Old Vacation Radio observations from way back

[markwa1ion@aol.com]

Height is the magic bullet for TV / FM reception and salt water is what 
does wonders on the AM band.

When vacationing on the Cape (West Dennis / South Yarmouth area) as a 
kid in the '60s (and later on when my parents had retired there), 
during the DAY, it was no problem hearing stations - even low-power 
ones - from Long Island, NYC, Atlantic City, the Delmarva coast / 
Tidewater - VA Beach area, and even little WOBR-1530 on the NC Outer 
Banks and (then) WAPE-690 Jacksonville, FL.  Even now from West Dennis 
Beach, with any kind of sensitive gear, you can pick up the Turks & 
Caicos station on 530 with Spanish religion.  Distance 1400 miles, no 
skip required.

Going the other way, Maine, New Brunswick, PEI, and Nova Scotia were a 
"piece of cake".  These guys got even louder if you travelled past the 
"elbow" of Chatham and set up your radio out at Nauset Beach.

At night it really got wild with DX from Europe, Africa, the Middle 
East, the Caribbean, and South America there for the taking, even on 
something as modest as a Realistic TRF portable or a car radio.  August 
of 1966 featured incredible conditions during a stay in W. Dennis near 
the mouth of the Bass River.  Of course better gear produced even 
better results, so by the mid '70s, I had an R-390A military-surplus 
receiver up and running at my parents' place in West Yarmouth for 
monthly visits.  Got things like China, Paraguay, and Lesotho on the 
regular AM band with that.

I still have fun with the AM side of long-haul reception as some of you 
do with TV and FM.  Mountain height may give AM a minor boost, but the 
ocean gives it a huge one.  A few times a year I'll take some equipment 
(including an SDR-IQ spectrum-recording receiver) out to Granite Pier 
in Rockport, arguably the best foreign DX receiving site in 
metro-Boston.

Mark Connelly, WA1ION - Billerica, MA

<<
The West Forks story is amazing, but in terms of sheer number of 
stations accessed by a roof antenna, my aunt and uncle in Westminster, 
Mass., might have held the record. Before they got cable a few years 
back, they could twirl the antenna and get 2,4,5,7,25,38,44,56 and 68 
from Boston; 66 from Framingham; 3 from Hartford;
8 from Poland Spring; 9 and 50 from Manchester; 10, 12 and, on a good 
day, 6 and 36 from Providence; 11 from Durham; 19 from Albany; 27 from 
Worcester; 31 from Hanover; and, albeit snowily, 22, 40 and 57 from 
Springfield. As you say, Who needed cable??

-Doug
>>