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Honeymoon Island, FL Daytime AM Bandscan Highlights 1/22/15

cyberdad

cyberdad

After two years of prompting, I finally made it to Honeymoon Island north of Clearwater, FL this morning. My thanks to Gar for keeping after me! I was planning to do this tomorrow or next week, but conditions were ideal today, so I decided not to wait. This was basically two sessions. One in the Car at the main beach parking lot (standard issue Delco Chevy Malibu), the other on the beach itself with Sangean ATS 505. I'll omit the locals and semi locals except where noted.

530: Cuba. R. Enciclopedia mixing with with R. Rebelde. This is the first time/place I've heard these two mixing in the daytime. At the place where I'm staying, 25 miles south of Honeymoon Island, the two are now mixing at night, but days is all R. Enciclopedia.
540: WFLF. Fair. Noticeably stronger than at the place where I'm staying.
550: R. Rebelde. Very weak
560: WQAM. Very weak, but stronger than where I'm staying. There, It's just barely audible.
580: WDBO. Weak
590: R. Nacional, Fair-Weak with WDIZ (Panama City, FL) clearly audible underneath.
600: Jacksonville, with religion barely audible underneath (WVOG?)
610: WIOD...Barely, with WDAE nulled
640: All R. Progreso. Fair-Good
660: R. Progreso. Very Weak
670: R Rebelde. Fair-Good with local WGES (680) Nulled
690: New Orleans (assumed) unless Jacksonville has flipped. I didn't positively ID, but there was mention of EWTN network.
710: "Cuban Chorus" with echo. Good. More Spanish in the background. Assume WAQI
740: Thought I had snagged KTRH here, but it turned out to be a harmonic from WWBA (820). Talk very weak underneath. Not sports, but couldn't ID.
790: R. Reloj mixing with and on top of WLBE
800: Was getting very weak talk here under WWBA splatter. Never could ID. Possibly WSHO
870: WWL Fair with local 860 nulled.
880: Cuba. Very weak R. Progreso, IIRC.
940: I was getting oldies on a good signal that faded as soon as I drove off the island. For a few moments I was thinking WYLD (New Orleans). I never did get to ID it, but it was undoubtredly WLQH. 780 watts from further up the peninsula.
950: R. Reloj. Fair-good.
990: WDYZ - Weak (Orlando 50kw)

This is all the time I have for now, so I'll finish either this evening (I have a fundraiser I'm going to with some friends) or tomorrow.
 
Good to hear you finally made it there, cyberdad!

The talk underneath WYGM and the Mexican station on 740 was KTRH. The only time I got that official ID was when the Mexican station was off the air one time I was there.

800 was definitely WSHO.

I'm surprised you didn't hear any of WVLG on 640. Last time I was there, it was mixing with the Cuban.

Hope you got to hear the 500 watt 1600 WKWF from Key West.

And for some reason, WWL doesn't come in as strong as it used to. When I first got my Sangean PR-D5, WWL had a fair very listenable signal even here in Tampa all day.

Can barely get a trace of it now.

Look forward to hearing your other catches and I hope you liked the place.
 
Part 2
1020: R. Progreso. Very Weak
1030: I wanted to see if I could get KCTA. Too much splatter from the local on 1040, however.
1060: Cuba very weak, but with something even weaker underneath. Sounded like talk or religion (WLNO?)
1070: Thought I might have had WNVY (Pensacola) here when I heard a fair signal with religion. Turned out to be WFRF from Tallahassee. Still a fairly good catch. Faded quickly when I drove inland.
1120: Thought I might catch Destin here, but came up empty. This one may not even be still on the air.
1170: Very weak unidentifiable signal. Thought it could've been Cuba. But more likely 1kw WKFL from Bushnell, FL (which should've been stronger)
1180: R. Rebelde. Good and with multiple xmtr echo.
1230: Wanted to see if New Orleans or Pensacola might have made the hop. Perhaps they did. I heard a couple of unidentifiable weak signals. Probably including WONN from Lakeland, FL.
1280: WTMY. Little 300-watt "mighty mite" from Sarasota alone and doing fine. No trace of New Orleans
1370: WCOA. Pensacola positively IDed under 1380 splatter. Fair signal. All alone.
1400: A couple of weak signals here that I couldn't identify. Was looking for Fort Walton BWaeach
1430: Was looking for Panama City, FL. Was hearing Lakeland, FL with something underneath that I couldn't identify.
1450: WSDV Sarasota. Still good via the saltwater path...and for some reason as strong, if not stronger, than the Sarasota 930 (which I've heard in Pensacola).
1500: Seeking Key West...Getting nothing
1600: Another whiff for Key West. This time the local pest on 1590 was the culprit (as opposed to the station on 1500's DA). I had also thought KLEB from the Louisiana delta could turn up here.
1620: WNRP. Pensacola. Positive ID Fair and mixing with slightly weaker R. Rebelde from Cuba. (Rebelde owns the channel at night, however).
1700: Very faint unidentifiable signal. Presunably either Miami or perhaps even KVNS
 
1060 WLNO is no longer on the air. But it was the strongest of all the New Orleans stations out on Honeymoon Island.

Sorry you didn't get to hear 1600 WKWF Key West or get to try for 1030 KCTA because of the adjacent local's splatter.

I guess it depends on the selectivity of your receiver.

1700 was Miami but if by chance you heard a fluttering sound with it, my theory is that it's a trace of KVNS causing the fluttering. One of our fellow DXers (can't recall who right now) once got a listenable signal from KVNS around the Panama City area daytime.

I have no doubt some of the unidentified stations you mentioned were from the 'Redneck Rivera' and beyond.

I'm glad you were able to see how the reception in general out there is noticeably better than other locations in the area along the Gulf.
 
Gar....

Thanks for your comments.

I don't remember hearing WVLG under Cuba out on the island, which sort of surprised me. I can hear it underneath Cuba (barely) here at Sunset Beach...although the Cuba 640 is weaker here than at Honeymoon.

I had forgotten that WLNO was off. Should've remembered that from my last visit to P-cola in April.

Not hearing WKWF or KCTA was a bit of a disappointment. I didn't expect the pests to be as strong as they were....especially 1590, which I expected to be a non-issue. Evedently the enhancement of signals on Honeymoon Island also applies to the pests.

On balance, however, the experience pretty much confirmed my opinion of the ATS-505. It's a good, but not great, receiver. On par with my Eton E-10 when it was new. Not up to my former Yacht Boy PE 400 or DX-375. I've generally had good experiences with Sangean portables, so I was hoping for something comparable to the DX-375. The 375 had better sensitivity and selectivity, but the ATS 505 has more features. So if it holds up better than the E-10 did, I'll probably be happy with it.

I actually might wind up going back to Honeymoon next week. At the event I was at last night, one of our friends who's lived here for about a dozen years was telling me that she likes going up there to hike several times a year. That got my son's attention and now he'd like to check it out. Fine....if we go he can hike, I can DX!
 
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Hope you get to go back while you're down here. It would probably take a long time to ever get the chance to ID even some of the many much weaker stations that show up in the daytime when you get out on the island.

790 was one of the more interesting frequencies there with many stations at once, as I'm sure you noticed. It sounds more like an AM frequency would at night.

Of the many stations on 790 heard during the day the times I've been there, I was able to ID WAXY South Miami, WLBE Leesburg, and WPNN Pensacola. I was hoping maybe KBME Houston was somewhere in there.

I never took much time to listen on the graveyard frequencies, though. Aside from likely closer station interference, I'm sure those from the panhandle to Mississippi can make it across the Gulf.

And speaking of that, the X Bander 1640 from Biloxi had a listenable signal there.

Hey, where did you set up your equipment? I've either used the boarder area between the parking lots and the beach or up on one of those little buildings on the wooden balcony.

Every time I've gone, I've had people stop and ask me what I was doing and I was always so glad to explain it to them.

I'm not much of a real social person but in that kind of a situation when I actually get to talk about DXing to someone, I can't shut up. LOL
 
You're right about daytime 790 sounding a little like a graveyard channel. I never thought about WPNN. They don't get out very well...even by Pensacola standards....but it might be a different story over saltwater. KBME would be a nice catch. They used to be a regular for me in Iowa when I was in college there (as KULF).

As for the X-band, I noticed that most of the channels had something. Although in a few cases it was TIS. If I get back, I'll check it out in more detail.

I'd also like to hear something from Mobile. The big signal there (such as it is) is 10kw on 660, but I didn't hear any trace of it under a weak Cuba. I did, however, hear what sounded like it could be English under the Rebelde chorus and WAQI on 710. 1kw WNTM making the hop? Who knows. Their stick is closer to the water than the 660, IIRC.
 
Interesting. I never bothered to listen for anything else there on 710 because of the big dominating Miami-Cuba ongoing battle.

But looking on the station guide after seeing your post, I'd say it's very likely was WNTM you heard because both Rome and Eastman, Georgia are well inland.

http://topazdesigns.com/ambc/aminfo.html
 
Went back out there Friday morning (with my son who wanted to do a little hiking). Didn't really fare much better than my first trip. But, there were a few developments as I tried to target a few frequencies, as follows,

600: Was trying for WVOG, but this one was all Jacksonville (although I did hear something underneath).
640: Nulled R. Progreso, and did hear WVLG underneath.
660: Again, I nulled Cuba and heard what sounded like religion/music (Mobile?)
710: Pretty sure I did have WNTD underneath Cuba, but couldn't identify it.
740: What I thought had been KTRH turned out to be a harmonic, spur, or whatever from WWBA. I later determined that the stick was about 10-12 miles away via a partly saltwater path. 50kw and quite a pest.
900: Tried for Cuba here in the wake of Crain's post in another thread. There were a couple of weak signals, one of which might have been Cuba, but I sort of doubt it. I did hear a weak R. Progreso on 880. Nothing on 890.
1140: Spanish with music, which sounded more dated than contemporary. WQBA? Not sure if this sheds any light on the mystery of what I was hearing here at night a week or so ago.
1510: No trace of Louisiana here, once again.
1600: I was able to null 1500 and heard something that sounded like talk. Not sure if it was Key West. Pretty sure it wasn't KLEB
1700: I got a whiff of a carrier, but no decipherable audio. I'd be more inclined to guess Miami than KVNS
 
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