WFAN New York NY on 660 kHz was heard with decent peaks during the recent visit to Noordhoek. The station made it through on the 13th January 2011 at 0320 UTC via the Sony SRF-M37V and 220 metre BOG.
Programme Director Eric Spitz kindly verified my email report within an impressive 15 minutes!
Google Earth image of the WFAN 167 metre antenna mast situated on High Island.HIGH ISLAND
High Island is a small private island which is connected to City Island via a small bridge and a sandbar that emerges at very low tide.
Google Earth image of High island showing the sandbar and bridge.In the early 20th Century the island was privately owned with a community of summer rental cottages for approximately 40 families. In 1961, the island was purchased for the use of radio transmission towers.
The island consists of the transmitters and antenna towers for 660 WFAN and 880 WCBS, both of which are owned by CBS.
On August 27, 1967, a small private airplane crashed into the radio tower, destroying the antenna and taking WNBC and WCBS off the air. Both stations were able to borrow nearby transmission facilities for about a week, until an emergency tower could be erected on the island. The permanent replacement was built with a second (shorter) tower as an emergency backup.
Another view of High island, showing the WFAN antenna mast in the foreground with the auxilary tower behind (Photograph Wikimedia Commons).The taller of the towers is 549 feet (167 meters). The shorter tower is 300 feet (91.4 meters) and was built in 2001 to replace the emergency tower erected in 1967. The proximity of these two AM radio stations has, at times, caused interference on telephones and electronic equipment on nearby City Island.
High Island is an AM radio transmission facility with no studios or tower tenants (WFAN and WCBS broadcast from studios located in Manhattan).
A full-time caretaker's residence was in use from 1961 to 2007. The island is currently uninhabited and maintained by the radio stations' engineers and contractors.
AUDIO CLIP
A recording of a post local sunrise peak of 660 WFAN at 0420 UTC on the 11th January 2011 via the Sony SRF-M37V and 220 metre BOG at Noordhoek is available here. The station made it through over a distance of 12 536 km.
2 comments:
Hi Gary
Great to have your SWL audio clips on the SARL Amateur Radio Today programme. I used to be a member of the SADX club my call was ZS1-748 very close to yours when the meetings were at the American Embassy in town.
Very interesting blog greetings John
Hi John
Thank you for your generous commments re the blog and my first broadcasting attempt - good to know that you were also a member of the SADXC!
73,
Gary
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