DX-ing Canada

[Ed Hennessy]

Yeah, they're the only Canadian station on 1310, but they're not one of those newer stations with the directional nightmare arrays.  A search tells me they've been on the air since 1922, and landed on 1310 in 1941 (presumably as a result of the NARBA shuffle).  

Canada calls them the equivalent of a Class B but another quick search says they're the only 1310 in the US and Canada with 50kW.  Being a regional allocation, most are 5kW.  Dallas has a 25kW.  Still, that null means that it's a tough catch in this part of the area (I forgot WORC was on 1310, and WICH too, so no wonder there's a null this way.  And they both have reasonable night powers, from long ago licensing, not more recent fractions of a kW, so perhaps I was in the right place at the right time for those catches.  And I was in a car.).

CIWW is not new, but that 5-tower night array is most likely to keep that big signal "regional" and mostly north of the border.

Ed Hennessy


-----Original Message-----
From: Garrett Wollman <wollman@bimajority.org>

<<On Tue, 9 Apr 2019 11:31:33 +0000 (UTC), Ed Hennessy <ehennessy@verizon.net> said:


> This is more of an interesting catch than anything else.  I've
> picked up 1310 CIWW Ottawa (50kW DA-2) in north Medford more than
> once at night.  Looking at the night pattern (5 antennas), it must
> be coming off a lobe (there's one pointing ESE) but it would seem
> that we're between lobes.


Naturally, since they have to protect WORC (1310 Worcester) and
several other co-channel stations.  These newer Canadian 50-kW
stations on regional channels were generally crammed in long after
numerous US stations established priority on the channel, so only a
very expensive and complex directional array suffices to provide the
level of protection required in the Rio Agreement.  It only "works"
because most Canadian AMs could be located south of the cities they
serve and beam north.  To achieve the required directivity, there are
(or recently were) six, eight, nine, and ten-tower arrays.

-GAWollman