* audio

11/9 Saturday UTC (Friday night into Sat.)
Liquid Radio 6935 2241-0107
Radio Free Whatever (Radio Echo One relay): 6965 0004-0034
Radio WTFYWTCM (Whatever the F--- You Want To Call Me): 6940v 0008-0058*
Radio True North (RTN): 6924.7 0019-0047*
Twangy Radio: 6925U 0101 
Radio True North (RTN): 6940 0108-0406* Including RWBI relay
Unidentified, 6925U, 0205-0227*
Red Mercury Labs: 6925U *0519-0601* audio
Radio Free Whatever: 6925 *1944-2047*
Metro Radio International 6950.3 2117-2143
Radio Free Whatever: 6924.5 2110-2210*
Radio Free Whatever: 6850 2250-2335*

11/10 Sunday UTC (Saturday night into Sun.)
All Aboard Radio 6925U *0345-0351* audio
Sluwe Vos Radio (NL): 15080 1220-1304 
Edmund Fitzgerald Radio: 6923 1406-1442* audio
Sluwe Vos Radio: 21.460 1501-1530
Numbers Parody: 6954.7 1527
Premier Radio (Ireland): 6910 2031-2037
Numbers Parody: 6954.7 2207-2224*
WMPR: 6925 *2220-2308*
Marine Corps Birthday Radio: 6925.2 AM 2149-2204*
Radio Free Whatever: 6935 AM *2201-2307*
KEGE Relay: 6935 2307-0030*
WPOD: 6925U 2355







Tuesday, November 12, 2013

2013 PRA update, November 12, 2013

I've been thinking about a lot of ideas for posts lately, but I've been tied up with finishing the Pirate Radio Annual. The CD is finished and I matched up the tracks with the track listing. I went through the layout over the weekend and found a piece of art in the wrong place. So, I had to re-layout a big chunk of the book before I could send everything to the printer. Got that all finished last night and started to do a final lookover on the book before sending it out last night. Ten pages into it, I discovered that I forgot to include an entry. So, I wrote a new entry; sized, scaled, and saved the QSL in a different format; and started laying out the book again. I'm getting close to being done and I sure hope that I haven't missed any other stations (although I'd rather find out now than after the book is done).

Now that I have a blog going, I might post a list of the stations that will be in the 2014 PRA so that if I missed anyone, the op can write to me and say "Whoa, you missed station X!" And I can add it. Putting up station lists, etc. on the major pirate radio message boards, etc. really makes me uncomfortable because it probably looks like I'm trying to hype and over hype the PRA. So, I try to keep my public posts about it to a minimum. My blog is a different story and I figure that if anyone's here, there's a good chance that they want an update about "what's going on with the PRA and why is it late?!"

Anyway, I always have more ideas about things that I'd like to do than what I'm actually capable of doing, so I'm going to stop writing and finish laying out the PRA (hopefully for good this time!).

<About 2 hours later> The layout's done and now I'm going to look back over everything and hope that I didn't miss any other stations.

<Still a few hours later> I looked back over the layout and added an e-mail address that I missed thr first time around. And now the files are uploading to the printer's site. Whew!

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Pirate Logs for Sunday 11/10/13

This morning, Chris Smolinski and Curious George logged Sluwe Vos Radio from Holland on 15080 kHz at 1300 UTC. At about 1330, I checked it on both the R-5000 and the R-390A and did not even have a trace of a carrier here. My antenna has never performed well on 19 meters, so that's probably part of the problem.

A couple of fun things at the antique store this afternoon:





A General Electric from around 1940 with a tuning eye. The cabinet's in nice original condition, but the grille cloth is ripped around the edge of the speaker





The HASBRO Navy Blinker Code Lite, perfect for sending and receiving messages, up to a half mile!

2220: I missed Marine Corps Birthday Radio by a few minutes.

Reflections Europe: 6295 kHz,  2210_ more details to come...

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Pirate logs 11/9 and early 11/10 UTC

Back again and now playing around with make-shift listening to compensate for my dead Drake R8. I powered up the R-390A after a decade of disuse (!) and also the it-no-longer tunes Kenwood R-5000. I think the best way to probably operate these is with the R-390A on a random-wire antenna that I can use for tuning and finding signals and the R-5000 on the dipole so that I can record signals once I've tuned them in. I think this might be a plan.

For the time being, I have the center element of the dipole alligator clipped to the R-390A and I'm tuning around:

Metro Radio International (tentative): 6950, 2150+ Have a carrier here. This is MRI per HFU logging.

Radio Free Whatever: 6925, 2150+ Had a decent carrier & some music here, but weak. RFW per HFU logging.

Thursday, November 7, 2013

MW logs 11/8/13



More time in the car...

1670 WXM42 (Hagerstown, MD) 0030 Clear sig, much better than yesterday. Weather forecast, current time

1630 KCJJ (Iowa City, IA) 0037 Talk radio show, ad for a grille in Iowa City that has 20 TVs “You’re listening to Ginny Collins on 1630 KCJJ”

1600 WAAM (Ann Arbor, MI) 0052 Gene Butman Ford ad in Ypsilanti, Dalton Environmental Cleaning in Whitmore Lake, into syndicated talk show

1480 WEEO (Shippensburg, PA) 0114 Old country, including “Harper Valley PTA” DJ with audio clip of George Strait talking about winning entertainer of the year, ads for Kohl’s, Home Depot, Lube & Go in Carlisle

1190 WOWO (Ft. Wayne, IN) 0200. “WOWO, depend on it” clear ID at the top of the hour. Another station underneath running an EAS test

1180 WHAM (Rochester, NY) 0201 Vikings/Redskins game. Vikings up 7-3, but Redskins driving down the field

1170 WWVA (Wheeling, WV) 0205 Daniel Rhodes ending one program, going into another paid program that had a WWVA disclaimer at the beginning

1140 WRBA (Richmond, VA) Weather (51 degrees at 9:05). Promo to win NASCAR tickets

1100 WTAM (Cleveland, OH) station promo for wtam.com, talk show announcer discussing Northwestern’s stars’n’stripes football uniforms & people who have complained about them

A couple of tentative AM (MW) logs from 11/6/13



Sitting in the car, waiting, so I tuned for a few minutes to see if I could find anything interesting.

CHTO (tentative): 1690 kHz, 2052 UTC. Fair signal with long, deep fades. Very Middle Eastern-sounding music, some talk in a different language. Tuned in off and on for a few hours. Looked up 1690 and the closest stations to me are WPTX in Maryland with a newstalk format, CHTO in Toronto with 3 kW and an ethnic format, and WMLB from Georgia with "an eclectic radio format, playing classical music, folk music, jazz, show tunes, comedy bits, and some rock and roll." My guess is CHTO, but again, this is tentative.

TIS: 1670 kHz, 2053 UTC. TIS with computer voices announcing weather and windspeed for the Hagerstown, MD/Winchester, VA area. This one doesn't seem to be in the listings for TIS