UNID 1710 AM 1208 UTC 4 Nov 2018

[ChrisSmolinski]

I've got a pirate on 1710 mixing in with the TIS station(s), just heard "What a Wonderful World" at 1208 UTC. Using the 670 ft sky loop antenna and my KiwiSDR.

[MojaveBeaconeer]

Chris,  At night I hear 1710 carriers - two beating, in the Moj. Desert.  Unfortunately, 1710 is RUINED by a grossly overmudulated (Freudian slip there?) and illegally-over-powered 1700 Baja Norte/TJ station blastering for San Diego with the ESPN "stuff" blaring away wideband at +125% modulation - thusly totally splattering at night, dusk and dawn, 1710 kHz!  (1610 has now a weird mash of wide-carriers obliterating the tizzies...) thus, 1710 kHz --very useless at night for even 100 feet good clean pt. 15 coverage, hence the slew-up to 1712 (more below) for the locals... one of a zillion nightly signals on the BCB...

But as such, I am running very occ. a 1712 kHz AM rig home brew--(WW2-surplus spotting osc. unit converted-VFO) Pierce JFET VFO ckt. - (2N3819) to a 2N3866 buffer to some 2SK-20-something p.a., but in AM mode with 200 ohms DC res. via chokes, (using your way cool "SQUID"  antenna xfmr. (OK at this level of power) for good ant. matching) and a  modulation xfmr. actually for 6.3 v tube-filiments, the thing is 100 mW great audio Q (FM-like quality with a xtal. receiver nearby!) to a 23 ft. vertical but surrounded by RF eating salt Cedar trees, so it truly has the maybe the FCC-sanctioned 1 to 2 (max!) block "clean coverage" by daytimes (but awfully-splattered at night by "megaphone modulation mode" power-cheater XE-blaster 1700 San Diego/TJ) .  ;-0   

- and I have DXed my ~1712 sig. out to 4 miles JBA audio daytimes, out on a nearby dry salty lake with high conductivity(!) -- legal and mellow, low power AM b'casting is fun for us AM DXers to the max.  -- but far better than the wee-pipsqueak-RF that the Radio Shack Umpteen-in-One kits as kiddies we had that went 20 feet (loopstick to loopstick DXing...). 

 (I obtained one via eBay, recently, as I had in '73...).  If somebody could tone-down the XE-blaster on 1700 out west, the 1710 LP freq. would be great...

California Dreamin'... -- MB

[MojaveBeaconeer]

Oh yeah I forgot to mention above... the Pierce JFET VFO ckt. in my Part-15, 1712 kHz AM xmtr. is isolated and stabilized by an LM7809 regulator - virtually NO osc. pull or voltage-variation-caused VFO drift that  could be often caused by to the rest of the xmtr. (esp. the final-amp. and audio amp.) pulling down the supply voltage, so quite stable except for slow temp. drifts... 73-MB

[R4002]

Chris,  At night I hear 1710 carriers - two beating, in the Moj. Desert.  Unfortunately, 1710 is RUINED by a grossly overmudulated (Freudian slip there?) and illegally-over-powered 1700 Baja Norte/TJ station blastering for San Diego with the ESPN "stuff" blaring away wideband at +125% modulation - thusly totally splattering at night, dusk and dawn, 1710 kHz!  (1610 has now a weird mash of wide-carriers obliterating the tizzies...) thus, 1710 kHz --very useless at night for even 100 feet good clean pt. 15 coverage, hence the slew-up to 1712 (more below) for the locals... one of a zillion nightly signals on the BCB...

But as such, I am running very occ. a 1712 kHz AM rig home brew--(WW2-surplus spotting osc. unit converted-VFO) Pierce JFET VFO ckt. - (2N3819) to a 2N3866 buffer to some 2SK-20-something p.a., but in AM mode with 200 ohms DC res. via chokes, (using your way cool "SQUID"  antenna xfmr. (OK at this level of power) for good ant. matching) and a  modulation xfmr. actually for 6.3 v tube-filiments, the thing is 100 mW great audio Q (FM-like quality with a xtal. receiver nearby!) to a 23 ft. vertical but surrounded by RF eating salt Cedar trees, so it truly has the maybe the FCC-sanctioned 1 to 2 (max!) block "clean coverage" by daytimes (but awfully-splattered at night by "megaphone modulation mode" power-cheater XE-blaster 1700 San Diego/TJ) .  ;-0   

- and I have DXed my ~1712 sig. out to 4 miles JBA audio daytimes, out on a nearby dry salty lake with high conductivity(!) -- legal and mellow, low power AM b'casting is fun for us AM DXers to the max.  -- but far better than the wee-pipsqueak-RF that the Radio Shack Umpteen-in-One kits as kiddies we had that went 20 feet (loopstick to loopstick DXing...). 

 (I obtained one via eBay, recently, as I had in '73...).  If somebody could tone-down the XE-blaster on 1700 out west, the 1710 LP freq. would be great...

California Dreamin'... -- MB

XEPE XEPE-AM on 1700 kHz is supposedly doing 10,000 watts day and night out of Tecate, Baja California (obviously the market is San Diego) - apparently its the only 10kw night time station on 1700 kHz in all of North America (!!!).  If they're splattering I doubt the Mexican authorities will do anything about it...seems like they've already got a distinctive advantage, especially at night on that clear frequency with all other stations dropping down to 1000 watts or less at night. 

Makes 1720 look that much more attractive.  Of course, most AM radios stop at 1710...so I'll agree that 1712 seems attractive too...at least for you West Coasters.  1710 on the East Coast has TIS (both FCC licensed and under the purview if the NTIA since they're operated by the federal government).