I'm very happy with that CHHA catch, thanks.
My guess is that the Caribbean Beacon turned up its power a wee bit for a few days. At that distance I wouldn't expect to hear even a 50 kW station as continuously as I did; I'm guessing 200 kW, unless the ionosphere did something
really special. I heard the Beacon again very faintly yesterday for half a minute before tuning elsewhere. It was unintelligible but the sounds were parallel with what was on 6090 kHz.
I used to be an active SWLer. Now I'm just an SWLer who remembers the good old days of international broadcasting. I wasn't much into shortwave DX; I remember my initial fascination with mediumwave when I discovered that I could hear stations further away than Seattle. That discovery was KFBK. Shortwave followed a couple of years later when I wanted to hear the world but I knew that coverage was worldwide, so it didn't have the same DX fascination for me. Even back then I wanted to hear Australia on mediumwave while at the same time I was listening to Radio Australia on shortwave with no difficulty.
No, I didn't do much DX on shortwave. I did look for time signal stations like YVTO, JJY, VNG, and BPM. In fact, I heard BPM under WWV back in December, but these days I don't listen much on shortwave.
I do hear WBCQ on 15420 right now with the R71a but not the G8. Very interesting from a technical point of view: It's not AM, it's USB with enough carrier so that an AM radio will still work. I read about that a couple of years ago: A more efficient mode which is backwards compatible with existing radios, it's like TV's vestigial sideband mode. It does make DXing harder if there's noise that takes out that sideband.
In fact, I need to use USB mode to listen on 1610 because there's local noise that takes out the lower sideband. I use the same technique with the Trans-Pacific stations because there's often a pest on the closest North American frequency. KRPI on 1550 is a good example. It makes it hard to listen for Australia on 1548 even on the lower sideband. I expect that'll be impossible once KRPI fires up the new 50 kW site in Point Roberts.
I have tried to hear WBZ a few times. I have to finish poring over a recording from a few days ago when eastern conditions seemed good. It's harder than normal because I can hear KTWO, KMAS, and a talk station that I haven't identified yet, all trading places as the dominant signal. Still, the reward is worth it if WBZ can poke through it all. Its antenna pattern
is pointing this way.
I doubt very much that I could hear WXME on 780, not at 60 W. KKOH is the dominant one on 780 but WBBM has made it through a few times. I've tried to hear KNOM in Nome but haven't despite hearing KICY at the time.
The farthest East I've heard in the US is WJR 760 Detroit, for Canada it's CKDO 1580 Oshawa. It's one of my dreams to hear an east coast station, which is why I've tried for WBZ a few times. Toronto was a goal for years; New York is still a dream; WBZ Boston could happen as the antenna pattern points this way but it's gruelling work due to the pileup on 1030.
WTIC 1080 is much less likely as there's KFXX Portland, KVNI Coeur d'Alene, KSCO Santa Cruz, and KRLD Dallas, all making their presence known. WTIC has a night pattern that points away from here; one would need to catch them when they switch back to day pattern.
What I find enjoyable about Trans-Pacific DX is that many of the frequencies are mostly clear (despite needing single sideband on some). If the ionosphere isn't cooperating then all I hear is noise instead of pests. That's what's nice about 1575, 1566, 1116, 828, or 1098. 1287 has some interference from 1290 but it's minimal. 774 is good when Japan is in but does have interference from 770 that makes AM mode difficult unless 774 is strong.