Well, I went to the beach at Ft. Pierce today. I was there from 11:30 to 1:00 and had a whole list of stations to look for in the time I was allowed because I had to drive back to Tampa. It was a nice surprise to find the little park along the beach I went to empty. I had this nice little cabana all to myself.
I was kind of disappointed because there were many loud near by stations or splatter from near by stations on many of the frequencies I had listed to look for up and down the east coast.
When looking for the station in St. Kitts on 555 by putting my radio in the 9k step mode, I found there's no '555'.
How do they use a frequency that's not in the 9k or 10k system? I really would have liked to listen for that one.
And while I knew 880 WZAB would have a fairly good signal, it was much stronger than I expected. They were playing reggae music when I got there, so it I couldn't listen in the background for WCBS but when I checked later, there was just talk for a little while. I had my earphones with me so I put them on and listened closely. During breaks in words on WZAB, it did sound like there was talking underneath but it was so faint in comparison to the loud WZAB. It didn't sound like Spanish either.
On 770, there was the station from Ft. Myers and the Cuban station but nothing else. WABC and most all the other NYC stations have their sticks too far inland and that puts a lot of land between there and anywhere on the Florida east coast, so I'd rule out ever hearing that or any other of the NYC stations that transmit from North Jersey out as daytime catches on the east coast of Florida.
I checked 660 and WORL was there and listenable but weak as was the Cuban too. Facing the radio NE, and fine tuning the loop, there was another station with talking in the mix of WORL and the Cuban station but the co-frequency interference made it impossible to get an ID. I'd still say this is a catch because there's nothing else I could have been hearing.
Here's the video. It sounds much like what you'd hear on many AM frequencies at night. 8)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roJirdvf470
What else could it have been but WFAN? The path of WFAN and WCBS (both with sticks in High Island) only have to skim the coast of New Jersey and the eastern most tip of North Carolina and the rest is all ocean.
Another video I got was of WSPO 1390 from Charleston. Not a bad signal for 5 kw at 376 miles.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fhuWDIvEsI
One thing I did discover is that the station on 680 from St Pete makes it across the state. I purposely checked when I stopped in the mainland near Ft, Pierce because I remember someone suggested that station I thought was from Puerto Rico that I heard in Daytona Beach on 680 was probably WGES from St. Pete.
What convinced me it was not that station at the time was that it wasn't coming from the direction of St. Pete but I now know that had to be it, so that's one possible catch I can write off. Puerto Rico might be possible to hear if they had a non directional 50 kw station but they don't.
All in all, it was still a fun day even though I didn't have much time to do DXing.
I was kind of disappointed because there were many loud near by stations or splatter from near by stations on many of the frequencies I had listed to look for up and down the east coast.
When looking for the station in St. Kitts on 555 by putting my radio in the 9k step mode, I found there's no '555'.
And while I knew 880 WZAB would have a fairly good signal, it was much stronger than I expected. They were playing reggae music when I got there, so it I couldn't listen in the background for WCBS but when I checked later, there was just talk for a little while. I had my earphones with me so I put them on and listened closely. During breaks in words on WZAB, it did sound like there was talking underneath but it was so faint in comparison to the loud WZAB. It didn't sound like Spanish either.
On 770, there was the station from Ft. Myers and the Cuban station but nothing else. WABC and most all the other NYC stations have their sticks too far inland and that puts a lot of land between there and anywhere on the Florida east coast, so I'd rule out ever hearing that or any other of the NYC stations that transmit from North Jersey out as daytime catches on the east coast of Florida.
I checked 660 and WORL was there and listenable but weak as was the Cuban too. Facing the radio NE, and fine tuning the loop, there was another station with talking in the mix of WORL and the Cuban station but the co-frequency interference made it impossible to get an ID. I'd still say this is a catch because there's nothing else I could have been hearing.
Here's the video. It sounds much like what you'd hear on many AM frequencies at night. 8)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roJirdvf470
What else could it have been but WFAN? The path of WFAN and WCBS (both with sticks in High Island) only have to skim the coast of New Jersey and the eastern most tip of North Carolina and the rest is all ocean.
Another video I got was of WSPO 1390 from Charleston. Not a bad signal for 5 kw at 376 miles.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fhuWDIvEsI
One thing I did discover is that the station on 680 from St Pete makes it across the state. I purposely checked when I stopped in the mainland near Ft, Pierce because I remember someone suggested that station I thought was from Puerto Rico that I heard in Daytona Beach on 680 was probably WGES from St. Pete.
What convinced me it was not that station at the time was that it wasn't coming from the direction of St. Pete but I now know that had to be it, so that's one possible catch I can write off. Puerto Rico might be possible to hear if they had a non directional 50 kw station but they don't.
All in all, it was still a fun day even though I didn't have much time to do DXing.