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My catches from Daytona Beach

gar hi

gar hi

Alright, here are my videos from Daytona Beach. After going through all the various stations, I selected these to show.

During the daytime, I couldn't get any IDs but considering all factors, I'm pretty sure I got two stations from Puerto Rico.

Even though it's not much at all to hear, I also have what I could get on the two most likely New York frequencies to have a chance of making it there during the day, if even only a trace.

The two nighttime stations I have, are no guessing game at all.


Here's what I got on 680 that I think had to be from San Juan, Puerto Rico,
The Cuban station on 680 from Cienfuegos would not only have to travel on about 50 miles of land with mountains in Cuba but also go across about 200 miles of land in Florida.

Not only that, the station on definitely was coming from the SE direction right at Puerto Rico, quite a difference from the due south direction of Cienfuegos, Cuba. Also, you hear her say "pizza" and "Papa John's". There's no Papa John's in Cuba. I could only get a listenable signal with my loop, otherwise it was just a barely audible signal.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyLWuw3gfP4


Here's what I got on 600 that most likely had to be 600 WYEL from Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.
The Cuban station on 600 from Urbano Noris would not only have to travel on 60 miles of land but also over high mountains to make it to the ocean for the rest of the path.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWCOKa5B1-c


Now, as far as getting WFAN or WCBS New York during the day is concerned, one thing that gets in the way is the fact there are Florida stations on the same frequencies. Also, these stations have to go down along the coast of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, the tip of Virginia, and North Carolina until it goes the rest of the distance, about 400 miles of ocean to where I was but there's still quite a lot of saltwater inlets and bays, so it's not as though there would be the same signal loss as pure solid land.

Here's what I heard on 660. WORL from Altamonte Springs has a fairly strong signal and that's what you are hearing but with the loop. I think I was able to null it out slightly and make it more directional. It may be hard to hear during the brief lulls in talk on WORL, but there is another station in the background and if you listen close enough. There's about 200 miles of land in Florida the station in Santa Clara Cuba would have to travel on, so maybe it was WFAN.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A714aCnDDXU




Here's what I heard on 880. It doesn't sound much different than the last time I was at Daytona Beach and made that video of 880 but this time, I think the loop was able to better null out WZAB and make that unknown station I think was WCBS just about the same strength, although very weak and barely audible. You should be able to hear two stations here. The station in Pinar Del Rio on the western part of Cuba would have to travel on almost 200 miles of land in Florida to make it to where this was, so I highly doubt that was the other station.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmW58TRF7J8

Now, here are two nighttime stations from New York that don't require any guessing.

The first one is WCBS which is has the best nighttime signal of all the NYC stations in Tampa but not nearly as good as I was able to get it in Daytona Beach.
The difference is amazing. No fading either. Look how strong this is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8dSXQ2O3kg

The other one is WABC which I can hardly hear on the west coast in Tampa at all but in Daytona Beach, it's completely another story. No fading and it comes booming in!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn5nAuchfEw
 
gar fla said:
Here's what I got on 680 that I think had to be from San Juan, Puerto Rico,
The Cuban station on 680 from Cienfuegos would not only have to travel on about 50 miles of land with mountains in Cuba but also go across about 200 miles of land in Florida.

Not only that, the station on definitely was coming from the SE direction right at Puerto Rico, quite a difference from the due south direction of Cienfuegos, Cuba. Also, you hear her say "pizza" and "Papa John's". There's no Papa John's in Cuba. I could only get a listenable signal with my loop, otherwise it was just a barely audible signal.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyLWuw3gfP4
Click to expand...

Are you sure this isn't WGES St. Petersburg?
 
WGES is only 690 watts non directional and 145 miles from where I was.

They are also a music station unlike the one I was hearing which was constant talk.

Not only that, the station on 680 was definitely from a SE direction and it couldn't be heard at all when I turned the radio 90 degrees to the SW which would be the exact direction of St. Pete.
 
gar fla said:
Here's what I got on 680 that I think had to be from San Juan, Puerto Rico,

WGES is only 690 watts non directional and 145 miles from where I was.
Click to expand...

I've been intrigued by this "DX-pedition" to Daytona and what might be received there. However, I doubt it was WAPA that you received.
While you dismiss WGES as being 145 miles away over land (I measure 134, but I don't know just where in Daytona Beach you were), 140 miles or so is not that much for a station low on the dial. Meanwhile, Puerto Rico is OVER 1200 MILES.... that's a big deal, even over salt water.

Anyway, this evening I did some quick "back of the envelope" calculations of the relative strength predicted by FCC charts of the two stations at the Daytona Beach shore. Assuming an average conductivity of 2.5 for Florida WGES would come in at about 40 uv/m. Weak, but receivable on a good radio. They could be even better, as their tower is right by the salt water, and lot of the land the signal would cross over Florida is wetlands, which might help the signal. Meanwhile, WAPA, assuming salt water all the way would put in a very weak 1.7 uv/m, more than 20 times weaker. It would take a really good communications receiver with a great antenna to get reception of this.

Just to help put the difference in predicted signal strength into perspecitive, for WAPA to be as strong as WGES at Daytona, WAPA would have to run 5.5 MILLION watts. Or looking at it the other way, for WGES to be as weak as WAPA, WGES would have to reduce power to about 1.25 watts. I just don't see how your reception (which sounded like groundwave) could have been Puerto Rico.

Meanwhile, in the late afternoon, beginning a couple hours before sunset, and before skip from WPTF, WCNN and Cuba starts coming in, a skywave signal from WAPA should be a slam-dunk. Also, my gut tells me that the daytime groundwave from both WPTF and Cuba would be stronger than WAPA at Daytona Beach.
 
Sometimes how things calculate out on paper when it comes to how signals behave aren't always how they act in actuality.

And as far as any skywave reception is concerned, that would have been impossible on that frequency a little after 3 in the afternoon this time of year and even if WPTF could make it that far on groundwave, it would sure have to come from a very different direction than the one I got the signal from. (Compare Raleigh to San Juan from Daytona Beach)



When I heard that signal on 680, the first thing that I had to do was to get the specific direction the signal was coming from which is obviously a prime factor in determining what it is I could be gettong.

I did this at more than one location there in order to confirm the direction.

Being it was a weak signal that barely receivable without without the loop, it only came in when I faced the radio in the SE/NW direction.

It was coming from the direction that perfectly matched up to Puerto Rico on the map.

The Cuban on 680 would be in an almost due south direction from there and not only that, it would have to travel over mostly all land to get there, about 40 to 50 miles of Cuba and then about 200 miles of Florida.

As for WGES, it would be in a SW direction from Daytona Beach which is exactly 90 degrees away from the direction of the signal. I'd like someone to explain how it would be possible to only hear a signal from St. Pete at Daytona Beach when the radio was facing in the perfect direction that would null out the signal the most.

Also, look at the ground conductivity map and you will see that for most of central Florida, it's poor.

Being that WGES is a local here in Tampa, I'm quite familiar with their format from attempting to DX at night on that frequency and they always play music. What I was hearing was talk.

And another thing, like I said, that made me rule out the Cuban is that they were doing some kind of a promotion for Papa John's pizza coupons. (I had it translated for me). I can't imagine why they would do such a thing when there's no Papa John's in Cuba.

As for the distance, let's also consider those two posts I found in another forum by cd637299 of some daytime catches in Bermuda.

He posted a few of his many catches and two were from Puerto Rico which is just a little less than 1000 miles from Puerto Rico. Both were directional stations that did not even favor the direction of Bermuda, 580 WKAQ and 810 WKVM.

That's another reason I don't think it's so unusual that I could get a 10 kw station that's non directional from 200 more miles away than the distance of Bermuda.
 
I don't know what you received at DB gar but I know from past experience of receiving lightbulb strength stations on graveyard frequencies while playing with the radio at St. Simons Is, GA. These stations were crystal clear at 150-200 mi and on a so so car radio. I tried for the NYC's but to no avail but did get 870 N.O. and an X bander (either Biloxi or Pensacola).
But radio IS funny if not unpredictable. It explains why a DX er in the midwest can get Window Rock over NYC on 660 and why you got the West coast on 2 different AM's which is (adverb deleted) outstanding.
 
This dx of 660 from Orlando proves the inaccuracy of radio-locators signal patterns. Garfla receives great signal yet radio-locator shows the signal highly directional to the south and with not even a fringe signal.
 
I noticed that the last time I went to Daytona Beach very briefly and checked on 660.

They concentrate their signal to the south, so you'd think they'd have better reception in the Tampa Bay area than they do.

Here's the best I was able to pick WORL up with a loop in a park area in the wilderness a couple miles outside the Tampa city limits and about 10 miles NE of downtown.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oqdiPW3_Z8

And WGES 680 from St. Pete at only 690 watts non-directional is supposed to have a better signal in Daytona Beach?

And even when the radio is nulled in their direction?

::)
 
Here's what I got on 600 that most likely had to be 600 WYEL from Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.
Click to expand...
It's hard to believe that 600 in Jacksonville (WBWL-Disney (5kw, DA-N)) would be so weak to allow a such a distant station to be so strong. Hmmmmm... :-\
 
WBWL still had a fairly good signal but at 77 miles away with a land path, the signal strength is certainly reduced enough to allow any weak distant station to be heard in the background.

The other station was not so strong as you suggest either.

Just like with all the videos there, I had the volume turned up quite high, not only to drown out the sounds from the beach so you could better hear what I was recording.

;)
 
While you were in Daytona Beach, I was in Madeira Beach with my Grundig S350 on Saturday morning, and there was lots of good reception there. I tried to get 880 during the day, but I couldn't hear it, of course.

WWL came in decently, with WGUL being interfered with. I did hear something on 750. It wasn't WSB, as it sounded very weak. It sounded like it was a religion station, so it might have been the New Orleans station at 250 watts.

FM reception was good in that area, mid-morning. Almost all the Orlando stations came in, even 105.9 and 105.1 farther north. I tried for Miami and West Palm stations, but none came in. Fort Myers stations came in very well, also.
 
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