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Saltwater path daytime DX-Louisiana

cyberdad

cyberdad

I'm in New Orleans today (Thursday, May 31). Driving in yesterday on I-59/I-10 from Birmingham, AL, I thought the 40-mile stretch from the Louisiana state line to New Orleans might be interesting for a little "dial spinning". This was between 11am-noon. Sunny weather. No thunderstorm activity. The route runs along lakes Borgne (which is actually a lagoon from the Gulf of Mexico), and Lake Ponchartrain. Here are some of the highlights....

530: R. Enciclopedia. Weak-Fair. To my surprise this was actually the strongest Cuban.
540: WFLF: Very weak. No positive ID, but Rush Limbaugh, so I suspect WFLF
570: R. Reloj. Weak....not as strong as 530, but tones clearly audible
620: WDAE. Fair. This was the strongest saltwater path station. Very listenable.
640: KTIB rendered unlistenable by R. Progreso
670: R. Rebelde Weak, but alone.
710: The "Cuban Chorus" very weak. An even weaker WNTM underneath
740: Tried for KTRH. Nothing doing. Splatter from adjacent New Orleans 750 didn't help
820: Tried for Tampa. No luck. Splatter from local 830 instead.
890: No trace of Cuba here
970: Was looking for WFLA. Thought I might have head it, but very weak, so I'm not sure
1030: KCTA. Very weak, but clearly audible
1180: No trace of R. Marti or Cuba (splatter from semi-local 1190 in Miss. Gulf Coast)
1200: Wanted to see if WINK might be doable. It wasn't!

If I hear anything else of note in New Orleans, I'll post. However, between the noise in my hotel room and predicted thunderstorms, I'm not optimistic. Instead of DX, I may have to just be content with gumbo!
 
I wanna read more from you....I was at Port Fourchon (near Grand Isle) in Sep 2004, with two Superadios & Select-a-Tenna. Nice stuff, from WCNZ 1660 Marco Island in the east to XEFW Tampico in the west, and so much in between, in the day! It should have been in June, but.

cd
 
I've always thought it would be interesting to check out the area southwest of here for DX. Or just to check out the area in general. Not this trip, however. I'm outta here in the morning.
 
We made the drive from Houston to Destin FL several times when I lived in TX. I've always thought that the raised portion of the freeway across the bay and the wildlife refuge would be an interesting place to tune around, since you're effectively over the gulf (the kids would have objected however...). I'm pretty impressed with all the Cubans. Is that typical over on that part of the coast? When I've visited the upper Texas coast I would hear lots of stuff from Mexico to Florida, but never heard Cuba. It's probably 2-300 miles further from Havana than you are though.

When you're in NOLA, you should be eating, not DXing :)
 
wildthangjim said:
I'm pretty impressed with all the Cubans. Is that typical over on that part of the coast?

When you're in NOLA, you should be eating, not DXing :)
Click to expand...

I'm guessing that the Cubans I heard yesterday are probably typical. But I'm sure it helps that my rental car has a really good radio. I've made the I-10 run from NOLA to Florida at least a dozen times, but for one reason or another, never got around to DXing that stretch along the two lakes.

And, yes, I'll probably leave here a couple of pounds heavier than when I arrived. Too many old favorite haunts here that I can't seem to pass up! ;D
 
FYI.......Back in 2003, I was working in the NOLA area and found WDAE-620 was quite strong on my Bose system in my Chevy Trailblazer in the area of I-10, west of NO out to the airport during mid-day hours. 970 was also heard but much, much weaker. I never heard 540 during the day back then. Driving across the 24 mile Lake Ponchartrain bridge also brought great daytime AM reception. I was able to hear 740 from Houston going across that bridge.
 
cyberdad said:
wildthangjim said:
I'm pretty impressed with all the Cubans. Is that typical over on that part of the coast?

When you're in NOLA, you should be eating, not DXing :)
Click to expand...

I'm guessing that the Cubans I heard yesterday are probably typical. But I'm sure it helps that my rental car has a really good radio. I've made the I-10 run from NOLA to Florida at least a dozen times, but for one reason or another, never got around to DXing that stretch along the two lakes.
Click to expand...
Just ouf of curiousity, what make and model car? I may doing a car rental in October for a trip to Baton Rouge if I don't fly S.W. to NOLA; at any rate, the Toyota's I've driven including my own, seem to have good stock radios and I was wondering what other makes have good stock radios.

drt,
st. petersburg,fl
 
To answer the last two posts....

I'm driving a Toyota Corolla. My experience with Toyota stock radios is they don't produce great audio, but they're quite good as DX machines.

And, indeed, I'm driving across the Lake Ponchartrain causeway bridge tomorrow (Friday). Probably around 9:30 or 10am. First time in at least a dozen or so years. I'll definitely take another stab at KTRH and see what else turns up. I'll report tomorrow night...or over the weekend at the latest.
 
cyberdad said:
To answer the last two posts....

I'm driving a Toyota Corolla. My experience with Toyota stock radios is they don't produce great audio, but they're quite good as DX machines.

And, indeed, I'm driving across the Lake Ponchartrain causeway bridge tomorrow (Friday). Probably around 9:30 or 10am. First time in at least a dozen or so years. I'll definitely take another stab at KTRH and see what else turns up. I'll report tomorrow night...or over the weekend at the latest.
Click to expand...

I'm renting a 2012 Corolla right now, as I wait for my 2010 Kia Soul to be repaired. Dunno about cyberdad's radio, but this one of mine stinks! I want the Soul back!

On my 2004 DXpedition, I believe that 670 & 710 were the only Cuban stations that made it to Port Fourchon. Still, that's a long haul.

And to gar fla, yes WDAE is a monster! Low dial position doesn't hurt. Funny though....here in Broward in the day, all I get on 620 is a Rebelde!

I think WFLF 540 made it in for me, but it was hardly listenable. Didn't WASG in AL start up on 540 now?

I think I need to find my 2004 tape. At that time, XEQOO in Cancun (at that time "Radio Pirata") with its 35 kW easily made it across the water; but Hurricane Ike in 2008 rendered XEQOO either off the air, or on flea power. It was a regular on FL's west coast until then.

cd
 
Here's the update from my 23-mile drive across the Lake Ponchartrain causeway from New Orleans to Mandeville this morning...10:00am CDT. This would be about 30 miles west of where I was Wednesday. For those unfamiliar, Lake Ponchartrain is a large shallow lake containing brackish water (a mix of fresh and salt) connected to Lake Borgne...which is now a salt water lagoon adjoining the Gulf of Mexico. (Look at a map to get a view of what I'm talking about.)

Anyway, in response to other posters, I mostly hung out on 540 and 740.

On 540 I was hearing what sounded like three very weak stations. No music. But at least one of the talk shows sounded like religious programming. I'm going to guess WASG, but it's just a guess. In fact, it may have been WASG that I was hearing Wednesday. But I'm still pretty sure it was Rush I heard then.

As for 740, there was noise on the channel, but I did indeed hear KTRH. Weak, but with a positive ID.

Other notes....

All of the Cubans were weaker, except R. Reloj on 570 which had disappeared entirely. 530 was still the strongest, but not as strong as Wednesday. I also heard R. Rebelde on 1620. I'm guessing this could've been skywave, since this one was absent on Wednesday.

WDAE/620 was strong enough today on Lake Ponchartrain to trip the scan button. WJDX was underneath, and finally took over once I was about 10-15 miles inland.

Finally, an oddity. The 660 10kw ND from Mobile, which had a fairly decent signal Wednesday, was missing on Lake Ponchartrain this morning. But at the same time 1kw ND WNTM from Mobile was audible (along with the "Cuban Chorus" on 710).

Go figure.
 
cyberdad said:
Finally, an oddity. The 660 10kw ND from Mobile, which had a fairly decent signal Wednesday, was missing on Lake Ponchartrain this morning. But at the same time 1kw ND WNTM from Mobile was audible (along with the "Cuban Chorus" on 710).
Click to expand...

That's odd, but I think 660 may be having some technical issues and not going full power right away in the morning. I heard them last weekend and they were weak and waaaay over modulated, along with simulcast partner WGOK 900 in Mobile proper. I'm in Baldwin County so they should be strong during the day.
 
Zach said:
cyberdad said:
Finally, an oddity. The 660 10kw ND from Mobile, which had a fairly decent signal Wednesday, was missing on Lake Ponchartrain this morning. But at the same time 1kw ND WNTM from Mobile was audible (along with the "Cuban Chorus" on 710).
Click to expand...

That's odd, but I think 660 may be having some technical issues and not going full power right away in the morning. I heard them last weekend and they were weak and waaaay over modulated, along with simulcast partner WGOK 900 in Mobile proper. I'm in Baldwin County so they should be strong during the day.
Click to expand...

My thought was that they were either off or otherwise having issues. I couldn't see how they'd be one of the stronger salt water path signals one day, then be missing two days later only 30 or so miles away.

BTW, Zach, with apologies for the veer, repeating my question from a few weeks ago. I'm curious how WEBY does where you are. Foley area, IIRC. It's second only to WWL as the strongest daytime signal at Perdido Key with a 25kw highly directional signal. The rest of the P-cola signals are pretty puny by the time they get to the beach, but not 1330.

And finally, I don't doubt that WDAE has a good signal in the New Orleans French Quarter. I've never done any really serious DXing there (too much other stuff to do...LOL). But even back in the 5kw days of WSUN, 620 from Tampa has alwas been very listenable driving around town with a good car radio. Another thing I remember about driving around New Orleans back in the day. At night, WTIX had various holes in its 5kw nighttime directional signal where Cuba would suddenly come booming through/
 
Back in the 60s & 70s I spent quite a bit of time in NOLA. WLS was gangbusters there at night, sometimes better than WTIX & WNOE. Does it still even make it down there?
 
cyberdad said:
BTW, Zach, with apologies for the veer, repeating my question from a few weeks ago. I'm curious how WEBY does where you are. Foley area, IIRC. It's second only to WWL as the strongest daytime signal at Perdido Key with a 25kw highly directional signal. The rest of the P-cola signals are pretty puny by the time they get to the beach, but not 1330.

And finally, I don't doubt that WDAE has a good signal in the New Orleans French Quarter. I've never done any really serious DXing there (too much other stuff to do...LOL). But even back in the 5kw days of WSUN, 620 from Tampa has alwas been very listenable driving around town with a good car radio. Another thing I remember about driving around New Orleans back in the day. At night, WTIX had various holes in its 5kw nighttime directional signal where Cuba would suddenly come booming through/
Click to expand...

No worries, I'm the king of derailing threads.

WEBY is decent here in Foley, during the day only of course. I have issues with it at home because I live basically under the stick for WHEP which is at 1310. On a sufficiently narrow radio 1310 and 1330 don't bother each other anywhere in town. It wouldn't surprise me if it were audible down in SE Louisiana out Buras/Port Sulphur way. It's much stronger than the Radio-Locator coverage maps suggest, I think. At night it's gone not just here but anywhere in Pensacola as well. I've never even heard it in Milton, where the night tower supposedly resides.

In Foley, I'd probably rank 1310 strongest, obviously, with 660 close behind, followed by WWL and then probably 1000 AM in Robertsdale, and 1330 probably ties 1410 and 1360 from Mobile after that.

Since you mention WTIX I just saw where they (as WIST now) have once again gotten a permit to drop to non-directional both day and night, with reduced power at all times. Something 9100 watts day and just 106 watts night. They never quite recovered from Katrina damage. They had an interesting looking 4 tower array that jutted out into a lake, which I'd never seen anywhere else. I think the three lake-bound towers fell and the only one left is right on shore.

Even at reduced power it's still quite a signal that can be heard all along the beaches of MS and AL.
 
Zach....  Thanks for filling in all those blanks for me.  Obviously WHEP would be capable of trashing WEBY on cheaper radios.  I agree that WEBY would probably be doable in Buras, Port Sulphur or one of those river towns downstream from NOLA.  But no trace of it on my two drives last week.  Having a semi-local on 1320 wasn't helping matters.

A note on WHEP 1310.  They put a fairly decent signal into the state line area of the beach (as you may already know).  Especially since they bumped it to 2,500 watts.  At night it vanishes.  The FM translator signal for WHEP is weak at the state line, but if you fiddle enough with the antenna, you can usually coax a static-free signal on a good radio.   

As for WIST/WTIX, yes...good signal on the beach.  It seemed better this year on my March visit than it had been in the past few years, but still not up to what it was in the pre-Katrina days.  On my drive Friday when I got off the causeway and drove north up 25/27, they were still throwing a pretty good signal well into Mississippi.  My guess is they're at (or close to) 9,100 watts ND instead of an STA or their old....admittedly weird...pattern.

Gar...  You asked about the Tampa-St. Pete 1380.  Yes, I was looking for that, but no trace of it on either of my lake drives.  I was a little surprised, because on the beach at the AL-FL line, they're very listenable.

Radioman.... Yup, WLS still makes it down to New Orleans.  I didn't do much DXing there because I thought there'd be no point in trying.  But I discovered near the end of my stay that my room (at far north end of a a hall) was not only surprisingly noise free, but was also letting skywave signals in.  (Perhaps because I neglected to use the "do not disturb" sign!)   ;D   Anyway, a quick scan on the SRF 37 walkman revealed all four Chicago ND blowtorches....even WSCR.   No trace of WMVP, however. Not surprising since my room had a lovely view of the local 990 stick a couple of blocks away.
 
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