Re: [IRCA] 1040 wandering het: who is it?

[Glenn Hauser <wghauser@xxxxxxxxx>]

Re: Message: 7
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2010 23:08:46 -0500
From: "Fred Schroyer" <freditor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [IRCA] 1040 wandering het: who is it?

Driving home a couple of weeks ago, I noticed a strange het on 1040. Its
pitch rose & fell very slowly (spanning a couple of musical notes over a
minute), through roughly an octave either side of middle C (in other words,
maybe a hundred Hz up to several hundred), with no apparent pattern, just a
gradual rising and falling. Kinda like a very, very slow moaning. The
aimless frequency drift reminds me of an old tube oscillator with poor
voltage regulation and no temperature compensation!

Listening over the past 2 weeks, I hear it all the time, weak during daytime
and very strong during critical hours and at night. This might reflect that
it has only a weak station to beat against during the day -- WZSK @ 100
miles distance -- versus strong stations to beat against during CH & at
night -- WHO, WYSL (250 mis away) and WPBS (500 mis away).

I hear it equally well from my home in Waynesburg, PA (40 mis S of
Pittsburgh) to my dayjob in Morgantown, WV. At both locations, it
direction-finds to roughly SE-NW. My Sony 7600 valiantly tried to sync the
signal when I set it to 1041 kHz, which tells me that the station's
frequency is always above 1040.

My guess is an unhappy TIS, not too far away. I can't find a trusty TIS
directory online -- anyone know of one? Is anyone else hearing this, esp
DXers in PA, OH, MD, WV? Any ideas who/where it might be? Thanks.

Fred Schroyer, Freelance Science Writer / Editorial Consultant
Waynesburg, PA 15370
(40 air miles S of Pittsburgh, 20 N of Morgantown, WV)
freditor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

===

Sorry if this has already been answered, but I am a bit behind in reading all the digests.

Sounds like a Cuban wobbler, but not to PA in the daytime.

I thought I had publicized this list, which includes TIS stations, but no guarantees how current or complete it may be:

http://www.mwlist.org/mwlist_quick_and_easy.php?area=3&kHz=1040

Only shows four on 1040, and only one outside California:
USA   WPEI224  Hanover, MD    0.01   dept of transportation hdqtrs 

73, Glenn Hauser


      
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