[IRCA] A bad night for hash in upstate NY

[Scott Fybush <scott@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I tried something different tonight - instead of sitting at home, I 
headed out and tried the dials from two different car radios. (Well, OK, 
I had to work, covering local primary races for WXXI.)

In any event, I traded the R8A/McKay Dymek DA-5 and the Sangean HDT-1 in 
my shack for the factory Delco radio in WXXI's Chevy news van, and later 
on for the factory radio in my 2003 VW Jetta.

The initial DX "target," since the Red Sox were playing as I was driving 
around, was WTIC on 1080. In the van, there was a whistly hiss behind 
WTIC for much of my drive south from downtown Rochester, but not 
objectionable enough to prevent me from listening to the game. (There 
was more noise at several LED traffic lights I was stopped at.)

After the game ended (don't wanna talk about it!), I started dialing 
around, and found a few distinctly ugly parts of the dial. WJR/WABC 
created an ugly mess that stretches from the top side of the CHWO 740 
signal, obscures WSB, makes WJR and WABC both hard to listen to in 
analog, and put some hiss over WBBM, which was quite strong tonight and 
mostly overcoming the noise.

WLW/WOR was bad news, too, with lots of noise making CINF essentially 
unlistenable and "mutual destruction" between WLW and a weak WOR as 
well. WGN wasn't very good, either, with lots of noise over it. CKAC on 
730 was fairly listenable.

Driving home, I spent some time listening to my semi-local WYSL on 1040, 
which runs 500 watts from 20 miles south of here, but enjoys - rather, 
enjoyed - a fairly quiet channel and a good pattern aimed north into 
Rochester. It was getting smashed up badly by WBZ hash, just as WYSL 
owner Bob Savage has long feared. KDKA was also getting hashed. And, 
interestingly, WBZ's analog signal has sounded downright lousy on the 
nights they've had the HD running. I'm listening to Steve LeVeille's 
talk show on 'BZ as I type this, back home with the Drake on, and the 
hash behind it, which I can only assume is WHO's sideband, keeps rising 
up and at points makes BZ unlistenable.

One more mess as I drove home was 1090, where WBAL was clobbered by the 
double-whammy of WTIC below and WTAM above. WBBR on 1130 was also 
getting whacked by WRVA noise.

Listening now (12:22 AM) on the Sangean, I'm getting no HD signals to 
decode except local WHAM. Not even WPHT 1210, which is very strong and 
stable here, is making the HD indicator flicker.

Disappointing, on many fronts...and one wonders how much worse it might 
get in, say, mid-December.

s


_______________________________________________
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