Hello,
This season on 160m I've been hearing a moderately strong AM carrier on
1.800MHz. The carrier is present in the evenings and exhibits QSB. The
modulation has been a little difficult to make out but I've been able to tell
that it is ESPN sports programming.
I checked the AM band using a digital AM radio in the evening and found three
stations that carry the programming; one in Utah, one in El Paso, TX, and the
other a local Tucson station. Oddly, none of them are related harmonically to
1.800MHz. Once in a while there is a break from the recorded programming and
there are some regional commercials. Naturally, I expected the local station to
be the source of the problem, but the commercials weren't quite right. It seems
like the QSB would always take out information that would help me identify the
station's location. Then, the other night, I copied the commercials better and
heard several references to El Paso and Red Raiders. Therefore, it became clear
that the station is not the local one, but instead about 300 miles away. An
Internet search lists KHEY on 1.380MHz and having ESPN sports programming. That
jives with one of the 3 stations I found using the digital AM radio. Note that
I've copied the 1.8MHz carrier with both my O
MNI-VI+ and my K2.
Would it be possible for some others to listen for this station on 1.800MHz and
help identify it? It would be especially good if there are some 160m operators
in El Paso that could listen to the AM broadcast and then check for the carrier
on 1.8MHz. I am not trying to create problems for the AM station, but I would
like to alert them that they may be causing interference to our band. I don't
operate at the bottom of the band often; however, during the ARRL 160m contest
there were some operators very near 1.800MHz that were being hit hard by the
carrier.
Thanks in advance for any help.
'73, Thomas - AC7A (Tucson)
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UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
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