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Sometimes they just pop out of the mud on a GY channel

B

boombox4

Was tuning the AM band last night on the Superadio 1 & loop, and tuned in 1490, which usually is a mess.

Except there was a local sounding station on it -- playing spots, a bit of music, and then a complete ID -- KBDM Dillon, Montana. It was on top of the channel with nearly local like quality and then 'poof', it's gone after maybe 2-3 minutes.

This is the second time something like this has happened. The last time was about a year ago, with another Montana station, the 1490 station in Great Falls (can't remember the call letters). I thought there was a new local station for a bit. Then it IDed, and within a minute or so it faded into the mess.

Usually when I tune in a graveyard channel, it's a constant mess of signals -- and only rarely does one particular station dominate the channel, and even then, it's still being interfered with by other signals on the same channel.

But on these rare occasions, glitches do happen. Something odd comes to the top and stays there a few minutes.
 
I defer to crainbebo, who is the acknowledged expert on DXing the GY channels. But I've had it happen to me several times, including twice this year. Something jumps out and stays longer than just a minute or two. Last year it happened to me twice. Most recently, in December where I went to 1230 or 1240 (I forget which). I was in Wisconsin, and had a Michigan station on top and fully audible for more than 20 minutes with minimal fading. Distance was about 150 m, IIRC.
 
cyberdad said:
I defer to crainbebo, who is the acknowledged expert on DXing the GY channels. But I've had it happen to me several times, including twice this year. Something jumps out and stays longer than just a minute or two. Last year it happened to me twice. Most recently, in December where I went to 1230 or 1240 (I forget which). I was in Wisconsin, and had a Michigan station on top and fully audible for more than 20 minutes with minimal fading. Distance was about 150 m, IIRC.
Click to expand...

There are occasions when there is a pipeline-like ducting effect on AM. The most common cause is auroral conditions, but I have seen other very narrow funnel-like reception.

I had one moment back in the early 60's where I found a bunch of SoCal stations "ducting" into NE Ohio. 1440 in Riverside, 920 in Lompoc, 1410 in Bakersfield, a test from KHSJ in Hemet and a couple of others that had, at most, 1 kw. In each case, there were other stations on the same channels much closer, but they were subdued.

The best catch of the morning was 1450 from Porterville, CA. It was readable a bit above or equal to several other occupants of the channel. I never heard another CA graveyarder... despite having logged and verified over 400 graveyarders in total. In fact, graveyarders were around 15% of the 2300 stations I verified from Cleveland from 1958 to 1963.

Although I have repeated it before, my best ducting story is an auroral based one... 1100 (Now WTAM) with 50 kw and no more than 18 miles away was being hashed by a 10 kw station from the interior of Venezuela. By turning and tilting it, I had 100% readable copy on the Venezuelan station for enough time to log enough data for a reception report. Many other Venezuelans as well as a couple of stations from the Netherlands Antilles were added that evening, all on top of domestics.
 
It's been a long close to 2 weeks without anything new in WA. Due to being too busy from work related things, and having no time to DX, the times I've DXed have come up with nothing new. Not sure what to even try for now, as even the graveyarders are getting boring and harder to ID. Probably 1/2 the time now I'm getting a mashup of news sounders at the TOH instead of a local ID. Most common one now is KQEN 1240 and KSKR 1490 both Roseburg, OR, both relog. I know KAZA-1290 IS in there, but never IDs. No ID, no log!
Congrats on KDBM - been wanting them for years but that KYNR pest has killed the channel. Heck, even KDYM Sunnyside on 1230, 30 miles away, still kills the channel to the southeast. Hearing Burley, ID on there months ago was a shocker.

-crainbebo
 
My advice on KAZA is listen closely for mentions of San Jose, esp. during the spots. You'll have to really listen hard because of the language, and the accented reading of the locations. They sometimes give phone numbers in the spots, also. I heard those before I heard the ID at TOH, so I knew I had it, and marked it in the log... but the full ID made me feel better about it.
 
"No ID, no log" doesn't necessarily mean a TOH ID. It also means local ads and city mentions. If I hear a news story with mentions of "Scottsbluff" on 1320, I would count KOLT. (And I still need them - another most wanted stn)

-crainbebo
 
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