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Loggings => MW Loggings => Topic started by: ThaDood on June 28, 2020, 0440 UTC

Title: What's in there with 1100 WTAM in the evenings?
Post by: ThaDood on June 28, 2020, 0440 UTC
For better than two weeks now, I've noticed something about +/-10Hz off FREQ battling it out with Cleveland's 1100 WTAM on a job site to site drive at 10:06PM EST, (When I want to catch the opening of Ground Zero Radio with Clyde Lewis.), and also still there on the drive home, like after 2AM, when I want to see what's on C2C AM. So, what is that? You'd think that 1100kHz would have Clear Channel to WV, but I'm now nightly hearing something in there with it. That being only a few Hertz off is like a motor boating sound. Any ideas???
Title: Re: What's in there with 1100 WTAM in the evenings?
Post by: pinto vortando on June 29, 2020, 1103 UTC
Listened last night 2200-2230 EDT.  A number of sudden brief sharp fades but no interference heard.  Usually a solid signal in here across the Lake at night.
Will continue monitoring. 
Title: Re: What's in there with 1100 WTAM in the evenings?
Post by: jta on June 29, 2020, 1309 UTC
Had a het against WTAM prior to 9:00 p.m. EDT and it didn't go away after dark. Also had a snippet of a Simon & Garfunkel song at 8:50 but, of course, it disappeared before TOH IDs; most likely WHLI.

Isn't there a Euro channel on 1098? Is there a flamethrower station there?
Title: Re: What's in there with 1100 WTAM in the evenings?
Post by: ThaDood on June 29, 2020, 1739 UTC
I duh-know about Europe, but Mexico could indeed be a good possibility from where I am. Most of the 1100kHz stations that I've done a 1,500mi search on Radio Locator are either Daytime Only, or very Directional. The ones from Mexico do not appear to be. https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/locate?select=city&city=25159&state=WV&band=AM&is_lic=Y&is_cp=Y&is_unl=Y&format=&dx=3&radius=1500&freq=1100&sort=freq   Another reason to disregard European stations id that I don't hear a 2kHz HET, but that rumble of just a few Hertz off. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm, the mystery thickens. And, why just within the last 3 weeks? Ehhhh???
Title: Re: What's in there with 1100 WTAM in the evenings?
Post by: pinto vortando on June 30, 2020, 0253 UTC
WTAM loud and clear in here tonight.  It really has no competition at night in the eastern part of the country.
Out west at night the CO station reduces power and sends its signal north-south  and the CA station heats up the Pacific.
Title: Re: What's in there with 1100 WTAM in the evenings?
Post by: Treehouse SWL on June 30, 2020, 0325 UTC
Yeah, out west here, KFAX out of San Francisco dominates 1100 kHz, with KNZZ out of Grand Junction, Colorado, sometimes popping up. Never heard anything else on that frequency.
Title: Re: What's in there with 1100 WTAM in the evenings?
Post by: ThaDood on June 30, 2020, 1727 UTC
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, I must be in the 'Sweet Spot' where I can just hear this. I've always heard massive phasing and fading from 1100 WTAM, since I'm only just under 300 miles from them and I suspect a high angle off bounce to get to me. (Which makes me wish that car stereos had Sync AM in them. How come no one thought of that?) Well, during those fades is when I hear the few Hertz HET from whatever else that is on 1100kHz. I've ordered an RTL-SDR package, and this might be a neat thing to look at with it.
Title: Re: What's in there with 1100 WTAM in the evenings?
Post by: pinto vortando on July 01, 2020, 0130 UTC
Do you notice this on other stations as they fade ?  Have you tried listening on another receiver at the same time to see if the same thing happens in the other receiver ?
Car radios nowadays skimp on noise suppression.  Perhaps the bypass capacitor (hopefully there is one) has failed. 
Title: Re: What's in there with 1100 WTAM in the evenings?
Post by: ThaDood on July 01, 2020, 0649 UTC
Actually, yes. I hear this on the C-Crane Plus at home, albeit not as pronounced. As far as this motor boating HET on other stations? No, not observed. One problem with a car stereo VERT antenna is that it is Omnidirectional.
Title: Re: What's in there with 1100 WTAM in the evenings?
Post by: redhat on July 08, 2020, 1834 UTC
We are in storm season.  Its possible someone took a hit to their array and something got goosed by that electrician in the sky.  I had a Gates 5 take a lightning hit which damaged the tank resonator, and consequently ran like that for a number of years before I found it and fixed it.  Meanwhile the meter readings were always off, and the PA's would blow about once a year.

+-RH
Title: Re: What's in there with 1100 WTAM in the evenings?
Post by: ThaDood on July 09, 2020, 1804 UTC
Hmmmmmm, maybe an interesting, but good, speculation there. Someone may not even know of a pattern change, unless a FS measurement is taken, or the FCC contacts the station to say, "We've noticed that you are out of compliance from a couple of monitoring stations." I don't remember what AM station it was, but in the 80's a station was contacted by the FCC for being noticed a few Hertz off FREQ measured at night. It's been a month that I've noticed that slightly off-FREQ station on WTAM's 1100kHz now. We'll see just how long that's in there. They are my fall-back for C2C AM on my drive home, when the local 1240kHz station, (Yeah... A Graveyard FREQ.), goes off-air, or just dead-air. That happens a lot, and their newer FM translator doesn't help when there's no audio to that either.