Mid-Atlantic AM DX

[KR4BD]

My wife and I recently enjoyed the “Trip of a Lifetime” with visits to 5 European Countries followed by a cruise across the Atlantic from Lisbon, Portugal to Ft. Lauderdale with stops in the Azores and Bermuda. I have always wanted to DX the AM bands away from the mainland and this trip gave me a great opportunity. Before leaving home, I purchased a portable Tecsun PL-606 AM/FM/SW/LW receiver. This is a very small radio, but VERY large in performance. When DXing on a large ship, one must find a place which is located away from all the radar and other interference sources. It is also totally impossible to DX inside your cabin, which is essentially, nothing more than a Faraday Shield. The first two nights headed westbound toward the Azores found us coping with rough seas, 55 knot winds and rain. But on the third day, the weather improved and I found a quiet spot on the outside upper deck to start my listening…primarily looking for stations from Canada and the United States. Here is a partial list of positively identified stations I heard:

November 14, Between 5:30 and 6:30 PM EST (about 500 miles ENE of Bermuda):

WLIB-1190 By far, the strongest station on the dial
WBBR-1130
WBAL-1090
WGAN-560 Very Strong Signal
WFAN-660
WOR-710
WCRN-830
WABC-770
WPEN-950 Very Strong
WINS-1010
WEPN-1050 Very Strong
WCKY-1530
WBZ-1030 Not Real Strong, But Surprising As They are Directional to the West
WTIC-1080
WWZN-1510
A Talk Station on 1480 with many mentions of Boston and Massachusetts Politics
********
November 15, Mid-Day (about 300 Miles ENE of Bermuda):

ZSB1-1450 Hamilton with Oldies and some Talk (very weak)
BBC-1160 Hamilton (very weak)
Religious-1280 from Hamilton (very weak)
A VERY weak station with Comedy on 850
********
November 15 between 6:30 and 8:30 PM EST (about 150-200 Miles ENE of Bermuda)

WFLA-540 Very Strong
WIOD-610
WOKV-690
WYGM-740
WSB-750
WJR-760
CHML-900 with Hockey
WTAM-1100
WWKB-1520
Bahamas-1540
WWRL-1600
WLW-700
WGN-720
WBBM-780
KYW-1060
Fox Sports on 1370 mixing with WTAB
********

November 16, Mid-Day ON Bermuda

-WOR-710 at 1 PM EST with News and ID (very weak)
-VERY weak Comedy Station on 850 with ads for an attorney & Walmart at 12:55 PM EST
-I Heard EXTREMELY weak audio on 660 and 880 (probably WFAN and WCBS)

Summing Up....Surprisingly, After Dark I did not hear WPHT or WPTF. Many others were heard at night, including a number of stations from Boston which shoot all their signals out into the Atlantic at night.

I’d enjoy hearing from others who have done similar DXing at sea.

 

[fybush]

Your comedy station is Norfolk VA, WTAR. And the 1480 is WSAR Fall River.

 

[LibertyNT]

The Comedy on 850 is Funny 850 WTAR From Norfolk.
Blasts all 50 kW into the Ocean
Blassts all 25 kW at night into the Ocean.

 

[cd637299]

OP, I wish you had told me about this ahead of time! I wanted a nice aircheck of AM 1450 Gold in Bermuda

When I was there in June 2005, I believe that 1210 put out a spur of a local Bermuda AM. No sign of WPHT either.

I did get something in the day on 680---WRKO! 630 had WPRO in RI with a weak signal as WRKO.

WFAN & WCBS (also WINS and to a lesser degree WNYC 820) made it into Bermuda in daytime. WWRL eked in as well!! No WQEW though.

I used two GE Superadios & Select-a-Tenna.

I did not spend much time night DXn like I should have! I'd think WOKV 690 should be booming in to BDA...nowhere else to send the signal!

cd

 

[cyberdad]

Cool stuff. I've often wondered how far out into the pond the east coast signals get during the daytime.

 

[radioman148]

Very interesting report--thanks!

 

[gar hi]

It's always good to hear reports like this from unusual locations.

November 16, Mid-Day ON Bermuda

-WOR-710 at 1 PM EST with News and ID (very weak)
-VERY weak Comedy Station on 850 with ads for an attorney & Walmart at 12:55 PM EST
-I Heard EXTREMELY weak audio on 660 and 880 (probably WFAN and WCBS)

Where exactly was your radio at this time?

Were you on land far from the beach? The hotel?

Or were you right on the beach which faces west?

 

[KR4BD]

It's always good to hear reports like this from unusual locations.

November 16, Mid-Day ON Bermuda

-WOR-710 at 1 PM EST with News and ID (very weak)
-VERY weak Comedy Station on 850 with ads for an attorney & Walmart at 12:55 PM EST
-I Heard EXTREMELY weak audio on 660 and 880 (probably WFAN and WCBS)

Where exactly was your radio at this time?

Were you on land far from the beach? The hotel?

Or were you right on the beach which faces west?

I was on the top deck of the Grand Princess which was docked on Bermuda's West End. The radio (Tecsun PL-606) was broadside to the United States. No external antennas were used.

 

[gar hi]

I'm especially impressed by your catch midday from 300 miles ENE of Bermuda where you heard a very weak comedy station on 850.

Since that had to be WTAR from Norfolk, that's a daytime catch of more than 1000 miles!

Looks like you have the new record here for daytime AM DXing.

 

[BRNout]

This is one of the most fascinating dx reports I've read in a while. I am totally impressed with what you picked up out there. What a shame that you weren't able to get out there and dx the east side of the Atlantic for MW and LW signals from Europe! Bad weather on those ships is nothing to mess with. Cruised to Bermuda 12 years ago and we hit storms and high seas - it was pretty bad. A 10 story hotel rocking back and forth! But it looks like you got some memorable catches there. My compliments....

FWIW, the Tecsun PL-606 is exactly what I would have chosen for such an assignment as well.

 

[davideduardo]

Since that had to be WTAR from Norfolk, that's a daytime catch of more than 1000 miles!

Looks like you have the new record here for daytime AM DXing.

1000 miles over saltwater is not particularly amazing, although hearing such a catch on a noisy cruise ship in bad weather on a portable certainly is!

When sailing from the Palm Beaches to Puerto Rico some years ago on a 32' ship with nearly no noise, day reception in the eastern Bahamas of WBZ, WCBS and WNBC was not unusual during a several day period (it was an 18 day sail).

My personal records are: frequent and easy reception of Libya on 1251 around 2 PM AST on a car radio in Puerto Rico and mid-winter reception around noon of 3VEH 1035, Cap Hatien, Haiti, in Cleveland, OH.

 

[radioman148]

What time of day were the NYC and Boston catches?

 

[gar hi]

1000 miles over saltwater is not particularly amazing, although hearing such a catch on a noisy cruise ship in bad weather on a portable certainly is!

It's still amazing to hear an AM signal midday from 1000 miles away.

That's more typical nighttime long distance reception on land.

Even though I couldn't hear it strong enough to ID, I'm still convinced I heard WFAN midday from the barrier island in Ft. Pierce. With the other two stations on 660 being WORL and the Cuban, I don't know what else it could have been.

I was using my Sangean PR-D5 which has a 200 mm internal ferrite antenna along with the Terk AM loop.

KR4BD's catch still exceeds that distance.

 

[KR4BD]

What time of day were the NYC and Boston catches?

The approximate times converted to EST are listed above each section. The MID-DAY loggings were between 11:30 AM and 2 PM, also EST. Dates are listed.

I, too wished I could have done some listening in the area between Portugal and Azores, but conditions were so bad for those two days....Heavy Rain, Winds of 55 knots and 12 to 15 foot seas. Going outside was "not recommended" and DXing inside does not work on those large ships. Lots of interference from those new squiggly lightbulbs! When outside, you must also get away from "anything electrical" or near the ship's various antennas and radar units.

 

[radioman148]

I should've been clear, my question was directed for David as he commented on hearing WBZ, WCBS, and WNBC near the Bahamas.

As far as your reception reports on the ship are concerned, very impressive. I tried to DX on a ship once and as you pointed out it's impossible to do from the cabin. I never thought of going on deck to do it--silly me.

 

[davideduardo]

What time of day were the NYC and Boston catches?

All day long. Near sunrise and sunset, Venezuelans would be a pest, but the rest of the day they were very listenable. The distance from the outer islands (headed for passage between Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos) was about 1150 miles.

That's not much different than the normal, daily ability to tune dozens and dozens of Venezuelans and northwestern coastal Colombians from the southern coast of Puerto Rico... at distances from 600 to 900 miles and powers as low as 5 kw.

One of my favorites was on a pocket radio of the late-60's vintage when in the Galápagos Islands, 700 miles off the Ecuadorian coast. I was able to hear my own Radio Carrousel 660 from Guayaquil, a 10 kw station, and my Ecos de la Montaña 660 in Quito well in the background... amazing because the Quito station was nearly 200 miles from the coast and salt water and, on top of that, was directional north-south and put less than 2 kw to the west! Of course, the island I was on had no electricity, so essentially no noise once off the ship. And no local stations anywhere in the archipelago at the time.

 

[gar hi]

All day long. Near sunrise and sunset, Venezuelans would be a pest, but the rest of the day they were very listenable. The distance from the outer islands (headed for passage between Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos) was about 1150 miles.

What was the signal quality?

Did you get WABC in the daytime at all or any other NYC stations or was there no signal because it had more land to travel on up north until getting on the ocean path unlike WNBC and WCBS?

 

[radioman148]

What time of day were the NYC and Boston catches?

All day long. Near sunrise and sunset, Venezuelans would be a pest, but the rest of the day they were very listenable. The distance from the outer islands (headed for passage between Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos) was about 1150 miles.

That's not much different than the normal, daily ability to tune dozens and dozens of Venezuelans and northwestern coastal Colombians from the southern coast of Puerto Rico... at distances from 600 to 900 miles and powers as low as 5 kw.

One of my favorites was on a pocket radio of the late-60's vintage when in the Galápagos Islands, 700 miles off the Ecuadorian coast. I was able to hear my own Radio Carrousel 660 from Guayaquil, a 10 kw station, and my Ecos de la Montaña 660 in Quito well in the background... amazing because the Quito station was nearly 200 miles from the coast and salt water and, on top of that, was directional north-south and put less than 2 kw to the west! Of course, the island I was on had no electricity, so essentially no noise once off the ship. And no local stations anywhere in the archipelago at the time.

Very good. Eventually I'd like to have the opportunity to do some daytime DXing from an island surrounded by many miles of water. I have done nighttime Dxing from Hawaii, but daytime DX there for me has only been from the other nearby islands.

 

[davideduardo]

All day long. Near sunrise and sunset, Venezuelans would be a pest, but the rest of the day they were very listenable. The distance from the outer islands (headed for passage between Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos) was about 1150 miles.

What was the signal quality?

Did you get WABC in the daytime at all or any other NYC stations or was there no signal because it had more land to travel on up north until getting on the ocean path unlike WNBC and WCBS?

770 had interference... slop from 780 in Tortola and some other Caribbean co-channel stuff. The same applied to 1050, 1130 and of course 1560 which was killed by the very sloppy Bahamian clear on 1540 and the huge day signal of WRHC in Miami. But anything on an empty channel did quite well. As I was sailing, we are talking of about 5 knots... and maybe 100 miles a day. So I had several days to listen...

Signal quality on WBZ was "listenable" to a person used to DXing... not like a local, but very clear, no fades.

 

[pianoplayer88key]

Since that had to be WTAR from Norfolk, that's a daytime catch of more than 1000 miles!

Looks like you have the new record here for daytime AM DXing.

1000 miles over saltwater is not particularly amazing...

That's what I was thinking, too.

For example, this is 500-watt 1290 KZSB Santa Barbara, CA, received on a Tecsun PL-606 at a distance of 182 miles southeast in Ocean Beach, CA (San Diego), using only the radio's built-in ferrite loopstick. The station's 94.9° tower (efficiency 292.9 mV/m @ 1 km @ 1 kW) and my radio were each no more than a half mile from the coastline. That was recorded at about 2:45pm (or 1:45pm, I don't remember atm) on February 20 earlier this year, out in the parking lot of a masonic temple (that has cell phone antennas on it, and no I'm not a mason - my friends & I just rent the facility once a week or so).

If that little station that high up the dial can be heard that well on such a small radio with a tiny antenna (relative to the wavelength) from that far away, I was wondering...

For example, let's say someone had an ultra-powerful station...
using a circle-group aerial (mentioned here), each tower being a Franklin antenna,
each insulated section of each tower being fed with its own dedicated 2.5-megawatt transmitter (apparently they do exist)
(or whatever antenna configuration would result in a vertical radiation pattern so that at a particular distance, the field at 0° elevation would spontaneously instantly boil tungsten (just frying a diode isn't good enough) and at 5° and higher at the same distance it'd be completely undetectable using the receiver and conditions mentioned below; also what would the radiation efficiency in the horizontal plane be for such an antenna in mV/m @ 1 km for 1 kW applied power?),
transmitting on 153 kHz (or 540 kHz if you prefer mediumwave),
the towers being right at the low-tide shoreline (or far enough out from land so the only time the concrete bases would begin to dry is immediately before a megatsunami hits)...

How far might that station be heard until a seasoned DXer, using a state-of-the-art >$500k receiver
with a tuned Beverage antenna
(or whatever combination is the best possible)
with very good sound-isolating headphones,
is no longer able to detect the signal when
A - using standard AM, and
B - using QRSS CW or PSK31...

assuming an all-saltwater path and,
a very low noise environment like would be found in the middle of the south Pacific ocean,
when there's a complete global power blackout (the transmitter and receiver being the ONLY things active, running on locally-generated/stored power),
there's NO lightning activity anywhere on the planet at the time (or it's at least 12,500 miles away),
and there is maximum blockage of extra-terrestrial signals?

Is it possible something like that may make it across the ocean on groundwave only?

As for that small receiver vs. something with a much bigger antenna, I have a few videos that may give some idea of how much gain a Select-A-Tenna plus utility ground imparts when inductively coupled to the PL-606...
Video 1 - recorded 9.2 mi S (187°) from KCBQ (ERP 112kW, conductivity 8 mS/m
Video 2 and
Video 3 - recorded near the transmitter site (about 300 feet from the nearest tower of the 4-in-line array) right in the middle of their main ~200kW ERP lobe
It's not noted in the videos, but I was getting ~30dB lower signal readings on the 2nd harmonic (at 3 feet above the ground with the antenna stored and not touching it - extending it, holding it in the air and touching it did peg the meter) when standing across the street from the towers (about another 100-150 feet away)
Would I be wrong to assume that a good radio and antenna would extend the distance to a given received S/N by the same factor (compared to just using the PL-606 + SAT + utility ground) as the combo with the PL-606 seems to extend how far a station overloads the radio compared to just using the built-in antenna?

Speaking of ocean DX... something I would LOVE to do during a massive blackout (like the one parts of Southern California one day in, IIRC, September) is take a decent radio (like my GE Superradio III or maybe my Tecsun PL-606 for longwave), a several foot tuned loop and a beverage antenna to a beach or pier near San Diego, and attempt midday reception of some low-band megawatt east coast Asian stations (preferably ones with towers as close to the beach as KZER, WFAN & WCBS).