[IRCA] Brief MW-FM findings from Orange Beach., AL

["HASCALL, DAVID CIV DFAS" <DAVID.HASCALL@xxxxxxxx>]

The family and I spent a week in Orange Beach, AL (same barrier island
as Gulf Shores) and I spent a little (very little) time DX'ing but I
thought that I would share my findings.  My radios were an Eton E-100
ULR and my Ford car radio.

MW:

In the condo there was only ONE reliable MW signal.  Was it the 1310
from Foley?  How about WMOB 1360?  The Pensacola stations?  Or the 10 Kw
Bay Minette station on 1110?  Nope it was good ol' WWL from NOLA @ 157
miles.  The only reliable one INSIDE the unit.  Going out on the
balcony, the others popped in but none as good as WWL.

I have always been mesmerized by the effect of Salt water paths on MW
signals.  30 years ago, I visited a cousin in Panama City, FL and could
not believe how well WWL got out at midday and that was another 100
miles east of Orange Beach!

At night, here were the key standouts

1700 Brownsville TX.  L&C.  Never heard from Indianapolis - good 'ol
salt water.

1620//1550 - SS music.  Cuba?

1180 - Rebelde

1120 - KMOX - one of the strongest stations @ night

950 - Reloj VERY loud 870 and 570 not so much (870 fighting with NOLA)

900//890//880 - SS Mexico?

750 Tropicale music - who is this one???

710 - Cuba very weak.  From Ocean Isle Beach, NC (2009) this was the
strongest Cuban - and there were two signals there (echo) but only one
faint one in Alabama with no echo.

530 Cuba - MONSTER signal

NO MW IBOC noise noted!  I need to move to LA (Lower Alabama). :)

FM:

I only spent an hour or so on AM and considerably less on FM.  Bryce
Foster sent an article to the WTFDA list on how Gulf Tropo plays havoc
on stations' coverage and although enhancement was very weak during my
stay, every channel had something, at night.  I used Radio-Locator.com's
vacant frequency finder (1) to check out truly open channels and most of
them were actually occupied.

William Hepburn's tropo forecast map (2) showed a down week for Gulf
Tropo.  Even then @ night, WWNO (NOLA) 89.9 still popped in @ 149 miles.
When it was not in, it was WJTF @ 113 miles.  89.9 is, according to the
"vacant" website, one of the most open channels in the area.  I guess
that a directional antenna is a requirement for the Gulf coast FM DX'er.

Early June normally features a lull in Sporadic E and as such I did not
notice any while I was out of town and none so far this year.

My timing stinks, too.  The week before my trip, there was monster gulf
tropo which might have brought me Texas and South Florida and the week
that I was gone, Indiana had monster FM tropo to central Alabama.  Go
figure!

All in all, we had a good restful vacation.  We noticed lots of damage
still visible in the Northern half of AL from the 4/27 tornadoes.  The
most telling was a fenced lot in Cullman, where every car had the
windows blown out and twisted roofs.  A stark reminder of nature's fury.

73,
Dave in Indy


(1): http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/vacant
(2): http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo.html



_______________________________________________
IRCA mailing list
IRCA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca

Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers

For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org

To Post a message: irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx