HFU HF Underground
General Category => General Radio Discussion => Topic started by: Matt_B on August 15, 2018, 2244 UTC
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Not knowing where to put this, I'm putting it here. Feel free to move this post if it's in the wrong place.
Pulled in an interesting signal today. While cruising around downtown Fairfield CT, I decided to do a brief frequency test of 1690 AM, an intended Part 15 frequency. As I was passing the Fairfield Public Library (at about 2235 UTC/5:35 PM eastern), I heard a bit of music on 1690....specifically, Dan Hill's "Sometimes When We Touch". A quick scan of both Radio-Locator and FCC records revealed no licensed station on that frequency, at least not within 100 kilometers.
So....this leaves me wondering what, and who, this station could possibly be. Any ideas?
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An AM (MW) pirate seems likely.
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I'd bet there are far more average joes out there feeding am sigs to old Zeniths and Philco consoles, or people using a feed for in store display purposes, than there are actual privateers of the airwaves.
But who knows, it may be a veritable hotbed of privateering!
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Fairfield is on the Gold Coast - must be a pirate ;)!
0016z 17 Aug 2018...."Did you happen to see the most beautiful girl in the world". I'm about 40-50 miles NE of Fairfield. I'm thinking maybe a pirate across the sound from us on Long Island OR WPTX Lexington Park, MD (AC format) has 10k watts day, 1k nights.
0024z "Lean on Me" - excellent reception
0028z WPTX ID
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Fairfield is on the Gold Coast - must be a pirate ;)!
0016z 17 Aug 2018...."Did you happen to see the most beautiful girl in the world". I'm about 40-50 miles NE of Fairfield. I'm thinking maybe a pirate across the sound from us on Long Island OR WPTX Lexington Park, MD (AC format) has 10k watts day, 1k nights.
0024z "Lean on Me" - excellent reception
0028z WPTX ID
I wouldn't think that the station I pulled in is WPTX. I was looking at their coverage map, and found that their 10,000 watt daytime signal barely gets into New Jersey. So IDK....this is still a mystery. :: ponders ::
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I have had surprising reception in Connecticut with low powered am coming from stations on/near salt water from the mid-Altantic, to name a couple:
WCMC 1230 am Wildwood, NJ 1,000 watts all day at 0042z about a month ago
WYUS 930 am Milford, DE 500/81 watts day/night, a few months ago
Plus, the station I heard did ID as WPTX - something about broadcasting in the neck of Maryland.
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I'm across the Appalachians and well south of the Lexington, MD. station and can always hear them surprisingly well in the late afternoon, Matt. There's a station in N.J. on either 1680 or 1700 that comes in well during the same time frame. They ride the greyline to my location in the afternoons, often for a couple of hours. You've got Chesapeake Bay, Delaware Bay, a nice chunk of the Atlantic and the Long Island Sound between you and Lexington, as much than more saltwater than land. Saltwater propagation is a huge plus on MW.
BTW, all stations on the MW X-band have non-directional antennas. The signal tends to follow the best path at any given time.