Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Loyd Van Horn at DX Central who writes:
Wanted to share this with you…..our final DX Central Live stream for season 2 will coincide with the upcoming WCGA-GA DX Test coming Saturday night/Sunday morning. You should have a GREAT shot at hearing this one….would love to have you join us for the livestream, too, if you can make it!
The link to the release with all of the details can be found below….
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Apr 28, 2022
The Courtesy Program Committee (CPC) of the National Radio Club (NRC) and the International Radio Club of America (IRCA) is pleased to announce a special DX Test for distant listeners for WCGA on 1100 kHz in Woodbine, GA. The test is scheduled for 5/1/2022 at 12:00:00 AM Eastern Time (0400 UTC Sunday, May 1st). This test is scheduled to run for 2 hours.
For WCGA, Wesley Cox, will be performing regular maintenance of the station’s audio chain and transmitter during the test. Listeners will hear: Morse Code IDs at 10 WPM at 800 Hz, Morse Code IDs at 20 WPM at 1000 Hz, Tone Sweeps, Long duration tones at 1 kHz, Off-hook Telephone Sounds, Voice IDs and more.
WCGA will be operating on a full daytime power of 10,000 watts during the test on their daytime antenna pattern. This should aid DXers across the country and indeed the world in being able to receive this test!
RECEPTION REPORTS & QSL REQUESTS
WCGA is actively soliciting reports from DX’ers on their signal. They’re interested in hearing about frequency stability, audio quality, and overall performance. The station will accept both hard copy reports via USPS mail and email reports. They would love to receive audio recordings in either .WAV or.MP3 and videos in .MP4 video.
Reception reports should go directly to:
Wesley Cox
Owner/General Manager
News/Talk 1100 WCGA
714 Narrow Way
St. Simons Island, Georgia 31522
Physical QSL card senders will receive a physical QSL. Email QSLs will receive email QSL.
Best audio narrative recording and received via email in MP3 or MP4 about themselves and their passion for radio that includes their reception of WCGA and the who, what, when, where, why and how of that event taking place will receive a special prize from the station. DX’ers who submit recordings must grant permission to broadcast their recordings. The decision of WCGA staff on the winner is final.
The IRCA/NRC CPC would like to thank the owners of WCGA, Wesley Cox, and Hall of Fame DXer, Jim Renfrew, for helping to arrange the test.
Good luck to all DXers!
About the CPC
The Courtesy Program Committee (CPC) is a cross-functional group comprised of members of both the National Radio Club (NRC) and International Radio Club of America (IRCA) for the purpose of coordinating and arranging DX Tests with AM radio stations. These DX tests both allow radio stations to conduct valuable equipment tests on their transmitter and audio chain as well as enable DX hobbyists to receive the testing station from greater distances than would normally be possible. The CPC membership consists of: Chairman Les Rayburn, Paul Walker, George Santulli, Joe Miller and Loyd Van Horn.
For radio stations interested in coordinating a DX test with the CPC, please visit the following Web site for more information:
https://amdxtest.blogspot.com/
For more information on the types of content heard during a DX test, the video “An introduction to DX Tests” is available at DX Central:
NICE!!! Heard the test on the drive home from work, then recorded the last 49min, and uploaded to archive.org. https://archive.org/details/wcga-1100-am-woodbine-ga-dx-test-5-1-2022-0111-am-211-am-heard-under-wtam-1100-am I may add more. Enjoy!!!!!
Roger in Ohio!!!! Thanks for the RSVP. Boomer The Dog, the op of AM Carrier-Current station, AM690, near Pittsburgh gave me the heads-up about ya. And, he was able to hear the whole 2hr test on his Kiwi-SDR. As for WCGA-AM? I wrote them a snail-mail report and told them where to hear the test at the preceding Archive.org.
Very nice indeed Dood. Both our QTHs were outside WTAM’s fringe area of reception (according to ‘radio-locator’) and our relative distances from both transmitters (WTAM and WCGA) were comparable. And, we were able to achieve basically the same reception results with differnt approaches and equpment.
Certainly, Wesley Cox, WCGA’S Owner/Gener Manager, is well pleased with both our DX reception reports — one from a WV Mountaineer and one from an Ohio Buckeye.
Cheers and 73
Dood,
I thought the same thing. When I first saw this post , I thought I should give this a shot. Totally “old school” — no SDR, no line out, for an audio recording — just an over-the-air attempt to monitor WCGA’s transmitter test the way radio hobbyists did 100 years ago!
With my QTH being in SW Ohio, I did wonder about the 50 kW gorilla in the NE part of the state. What follows is my old school reception report and Wesley Cox’s (WCGA GM) response.
I was able to monitor WCGA’s maintenance/transmitter test between 0403 UTC and 0420 UTC, Sunday, May 1, 2022, and heard the following:
0403-0406 UTC – the end of the Star Spangled Banner (lyrics) followed by CW (Morse Code IDs).
0406 UTC – Station ID, voice, WCGA Woodbine, Georgia.
0408 UTC – Long duration tone(s).
0409 UTC – Tone sweeps.
0411 UTC – Off-the-Hook telephone sound followed by tone sweeps.
0412-0413 UTC – Station ID, voice, going into CW.
0415-0417 UTC – Long duration tone, then musical interlude followed by tone sweeps.
0418 UTC – Long duration tone(s).
0420 UTC – Station ID, voice, followed by tone sweeps.
My principal receiver was a CCrane CC Radio 2E coupled with a Tecsun AN-100 (Passive, tunable, MW loop antenna).
My secondary receiver was a Tecsun PL-880 coupled with the Tecsun AN-100.
At my QTH, SW Ohio (between Dayton and Cincinnati), I was only able to hear your test broadcast “underneath” WTAM’s programming – News followed by CTC with George Noory.
Frequency stability, audio quality, and overall performance of your signal was enhanced by off-center(+/- 4 kHz) tuning – 1096 kHz or 1104 kHz.
Signal Strength 3 (Fair)
Interference (QRM) 2 (Severe) WTAM, Cleveland
Noise (QRN) 3 (static probably from approaching weather front to my west)
Propagation (QSB) 4 (fairly strong signal only slight fade)
Overall 3 (Fair)
Quite frankly, I was amazed to hear your signal at all. It was your 10,000 W signal from about 780 miles away versus a 50,000 W signal from only about 223 miles away!
Thanks for the opportunity in allowing me to participate. I hope my reception report merits an email QSL.
73
Roger Fitzharris
Confirmed DX reception of WCGA. Super report!!! Thank you so much for your detailed DX reception report. I salute you from St. Simons Island, Georgia.
When you get down this way please look us up. We will be honored to give you a tour and share a meal with you.
May the Lord bless you and your family with health and prosperity.
Sincerely,
Wesley Cox
WCGA
St. Simons Island, Georgia
It was heard briefly in San Diego.
The above YouTube video was very helpful.
I have an SDR radio and will be listening. I will take a few screenshots and make an audio recording.
If I can figure out how to make a video on my desktop PC, I will do that instead.
Thanks for posting and sharing the very helpful information.
Tim
Thanks for the heads-up! Doubt that I’ll hear that, with Cleveland’s 1100AM WTAM in there, but I should be on the drive home from work then.