I love this thread. I remember how excited I was when I was 13 living on Long Island and picking up WBAL at night. To this day many decades later I still love to DX on a good radio during the day. WOKV at 690 has an incredible daytime signal from Eastern North Carolina to Melbourne. I've picked up WQAM and WIOD in Daytona Beach. I was in Burlington,Vt and picked up WABC during the day. WBZ is another flamethrower with a daytime signal that comes in from Northern Coastal Maine to Long Island. Another catch was WICC at 600 from Bridgeport,Ct coming in in Rehobeth Beach,De.Amazing what water can do!
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- Thread starter BobOnTheJob
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This is a little bit off-topic, but in the same vein...years ago, I was standing on the beach in Gulf Shores, AL at the end of Hwy 59, with my Ham 2-meter handy-talkie...with 5 watts and its rubber duck, I was talking to New Orleans, LA Hams across the water!
Also, about 22 years ago, we had a MASSIVE opening on 2 meters (146 MHz). I was at Denny's, meeting up with some other Hams and talking on our local 146.94 repeater; this fellow with a Hispanic accent came in and we started talking. To make a long story short, he was near Mexico City, Mexico! Two nights later, the trend reversed and we were accessing his local repeater from Mobile, AL!
So, yes, water- and the right conditions- CAN make a difference!
Bud, KC4HGH
Also, about 22 years ago, we had a MASSIVE opening on 2 meters (146 MHz). I was at Denny's, meeting up with some other Hams and talking on our local 146.94 repeater; this fellow with a Hispanic accent came in and we started talking. To make a long story short, he was near Mexico City, Mexico! Two nights later, the trend reversed and we were accessing his local repeater from Mobile, AL!
So, yes, water- and the right conditions- CAN make a difference!
Bud, KC4HGH
My record with an HT on 2m is Point Loma in San Diego to the Mt. Disappointment repeater on 1/2 watt. Mostly over water (no obstructions) but altitude here was everything. Also hit the Signal Hill machine on 1/2 watt on 440 from the same location.
Another hint to NW DX'ers on FM. Take an FM portable to to the rim of Crater Lake
Another hint to NW DX'ers on FM. Take an FM portable to to the rim of Crater Lake
K6JHU said:My record with an HT on 2m is Point Loma in San Diego to the Mt. Disappointment repeater on 1/2 watt. Mostly over water (no obstructions) but altitude here was everything. Also hit the Signal Hill machine on 1/2 watt on 440 from the same location.
Another hint to NW DX'ers on FM. Take an FM portable to to the rim of Crater Lake
Speaking of hints, I will be doing a bandscan [or two] on June 1st, as I go up around the Skykomish area along US-2, at an elevation of 2100 ft or so. Hoping to get some knife edge refraction from the Cascades so I can get Yakima and Tri-Cities stations on FM!
-crainbebo
WGU20 said:
R
rbrucecarter5
Guest
WGU20 said:
CAn you give us more details on the radio - that is an excellent logging, and in line with what I would expect from a GE SR series, CCrane EP, or equivalent.
R
rbrucecarter5
Guest
I have to give a nod to my grandfather, who logged the 500kW incarnation of WLW during the 30's from Lubbock, TX, daytime, with a 2 foot loop in the cabinet of a five stage TRF radio.
rbrucecarter5 said:
I wish WLW could turn on that 500KW again just for a few days so we could test the ground wave coverage now.
R
rbrucecarter5
Guest
radioman148 said:
Keep in mind all that was going right in the 1930's. No light dimmers, no flourescent bulbs, no computer networking, no microcontrollers, no switching power supplies, a lot fewer stations on the air. And a lot more water in the Ogallala Aquifer under Lubbock. Add to that a 2 foot loop - standard inside the back cabinet of the radio, and tons of gain. I had a chance to play around with that radio - it was easily capable of DFW station reception in the 1960's - 570 from Dallas was easily separated from a local 580, and was almost static free. Even decades after its last alignment. The upper part of the dial, however, was a total mess with stations appearing 3 or 4 places. It did not tune above 1500 kHz. The audio response of the stations changed as you tuned up and down the dial. Pretty predictable for a tuned RF architecture receiver. Properly aligned, it probably would have been quite a performer!
CAn you give us more details on the radio - that is an excellent logging, and in line with what I would expect from a GE SR series, CCrane EP, or equivalent.
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My second trusty Sony 2010 died when I hit the ground. I found a very quiet DX location here. Very little if any noise. For medium wave, I use a 40 year old, Radio Shack TRF 12-655 with no modifications. For long wave I use a small Sony SW-11. I don’t think the Sony has an RF stage, but I can hear BBC radio 4 on 198 KHz at a listenable level, along with other Europeans late in the evening. I am in the process of winding a large box loop for long wave as for various reasons a long wire is out of the question. I have many long and medium wave loops, and tunable home brew pre-amps in storage. Nothing fancy. The pre-amps use 6BA6 tubes and Miller coils. I string 9 volt batteries together for the plates. Not small, not pretty, but no overload or inter-mod. Tubes are tough. Using these, and old tube communications receivers, 820 Largo (Tampa) could be heard in Atlanta. 50 kw DA-North/South at noon year round. Best ground wave in Chicago was Columbus on 610 and Ontario on 630. Best sky wave daytime was WLS in Sarasota Florida. Best catch in Hawaii, where I lived for years was on long wave, France 162 KHz, 2,000 kw DA north/south at night of course. In winter, in Hawaii, the Russian on 180 KHz could be heard during the day on the north shore. I did hear 153 KHz Algeria daytime during a visit to Ireland last month on the SW-11. Fair/ under Germany. Water Path.Cork.
[/quote]
My second trusty Sony 2010 died when I hit the ground. I found a very quiet DX location here. Very little if any noise. For medium wave, I use a 40 year old, Radio Shack TRF 12-655 with no modifications. For long wave I use a small Sony SW-11. I don’t think the Sony has an RF stage, but I can hear BBC radio 4 on 198 KHz at a listenable level, along with other Europeans late in the evening. I am in the process of winding a large box loop for long wave as for various reasons a long wire is out of the question. I have many long and medium wave loops, and tunable home brew pre-amps in storage. Nothing fancy. The pre-amps use 6BA6 tubes and Miller coils. I string 9 volt batteries together for the plates. Not small, not pretty, but no overload or inter-mod. Tubes are tough. Using these, and old tube communications receivers, 820 Largo (Tampa) could be heard in Atlanta. 50 kw DA-North/South at noon year round. Best ground wave in Chicago was Columbus on 610 and Ontario on 630. Best sky wave daytime was WLS in Sarasota Florida. Best catch in Hawaii, where I lived for years was on long wave, France 162 KHz, 2,000 kw DA north/south at night of course. In winter, in Hawaii, the Russian on 180 KHz could be heard during the day on the north shore. I did hear 153 KHz Algeria daytime during a visit to Ireland last month on the SW-11. Fair/ under Germany. Water Path.Cork.
R
rbrucecarter5
Guest
WGU20 said:
Great radio! I have one, too: http://earmark.net/gesr/12-655.htm
The only gripe I have with it is the cabinet and PC board arrangement make it impossible to put in a better speaker.
Do you have any luck with the Turkish station on 1012?
WGU20 said:
Here is my loop page: http://earmark.net/gesr/loop/
I'm tending back towards putting spacing between turns to reduce parasitic capacitance - my latest loop is 8 feet square and varactor tuned. Amazing sensitivity - I'm chasing 1500 miles daytime on 50 kW clears - not there yet but already topped 800 miles.
WGU20 said:
My second trusty Sony 2010 died when I hit the ground. I found a very quiet DX location here. Very little if any noise. For medium wave, I use a 40 year old, Radio Shack TRF 12-655 with no modifications. For long wave I use a small Sony SW-11. I don’t think the Sony has an RF stage, but I can hear BBC radio 4 on 198 KHz at a listenable level, along with other Europeans late in the evening. I am in the process of winding a large box loop for long wave as for various reasons a long wire is out of the question. I have many long and medium wave loops, and tunable home brew pre-amps in storage. Nothing fancy. The pre-amps use 6BA6 tubes and Miller coils. I string 9 volt batteries together for the plates. Not small, not pretty, but no overload or inter-mod. Tubes are tough. Using these, and old tube communications receivers, 820 Largo (Tampa) could be heard in Atlanta. 50 kw DA-North/South at noon year round. Best ground wave in Chicago was Columbus on 610 and Ontario on 630. Best sky wave daytime was WLS in Sarasota Florida. Best catch in Hawaii, where I lived for years was on long wave, France 162 KHz, 2,000 kw DA north/south at night of course. In winter, in Hawaii, the Russian on 180 KHz could be heard during the day on the north shore. I did hear 153 KHz Algeria daytime during a visit to Ireland last month on the SW-11. Fair/ under Germany. Water Path.Cork.
[/quote]
Fabulous stuff--especially your Hawaii daytime catches. Thank you for sharing!
With WINK in Ft. Myers (1200) upgraded to 50kw days, that might be a good catch for someone NNE of Ft. Myers. See the pattern on fccinfo.com and govern yourself accordingly.
HadYourPhil said:
I'm in Foley, Alabama and can hear WINK under a Gulfport, MS station on 1190 even on clear days now. So that may be the record for this far inland from the coast (~14 miles), at about 446 miles from Fort Meyers. Down on actual coast the 1030 from Corpus Christi that I managed to overlook for a year seems to be a regular, and a vacationing participant of this forum mention its reception from Perdido Key, FL, which is about 630 miles.
Of course on the coast, we also get daily reception of R. Enciclopedia from Havana on 530 and possibly something from the Yucatan, both of which are in the 610-630 mile range. But 14 miles inland it's all WINK so far for me.
Not sure anyone else has brought this up, but I used to get Trans World Radio from the Netherlands Antilles during the day in Dallas, TX. I had an old Hallicrafters radio hooked up to a decent antenna in my back yard and a good ground too. It was on 800 as I recall. The signal was faint, but it had a distinctive ID that let me know that was it.
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