Working Jean Shepherd

Jean Parker Shepherd, Jr. (1921-1999), often referred to by the nickname Shep, was an American storyteller, humorist, radio and TV personality, writer, and actor. With a career that spanned decades, Jean was best known for the film A Christmas Story (1983), which he narrated and co-scripted. It was based on stories from his youth, growing up in Hammond, Indiana, in the 1930s.

Perhaps lesser known, Jean was a lifelong radio enthusiast and ham operator. In his middle years, he regaled his nightly WOR-710 radio audience with quirky social commentary, stories of post-depression life, of early radio, and his Army years.

I grew up listening to the Jean Shepherd radio show from about 1960 till 1966 when I went into the service. His show was carried by WOR-710 in New York. It was on every night, Monday to Friday, from 10 PM till 11. I was a kid and lived in the Philadelphia area, only 90 miles from NYC. I would lie in bed cuddled up to a 5 tube superhet and then later a transistor radio. In between I would DX. Wolfman Jack would boom in from the Texas/Mexico border.

I got my ham license in 1963, and Jean's previous night's monolog was always the talk of the high school radio club every day. He was idolized among the young ham radio crowd because Jean was also a ham. His call was K2ORS.

I had the privilege of working Jean on 15 meter SSB one day in the early 1980s. I was out of the service and married and lived in the Denver, Colorado area. My call was W0OHF at the time. The band was seemingly dead. I called CQ and this voice came back: "W0OHF, this is K2ORS". It took a few seconds to register. I hadn't thought of Jean in quite a few years. Could it be??

It indeed was. He was in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, enjoying a respite of sorts. He was operating portable from the top floor of a condo building with a short stick vertical clamped to the porch railing. We chatted for 45 minutes.

I related the story of my youth to him and how much his radio shows meant to me as a teenager. And I thanked him for that. It was one of the greatest thrills of my radio-life.

His stories of early radio and Army life set the stage for my own life. He was one of my heroes.

If you remember the famed "brass figlagee with bronze oak-leaf palm" or "watch out for live wires", you know of Jean Shepherd.

In 2005, Shepherd was posthumously inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame.

"Excelsior, you fathead!!!", he would exclaim.

Thank you, Shep, for all the wonderful memories.

Bill, WE7W

Jean Shepherd, 1921-1999

Canadian Graveyard Stations

The other day I stripped off the official list of Canadian graveyard stations, per Industry Canada. Taken from their database of Dec. 21, 2021. All of these still show licensed by IC. One or more of the lower power ones may be inactive. TIS stations? The database doesn't indicate it.

Call    Frequency  Power  Location

----    ---------  -----  ----------------

CBPD    1230       5      Glacier Park, BC

CHFC    1230       250    Churchill, MB 

CFNI    1240       1000   Port Hardy, BC 

CJOR    1240       1000   Osoyoos, BC 

CKMK    1240       1000   Mackenzie, BC 

CJAR    1240       1000   The Pas, MB 

CKIM    1240       1000   Baie Verte, NF 

CBLE    1240       40     Beardmore, ON 

CBLO    1240       40     Mattawa, ON 

CINL    1340       1000   Ashcroft, BC 

CJEV    1340       50     Elkford, BC 

CFKC    1340       250    Creston, BC 

CBLB    1340       40     Schreiber, ON 

CHNL    1400       1000   Clearwater, BC 

CIOR    1400       1000   Princeton, BC 

CBG     1400       4000   Gander, NF 

CBOF    1400       40     Rolphton, ON 

CBMD    1400       40     Chapais, QC 

CBKA    1450       40     Stewart, BC 

CFAB    1450       1000   Windsor, NS 

CBLF    1450       40     Foleyet, ON 

CHOU    1450       2000   Montréal, QC 

CBPC    1490       5      Glacier Park, BC 

CFNC    1490       50     Cross Lake, MB 

CHTO    1490       23     Mississauga, ON 

CBPP    1490       20     Prince Edward Island, PE 

CJSN    1490       1000   Shaunavon, SK

Visiting Barry Goldwater

Remember Barry Goldwater, K7UGA? Yes, that Barry Goldwater, the senator who ran for president against Lyndon Johnson in 1964. Barry was a ham operator.

When I was a kid in 1964, the year Goldwater ran for president, my high school friend Jeff and I took the afternoon off from school and went to the local W.T.Grants store parking lot and watched him speak during a campaign sweep through Warminster, PA. I was thrilled. Of course, all my other ham buddies were there to cheer him on. There wasn't a teenaged ham who wasn't for Barry.

In 1987 I moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where I spent a couple of years before moving on to smaller digs. Now, many know that Goldwater was from Arizona, and specifically from Phoenix. I remembered one time when I was a kid seeing a picture of his house in QST magazine. It was the perfect DX location, high on a mountain overlooking the city, with a huge antenna array on a tall tower. Barry was quite active in the amateur MARS service too and ran many phone patches for GIs overseas, especially during the Vietnam era. I decided it shouldn't be too hard to find that house, if he was still in the same one.

So, one day I was running around in my car and found myself in north Phoenix. Now in north Phoenix, there are several little conical shaped mountains. Understand too that there was housing all around them, even on the tops of these things. So, I started looking around. Sure enough, on the highest one right off of Lincoln Ave. stood a huge antenna tower and array. Something came over me and I thought - what the hell - I'll drive up there and see what happens. So, I did.

I snaked up this road, past lesser housing, and found myself at the top of this small mountain at the entrance to a large, gated property and 1950s style house. There in front of me was the huge antenna array. I just knew this had to be Goldwater's house. The gate was open, so....

I drove in and parked by the garage, which was separate from the house, but connected through a covered walkway. Well, I had come this far and not gotten arrested, so I walked up to the front door and knocked. An elderly woman came to the door. In my most innocent voice, I identified myself, told her I was a ham, and asked if Mr. Goldwater was in. She replied she was the housekeeper and that no, Mr. Goldwater was in Washington on business. She then asked me if I would like to see the station!!! I about wet my pants, and of course I said YES!!! She took me into the garage, which Barry had remodeled into a first-class ham station, all in cherry wood paneling. The entire thing was expensive Collins equipment. All of it!!!! All set into a custom-made desk/wall in the middle of the room. On the outer walls were dozens of 8x10 pictures of Barry with every leader of the world you can think of, from Nikita Khrushchev of the USSR, King Hussein of Jordan, to Kennedy, to Nixon, and Eisenhower on down. In front of the huge radio desk/wall was a giant coffee table with a glass cover. In that coffee table were keys to the cities of the world. There had to have been two dozen of them in there. What an experience!

The housekeeper let me wander around and look at everything. When I was done, I said thank you and goodbye and drove back down the mountain, flying about 100 feet off the road. I had been to Barry Goldwater's house and had been given the tour!!

Thought you might like this story. People have told me that it took balls to do that. But to me it seemed like one ham visiting another. I'm sure if Barry had been home, he would have given me the tour, just the same. Hams are like that.

Bill WE7W

RDMW 2022 Mediumwave Pattern Reference

North American Broadcast Mapping Tool & Database

Editor's note: The newest version of the pattern set (2024) is available. See the link at the upper right of this page.

We are proud to announce the launch of the latest edition RDMW-2022 Medium Wave Pattern Reference. Now in its 9th year, RDMW comes with many new features and updated station data ready for 2022.

Radio Data Medium Wave (RDMW) allows you to see and map the coverage area of all medium wave (AM/MW) broadcast stations in North America.

Included is a complete set of Google Map-based, HTML-driven maps which show the most current pattern plots of all licensed US and Canadian mediumwave broadcast stations from 530 - 1700 KHz. Through careful curating, virtually 99% of all licensed Mexican stations are also included, the vast majority with plots. Lastly, also included are a sample of Caribbean stations, and the coastal marine NAVTEX 490 Khz and 518 KHz stations.

The set includes all frequencies for the indicated services: Unlimited, Daytime, Nighttime, and Critical Hours. Data for the plots is based on the current FCC and Industry Canada databases available at creation (October 19, 2021).

870 KHz - skywave at night to the UK

If you've ever wondered why a radio listener would be interested in the coverage patterns or maps of radio stations then you can find out at Medium Wave Circle.

New developments for 2022 include:

• The latest callsign and technical data for all US and Canadian MW stations
• Expansion to cover Mexico, Bahamas and the Caribbean for the first time
• Expansion to cover 490kHz – 1700kHz; now includes MW Navtex stations
• Addition of real-time night/day terminator (greyline)
• “Click+Save” setting of your receiver location
• Easy tuning control added to control bar
• Easy daypart selector added to control bar
• Ray tracing control added on a per station basis.
• In-screen “Help” button

Knowledge drawn from RDMW has been fundamental in helping DXers further their craft and enjoy their hobby. It can help you plan your listening and help you target stations broadcasting from particular areas. Intelligence displayed by RDMW has helped U.S. & European DXers plan and hear US stations over great distances – including so-called “daytimer DX” and transpolar propagation. The RDMW maps will also help you determine which stations you might hear on a particular channel, and which might be rather more elusive.

Drawing on the latest data from official sources, club sources and topped off with many days of extensive data checking and validation RDMW probably has the most comprehensive and up to date dataset for AM/MW broadcasting stations in North America. This data is combined with complex geophysical data and propagation modelling to provide you with extremely detailed coverage maps for both daytime groundwave and nighttime skywave coverage for around 5000 radio stations.

RDMW 2022 has been developed and tested by Bill Scott and Steve Whitt and is exclusively available from the Medium Wave Circle DXing club.

This year marks a sea change in how the map sets will be delivered to you, the end user. Europe's premier medium wave DX club, The Medium Wave Circle will be hosting the download. The Medium Wave Circle is an international club for radio enthusiasts. It brings together people all over the world with a similar interest in medium wave radio (MW, AM or BCB) and related topics.

A small fee will be charged to cover bandwidth costs, less than a price of a coffee. Paid membership in the club is not required. Payment is through a PayPal gateway and is safe and secure. You do not need a PayPal account to use this facility.

Click the link just below and get your copy today.

RDMW 2022 Medium Wave Pattern Reference – Medium Wave Circle (mwcircle.org)

Consider supporting The Medium Wave Circle by joining. Its membership fee is a modest amount for a great return. You will also get access to the group's monthly newsletter, The Medium Wave News, published since 1954, and over 500 past copies of MWN available exclusively to members. You will also get access to the Circle archives and pre-publication discounts on the essential reference book the World Radio TV Handbook. Last but not least, you will have access to a great forum of friendly and helpful people on groups.io.

We hope you will enjoy this latest version of the Radio Data Medium Wave Pattern Reference. Several hundred hours have been spent this year enhancing the pattern generating program and curating the data. Best of DX!