Old Vacation Radio observations from way back

[Kevin Vahey]

What I found amazing is how well several Boston and Maine stations
could be heard in the daytime in Newfoundland because even as the
seagull flies you are talking at least 800 miles.





On 3/27/08, Doug Drown <revdoug1@verizon.net> wrote:
> A good many of the 5 kw stations from the Boston area
> can be picked up during the day in midcoast Maine, between Brunswick and
> Ellsworth --- and WEZE 590 can be received well northeast of there.  That's
> probably true in Nova Scotia as well.
>
> WBZ's daytime signal cuts an arc all the way from Sackville, N.B., to Port
> Jervis, N.Y., with radii extending all the way to Schenectady and west of
> Sherbrooke (and probably WELL out to sea).  No wonder they put the
> transmitter in Hull.
>
> -Doug
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <markwa1ion@aol.com>
> To: <boston-radio-interest@lists.BostonRadio.org>
> Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2008 8:26 AM
> Subject: Old Vacation Radio observations from way back
>
>
> > 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
> >>>
>
>