AM Stereo 1620 6955 AM 0130 UTC 9 June 2023

[dxbill]

AM Stereo 1620 ID at 0130 UTC. Nice Big S9+10 AM signal using kiwisdr in Fair Hill, Maryland. S9 on my own sdr here in Central Wisconsin. Huge wide AM signal. Great Oldies! Off in the middle of the song at 0142 UTC. Thanks for the brief broadcast! Thanks!

[Skipmuck]

0135 UTC A song I forgot the name of  (S9 peaks with light fading and excellent audio)
0137 UTC OM DJ with "Music radio...AM Stereo 1620", followed by Unid song-OM singer
0140 UTC Unid song-Brenda Lee
0142 UTC YL with ID
0143 UTC OFF mid-song

Thanks for the driveby test whoever! Sounded great! Here's my recording:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kdVeTMAm0IBvWOHaXme7khn3iz8ms9OM/view?usp=sharing

[Shortwave_Listener]

Exact frequency is 6955.11 kHz. S9+30 with the K3FEF KiwiSDR. Really good 18 kHz wide audio!

0137 UTC-Music Radio, 1620 AM Stereo ID
0137 UTC-New World In The Morning by Roger Whittaker
0140 UTC-It Started All Over Again by Brenda Lee
0142 UTC-ID and schedule
0142 UTC-Unknown Music
0143 UTC-OFF suddenly

[Shawndx]

0140 Weak music coming up over the static and some talk but could not make that out
Thanks for the show

[Molvania Poacher]

SINPO=44343

141- "It Started All Over Again" by Brenda Lee
142- YL with foreign accented English, IDs, "Keep it here, on music radio 1620," with schedule (Friday and Saturday evenings).
142- Oldies song starts, but couldn't ID before...
143- OTA.

[Charlie_Dont_Surf]

0142 - ID and transmission schedule by YL with slight German accent.
0143 - Suddenly off mid-song. Nice audio, while it lasted.

[Dick Weed]

Sounded excellent from the little bit I could scoop up. Big s9 peaks but lots of deep fading here and then poof. Nothing.

[Pigmeat]

Was the broadcast itself in AM Stereo or were they just id'ing as such? There used to be a legit AM stereo station in Eastern North America that used 1620.

[Shortwave_Listener]

Was the broadcast itself in AM Stereo or were they just id'ing as such? There used to be a legit AM stereo station in Eastern North America that used 1620.

It sounded like a relay from a station called Music Radio on 1620 AM Stereo. I googled that and found nothing, maybe a part 15? I didn’t try using AM Stereo, but I did notice the signal was 18 kHz wide and I don’t remember hearing that transmitter before.

Recording: https://youtu.be/IoKx-TBuYKQ

[nitroengine]

On the KiwiSDRs, press the SAM button until it cycles to QAM. QAM is the C-QUAM AM-stereo mode on the Kiwi. Also, if you zoom all the way in on the waterfall, you'll be able to see the ±25Hz pilot tone if a station is broadcasting in C-QUAM AM-stereo. However, unlike FM stereo, the pilot tone is technically not required for AM-stereo to work, except standalone radios without a "forced stereo" decoder won't decode without it.

For example, here's 540 WXYG who currently broadcasts in C-QUAM AM-stereo.


In the chance any of you folks ever hear a pirate claiming to be using "Kahn" or "Kahn-Hazeltine" AM-stereo, switch the Kiwi to SAS mode. I have yet to hear a pirate doing Kahn.


For those using your own SDR, there is one SDR application that will decode C-QUAM AM-stereo: http://www.sodirasdr.de/
It can also be used as a separate decoder application if you input an IQ signal from your normal SDR software or recording via virtual audio cable.

[Pigmeat]

WKHB, an oldies/Talk station in Irwin, PA. runs C-Quam on 620. If you're not in the area, it's a tough catch, 5.5 KW daytime, 50 watts nights. You can hear it in mono with a regular radio, but that's no fun.

I'm thinking that old 1620 AM Stereo station was from Toronto, but it's been so many years ago I can't remember?

[redhat]

In the chance any of you folks ever hear a pirate claiming to be using "Kahn" or "Kahn-Hazeltine" AM-stereo, switch the Kiwi to SAS mode. I have yet to hear a pirate doing Kahn.

As with C-QUAM, there is a pilot tone with the kahn system as well, at 15Hz, Magnavox was 5 Hz.  This would be another tell-tale of stereo transmission.

[Pigmeat]

What are you doing up, Redhat?

[ChrisSmolinski]

In the chance any of you folks ever hear a pirate claiming to be using "Kahn" or "Kahn-Hazeltine" AM-stereo, switch the Kiwi to SAS mode. I have yet to hear a pirate doing Kahn.

As with C-QUAM, there is a pilot tone with the kahn system as well, at 15Hz, Magnavox was 5 Hz.  This would be another tell-tale of stereo transmission.

A good signal here on the SDR recording. I checked for a 15 Hz pilot tone, and did not see one.

Recording of the sign on at 0127 UTC including a gmail address, rmpotion@gmail.com ? Any better guesses? https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1021029304970252350/1116745946634658013/AmStereo1620.mp3

[Shortwave_Listener]

In the chance any of you folks ever hear a pirate claiming to be using "Kahn" or "Kahn-Hazeltine" AM-stereo, switch the Kiwi to SAS mode. I have yet to hear a pirate doing Kahn.

As with C-QUAM, there is a pilot tone with the kahn system as well, at 15Hz, Magnavox was 5 Hz.  This would be another tell-tale of stereo transmission.

A good signal here on the SDR recording. I checked for a 15 Hz pilot tone, and did not see one.

Recording of the sign on at 0127 UTC including a gmail address, rmpotion@gmail.com ? Any better guesses? https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1021029304970252350/1116745946634658013/AmStereo1620.mp3

Sounds right to me. I sent an email. The fact he says “You may contact this teeny-weeny radio station” definitely seems to indicate this is a part 15 operation. Maybe retransmitted by the same guy that runs the 1620 transmitter?