DXing On The Dock Of The Bay

[Schroedingers Cat]

A few days ago, I was able to DX AM BC FM BC SW at the end of a 75 foot dock on an Inland Lake in Northern Michigan. Despite the fact that the cottage was extremely noisy electrically, there was almost no electrical noise out there. I was especially impressed with the SW reception on the Tecsun PL-880. I heard WWV on 5000, 10000, 15000, 20000, and 25000 kHz, and CHU on 3330, 7850, and 14670 kHz, at the same time. I forgot to check 2500 kHz.

Any ideas for a longer term setup like that, just having an antenna out there with a transmission line? Obviously it would be seasonal because docks are seasonal. The PL-880 is disappointing in the Daytime on weak AM BC, though I was able to hear WTMJ 620 audibly. WSCR 670, WGN 720, WJR 760, WBBM 780 (almost inaudible), WLS 890 (about the same as WBBM), and others, were present but not really readable. Stations such as WFDF 910 and WWJ 950, can be heard on a Delco type car radio, but with cochannel interference from WDOR 910 and WCLB 950. Couldn't really hear those on the PL-880.

There are many strong local FM signals in the area, including about a half dozen translators. There were a few distant signals such as WIOG 102.5 and WKQZ 93.3. A couple of the translators are 250 watts from over 1000 feet HAAT, about equivalent to a 3 kW Class A. Fortunately, almost all FMs don't use IBOC, and one of those is off the air. I'd try to convince the owner to put it in an accessible Software Controlled Radio there, but the shoreline with power is much noisier than out over the water. Any ideas?

 

[radioman148]

I'll let others try to answer your antenna questions, but I'm wondering how late night DX is up there from the lower 48?

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

The PL-880 has an odd performance characteristic on AM BC. It’s not very sensitive at all compared to the GE SR 1 or 2 or Panasonic RF-2200, but once it gets to a certain signal strength, it locks on like an old FM AFC but without the wide tuning lack of selectivity. It’s very selective. I assume this is the digital signal processing. At Night, all the old roughly East of the Mississippi Class I-As and I-Bs and the “Super Class IIs and IIIs” like WFDF, WWJ, WYLL, WHBY, and WOOD all lock right in clearly nearly every Night. 5-10 kW Night IIs and IIIs are clear but intermittent, like WTMJ and CFCO. But like I said, only WTMJ from the lower Lake Michigan area comes in readably Days. High power Daytime stations come in during CH, like WRRD Waukesha on 1510. I was also hearing WNDZ 750 during CH. WARD is off the air.

 

[radioman148]

Thanks for the update.