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