[IRCA] unID TIS 530 solved - thank you!

[Chernos Saul <sauldx@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thank you to
those who listened and made various suggestions. We have a winner. I’ll
get to that...

First, I
should have stated that I checked the FCC TIS site. The problem was that there
are several possibilities. I didn’t want to feed any of my own preconceptions
to the list.

So, looking
at the three states where a TIS would mention Michigan's Upper Peninsula, here’s
what I thought, based on the FCC list.
MI is the
most obvious option, and while three of four 530 stations are well away from the UP (Lansing, Holland and Big Rapids), one is in Mackinaw City, right at the UP's base. So I considered this
a strong candidate. It’s also closest to me, by far.
MN borders
MI’s UP, but there's only three MN stations on 530 and they're all in and
around St. Paul-Minneapolis, well away from MI’s UP. So I considered MN out of
the picture. It’d also be the farthest from me, for what that’s worth.
WI has quite a few 530 TISes – Madison, Oshkosh, Keiler, Prairie du Chien, Hudson, Poynette, Mauston
and Superior are all well away from the Michigan border, so I ruled them out. (Furthermore, Todd Skaine in
MN replied on the IRCA list that Hudson has been dismantled, so that’s a
double-whammy against Hudson – too far away from MI and not even on the air). That left TISes
in Hurley and Marinette as possibilities. Both are close enough to MI (Hurley
is right on the MI border) to warrant mentioning the UP in the kind of detail I
heard.
So, really, I’d
narrowed it down to three stations, WPPD478 in Marinette WI, WNQD828 in Hurley
WI, and WNHC787 in Mackinaw City MI.

And the winner ... WNHC787 is on the Mackinac Bridge on I-75, on the south end of MI's UP, and DXer Scott Yost of MI
nailed it!
“It is the
TIS at the Mackinac Bridge, 100 miles north of my QTH. Part of the loop is a
recap of the pre-bridge history of the Straits area. Also, in recording 3 at
the 20 second point they use the phrase “Mighty Mac, the bridge that couldn’t
be built”. It's not that my hearing is that good, just that I’ve listened to
the loop more than once back when we visited the area with our young sons some
years ago. It was a favorite spot.”
I know the
recordings were weak. That’s 10 watts on 530 for you, and although CIAO Brampton
ON was off I am not absolutely certain its carrier was off. The station actually cut in and out over an hour or two just around sunrise. I was thrilled to get a hint of
anything on the channel.
I listened,
and can hear what Scott heard, particularly ‘Might Mac’. Indeed, it carries
that moniker:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackinac_Bridge
And there’s
an entry for it at Michiguide:

 

www.michiguide.com/dials/amtis/wnhc787.html

 

Finally,
Radio Reference tells me there’s a north transmitter and a south transmitter:
www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?fccCallsign=WNHC787


I’ll just log
it by the calls and Mackinac Bridge MI.


I've also found a contact at the TIS, so I'll mail them a clip. 


Anyhow, this is a new
one for my log, and on a channel I don’t exactly spend much time on (thanks to CIAO).

 

Thanks,
Scott, for recognizing the loop, and thank you also to Todd, Russ, Dennis
and others for listening and chipping in. 


 

Saul Chernos

Burnt River
ON



Saul Chernos
Burnt River ON



Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2014 22:31:34 -0500
Subject: Fwd: UNID TIS 530
From: nm8rmedic@xxxxxxxxx
To: sauldx@xxxxxxxxxxxx

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Scott Yost" <nm8rmedic@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Feb 10, 2014 10:29 PM
Subject: UNID TIS 530

To:  <irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: 

Saul,
It is the TIS at the Mackinac Bridge, 100 miles north of my QTH.  
Part of the loop is a recap of the pre-bridge history of the Straits area.
Also, in recording 3 at the 20 second point they use the phrase ''Mighty Mac, the bridge that couldn't be built''.  
It's not that my hearing is that good, just that I've listened to the loop more than once back when we visited the area with our young sons some years ago.   It was a favorite spot. 
Scott

Michigan
 		 	   		  
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