Broadcast Band propagation pretty good tonite

[jwt873]

Got a blizzard starting up outside, so I thought I'd do some BCB DXing tonight.

I managed three new ones.. I've been listening for years and have never managed to log a station on 1620, 1630 or 1680 kHz. I normally hear strong stations there, but they're always piled up on each other so that I can't make any one station out.

Tonight the propagation seemed to favor stations that were 600-700 miles away. Because of this, I was getting single stations coming in instead of the usual jumble. So between 01:00 UTC and 01:30 UTC (700PM to 730PM central time). I filled in three holes in my log with some firsts

1620 - KOZN Bellvue, NE
1630 - KCJJ Iowa City, IA
1680 - WPRR, Grand Rapids, MI (This one only runs 680 Watts at night).

 

[WA8ZTZ]

WPRR has a crappy signal here on the other side of the state, usually crushed at night by WTTM in NJ.
KCJJ almost always a real big signal in here at night.
KOZN never logged here but have heard WDHP St. Croix on 1620... ???
Keep DXing the X-band, seems like often a surprise catch.

 

[WA8ZTZ]

Thanks for the heads up on KOZN. Was able to put it in the logbook tonight.
Was hearing some island music on the 100' outdoor wire, maybe WDHP. So, went to the
portable with the 8" loopstick and rotated it to favor stations to the west.
Managed to catch the KOZN TOH ID @ 0200Z. Only my second Nebraska along with KFAB.

 

[spongella]

Great intercepts guys. Last night listened a bit to WSM 650 from Nashville, then to WBBM Chicago on 780 using a Panasonic RF 2200 my favorite portable.

 

[jwt873]

The low sunspot count is horrible for the upper HF frequencies, but is certainly helping the medium frequency band.

I've also recently logged a couple of new NDB stations as well. One thing I've noticed over the last little while is that there isn't as much signal fading. It's there, but not as rapid or deep as I've seen in the past.

I can recall many times waiting patiently for a station to announce it's call letters and then have it fade out completely just before they did.

 

[spongella]

Do any of you listen for TIS (Traveler's Information Station), HAR (Highway Advisory Radio) or Emergency Alert Stations most commonly found from 1600 - 1710 KHz? At this QTH I can hear an Emergency Alert Station that's about 15 miles away, callsign WRBX655 from Franklin Twp., NJ, running 10 watts with a continuous loop of local info for residents. Depending on propagation other stations can be heard but weakly. Some stations just run continuous feeds from the local NWS broadcast. You can also listen to these stations while mobiling if you are near an xmitter. Highway signs usually state the frequency.

 

[WA8ZTZ]

Several TIS stations here locally in the X-band. They usually get wiped out at night when the skip rolls in.
Some guys DX the TIS stations but have never heard anything beyond about 10 miles myself.

 

[Boombox]

I hear NOAA re-broadcasts from Oregon TIS's on 1650 and 1660 sometimes, and I'm located in WA state. They don't ID often, if ever. So any ID is based on region. There's one that broadcasts Eugene and South Oregon Coast weather, so it's the farthest one I've heard. Difficult to officially put in my log, though. Perennially tentative, but hey, it still works...

RE: sunspots: I found MW conditions to be better for DX when sunspots were higher. I had a lot better reception of DX in 2011-2015 than I do now, on the same exact equipment, and at the same exact location.