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Saturday, September 6, 2008

On The Air

It's about time I added something to this blog, wouldn't you say?

A new, or I should say "renewed", interest for me is mediumwave DXing on the AM broadcast band. With my location in Western New York on the east coast of the U.S., multitudes of stations produce near chaos on the band.

Locally too, there are 50KW (WHAM, Rochester) and a 20KW (WYSL, Avon) transmitter outlets, and they play havoc with a receiver that has any kind of serious antenna attached. The 20KW transmitter is the worst, at a distance of only 5 miles, with a pattern pointed my way.

Recently, the new sport of Ultralight Radio DXing has taken hold, and has kindled some interest with me also. This is mediumwave DXing using small, inexpensive AM portables. More info can be found on this excellent Canadian site:

http://www.dxer.ca/


I have one ultralight radio at the moment, a Sony SRF-M37V. Latest DX received here just last night (Sep. 6, UTC) was KCJJ-1630, Iowa City, Iowa, a distance of 710 miles. This is a 10/1KW station and was received at 0200 UTC while running nightime power of 1KW. Signal was good at times, they were broadcasting some local football match. This was received with no external antenna or loop assist.

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