From Megawatts to just Watts

[Toomas Losin]

Last night Alaska opened up again. KICY coming in loud and clear around midnight PDT: Heard Nightsounds before the hour, followed by the now very familiar nightly "we turn our signal into Russia" message. KICY is a regular now, so I have no clue why I never heard them before this month. Time of the year? Midnight sun? Maybe I just never got lucky and now I check nightly.

One clue about what Alaskan propagation might do is the aviation weather forecast from Level Island on 529 AM voice. I've only once heard it for more than a few sentences of intelligibility but even when I can hear a murmur it's a sign that conditions are unusual. One can also hear the "SQM" morse code ID it transmits.

Last night's nice catch was the navigation beacon "ICW" on 525 AM from Nenana, Alaska. Supposedly this transmits with only 25 Watts. Ponder that for a second: From the frustration of trying to hear multi-kilowatt stations in the crowded jumble of the broadcast band to stumbling across a tiny beacon just outside the band where things are quiet, and it's located 2200 km away. That's amazing.

Right now I'm hearing intelligible voice from SQM but nothing from ICW. It faded in and out yesterday so it could still pay a visit. The recent good spell isn't over yet!

[jon]

Yes, low power stuff on the regular AM broadcast band is just amazing. During my Burnaby DX days, I always considered CBXB-860 in Banff as my best catch because it was only 40 watts. I think the distance was "only" 350 miles.

Best low power feat I've heard was some guy in New Zealand who heard a 5-10 watt Traveler Information Station (TIS) airport transmitter in Dallas/Fort Worth, on 530 KHz, as I recall. Just reading some on-line debate from 1997 about whether the transmitter may not have been a tad overpowered.

And I've mentioned my high noon reception of 40 watt 540 Ucluelet, B.C., into Coos Bay, Oregon at high noon in October 1979 on a really crappy car radio. Not "like a local" but very strong for a distant signal, sounding very much like ground wave.

One low power mystery I've never been able to figure out was the Pasadena Police in the 1630-1640 KHz area in the mid-1960s. Hearing Dispatch was a nightly regular. But one particularly good night, I heard a police car answer back. I wouldn't be surprised if the Dispatch was 1000 watts, but I never knew what the cars were running.

[Dan Sys]

My best low power catch has to be a 10 watt U.S. Coast Guard/Oregon State Park TIS from Bandon, Oregon on 1610 Khz back in 1994 (roughly 500 miles away). Absolutely blew me away when I heard the ID. I've also heard the 50 watt weather station in Revelstoke, B.C. CBPK 1580 a few times over the years.