530 Khz Highway Advisory Transmitter

[barefootdipole]

hearing a Highway Advisory Transmitter on 530 Khz today..no ID...just a repeated message for Caution-Heavy Smoke on HW 17..........

guessing it's from the Myrtle Beach Fires......



(i donlt think this is the Jacksonville NC xmitter....i think the HW 17 Highway Advisory Transmitter South of Jacksonville NC is alot higher in freq...like 1500 khz or so...when i was down that way a few weeks ago it wasn't on a traditional HAT freq or near the band end freqs.....at least i don't think it was, memory is hazy....this local one was instituted after smoke from fires on USMC base contributed to an Emergency Responder traffic death on HW17...)


Barefootdipole

 

[barefootdipole]

ID'd today.....it IS the Camp Lejeune NC transmitter !

recorded loop today of just a test ID " RECORDED ON AM 530 FOR CAMP LEJEUNE NORTH CAROLINA... TEST...."

Barefootdipole

 

[whitehelmet1202]

The ones they have had running on Hwy 17 for "heavy smoke and/or fog" were on 1610 I want to think.

Back when I worked in Traffic Services with NCDOT Div 3 we often used HARs on 530am for construction and detours for the Jacksonville bypass.

We had one installed at the NCDOT complex on Hwy 17 behind the SHP station. The antenna was on a 30 ft pole and we had a large ground radial system in place. We could hear that thing in our trucks at least 10 miles away....

Amazing how far a low power signal can travel eh?

 

[jeffmulter]

>> The antenna was on a 30 ft pole and we had a large ground radial system in place. We could hear that thing in our trucks at least 10 miles away....

>> Amazing how far a low power signal can travel eh?


If I might provide some resource information to anyone on the N.C. forum who might have a curiousity about the TIS and HAR stations, low-power A.M., or dxing A.M. stations .....

It's not uncommon to hear a few TIS and HAR transmitters at unusual distances during the overnight with a decent A.M. receiver. Several years ago, the DOT HAR site in Statesville (junction of I-77 and I-40) was being reported by dxers throughout central N.C. and parts of Va.

Like alot of "hobby" radio folks, I got into the hobby of scanning and tropo dxing via A.M. dxing, but have gotten away from A.M. as radio has changed (it is easier to keep up with news "from home" via audio streaming online).

The hobby is still quite active, though, and I would recommend anyone with an interest in A.M. dxing to check out the following:

- Worldwide TX-FM DX Association (WTFDA), and their forums, which includes TV and F.M. dxing

- Tarheelscanner forum on Yahoogroups, whose topics include broadcast and shortwave radio listening, amateur radio and scanning in the Piedmont-Triad area

- The National Radio Club, an A.M. dxing group with roots to the early days of radio. The NRC members run the gamet from newbies to electrical engineers retired from A.M. radio. They often post advance notice of upcoming station equipment tests, which offers dxers the opportunity to hear stations they might not normally hear.

- the dxing forums on Qth.Net (possibly the largest number of radio hobby forums at one site)