• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

An amazing station pick up

MarcB

MarcB

The conditions in the chilly, rainy weather we had in Southington, Connecticut yesterday must have been just right. I had what I considered to be an amazing station pick up.

I was sitting in a parking lot on Route 10 in Southington, messing around with the radio in a 2010 Honda Civic and I picked up a station on 97.7 FM playing Oldies music. It was staticy, but listenable. I hear the station ID as "The Valley's Classic Hits 97.7 and 1250 AM." Curiosity got the better of me and I continued listening. Two more songs played and then the DJ said "Let's Check the weather with Dan Brown." The weather forecast plays and the forecaster says "I'm Western Mass News's Dan Brown for Classic Hits 97.7 and 1250 AM." - That's when I knew I was picking up the translator of WARE 1250-AM.

When I got home I went on line and looked up the translator. It's W249DP and they broadcast with 200 watts from the town of Monson, Massachusetts. I google driving directions from Southington to Monson and it's about 64 miles to Monson. I realize there's a difference in the distance between driving and air miles, but to me it was simply amazing that I was picking up a 200 watt translator from a completely different state.

Info about W249DP: http://fccinfo.com/CMDProEngine.php?sCurrentService=FM&tabSearchType=Appl&sAppIDNumber=1773705

Classic Hits 97.7's Website: http://www.classichits977.com/
 
Once in a while I will get K243CK on 96.5, out of Pendleton OR and relaying KUMA-1290. From here to there it's over 110 miles. However, even at 250w when the signal is on top of the hill about 2000 feet HAAT overlooking Pendleton, a 250w station has the power of a station with several kilowatts.
 
There's a stretch of Rt. 5 in Meriden, CT, where I can pick up 250-watt W251BY (98.1) Patchogue, NY. This station comes in fairly well in New Haven, 20 miles south, but the signal deteriorates rapidly as you get away from the coast. Not sure why this particular patch of Rt. 5 is so friendly to this distant FM translator, but my reception is no fluke. I can hear the signal just about every day.
 
In Charleston when there is skip I can frequently get a couple of translators from Savannah. That is 80 or 85 miles away. On even routine tropo I get a 99.1 translator from over 50 miles away in Beaufort.
 
CTListener said:
There's a stretch of Rt. 5 in Meriden, CT, where I can pick up 250-watt W251BY (98.1) Patchogue, NY. This station comes in fairly well in New Haven, 20 miles south, but the signal deteriorates rapidly as you get away from the coast. Not sure why this particular patch of Rt. 5 is so friendly to this distant FM translator, but my reception is no fluke. I can hear the signal just about every day.
Click to expand...

Oldies 98 is a good station. I listen to them from time to time on TUNE-IN when I'm sick of the nonsense on the local Oldies station Kool 96.1/990. I like how Oldies 98 carries Dick Clark. I wish Kool 96.1/990 would drop that five-hour block of Wolfman Jack on Saturday nights and pick up Dick Clark.
 
Kurt Jackson, the owner of WARE, knows his stuff. He put 97.7 on the air at a good high-elevation site that looks down into both Springfield and Worcester. I'm not at all surprised that its signal makes it down your way from time to time.

(Bonus trivia: I brokered the sale of that translator to him a couple of years ago!)
 
[Quote]I realize there's a difference in the distance between driving and air miles
Yep, most definitely a difference. In my posts, I will state, 100, 120 miles, 150 miles, etc...What I'm using is google pedometer (http://www.mappedometer.com/ ) click straight line, and bam...full distance line of site to transmitter. Transmitter location can be found all over the web, and I just click the top of the stick ( FM ), then my location. Pretty accurate. For AM, I usually pick the center transmitter ( if there are three towers ).

Nice catch my friend!!!
Click to expand...
 
MarcB said:
The conditions in the chilly, rainy weather we had in Southington, Connecticut yesterday must have been just right. I had what I considered to be an amazing station pick up.

I was sitting in a parking lot on Route 10 in Southington, messing around with the radio in a 2010 Honda Civic and I picked up a station on 97.7 FM playing Oldies music. It was staticy, but listenable. I hear the station ID as "The Valley's Classic Hits 97.7 and 1250 AM." Curiosity got the better of me and I continued listening. Two more songs played and then the DJ said "Let's Check the weather with Dan Brown." The weather forecast plays and the forecaster says "I'm Western Mass News's Dan Brown for Classic Hits 97.7 and 1250 AM." - That's when I knew I was picking up the translator of WARE 1250-AM.

When I got home I went on line and looked up the translator. It's W249DP and they broadcast with 200 watts from the town of Monson, Massachusetts. I google driving directions from Southington to Monson and it's about 64 miles to Monson. I realize there's a difference in the distance between driving and air miles, but to me it was simply amazing that I was picking up a 200 watt translator from a completely different state.

Info about W249DP: http://fccinfo.com/CMDProEngine.php?sCurrentService=FM&tabSearchType=Appl&sAppIDNumber=1773705

Classic Hits 97.7's Website: http://www.classichits977.com/
Click to expand...

Similar Weather Conditions to when I originally picked up this translator back in May, but a few degrees colder. They were coming in crystal clear at the Southington Armory on Woodruff Street yesterday. Also the translator known as "Oldies 98" from Long Island was coming in, but staticy and reception kept changing between the and Cat Country 98.1 WCTK from New Bedford, Mass.
 
I heard a 250 watt translator from about 1250 miles away during FM DX "season" this past summer. :)
 
I'll beat you at that - 94w KWMV-LP 95.9 Westcliffe CO, 7/5/15 on E-skip, 967 miles away! And KOLS-LP 98.5 Oakhurst CA, heard 5/17/17 at only 642 miles, also on E's! I've got recordings on both BTW. Not to mention a couple of translators at 250w or less. All of these on portable radios and built-in three or four foot whips...nothing special on the roof or whatever. 2015 was an excellent season for Es and 2017 was the best I've ever had, my only double-hop logging so far...
 
E skip is a wonderful thing. When it's right, pretty much any power will get through -- I've heard some amazing ham signals on 6 meters (50-54 mhz) over the years running 100 watts or less. My best catch on FM from here in Connecticut has been Valdosta, Ga., a couple of years ago, but I'm by no means a DXer; I just stumble onto the openings. In my three years in Arkansas in the late '70s, I caught a pair of openings -- one produced WOCB (now WXTK) in West Falmouth, Mass., while the other brought in a dozen or so signals from the upper Midwest, mostly Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. That day, I phoned the station I heard from Rice Lake, Wis., and got to chat with the engineer, who remarked that he'd already gotten 4 or 5 calls from listeners in the South.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom