{"id":60935,"date":"2024-10-24T08:34:55","date_gmt":"2024-10-24T12:34:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=60935"},"modified":"2024-10-24T08:34:55","modified_gmt":"2024-10-24T12:34:55","slug":"responding-to-the-colegrove-inspiration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2024\/10\/responding-to-the-colegrove-inspiration\/","title":{"rendered":"Responding to “The Colegrove Inspiration”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Jock Elliott, KB2GOM<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was Bob Colegrove\u2019s post — this one<\/a>\u00a0— that inspired me and set me on this path.<\/p>\n

Medium wave broadcast band DXing (MWBCB) has a certain fascination for me, but I am poor at it. Oh sure, I have read the advice: map the band at noon, then again at midnight, and you\u2019ll have a better idea of what\u2019s unusual as you are tuning around. But I have never gotten around to doing the mapping, so my DXing skills are lousy at best.<\/p>\n

When Bob asked, \u201cWhat\u2019s your favorite corner of the dial?\u201d, he also mentioned the challenge<\/em> hunting below 600 kHz. The implication: whatever is in that section of the band, there are probably not a lot of stations, and they are hard to hear. So, I reasoned in my tiny little brain: \u201cIf I hear anything down there, it\u2019s likely to be DX.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

So I tried it, firing up the Grundig Satellit 800 hooked to an MFJ 1886 loop during the daylight hours. With exception of WROW, 590, in nearby Albany, NY, blasting oldies with 5,000 watts, I found nothing . . .\u00a0 and I do mean nothing<\/em>: nada, diddly, bupkas, cipher, rien . . . dead band . . . deader than old Jacob Marley. I try it again in the early evening with three different radios with exactly the same results. Nuts.<\/p>\n

But then I try again with the Satellit 800\/1886 combo at a little after 0900Z and take Bob\u2019s advice about using single sideband. Aha! Carriers 540, 550, and 560. Then at 570, a weird mixture: religious programming in American English over male and female voices in Spanish with time ticks and tones in the background. Is there a time station on this frequency or is it some sort of bleed-over?<\/p>\n

On Tuesday evenings I run the Radio Monitoring Net on the 146.94 repeater<\/a>. During the net, I mentioned the unusual signal I had heard on 570, and W2SRA, an expert DXer, responded with the opinion that this was likely a religious station on Long Island, NY, intermixed with a station known as The Clock from Cuba.<\/p>\n

Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about it: Radio Reloj<\/b> (Spanish for Radio Clock<\/i>) is a government-owned Spanish-language radio station in Cuba . . . The station is noted for the sound of a ticking clock in the background, with its hosts announcing the time, every minute of broadcast.<\/p>\n

I checked the distance from Troy, NY, to Santa Clara, Cuba where the 570 AM station is located; it’s 1449 miles. Wow! According to Wikipedia, the AM transmit power is 50,000 watts<\/p>\n

Then I remember that William, KR8L, mentioned that he likes searching above 1620 (another less populated region of the band), so I give that a try. At 1690, I hear oldies, followed by ads for Southern Maryland. The station finally ID\u2019s as WPTX, 1,000 watts nighttime power, in California, MD, a distance of 339 miles. Yes!!<\/p>\n

Thanks, Bob and William, for turning me on to some more radio fun!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jock Elliott, KB2GOM It was Bob Colegrove\u2019s post — this one\u00a0— that inspired me and set me on this path. Medium wave broadcast band DXing (MWBCB) has a certain fascination for me, but I am poor at it. Oh sure, I have read the advice: map the band at noon, then again at midnight, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":114,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[373,433,3],"tags":[625,9323,4099],"class_list":["post-60935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-am","category-mediumwave","category-news","tag-am-radio","tag-jock-elliott-kb2gom","tag-mediumwave"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pn3uc-fQP","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":56008,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2023\/03\/the-great-medium-wave-daylight-dx-challenge\/","url_meta":{"origin":60935,"position":0},"title":"The Great Medium Wave Daylight DX Challenge","author":"Jock Elliott","date":"March 6, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"By Jock Elliott, KB2GOM First a word of acknowledgement and thanks: it was Chuck Rippel who said (in part) -- in response to this post\u00a0-- \u201cWe could make this interesting by restricting listening to the period 10AM \u2013 2PM maybe 3PM.\u201d And that got me to thinking that maybe a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mediumwave"","block_context":{"text":"Mediumwave","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/mediumwave\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/satellit-800.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/satellit-800.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/satellit-800.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/satellit-800.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":61431,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2024\/12\/a-file-worth-having-bobs-guide-to-building-an-electrically-small-resonant-loop-antenna-for-mediumwave-reception\/","url_meta":{"origin":60935,"position":1},"title":"A File Worth Having: Bob’s guide to building an Electrically Small Resonant Loop Antenna for Mediumwave Reception","author":"Jock Elliott","date":"December 17, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"This post is short and sweet. If you click here--Electrically Small Resonant Loop Antenna for Mediumwave Reception (PDF)--you can download a copy of Bob Colegrove's excellent paper on the Electrically Small Resonant Loop Antenna for Mediumwave Reception. He has actually built this antenna; it works; and he uses it often.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AM"","block_context":{"text":"AM","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/am\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Bob-Homemade-Loop-antenna-1.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Bob-Homemade-Loop-antenna-1.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Bob-Homemade-Loop-antenna-1.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Bob-Homemade-Loop-antenna-1.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Bob-Homemade-Loop-antenna-1.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":54154,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2022\/09\/file-this-under-you-never-know-and-whats-the-harm-in-experimenting\/","url_meta":{"origin":60935,"position":2},"title":"File this under: you never know and . . . what’s the harm in experimenting?","author":"Jock Elliott","date":"September 27, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 \u00a0 by Jock Elliott, KB2GOM Ever since Thomas (our Maximum Leader) posted the latest DX Central MW Challenge, I've been curious . . . what could I hear if I gave it a shot? Habitually, I get up early, between 4 and 5 am, so I decided to give\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AM"","block_context":{"text":"AM","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/am\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/talk1200.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/talk1200.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/talk1200.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":61335,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2024\/12\/here-we-go-loop-de-loop-in-which-your-humble-correspondent-tests-a-hypothesis\/","url_meta":{"origin":60935,"position":3},"title":"Here we go loop de loop . . . in which your humble correspondent tests a hypothesis","author":"Jock Elliott","date":"December 10, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"By Jock Elliott, KB2GOM It was this post by Alan -- https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2024\/11\/bbc-rd-how-to-test-a-loop-antenna\/ -- that set me off. After downloading the BBC report on how to test a loop antenna, I noticed the following in it: \u201cPolarisation Illustrations of the antenna usually show it mounted upright; that is, with its axis\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Antennas"","block_context":{"text":"Antennas","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/antennas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/MW-amp-001-1024x431.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/MW-amp-001-1024x431.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/MW-amp-001-1024x431.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":55526,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2023\/01\/saturday-morning-fun-fat-mw-dxing-with-the-mfj-1886\/","url_meta":{"origin":60935,"position":4},"title":"Saturday morning fun: \u201cfat\u201d MW DXing with the MFJ-1886","author":"Jock Elliott","date":"January 30, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"By Jock Elliott, KB2GOM It was a reader, Mario Filippi, who set me on this path. He posted a comment that said, in part: \u201cAn interesting place to DX would be the segment between 1500 \u2013 1590 kc\u2019s where there are a number of news stations, one being federal news\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AM"","block_context":{"text":"AM","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/am\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/photos-for-SWLing-blog-002-001-1-1024x683.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/photos-for-SWLing-blog-002-001-1-1024x683.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/photos-for-SWLing-blog-002-001-1-1024x683.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":56485,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2023\/05\/a-little-barefoot-ultralight-mw-dxing-in-which-my-mental-status-is-questioned\/","url_meta":{"origin":60935,"position":5},"title":"A little barefoot ultralight MW DXing . . . in which my mental status is questioned","author":"Jock Elliott","date":"May 1, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"By Jock Elliott, KB2GOM About 10 days ago, the Better Half and I visited my wife\u2019s sister in Sodus, NY, a small town in the western part of the state near the shores of Lake Ontario. First consideration when packing was \u2013 never mind the underwear and the toothpaste \u2013\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AM"","block_context":{"text":"AM","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/am\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/CCrane-skywave-SSB-and-headphones-002-001-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/CCrane-skywave-SSB-and-headphones-002-001-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/CCrane-skywave-SSB-and-headphones-002-001-1024x768.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/114"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60935"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60950,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60935\/revisions\/60950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}