It was a pleasant surprise to hear KRGV Weslaco TX on 1290 kHz on the 25th June 1986 via the FRG7 and 30 metre longwire antenna at Sandbaai. The music request phone-in programme was heard until fade out at 0645 hours UTC that morning - the latest that I managed to hear a mediumwave radio station from the U.S.A. at the time.
I received the friendly and informative QSL letter with a station sticker from Chief Engineer Lawson Campbell who kindly responded to my reception report.
1 comment:
Hello! As a former employee of KRGV AM/TV from the 70s and 80s, I was absolutely fascinated by your QSL. I remember seeing old nighttime pattern maps showing a very ... bizarre ... coverage area. During the day we would run 5000 watts in a standard pattern that covered the area north of us in south Texas. But at night, the power dropped to 1000 watts and the coverage flipped into an inverted "V". The western tip of the V went southwest to the very tip of the Mexican state of Baja California on that country's west coast, about 900 miles. The eastern tip of the V went out into the Gulf of Mexico the same distance. It's the skip from this oddball pattern that you heard.
Unfortunately, that AM station was turned over to a religious broadcaster and is now running under the call KRGE in Spanish. I have no idea if they are using the same pattern, but if you hear Spanish on 1290 AM you may want to listen for their call!
Mike Nassour / Austin Texas USA
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