1400 0359 USA WZHR Zephyrhills FL. WTAN call letters heard in pile-up. Very weak. Thanks to
Neil Kazaross for initial confirming, though he later retracted this
(explanation below). V weak Personal First and possible first logging in the
UK. 7050 km **
** Personal First
This was a challenge.
Straight away, I heard the WTAN call letters on 1400 at the top of the hour when I was playing back my file. I hadn't a clue who it was. Nothing like this was listed with these call letters, so I posted a recording to RealDX and later to SkywavesDX. https://youtu.be/vUpfKaw8lPg The ID is at 34 seconds and is spoken by a woman. It's very weak so you will need headphones. WOND is the dominant station with a promo for the programme "Blue Monday" with Bob Burns.
Of all the people who listened, 80% or so said they could hear the WTAN call letters and quite clearly. Neil Kazaross in the USA was the first to respond, saying that he could hear the call letters *clearly*. Neil informed me that WTAN is a station on 1340 in Clearwater FL. The 1400 station I heard would have been WZHR Zephyrhills FL who carry WTAN overnight. However, in an unexpected turnaround, Neil later said that he had listened on better equipment and couldn't hear the WTAN call on that. I'm not sure what to make of that.
The problem with this logging is there is simply nothing else to go on, although a woman's voice can still be heard in the recording after the WTAN call.
One DXer told me he stopped accepting loggings like this if there was nothing else to go on. He would inist on catching a mention of something else with the ID. Something like "WTAN ... the Tan Talk Network". That's all very well, and in an ideal world, etc., but what do we do when there is a correct ID on the frequency and there is nothing else to go on because the signal has either dropped away or got buried under splatter, etc. These sort of things happen all the time.
Looking at the carriers on the frequency, I noticed there were a few unidentified carriers which had been peaking to audio level. There was also an additional unidentified carrier on 1400 at the time of my WTAN reception, indicating that another station was indeed present. The offset was one I have not seen before and very close to that of CBG's carrier. So I know there was a mystery station there.
So, the question for me has been one of "Do I keep this logging or do I delete it?" Everything about this reception is marginal, but it's there. Needing further confirmation, I posted the recording to SkywavesDX and got several responses, the majority of whom could hear the WTAN call letters without any problem.
I checked the WZHR web stream. Some of the programming is Ethnic so I needed to check for their top of the hour ID and they do broadcast an English ID on the hour.
I could also add that conditions were enhanced to some degree to the florida/Cuba area.
So the majority opinion is that this *is* a WTAN call and I will therefore include it in my log.
I would not be happy to include such a log if there was serious doubt, but there is no real doubt about the call letters. I don't think it's necessary to remove the logging completely on the basis that somebody wants to hear more in the way of ID content.
I have come across DXers who wouldn't log a station if they didn't hear a mention of the presenter's name, the programme name and a full identification including frequency and station slogan. That's all very well, but where do we draw the line?
So take this ramble as a disclaimer if you wish, but I am quite satisfied about the WTAN call.
Good DX!
John Faulkner, Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) 1m ASL
Blog: http://skegnessdx.blogspot.com
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/g1vvp
Vimeo Channel: https://vimeo.com/skegnessdx
Receiver: Perseus SDR Receiver
Software: Jaguar Big Cat
Antenna: Movable 10ft x 25ft flag
Amplifier: G3PQA 17dB low noise pre-amp
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