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Author Topic: DXing Baseball - April 14-15, 2017  (Read 4949 times)

Offline Ct Yankee

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DXing Baseball - April 14-15, 2017
« on: April 14, 2017, 2251 UTC »
First attempt league wide for the spring, all stations at least 75 air miles away.

From an earlier post: WYXT is a 50,000 watt station but not a clear channel station.  Glad you folks enjoyed the previous posting, there are too few "flame-throwers" broadcasting baseball remaining - WCAU (WPHT), WBAL, WJR, WCCO, KDKA, CHML, and WSB just a smattering of the former.

2245z WFED 1500 am Washington, D.C. Fair reception (surprised during daylight I got them at all) -  Phillies at Nationals. "Here we go into the bottom of the 8th, 2-2." and "A 6-4-3 inning ending doubleplay"

2300z WFAN 660 am New York City Excellent Reception - Cardinals at Yankees. "The umpires have not come out yet.  Tonight's game time temperature is 59 degrees"

2305z WOR 710 am New York City Excellent Reception - Mets at Marlins. "The umpires are coming out to home plate.  This is the second game of a four game set versus the Marlins."

2322z WEEU 830 am Reading, PA Very Good Reception - Phillies at Nationals.  Dejected OM "and Murphy lines it to left and the Nationals win 3-2."

2334z WTAM 1100 am Cleveland Very Good Reception - Tigers at Indians. "No score Tribe and Tigers in the second. Two and two the count...."

2341z WSYB 1380 am Rutland, VT Excellent Reception - Rays at Red Sox. "Five up and five down so far. Archer last year had the best home run average for a starting pitcher"

0025z WLW 700 am Cincinnati Good Reception - Brewers at Reds.  "Down the right field line and that is going to be foul. Lead off batter here in the bottom of the fourth.  Strike three called."

0034z WVMT 620 am Burlington, VT Good Reception - Cardinals at Yankees.  "Come out to the Stadium on Sunday when the Yanks take on the Cards.  That's hit deep to center but will be caught."  Computer WVMT ID.

0051z WLS 890 am Chicago Fair reception - White Sox at Twins. "Fast ball, 1-0.  Two outs, runner at first"

0107z KMOX 1120 am St. Louis Poor reception, another station underneath it. - Cardinals at Yankees. "4-2, Cards are down. A double down the left field line and a run will score.  Cards are down by 1.  That will be it for Tanaka."
« Last Edit: April 15, 2017, 0110 UTC by Ct Yankee »
Tecsun H501x (broadcast received on this unless noted), Zenith T/O G500, Zenith T/O Royal 7000, Emerson AR-176, Zenith 8S154, T/O 7G605 (Bomber), Tecsun PL-600, Tecsun PL-880, Zenith 5S320, Realistic DX 160 using 40 feet of copper wire.  With apologies to Senator Gramm for his thoughts on firearms, "I have more radios than I need but not as many as I want."
QTH:  Durham, Connecticut (rural setting, 15 miles north of Long Island Sound)
qsl please to:  jamcanner@comcast.net  (Thank you)

Offline pinto vortando

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Re: DXing Baseball - April 14-15, 2017
« Reply #1 on: April 15, 2017, 0903 UTC »
Unfortunately, WJR 760 AM has not broadcast Tiger baseball in 17 yrs.   :(     IIRC, WJR was flagship station from 1964 (displacing previous flagship WKMH which became rocker WKNR "Keener 13")... to last season in 2000 with Ernie Harwell, Jim Price, Dan Dickerson. 
Das Radiobunker somewhere in Michigan

Offline Ct Yankee

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Re: DXing Baseball - April 14-15, 2017
« Reply #2 on: April 15, 2017, 0952 UTC »

I agree with you about the disappointment with WJR.  Ernie was always one of my favorite broadcasters, and I'm a Yankee fan.  I think I can still name the '68 Tiger line up, hope they honor those guys with a 50th anniversary next year.
« Last Edit: April 15, 2017, 0958 UTC by Ct Yankee »
Tecsun H501x (broadcast received on this unless noted), Zenith T/O G500, Zenith T/O Royal 7000, Emerson AR-176, Zenith 8S154, T/O 7G605 (Bomber), Tecsun PL-600, Tecsun PL-880, Zenith 5S320, Realistic DX 160 using 40 feet of copper wire.  With apologies to Senator Gramm for his thoughts on firearms, "I have more radios than I need but not as many as I want."
QTH:  Durham, Connecticut (rural setting, 15 miles north of Long Island Sound)
qsl please to:  jamcanner@comcast.net  (Thank you)

Offline pinto vortando

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Re: DXing Baseball - April 14-15, 2017
« Reply #3 on: April 15, 2017, 1659 UTC »
Ernie was classic.  Unlike many of today's announcers who feel compelled to  fill the air with jabber, much of it inane, Ernie would set the table and if nothing further needed to be said would let you listen to the crowd noise as your mind transported you to the ballpark.  Ernie was also quite the gracious gentleman always willing to talk to you or sign an autograph.   
Das Radiobunker somewhere in Michigan

Offline Pigmeat

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Re: DXing Baseball - April 14-15, 2017
« Reply #4 on: April 16, 2017, 1256 UTC »
That '68 season of Detroit's was when I first got old enough to get interested baseball as a real fan. Before that my interest in baseball had been "Home Run Derby" in the off-season and following Willie Mays in season numbers.

I do a lot of dx'ing of minor league games on one lungers during the greyline period in the summers with a small Tecsun loop. It's a lot of fun in the middle of static season. It sort of reminds of being a kid in the pre-air conditioning days and heading out to the truck to sleep. Stations would start going off at 10pm. and midnight EDT and others would pop up. I used to listen to minor league and American Legion ball coming in from all over the Great Plains on nothing but a truck radio and whip before I'd be hauled in the house.

Offline Ct Yankee

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Re: DXing Baseball - April 14-15, 2017
« Reply #5 on: April 16, 2017, 1948 UTC »


Pig -
  I picked up the AAA Buffalo team on 1520am Friday night but didn't log as I was doing MLB. I still don't have A/C....but I'm in New England....there's two seasons: winter and two months of bad sledding.  Ah yes, I remember that '68 team so well because I convinced my parents that year that by having Strat-O-Matic it would keep my math skills sharp. 
Tecsun H501x (broadcast received on this unless noted), Zenith T/O G500, Zenith T/O Royal 7000, Emerson AR-176, Zenith 8S154, T/O 7G605 (Bomber), Tecsun PL-600, Tecsun PL-880, Zenith 5S320, Realistic DX 160 using 40 feet of copper wire.  With apologies to Senator Gramm for his thoughts on firearms, "I have more radios than I need but not as many as I want."
QTH:  Durham, Connecticut (rural setting, 15 miles north of Long Island Sound)
qsl please to:  jamcanner@comcast.net  (Thank you)

Offline Pigmeat

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Re: DXing Baseball - April 14-15, 2017
« Reply #6 on: April 20, 2017, 1237 UTC »
LOL. I think everyone I knew had the Strat-o-matic along with those poorly grounded electric football games that would light you up as they aged.

I often hear a semi pro league that's based in along the NY/PA line and N. NJ. in the summer on a station in E. NY. I can't recall the frequency but it seems to me it's in the expanded band? It's fun to listen to listen to as it's as about as bare-bones as it can get. At least the radio guy isn't doubling up as the PA announcer. I've heard that on HS and small college games on the one lungers. Trying to ride the delay button as a makeshift feedback control can lead to squeals normally not heard outside of a slaughterhouse.

Offline pinto vortando

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Re: DXing Baseball - April 14-15, 2017
« Reply #7 on: April 20, 2017, 1436 UTC »
Chicago Cubs affiliate WQLR 1660 Kalamazoo MI only 10kw daytime/ 1000 watts night but being an expanded band station has a fairly decent signal due to the uncrowded nature of the band. 

btw, no A/C here either, two seasons in Michigan... winter and July.
Das Radiobunker somewhere in Michigan

Offline pinto vortando

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Re: DXing Baseball - April 14-15, 2017
« Reply #8 on: April 20, 2017, 1520 UTC »
CT Yankee,

You are right about WXYT 1270, it is not clear channel,  it is class B 50kw day and night with directional antenna.

Actually, there are no more Class 1-A clear channel stations (only station allowed on a given frequency at night).  The history is somewhat convoluted but they went away some time ago.  Today's clear channel stations are class A and share their nighttime frequency with limited protection from a number of other stations.

Interesting to look at an old 1963 publication showing WMAQ 670 Chicago, WLW 700 Cincinnati, WGN 720 Chicago, and WOAI San Antonio (all 50kw stations) as the only stations on their frequency day and night.  However, by then, many of the other clear channels had perhaps two widely geographically separated 50kw stations sharing a frequency at night. 
Das Radiobunker somewhere in Michigan

Offline Ct Yankee

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Re: DXing Baseball - April 14-15, 2017
« Reply #9 on: April 20, 2017, 2136 UTC »
Pig -

You have me curious about the tri-state league you are hearing.  That's my place of origin, so I know it well.  For a radio station, even a little local one, to give air time to a non-MLB team in a market saturated with MLB covered has me puzzled.
If it is a tiny league it could be the professional short season A League "The NY-Penn League" - I think every little 'burgh in the region that had a brewery got a team.  The footprint of that league covers the area you mention.  The other possibilities are: the amateur New England Collegiate Baseball League which also plays west of its name.  These are college upperclassmen who are not professional - the is a poor man's Cape Cod league (The most fabled summer collegiate league in the country).  The Atlantic League is a professional, non-MLB affiliated independent league stocked with undrafted kids and former professionals who want to keep playing or try a comeback.  Both of these leagues start June and end before Labor Day.
« Last Edit: April 20, 2017, 2159 UTC by Ct Yankee »
Tecsun H501x (broadcast received on this unless noted), Zenith T/O G500, Zenith T/O Royal 7000, Emerson AR-176, Zenith 8S154, T/O 7G605 (Bomber), Tecsun PL-600, Tecsun PL-880, Zenith 5S320, Realistic DX 160 using 40 feet of copper wire.  With apologies to Senator Gramm for his thoughts on firearms, "I have more radios than I need but not as many as I want."
QTH:  Durham, Connecticut (rural setting, 15 miles north of Long Island Sound)
qsl please to:  jamcanner@comcast.net  (Thank you)

Offline Pigmeat

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Re: DXing Baseball - April 14-15, 2017
« Reply #10 on: April 20, 2017, 2349 UTC »
The time frame is right for the last two. It's a mid-summer catch. I know I've heard them mention going to Williamsport to play.

Offline Ct Yankee

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Re: DXing Baseball - April 14-15, 2017
« Reply #11 on: April 21, 2017, 1843 UTC »
Williamsport is part of the NY-Penn league, a Phiilies' Affiliate.  The other team locales, for radio identifying purposes, are: Staten Island, Connecticut (Norwich), Brooklyn, Aberdeen, State College, Hudson Valley, Batavia, Auburn, Mahoning Valley,
West Virginia, Lowell, Tri-City, and Vermont.  West Virgina broadcasts their games on six stations with the only AM being WCLG-AM – 1300 Khz – Morgantown.  State College broadcasts on WRSC 1390 am - maybe you heard one of those two.

The only team I could find broadcasting in the expanded band in the region is the Rockland Boulders on WRCR 1700am.  They play in the Independent Professional Can-AM League. Six teams spread between New Jersey, New York, Ontario, and Quebec....no Williamsport.
« Last Edit: April 21, 2017, 2026 UTC by Ct Yankee »
Tecsun H501x (broadcast received on this unless noted), Zenith T/O G500, Zenith T/O Royal 7000, Emerson AR-176, Zenith 8S154, T/O 7G605 (Bomber), Tecsun PL-600, Tecsun PL-880, Zenith 5S320, Realistic DX 160 using 40 feet of copper wire.  With apologies to Senator Gramm for his thoughts on firearms, "I have more radios than I need but not as many as I want."
QTH:  Durham, Connecticut (rural setting, 15 miles north of Long Island Sound)
qsl please to:  jamcanner@comcast.net  (Thank you)

Offline Pigmeat

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Re: DXing Baseball - April 14-15, 2017
« Reply #12 on: April 21, 2017, 2006 UTC »
I've got a local on 1300 who's stick is just down the road. They blast 24/7. About the only time they're off the air is when some drunk or pill head leaving the scenic unincorporated Methadone district runs into a power pole out that way. I'm surprised that those heathens haven't cut the power, pulled the thing down and sold it for scrap?

I'm thinking the team is Hudson Valley or Batavia as they've run spots for businesses in small NY towns. Staten Island or Brooklyn I would have remembered.

Offline pinto vortando

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Re: DXing Baseball - April 14-15, 2017
« Reply #13 on: April 23, 2017, 2102 UTC »
WVFN AM 730 "The Game" Lansing MI "Home of the Lansing Lugnuts".
Das Radiobunker somewhere in Michigan

Offline Pigmeat

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Re: DXing Baseball - April 14-15, 2017
« Reply #14 on: May 12, 2017, 1255 UTC »
I ran across my log on this one and did a little online digging. It was the AA Akron Rubber Ducks of the Eastern League on WARF 1350 from Akron at 5 kW according to their Wikipedia page. They were playing the Erie Sea Wolves.

No wonder I was confused. What's with all the salt water references 400 plus miles inland? The Cuyahoga is a flaming river and Erie is on an algae-filled lake.