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DX with 'FAN & 'CBS off Briefly Mon AM

Steve Green NEPA

Steve Green NEPA

By the time I was about to post this, WFAN came back on the air at 1:15 and I knew WCBS would be back on ASAP themselves. I'd gotten home from work at 1AM and saw a post about WFAN being off for transmitter maintenance.

660 had a female talker (unk language) and a somewhat louder but still faint dance music station, or at least a long disco-ish song. The GE SR II bearing was picking up to the south and the north.

880 was goofy. There finally surfaced a female voice -- I think English ; it was very faint -- talking for a while at 1:15. But on the high side of 880 I was getting what resembled Morse Code in a tone that sounded like someone was keying the button of an ancient, rusted alarm clock's sideband. Whatever the message was, if it was a message, went for about 1:10 and then seemed to recycle after maybe :10 of silence. Some of the dashes were quite long.

The GE SR II was on the same bearing for both 660 and 880 .... maybe on an axis a little east of south and a little west of north.

Sorry for the slowness in posting, but I had to see if both stations were off the air (as they usually are at these times). 'Proving a negative' took a little more time than I wound up having.
 
Steve Green NEPA said:
By the time I was about to post this, WFAN came back on the air at 1:15 and I knew WCBS would be back on ASAP themselves. I'd gotten home from work at 1AM and saw a post about WFAN being off for transmitter maintenance.

660 had a female talker (unk language) and a somewhat louder but still faint dance music station, or at least a long disco-ish song. The GE SR II bearing was picking up to the south and the north.

880 was goofy. There finally surfaced a female voice -- I think English ; it was very faint -- talking for a while at 1:15. But on the high side of 880 I was getting what resembled Morse Code in a tone that sounded like someone was keying the button of an ancient, rusted alarm clock's sideband. Whatever the message was, if it was a message, went for about 1:10 and then seemed to recycle after maybe :10 of silence. Some of the dashes were quite long.

The GE SR II was on the same bearing for both 660 and 880 .... maybe on an axis a little east of south and a little west of north.

Sorry for the slowness in posting, but I had to see if both stations were off the air (as they usually are at these times). 'Proving a negative' took a little more time than I wound up having.
Click to expand...

Do these stations usually signoff on Monday mornings? Years ago alot of stations did, but these days I didn't think hardly any did anymore.
 
radioman148 said:
Do these stations usually signoff on Monday mornings? Years ago a lot of stations did, but these days I didn't think hardly any did anymore.
Click to expand...

Many, if not most of the 50kW stations have a backup transmitter (or two). The engineers can do their testing of the "offline" transmitter using a resistive "dummy" load, so testing is rarely necessary on the air (unless there has been a modification to a directional antenna system) Sometimes a station is taken off the air overnight to perform work on the lighting system for the tower(s), due to the danger of RF burns. Additionally, it is rare for a modern digital transmitter to fail completely since transmitters are modular. See http://hawkins.pair.com/wabcnow.shtml#digmodsect
 
stormy01 said:
radioman148 said:
Do these stations usually signoff on Monday mornings? Years ago a lot of stations did, but these days I didn't think hardly any did anymore.
Click to expand...

Many, if not most of the 50kW stations have a backup transmitter (or two). The engineers can do their testing of the "offline" transmitter using a resistive "dummy" load, so testing is rarely necessary on the air (unless there has been a modification to a directional antenna system) Sometimes a station is taken off the air overnight to perform work on the lighting system for the tower(s), due to the danger of RF burns. Additionally, it is rare for a modern digital transmitter to fail completely since transmitters are modular. See http://hawkins.pair.com/wabcnow.shtml#digmodsect
Click to expand...

Too bad. In the 60s & 70s many 50KW stations signed off on Monday mornings allowing many of us to receive very rare DX.
 
Back in the day (he recalls, sipping his Geritol-and-tonic on the ice), the two stubbornnset, goshdarnedest, motherjumpingest New York City stations to reliquish their air space for any reason were WMCA and WOR.

In the Sixties, every other AM outfit in town cheerfully -- almost in relief -- used to use any excuse to go off ealy Monday mornings. But not WMCA or WOR. Their Monday morning silences were noted on the calendar very randomly and annoyingly far apart, the way new comets are discovered.

Catches other than WOR and WMCA on those frequencies were the toughest loggings on the whole New York City dial.
 
Steve Green NEPA said:
Back in the day (he recalls, sipping his Geritol-and-tonic on the ice), the two stubbornnset, goshdarnedest, motherjumpingest New York City stations to reliquish their air space for any reason were WMCA and WOR.

In the Sixties, every other AM outfit in town cheerfully -- almost in relief -- used to use any excuse to go off ealy Monday mornings. But not WMCA or WOR. Their Monday morning silences were noted on the calendar very randomly and annoyingly far apart, the way new comets are discovered.

Catches other than WOR and WMCA on those frequencies were the toughest loggings on the whole New York City dial.
Click to expand...

In Chicago WGN strayed from the norm by signing off on Tuesday mornings. Then 670 WMAQ was one of the Monday morning shut downs which allowed be to hear KNBR.
 
Back in the 70s, the only way I was able to get 1210 (then WCAU) out in Northern California was when the station in Oklahoma, I think it was, signed off late at night. Same for WCBS, when I wouldn't even try until the station in Nebraska signed off very late. That Nebraska station had a good signal in California.

I wouldn't even think of attempting to DX like that nowadays.
 
gar fla said:
Back in the 70s, the only way I was able to get 1210 (then WCAU) out in Northern California was when the station in Oklahoma, I think it was, signed off late at night. Same for WCBS, when I wouldn't even try until the station in Nebraska signed off very late. That Nebraska station had a good signal in California.

I wouldn't even think of attempting to DX like that nowadays.
Click to expand...

Yes KRVN Lexington, Nebraska used to put a big signal into California at night. Their signal was highly directional west at night. In the 70s & early 80s they would signoff at midnight central and then you could hear WCBS in California.
The station on 1210 I believe is in Guymon, OK.
 
KRVN has been known to put in a hell of a signal into Chicago before their DA kicks in. IF you can pull it out from under the WLS splatter....which on more than a few occasions, you can.
 
cyberdad said:
KRVN has been known to put in a hell of a signal into Chicago before their DA kicks in. IF you can pull it out from under the WLS splatter....which on more than a few occasions, you can.
Click to expand...

I've heard them a few times very early around Chicago sunrise when WCBS is not an issue.
 
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