[Lowfer] curious signal

[John Andrews]

Dale,

Thanks for your report on KFI. As of this writing I don't know what they are
doing, or whether it is intentional. Will try to find out today. I work for
a company that makes broadcast equipment, and can make contact with them
pretty easily.

I got to thinking last night that while it would be difficult to copy KFI
here in Massachusetts in the middle of the summer, such a distinctive 50 kw
carrier might just show up on Argo. So I set up on 640 kHz, and ran screen
captures on the 640.000 - 640.012 kHz range overnight. One of the better
shots may be seen at:
http://webpages.charter.net/w1tag/files/KFI080603.jpg

I'm assuming that you know it's KFI, as you are a LOT closer than I am!
Anyway, the thing has a period of about 11.5 seconds, and that seems to be
steady through quite a few successive screens. The signal began to appear
around midnight, local time, and disappeared about sunrise, though it took a
pretty good hit just before 5 AM EDT, when a station about 50 miles from
here signed on.

This brings back interesting memories. In 1969, I was at Bates College in
Lewiston, ME, living on the 4th floor of a dorm building. I had a really
nice Grundig AM/FM/SW tube radio, and about 100 feet of #28 wire running to
a tree outside. One of the guys on our floor lived in L.A., and dared me to
try to copy KFI (it was in winter, fortunately). Finally around 2 A.M., I
caught an ID, and the signal began to roll in. We woke the gentleman up, and
dragged him to my room. He was VERY impressed!

Let me do some research today, and I'll let you know what I find out.

John Andrews, W1TAG