WLW 700 AM

Found another good night time listen on the medium wave band. It's WLW out of Cincinnati on 700 KHZ. When I listened in the wee AM this morning, it was coming in as all 5's on the SINPO rating. It the first time I heard the show, America's Trucking network. It's a talk radio show for trucker's and is both serious and entertaining. The host I heard today was Bubba Bo and he does good job dealing with the serious and fun topics. He has been asking to hear Christmas carols while talking about issues facign truckers. Check out both the radio station and the program here.

Solder Smoke

I have started to listen to a Ham Radio Program via MP3. It's focus is on home brew radios. I am a geeky guy although not the best when it comes to electronic projects. This show is interesting to listen to even though it leaves me behind on the technicals. It is showing me the build it yourself side of the hobby and I am learning. I at the listening to all I can phase of the hobby and really needing to learn where I want to go. I do know if I will make any radios but there is a part of me that want to learn how for no other reason than to say I can. That is part of the adventure of listening. That is why I am doing the blog. It is a place to record my adventure and what I learn.

The website for solder smoke is here.

Podcasts and mp3's

I have added some links to some dx podcast. I have not checked them out, just read them in the October Popular Communications. Yup, that's right. I am a little behind in my reading. No big surprise. I am behind on a lot of things including what I want to be doing with this blog. It will come in time. Just frustrating when there are not enough hours in the day. Have fun checking them out. I will be and will be reporting back here in time. I might be giving some serious listen time to these if propagation does not improve soon. There is more than one way to enjoy the hobby and if I can't participate, then I will try to take time to read, listen and ]learn elsewhere in the meantime.

Small Town Radio

If you have not figured it out from this blog so far, WAWK out of Kendallville is one of my favorite stations. I feel sorry for the DJ this morning. There are a ton of school delays and closings and he is alone trying to run the station and take the calls for updates. The challenges of small town radio. I do like how committed they are to storm response or at least severe weather response. I really hope they get approved for 24/7 transmission. They are the best for weather and they are are one of the closest stations to our house. A little west to they can tell us what it coming. A lot handy. So dear Mr FCC reviewer, do the people around here a favor and give us a 24/7 station. They have had a lot of support from alot of areas and weather reports were one of the reasons in favor. Just getting emphasized again today with the school closings.

Blog Content

One of the issues facing the dx hobby is the advent of the internet. So many of the stations that were only listened to by radio frequency can also be heard on the internet now. There are many shows that are going the podcast/mp3 route. Some hams are accessing relay towers via the internet. The hobby is being changed by technological realities.

This presents me with a little bit of a challenge for what I put into this blog. Do I do only what I hear over the airwaves or do I handle what is online as well. I think for now I will also present what I find online as well. There is too much good info to ignore. I will try to keep the focus on the airwaves but I will also give online information as it fits. Hopefully, I will get a good mix and a good balance. Maybe, as I get smarter, I can talk technology as well.

Here's to some good listening.

Terry's Bluegrass Corner

Terry's Bluegrass Corner is another local radio show on WAWK. Their website is here.


They can be heard on Sunday afternoons on WAWK. If you do not like bluegrass, don't bother. If you do like bluegrass, then it is a great hometown show. I enjoy bluegrass but not the biggest fan. I do like listening to the show this time of year. Hearing Christmas Carols in the bluegrass style just takes me by surprise and I really enjoy it. I enjoy it because I like bluegrass and I also enjoy it because I love hearing familiar music done in different ways. One song that took me by surprise was Jingle Bells done by a bluegrass band. So drop on in and sit a spell-you may just like it.

Winter Weather Alert!

I used to think that scanners were only small town nosy. I was so wrong. At least in small town Indiana, the best source for severe weather especially on the weekend is scanner and NOAA weather radio. It so hard to be up on what's happening on all the county roads. How do you really keep track of snow or flood conditions on the many miles there are around? Police scanner can help fill in a lot of that. In a lot of cases, the media around Fort Wayne isn't set up to break into programming and what if it is only in part of the outlaying area. Weather radios and scanners are a great way to track the very local happenings. It is not uncommon for me to have three radios going at once during bad weather. It's kinda neat to hear the over lapping reports. It is amusing to me to hear the same news (only delayed) on medium wave and wonder if they got the news from the same police frequency as I did.

It's all about getting good info to make good decisions on how to react. I also like being in the know. It's neat getting news and weather reports as they happen. I do not consider myself a survivalist but the boy scout ideal of being prepared always made sense to me. My radios serve that purpose and they are also interesting listening. What more can you ask?

New FM Transmitter

This is not about a new local radio station. My wife and I had an early Christmas with her family and I got the one thing I was really hoping for. A FM transmitter to send signals to radios around the house so I can here my mp3 player, computer or cd player to all parts of the house. There are some reception issues because it is a low power FM transmitter but it does cover the house. That fits the instructions and my experience with the FRS radios I have used. I should be able to n play with the frequencies and set ups to fine tune how I want to use the transmitter. I think I need to play with my desktop SW since it is having some reception problems. It has been over due for some antennae maintenance/upgrade. The weather is getting colder, and there are some dx projects to do. What more can a radio geek want while stuck inside.

Internet Radio

I love listening to radio. I enjoy the programming and like the magic of getting some distant rf signal. It sometimes seams heretical to the rf hobby to listen by internet. Here I am woking on this blog and listening to a home local station while visiting out of state. The advantage is that I can get it by internet while the signal would not reach. The disadvantage is that you don't always get a good data stream or are doing one too many things. The result is that you get a chopping feed. I guess I will always be looking for different ways to get reception in one way or another and it does not always work. When it does, it is so sweet. Here's to good listening.

Dxing from the Car

Last night's dxing was a little different for me. I usually do it inside and stationary. Last night was dxing in a moving car using the car radio. I wanted to work at getting the special QSL for 740 AM out of Toronto and still go the Komets game. That was going to make for some interesting logistics. I had to listen yesterday and the hockey game was going to use up most or all of mu listening time. So I tried listening while going from Garrett to Fort Wayne. It worked really well or at least better than I thought. It was interesting to see how the signal was interfered with and fluctuated while on the move. It was a far different listen than the more consistent in one spot listen. Mobile dxing might be needing further investigation from me.

General Reception Report

I have been noticing that my overall reception for mw and sw frequencies have been less than stellar for the last week. The atmosphere has been cooling down and generally unstable. i have not checked the sun spots and solar wind to see if that has been a factor. I should get a link for and put it on the blog. Got a lot of great ideas and do not always have the follow through for completion. I am sure it will eventually get done but not today.

Hearts Of Space

Hearts of Space is heard at least for me locally on the local NPR on 94.1 out of Roanoak, Indiana. I hear it on Sunday night at nine pm although it mights be different on your local npr. It plays ambient new age style music. Definitely a different flavor. It covers a great range of styles of music and I often find myself either really loving the music or not impressed at all with the night's selections. The music is all done well but the range in styles is so great as to be bigger than what I like. Even though it means some nights, I don't like the show, it does mean I get to hear something new which I do enjoy doing. Look it up and give it a shot.

QSL's for CHWO

I got the following from this from Brian Smith, the QSL manager for CHWO and member ODXA. (I hope I got your position right, Brian. Thanks for the update.)

Hello all.

CHWO-AM 740 Toronto, which has been family run since 1956, has been sold (pending CRTC approval) and no doubt some changes will be coming. We have heard that the general format will not change for now but that's about it. The new owner may not want to continue having someone issuing QSL cards on their behalf. I will certainly do my best to convince them in hopes this will continue.

Last year they celebrated their 50th birthday since the station first
started up on November 17th, 1956 on 1250 kHz and the 6th anniversary since
moving onto 740 kHz back on January 8th, 2001. It has been in the same
family all this time and NEVER changed format.

So............I think its time to celebrate both achievements with a special QSL card AND certificate that is open to everyone. This card and certificate will capture both the old and new of CHWO in pictures and information.

But there is a catch. You have to send in two reports.

Here is the criteria:

1/ You must send in two separate, correct reports: November 17th, 2007 and January 8th, 2008

2/ You must hear the station between 0000 & 2359 (EST) on those dates. (+5 Hours UTC)

3/ The usually information will be required for the report:

(a)Program material (at least 10 minutes of specific program material heard: e.g., name of announcer, commercials heard, news items, song title and artist, etc. You can also make a short recording of the station and send it as an MP3 provided it contains some of the specific program material noted earlier);

(b)Signal/sound report (a general overview of how well you heard the signal at your location and the sound quality of the program.);

(c)Mention of the type of equipment and antenna you were using to hear the signal is helpful information as well.

4/ You can send the reports in after each date or together after January 8,
but I must have both for the special QSL.

5/ If you plan to go after the special QSL, mark your reports as 'Special QSL.' A report for November 17th but not followed up by one on January 8th will receive a regular QSL only (unless you already have received one in the past.) I will post repeat announcements prior to each date.

Thank you all for your support in this endeavour and the future of QSL from
CHWO, AM 740, Toronto.

Feel free to pass this notice along and good luck to all.

Brian Smith - am740@rogers.com
AM 740 - www.am740.ca
Reception Reports - http://www.odxa.on.ca/chwo.html
Yahoo Group - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AM740/

When Dxer and Gps Enthusiast Combine

When I am not turning the dials of my radios, I am often out playing with my gpsr. One website I use is waymarking.com . It's basically using a digital camera and gpsr to log places of interest. They are organized by categories. There are two categories focused on radios. One is for amateur radio relays and the other is for am/fm radio stations. I rather like these categories so I can figure out how close what i am listening to is. There is plenty that has not been logged but they have started on it.

There is also a category for blogs which this blog is listed. As a small inside joke, I placed the coordinates of this blog as the same as a waymark for a local radio station.


This post is not 100% on topic today but it ties in. Just another way of enjoying both of my hobbies. Wishing you good listening on this Halloween day.

Marion's Attic

Marion's Attic is on WBCQ at 9PM Eastern (7415 KHZ). It's focus is music found on old records of various formats. Some of the music is really good and some of it is definitely different but always entertaining. The focus is on the old records and not the style of music but musical themes are used on the show. It may not become a regular of your listening time but it is worth checking out. It has several ways to be heard so you might want to check their website out to see what works out best for you.

One of my biases for listening to the radio is a music program with music I like. Just dropping this in so you can judge where I am coming in from.

Big Band Jump

Big Band Jump is hosted by Don Kennedy and heard locally by me on WAWK - the Hawk (1140KHZ). As the name suggests, it is big band and swing. Well done show especially if you like that style of music. It does have a website and if you want to hear it, check out their website and see if there is a station near you that carries it. They also have a feed online that you can hear it on. I suppose you can also hear it on the live stream of any station that carries it via their website. I love hearing things via radio but the internet offers so many options that you can not ignore it.

AM 740 CHWO

CHWO is a great station. Plays great music. They play anything from swing and big band to rockabilly and do whop. It's a taste of nostalgia radio. They also do comedy routines and radio shows when the golden age of radio. The best thing and nestet for me is that the station is in Toronto and I can hear it clearly at night here in North East Indiana. On the right night it has a SINPO rating of all 5's and sounds better than some local channels. The Ontario DX Association does QSL cards for the station. Or least they use to. I sound check into that. Look for and update on this in further blog posts.

WAWk going for more hours

WAWK-the hawk is gyoing through applying for more hours from the FCC. I hope they make it. They are one of my favorite most stations. I just hope it doesn't change their flavor. It probably won't but change can spawn change. It must be the FCC review time because I heard that a station In Indy is also looking to changing their hours and strength of signal. Sometimes i wish I knew mopre of the techniclas so I nknew the processs. Yes, I am a radio geek. Thanks for noticing.

Opeinng Night Blues

The Komets opening night game was last night. I was amused that the pregame show and festivities were missed. They had some technical problems and from about 730 to the face off at 8 they were doing a combination of dead air, ads and cutting to a talk show. This stuff happens all the time and more than just WOWO.

Off the Hook

one of the shows I listen to on shortwave is Off the Hook on WBCQ. It is on 7515 khz at 7pm. The focus is on technology, hacking and privacy issues that come from the use of technology. It's entertaining and informative but sometimes I wonder if what they are concerned about is that big a deal. I will concede that privacy issues are a slippery slope and can get abused easily. Listen to the show and maek your own conculsions.

The Midnight Freak Show

I don't always sleep through the night so I turn the radio on and listen to Coast to Coast AM . What a hoot. I horror fiction so I listen but I can't it serious. Stories of ghosties and ghoulies and wee small beasties. There is also the ufo, conspiracy and survivalist contingent. I am amused for a whil and go back to sleep.

Power Up The Tranmitters

I am a dxer who likes to listen to fm,sw, mw, and police scanner. I am not that knowledgeable about the technicals but I willl share my listening experiences. I have been toying with getting my ham license but that has not been serious so far. Time will tell. Herw's to some good listening.