Still listening to the test at 11:51, I’m now hearing an old time radio program//KFNX stream. New one for me.
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- Thread starter CADXER
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:50 minutes into the test here and am calling it a night. And a nice night.
Both the barefeet GE SR 2 and the tiny Radio Shack-job travel radio here have logged spurts of WCGA since the SSB at 12:02. Sweep tones, code ID's at 1 lHz, some music at 12:29 (marching band?), and the repeated series of the various toots.. My Morse 'expertise (hi) made out a 'W' and an 'A' for one of the 1 kHz code IDs.
Not as loud here as I thought they might be for a 10,000 watt omni, and seldom atop WTAM, but heck -- I'll take it!
One hour to go, folks! 1:00 here exactly. You can do it you can do it youcandoit.
Thank you Leslie Cox and all those involved!
Both the barefeet GE SR 2 and the tiny Radio Shack-job travel radio here have logged spurts of WCGA since the SSB at 12:02. Sweep tones, code ID's at 1 lHz, some music at 12:29 (marching band?), and the repeated series of the various toots.. My Morse 'expertise (hi) made out a 'W' and an 'A' for one of the 1 kHz code IDs.
Not as loud here as I thought they might be for a 10,000 watt omni, and seldom atop WTAM, but heck -- I'll take it!
One hour to go, folks! 1:00 here exactly. You can do it you can do it youcandoit.
Thank you Leslie Cox and all those involved!
I find that slightly hard to believe..... that email came through at 1041pm my time, it wasnt completely dark in my part of alaska and sand point is 350 or so miles west of me
Sounds like a fun night. I went to bed around 10:15 CDT. Then woke up around three hours later, and dialed up 1100. WTAM was alone and in strong (which is usually the case.) After about half a min9te, I realized it was 2:15am ET, and I had probably missed the test. I did hear a faint and unidentifiable signal underneath with WTAM nulled, but I don't think that was the test.
Pshaw!
Pshaw!
Also heard the test on the Edinburgh, In SDR under a strong WTAM.
Great catch! Congrats on adding a news state! As well as on quoting Howard Cosell to announce it.....whether intentionally or otherwise.
I wound up with a full page of logged details here, off the GE SR 2 and am trying to fit a sensible timeline from it onto the tape I'll be sending for a verie. The &%$#ing tape deck is 20 years old and kept STOPPING.. I had to restart play-record at least 20 times......
Was it just me of did someone else get a chuckle over the guy being interviewed on WTAM's Coast-to-Coast sounding like Jean Shepherd at times? ......
Those 800 cycle Morse ID's @ 0025 -- really rapid ones -- came through better than the 1000 cycle ones did. Again, is it just my hearing or do those 800-cycle toots get out more vividly ? I had noticed that from a previous test and mentioned it ....
I tuned around the various SDR sites to hear how other locales were doing:
Rockport ME : Zippo
Scranton PA : Same results as here. Scranton is about 60 miles NE of me
That GA SDR -- loud as (heck)
That Hawaii SDR -- just KFAX
Tried for Alaska before collapsing, per that 830 tip this past morning. There was only a weak talk station there, with another grumbling under it; sounded like English.
@ Cyberdad! A belated thanks vis-a-vis your Chicken Rock mention. I;d first hearde that term around 1966, applied by some envious stations competing with Long Island;s popular WGBB;s sound. For those unfamiliar with WGBB, think Friends of Distinction, Spanky & Our Gang, the Sunshine Company, the New Establishment, Mamas & Papas, The Yellow Balloon ..... Nowadays I get yelled at for calling the genre so insolently. Folks inform me that, in this centyry the correct phrase is 'Sunshine Pop;'.
Was it just me of did someone else get a chuckle over the guy being interviewed on WTAM's Coast-to-Coast sounding like Jean Shepherd at times?
......Those 800 cycle Morse ID's @ 0025 -- really rapid ones -- came through better than the 1000 cycle ones did. Again, is it just my hearing or do those 800-cycle toots get out more vividly ? I had noticed that from a previous test and mentioned it ....
I tuned around the various SDR sites to hear how other locales were doing:
Rockport ME : Zippo
Scranton PA : Same results as here. Scranton is about 60 miles NE of me
That GA SDR -- loud as (heck)
That Hawaii SDR -- just KFAX
Tried for Alaska before collapsing, per that 830 tip this past morning. There was only a weak talk station there, with another grumbling under it; sounded like English.
@ Cyberdad! A belated thanks vis-a-vis your Chicken Rock mention. I;d first hearde that term around 1966, applied by some envious stations competing with Long Island;s popular WGBB;s sound. For those unfamiliar with WGBB, think Friends of Distinction, Spanky & Our Gang, the Sunshine Company, the New Establishment, Mamas & Papas, The Yellow Balloon ..... Nowadays I get yelled at for calling the genre so insolently. Folks inform me that, in this centyry the correct phrase is 'Sunshine Pop;'.
WCGA clips are attached!
www.mediafire.com
1100 Is this WCGA GA 4 30 22 920pm bits of sweeps under KFAX Christian music
MediaFire is a simple to use free service that lets you put all your photos, documents, music, and video in a single place so you can access them anywhere and share them everywhere.
www.mediafire.com
MediaFire
MediaFire is a simple to use free service that lets you put all your photos, documents, music, and video in a single place so you can access them anywhere and share them everywhere.
I checked the Manchester, UK SDR last night (5/3), Glad I did. I have experience tthere. It's my sister in law's home town, and I spent a night there in 1999. Her second floor bedroom where I slept turned out to be noise free and a good DX spot. All I had with me that night 23 years ago was my little SRF-37 Walkman, but I recall picking up stuff from all over Europe and the UK.
So I was pretty thrilled to try my luck with a "fancy" SDR to play with. I was on it for about an hour, beginning at around 0100 UTC and what I discovered was that the receiver didn't perform well on the lower end of the band, but the upper end was a different story. Pretty well lit up with something on every 9khz channel. As you might expect, I was anxious to see if there might be any TA activity so I stopped on 1130, looking for WBBR. The radio was very selective, and 1130 was clear. Perhaps a little too clear. I did hear a faint signal fading in and out, with something that sounded vaguely like English language talk, but it was far from being identifiable. I hung out there for about ten minutes, but what I was hearing was just too faint for me to even venture a guess. When I checked back about 15 minutes later, I was hearing music....but definitely not in English. Still, it's got my attention, so I'm anxious to keep after it.
What also got my attention was 1548. "Gold". Formerly "Capital Gold" from London. 97kw directional to the southeast (away from Manchester). The signal was pretty decent, but with what sounded like convergence zone fading. Distance about 200 miles, which seems pretty far for convergence..
Here's the interesting part. When I was in Manchester on that '99 trip, I didn't hear Capital Gold in Manchester at all. I had also stayed in the town of Broadway, about midway between London and Manchester and London,, and the signal there was weak. So, I wondered if there was a relay on 1548 in Manchester, as their website suggests. BUT there was a Crystal clear signal of the Gold programming on 1458. 1548 didn't sound like a local signal, but 1458 certainly did.
Not sure what's going on here, but I'm looking forward to unraveling it. I've heard1548 from London at night at pretty much every place I've been in Europe. Even on daytime skywave in Germany. But I've almost never heard it at most points more than an hour or two north of London.
So I was pretty thrilled to try my luck with a "fancy" SDR to play with. I was on it for about an hour, beginning at around 0100 UTC and what I discovered was that the receiver didn't perform well on the lower end of the band, but the upper end was a different story. Pretty well lit up with something on every 9khz channel. As you might expect, I was anxious to see if there might be any TA activity so I stopped on 1130, looking for WBBR. The radio was very selective, and 1130 was clear. Perhaps a little too clear. I did hear a faint signal fading in and out, with something that sounded vaguely like English language talk, but it was far from being identifiable. I hung out there for about ten minutes, but what I was hearing was just too faint for me to even venture a guess. When I checked back about 15 minutes later, I was hearing music....but definitely not in English. Still, it's got my attention, so I'm anxious to keep after it.
What also got my attention was 1548. "Gold". Formerly "Capital Gold" from London. 97kw directional to the southeast (away from Manchester). The signal was pretty decent, but with what sounded like convergence zone fading. Distance about 200 miles, which seems pretty far for convergence..
Here's the interesting part. When I was in Manchester on that '99 trip, I didn't hear Capital Gold in Manchester at all. I had also stayed in the town of Broadway, about midway between London and Manchester and London,, and the signal there was weak. So, I wondered if there was a relay on 1548 in Manchester, as their website suggests. BUT there was a Crystal clear signal of the Gold programming on 1458. 1548 didn't sound like a local signal, but 1458 certainly did.
Not sure what's going on here, but I'm looking forward to unraveling it. I've heard1548 from London at night at pretty much every place I've been in Europe. Even on daytime skywave in Germany. But I've almost never heard it at most points more than an hour or two north of London.
Interesting stuff. I used to listen to 1548 Capital Radio. When I first heard it in the 70s they weren't yet Capital Gold. After I was in the UK I found Capital Gold online. First time I was in London in the late 70s it was Capital Radio during daylight hours and then Radio Luxembourg at night. A great time for music in Europe.
Mini-frequencies of the week, UK style. I also checked out Manchester and it is a great rig, but very little on the lower end of the dial as you said. Curious if this is a filter. to knock off the lower frequencies, propagation or a lack of stations. I remember Capitol Gold in the 90s and 00s as well from listening online. On the Eschende/University of Twente SDR 1548 is a combination of Gold and Forth 2, another oldies/Classic Hits station in Edinburg/Collinsville. Gold is indeed strong on 1458 on the Manchester rig. Also caught 1557 with Gold on Eschende. (Fun Fact: Steve Clendenin uses the same "This is Gold" slogan on his 3 oldies stations in Myrtle Beach, Westmoreland PA and MD as the UK Gold.
For a time "Gold" was only on 1548 and DAB, with their other frequencies given to "Smooth". Smooth is mostly off MW now with Gold getting some of the MW transmitters back. 1458 in Eschende is now the BBC Asian network, and I'm thinking that I might have had a Smooth channel there.
There are several Absolute Radio transmitters on 1215 (reminds me of Cuban Rebeldes) and one was very strong in Manchester. Absolute is a regular catch for East Coast North American residents
For a time "Gold" was only on 1548 and DAB, with their other frequencies given to "Smooth". Smooth is mostly off MW now with Gold getting some of the MW transmitters back. 1458 in Eschende is now the BBC Asian network, and I'm thinking that I might have had a Smooth channel there.
There are several Absolute Radio transmitters on 1215 (reminds me of Cuban Rebeldes) and one was very strong in Manchester. Absolute is a regular catch for East Coast North American residents
If you go back into the 70s and 80s you'll find that the Capital Radio originally was on LW at 194. Then they got rid of that frequency
and broadcast solely on 1548 MW and 105.8 FM. They then split off and put Capital Gold on 1548 and the FM continued with current music. Got to try these SDRs soon.
and broadcast solely on 1548 MW and 105.8 FM. They then split off and put Capital Gold on 1548 and the FM continued with current music. Got to try these SDRs soon.
I checked out the Manchester SDR during daylight at that location (17:30) today. 1548 was Gold. Weak but steady. At the same time, The BBC flamethrower from the London area on 648 was missing, while 1458 was Gold on obvious local signal. To me, all of tht was sort of a mixed bag. 648 had a decent signal the other night, so that makes me think that the day signal isn't strong enough to break through the filter or whatever during daylight, despite the good nighttime signal. 1458 sounds exactly like it did the other night.
As for 1458, to my mind, the mystery continues. My best guess is that it was late emough in the afternoon that skywave may have been kicking in. The problem with that theory is that there was no fading....although daytime skywave is known for extended fade free periods. But it could have been a distant relay transmitter. Which, if true, might explain what sounds like convergence at night.
Indeed, as you alluded to, sometimes broadcasters in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, operate on a single transmitter with multiple transmitters. BBC Radio 4 on 720 with several low-powered transmitters is (or used to be) one example.
Whatever.... I'm looking forward seeing if I can unwrap this from the other side of the pond. As well as hearing other insights that anyone else here might have.
Fun fact: I haven't quite figured out which "Gold" transmitter is where, But,I DO know where the studio in London.. Unless, it's moved, it's on Leicester Square in the Theatre district of London. I've walked right by it,
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