Hudson County PSA 1710 AM 0059 UTC 18 Apr 2020

[myteaquinn]

Have Hudson county TIS with a continuous loop of COVID-19 survival tips.

[aurora]

Stronger than normal tonight. S9

[Kage]

How is this station so strong suddenly?
I never noticed anything on 1710kHz for years except the occasional pirate or local talking house Christmas music show. Last night I tuned to that frequency again as I normally flip past it and heard this transmission. At times the signal was strong enough to blank out all static and after using google earth I calculated that the station is some 800 miles away!
This is going to make listening to pirates on this frequency a bust.
I can't imagine a 10 watt TIS could get a signal out this well legally unless they were allowed a massive power increase.
Oh and yeah.. I washed my hands after hearing the recorded voice say to do so every minute.

[Kage]

After doing a quick search I found I'm not the only one who noticed the signal this far away..
https://fmradiodx.wordpress.com/2019/04/16/only-u-s-am-signal-on-1710-am-received-in-virginia/

I'm calling shenanigans on this station. No way 10 watts is getting out that well, someone had to have bumped the output power button way up.

[myteaquinn]

I can't remember where I say it but I believe that the FCC approved an increase in power for the station to broadcast the COVID-19 information. I can't remember how long the special authorization is for. Found the information.

Boriken started the thread on March 20th. 100 watts for 90 days.

https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,64340.msg220631.html#msg220631

[Ct Yankee]

Excellent reception here tonight, about 100 air miles away.

0056 23 Apr 2020 Covid Loop, Hudson County contact information