A New York City AM Radio Bandscan (Part 1): December 18, 2017

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Many thanks to SRAA contributor, The Professor, for sharing the following mediumwave bandscan from his home in the New York City area.

This is Part 1 of his bandscan. Note that this recording first appeared as a guest post on the SWLing Post. [Click here for Part 2.]

Enjoy:

Part 1: Late Night Pre-Christmas Medium Wave Scan, NYC 2017

I haven’t recorded a proper scan of the AM dial in New York City for a while, so I took a shot at it a week before Christmas, starting around three A.M. Monday morning, December 18.

I asked Thomas if his readers might be interested in the audio from an AM scan here and some annotations, kind of like I used to do on my Radio Kitchen blog not so long ago. When I scan the dial I often start at the top of the AM dial and work my way up, but sometime it’s fun to do it the other way around and begin with more low power small stations where the fare is a little more exotic than the typical talk and news formats you hear from regional and powerful clear channel transmitters up the dial.

I have a number of radios that would really be better candidates to do this sort of thing, but since I’m kind of between places right now and most of my radios are in a storage unit somewhere, I’m using the Tecsun PL-880 I have with me. And typically I’d do this with a loop antenna up next to the radio, but they’re in storage too. So it’s just the stock ferrite antenna inside the radio doing all the work here. There’s some of the typical urban RF noise in the mix, but it’s not all that bad. Then there’s the awful splatter of digital IBOC to plow through. Not fun to listen to, and some stations you might otherwise find are masked by hash.

If you don’t listen to AM this late at night (or this early in the morning), it’s really not a great time to hear live programming. A lot of talk shows from daylight hours are rerun at this time, and the few music stations you might find are often running music automation with no live DJs. But a few talk local talk shows in big cities are live, and syndicated ones like Coast to Coast or Red Eye Radio are broadcast live overnight on quite a number of stations.

Instead of trying to do a lot of DX digging and pull in the really hard to hear stuff, I’m not equipped for that right now so I just plow through looking for what I can find without too much trouble. As I said, I didn’t have another antenna to assist me, but I duly rotated the radio and adjusted the bandwidth when appropriate. If you’re keeping score at home I do at least pause on every viable MW frequency, even if there’s nothing there.

I wouldn’t say it’s a typical late night New York medium overview of the band, as a few common finds on the dial were missing, and didn’t find many of the smaller Canadian locals I’ve heard on other nights. The one difference is that for years I’ve been listening from my former home in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. For now I’m down in Bay Ridge, at the bottom southwest corner of Brooklyn, and a few things are different. Like the very first station I come across.

1710 kHz – This scan begins with an oddity, WQFG689 a “traveler’s information station” broadcasting just a notch above the x-band, but a spot on the dial that is still included on contemporary AM radios. According to Wikipedia it’s the only legit station in America broadcasting on 1710. It’s owned by Hudson County in New Jersey broadcasting on a handful of ten watt transmitters. I’m assuming this reception might be coming from Jersey City, which is across the water not far from here. A few years ago one of the Hasidic communities in Brooklyn had a lo-fi pirate station at this frequency, but I haven’t heard it there in a long time. And as WQFG689 sits in a very lonely place on the dial, this station is a popular DX target. Apparently at this hour they were experiencing “technical difficulties.”

1690 kHz – Some contemporary R&B style pop song with a male singer. It’s an English language performance however (is it Spanish?). I’m not sure what this might be, but from looking around on the web it may be CHTO, a multicultural station in Toronto, Ontario.

1650 kHz – A weak reception of a talk radio show. Some discussion of the desires of Harvey Weinstein and other matters. Perhaps this is WHKT in Portsmouth, Virginia.

1630 kHz – At this spot on the dial I receive an image of WINS (1010kHz) as well as some station broadcasting the unavoidable Brother Stair. Don’t know exactly what is going on there, but the PL-880 is known to toss in some stray images on the dial in dense radio markets like New York.

1600 kHz – Some spirted South Asian pop music. Bollywood stuff I suppose. This would be WWRL here in New York, broadcasting from Secaucus, New Jersey.

1570 kHz – I believe this is the Eagles singing about Christmas. I have no idea what station this might be. WFLR in Dundee, New York is a guess.

1560 kHz – A little bit of Bible from Family Radio – still on New York City radio, but not on the FM dial anymore. Otherwise known as WFME here in New York. Armed with fifty-thousand watts, their signal has quite a reach. I hear the ghost of Harold Camping on here from time to time.

1530 kHz – Speaking of ghosts, it’s Ol’ Brother Stair buying some time on WJDM in Elizabeth, New Jersey I believe. Is he in prison yet?

1520 kHz – Sports talk from WWKB in Buffalo, New York.

1500 kHz – A discussion of Christmas treats on WTOP in Washington, D.C.

1480 kHz – Some seasonal mischief in Chinese from WZRC, a Cantonese station here in New York.

1460 kHz – Some distant choral or Christmas music from somewhere.

1430 kHz – Casual talk of God’s happiness plan from WNSW in Newark, New Jersey. Not to judge, but Catholic talk radio is just more civilized than most Protestant talk radio. A little more breezy than the fire and brimstone stuff. They always sound like their shirts are ironed. Carrying the Catholic radio network “Relevant Radio” is the latest format at this frequency in the city. Before that the “Voice of Russia” was broadcast here.

1380 kHz – More Chinese talk. This time it’s from another multicultural station – WKDM here in New York City.

1350 kHz – A poor reception of late night talk. I believe it’s “Red Eye Radio.” I really don’t know where this is coming from.

1310 kHz – A female host on a talk radio program. Mediocre reception from another unknown AM station.

1300 kHz – Again, a female conversation here as well, but this time the topic is spectator sports of some kind. I’m thinking this is the ESPN affiliate WAVZ in New Haven, Connecticut.

1280 kHz – A medical case study in Spanish and English from WADO, here in New York. This is a Spanish news/talk station owned by Univision.

1250 kHz – It’s WMTR in Morristown, New Jersey, which is essentially the only true oldies station that reaches New York City. During the day it’s not a rock solid signal in New York, but anybody who knows how to fiddle with a decent AM radio can pick it up. At night, I had a hard time getting a good read on WMTR when I lived up at the top of Brooklyn, but down here in Bay Ridge at the South Brooklyn waterfront it’s pretty solid as you can hear. Starting with “Da Doo Ron Ron” and “Sugar, Sugar” I let it roll for a few minutes. Not many radio stations play a “classic oldies” format these days, or if they do it might just be the torture of a super tight 300 song playlist. While WMTR can’t top the huge music library of WLNG out at the end of Long Island, they rotate a respectable mix of the old hits. There’s a rather interesting Wikipedia entry for WMTR, where you can read about their experimentations with AM Stereo and how they’ve tweaked their oldies rotation over the last few years, partly in response to WCBS-FM in New York moving away from oldies into a morass of format noodling.

1210 kHz – WHPT in Philadelphia playing the conspiracy/paranormal Coast to Coast program, the most popular syndicated overnight radio show in North America. It’s George Knapp hosting, but during the week it’s George Noory. The original host and creator of the program, Art Bell is long gone after quitting radio about five times. After one A.M. or so, moving across the AM dial means you’ll come across Coast to Coast many times. Tonight the topic is Area 51, which is hardly surprising.

1190 kHz – Some contemporary R&B flavored Christian music from WLIB. in New York. Always clear reception for this station. This station was actually the original flagship station for “Air America,” the short-lived progressive talk network. For those of you who may remember WOWO, the Midwest clear channel 50,000 watt station heard far and wide at 1190 from Fort Wayne, WLIB’s powerful 30,000 watt upgrade is directly related to that Indiana station’s demise as a nighttime powerhouse. Back in 1994 the owners of WLIB actually bought WOWO for the specific purpose of cutting back their signal after dark (It’s now only 9,300 watts and directional) so WLIB’s could be increased up to what it is today. Sneaky, eh?

1180 kHz – Coast to Coast again, this time coming from in WHAM, in Rochester, New York. Great call letters.

1170 kHz – Coast to Coast coming from WRVA in Wheeling, West Virginia this time.

1130 kHz – WBBR in New York, otherwise known as “Bloomberg Radio.” I may find it kinda tedious, but if you’re a big time profiteer this might be your favorite radio station. Just listen to the commercials, sheesh! And as a bonus you get a public service announcement about how high-tone Manhattanites should prepare for disaster.

1110 kHz – A strong read of Coast to Coast from WBT in Charlotte, North Carolina.

1100 kHz – It’s WTAM in Cleveland, Ohio broadcasting Coast to Coast. Not as strong as the signal from Ohio.

1090 kHz – WBAL in Baltimore, Maryland offering some tips on “layering” customer rewards programs.

1050 kHz – Sports in Spanish from WEPN in New York City.

1030 kHz – WBZ in Boston, Massachusetts. Something about hips. One of the few talk stations I’ve heard which still specialize in local programming around the clock. WLW in Cincinnati would be another.

1010 kHz – WINS in New York. News radio which still features the hokey teletype sound effects in the background. I let this play for a few minutes, including a PSA about a cocaine cessation program.

960 kHz – Something about a meatball sub. It may well be WELI in New Haven, Connecticut.

970 kHz – 970 “The Answer,” otherwise known as WNYM in Hackensack, New Jersey with top of the hour Fox News. The big story – the power outage at the airport in Atlanta.

Click here to read and listen to PART 2.

Radio Moscow - Soyuz 26, Day 15: December 24, 1977

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Many thanks to Shortwave Radio Audio Archive contributor, Colin Anderton, who shares a series of off-air recordings, originally made on reel-to-reel tape, of Radio Moscow in the late 1970s. This is the ninth recording in this collection. Colin notes:

As a space flight nut, I have many recordings from the 1970s from Radio Moscow. They used to broadcast on the medium wave, and I used to record the news bulletins during some of the space flights.
In particular, there was a period between December 1977 and March 1978 when Soviet cosmonauts first lived aboard the Salyut 6 space station. I recorded each days' news reports on the flights, and also some additional items about them. I have some other flights as well.
I received them all on 227 metres Medium Wave at 22.00 hrs GMT each night. I was in a village called Stetchworth, near Newmarket, Suffolk, England at the time.
In fact, an announcer gives the general daily broadcast details on this first recording.
I used a similar system with all the files, that is: where any edit takes place, I have placed a one-second break to identify the spot. No other editing of any kind has been done.

Radio Free Whatever (Pearl Harbor Tribute): December 15, 2013

USS SHAW exploding in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941

USS SHAW exploding in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941

For your listening pleasure: one hour, seven minutes of the pirate radio station, Radio Free Whatever.

I recorded this broadcast on December 15 2013, starting around 2:40 UTC, on 6,925 kHz AM. This broadcast was a tribute to WWII and Pearl Harbor and contains news clips and music from the same time period. I believe my recording begins about five or so minutes into their broadcast.

La Voz Del Llano (Part 1): September 2, 1984

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Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Harner, who shares the following off-air recording and notes:

Here is a recording of La Voz Del Llano on 6,115 kHz from 2 September 1984. The first part is about 10 minutes, the second is 2 hours and 15 minutes. It was originally recorded on an open reel tape at 1 7/8 ips.

BBC World Service - New Year's Eve, Millennium Celebration: December 31, 1999

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Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Laskowski, who shares the following recording and notes:

New Year's Eve has always been a good night to stay home and play radio. This recording is one I won't ever have the chance to hear live again. Here are the last four minutes and forty seconds of the GMT year 1999 and the first 25 minutes twenty seconds of the year 2000. As a tradition I would always welcome the GMT New Year by tuning in to the BBC to hear the chimes from Big Ben (which I believe were heard live).
Date of recording: 12/31/1999
Starting time: 23:55:20
Frequency: 6.175 MHz
Receiver location: South Bend, Indiana
Receiver and antenna: Icon IC-725 transceiver

Radio Osterreich International: June 9, 2004

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Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Benjamin Bilyeu, who shares the following recording and notes:

Date of recording: 6/9/2004
Starting time: 0144 UTC
Frequency: 9.870 Mhz
Receiver location: Cookeville, Tennessee, USA
Receiver and antenna: Grundig Satellit 800 with 50 foot long wire outdoor antenna
Notes: Fifteen minutes of world news, weather, and the "Report From Austria".

Radio Moscow - Soyuz 26, Day 14 (and other headlines): December 23, 1977

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Many thanks to Shortwave Radio Audio Archive contributor, Colin Anderton, who shares a series of off-air recordings, originally made on reel-to-reel tape, of Radio Moscow in the late 1970s. This is the eighth recording in this collection. Colin notes:

As a space flight nut, I have many recordings from the 1970s from Radio Moscow. They used to broadcast on the medium wave, and I used to record the news bulletins during some of the space flights.
In particular, there was a period between December 1977 and March 1978 when Soviet cosmonauts first lived aboard the Salyut 6 space station. I recorded each days' news reports on the flights, and also some additional items about them. I have some other flights as well.
I received them all on 227 metres Medium Wave at 22.00 hrs GMT each night. I was in a village called Stetchworth, near Newmarket, Suffolk, England at the time.
In fact, an announcer gives the general daily broadcast details on this first recording.
I used a similar system with all the files, that is: where any edit takes place, I have placed a one-second break to identify the spot. No other editing of any kind has been done.

Radio Moscow - Soyuz 26, Day 13: December 22, 1977

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Many thanks to Shortwave Radio Audio Archive contributor, Colin Anderton, who shares a series of off-air recordings, originally made on reel-to-reel tape, of Radio Moscow in the late 1970s. This is the seventh recording in this collection. Colin notes:

As a space flight nut, I have many recordings from the 1970s from Radio Moscow. They used to broadcast on the medium wave, and I used to record the news bulletins during some of the space flights.
In particular, there was a period between December 1977 and March 1978 when Soviet cosmonauts first lived aboard the Salyut 6 space station. I recorded each days' news reports on the flights, and also some additional items about them. I have some other flights as well.
I received them all on 227 metres Medium Wave at 22.00 hrs GMT each night. I was in a village called Stetchworth, near Newmarket, Suffolk, England at the time.
In fact, an announcer gives the general daily broadcast details on this first recording.
I used a similar system with all the files, that is: where any edit takes place, I have placed a one-second break to identify the spot. No other editing of any kind has been done.

Radio Moscow - Soyuz 26, Day 12: December 21, 1977

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Many thanks to Shortwave Radio Audio Archive contributor, Colin Anderton, who shares a series of off-air recordings, originally made on reel-to-reel tape, of Radio Moscow in the late 1970s. This is the sixth recording in this collection. Colin notes:

As a space flight nut, I have many recordings from the 1970s from Radio Moscow. They used to broadcast on the medium wave, and I used to record the news bulletins during some of the space flights.
In particular, there was a period between December 1977 and March 1978 when Soviet cosmonauts first lived aboard the Salyut 6 space station. I recorded each days' news reports on the flights, and also some additional items about them. I have some other flights as well.
I received them all on 227 metres Medium Wave at 22.00 hrs GMT each night. I was in a village called Stetchworth, near Newmarket, Suffolk, England at the time.
In fact, an announcer gives the general daily broadcast details on this first recording.
I used a similar system with all the files, that is: where any edit takes place, I have placed a one-second break to identify the spot. No other editing of any kind has been done.

Radio Budapest: August 20, 2004

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Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Benjamin Bilyeu, who shares the following recording and notes:

Date of recording: 8/20/2004
Starting time: 0230 UTC
Frequency: 9.790 MHz
Receiver location: Cookeville, Tennessee, USA
Receiver and antenna: Grundig Satellit 800 with 50 foot long wire outdoor antenna

Radio Moscow - Soyuz 26, Day 11 (EVA): December 20, 1977

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Many thanks to Shortwave Radio Audio Archive contributor, Colin Anderton, who shares a series of off-air recordings, originally made on reel-to-reel tape, of Radio Moscow in the late 1970s. This is the fifth recording in this collection. Colin notes:

As a space flight nut, I have many recordings from the 1970s from Radio Moscow. They used to broadcast on the medium wave, and I used to record the news bulletins during some of the space flights.
In particular, there was a period between December 1977 and March 1978 when Soviet cosmonauts first lived aboard the Salyut 6 space station. I recorded each days' news reports on the flights, and also some additional items about them. I have some other flights as well.
I received them all on 227 metres Medium Wave at 22.00 hrs GMT each night. I was in a village called Stetchworth, near Newmarket, Suffolk, England at the time.
In fact, an announcer gives the general daily broadcast details on this first recording.
I used a similar system with all the files, that is: where any edit takes place, I have placed a one-second break to identify the spot. No other editing of any kind has been done.

Radio Vlaanderen Internationaal (Flanders International Radio): June 24, 2004

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Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Benjamin Bilyeu, who shares the following recording and notes:

Date of recording: 6/24/2004
Starting time: 2200 UTC
Frequency: 11.635 Mhz
Receiver location: Cookeville, Tennessee, USA
Receiver and antenna: Grundig Satellit 800 with 50 foot long wire outdoor antenna

Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI), English: June 24, 2004

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Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Benjamin Bilyeu, who shares the following recording and notes:

A recording I made of RAI (Italy) broadcast 0054 UTC 24 June 2004 on 11.800 Mhz--when they still broadcast to North America. I recorded this broadcast using a Sony dual cassette deck connected to the line out jacks of my Grundig Satellit 800 receiver with 50 foot outdoor longwire antenna.

Radio RSA - The Voice of South Africa: March 14, 1982

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Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Laskowski, who shares the following recording and notes:

Every Saturday night during the early 1980s [in South Bend, Indiana] I would regularly tune to 9580 kHz at 0200 to listen to Radio RSA (Channel Africa as it is now known) to hear DX Corner, their regular DX program. This episode from March 14, 1982 was a look at the brand new hot radio, the Sony ICF-2001. The audio isn't great but should be listenable. I think this was recorded using my new Realistic DX-302. Enjoy!

Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) English language service: September 22, 2017

Tehran, Iran

Tehran, Iran

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Walker, who shares the following recording and notes:

IRIB recorded on September 22, 2017 at 1930 UTC on 9810 kHz. Receiver used was a JRC NRD 535D, 25 ft long by 10 ft tall volleyball net magnetic loop antenna connected to an ALA100ln, DXEngineering HF preamp and Emtech ZM2 antenna tuner.

Night Of Nights CW (Morse Code) Special Event: July 12, 2015

Chief Operator Richard Dillman at Position 1 (Source: Maritime Radio Historical Society)

Chief Operator Richard Dillman at Position 1 (Source: Maritime Radio Historical Society)

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Eric Christensen, who shares this recording of various stations operating on the Night Of Nights Morse Code special event. Eric notes:

Maritime shore stations on the air to remember Morse Code's impact on the world. Unsure of when I started the recording but this contains several maritime shore stations using CW during the Night of Nights 2015. Included in these stations are NMC and WLO, among others.
Location: Chesapeake Beach, Maryland, USA
Receiver and antenna: TS-2000X with an OCF dipole.
Mode: Morse Code

Radio Moscow - Soyuz 26, Day 10: December 19, 1977

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Many thanks to Shortwave Radio Audio Archive contributor, Colin Anderton, who shares a series of off-air recordings, originally made on reel-to-reel tape, of Radio Moscow in the late 1970s. This is the fourth recording in this collection. Colin notes:

As a space flight nut, I have many recordings from the 1970s from Radio Moscow. They used to broadcast on the medium wave, and I used to record the news bulletins during some of the space flights.
In particular, there was a period between December 1977 and March 1978 when Soviet cosmonauts first lived aboard the Salyut 6 space station. I recorded each days' news reports on the flights, and also some additional items about them. I have some other flights as well.
I received them all on 227 metres Medium Wave at 22.00 hrs GMT each night. I was in a village called Stetchworth, near Newmarket, Suffolk, England at the time.
In fact, an announcer gives the general daily broadcast details on this first recording.
I used a similar system with all the files, that is: where any edit takes place, I have placed a one-second break to identify the spot. No other editing of any kind has been done.

Voice of Vietnam (Vietnamese): September 18, 2017

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Voice of Vietnam in Vietnamese language, recorded outdoors in London, UK on September 18, 2017 at 1700 UTC on the frequency of 7280 kHz using AirSpy, SpyVerter, SDR# software and a 2 x 6m long wire dipole antenna. The transmitter has a power rating of 100 kW and is located in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Voice of Turkey, German Language Service: September 10, 2017

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For your listening pleasure, The Voice of Turkey's German language service, recorded on September 10, 2017 starting at 2300 UTC on 9830 kHz. I believe this broadcast was in error--typically, the German language service is not broadcast at this time. 

This recording includes a few minutes of the VOT interval signal. 

I recorded this with a WinRadio Excalibur SDR hooked up to a large horizontal delta loop antenna.