WCPH is a 1-kW day, 109-watt night oldies station in the south-east corner of Tennessee, not far from Chattanooga. The station owner George Hudson agreed with the NRC/IRCA Courtesy Program Committee to set up two two-hour DX tests with their day facility. The first on December 26, the other on January 2, both tests running from 07:00 to 09:00 UTC.
1220 is certainly not the easiest frequency with powerful stations like WHKW Cleveland, CJRB Boissevain and often XEB Cd. Mexico with potentially strong signals. 1000 watts isn't much to compete with. But we know that morse code and sweep tones are extremely efficient methods if you want to reach far.
Reception of the December 26 test was a failure. Geomagnetic conditions were very poor. If I remember correctly the only signal we heard was a very faint CJRB.
Propagation forecasts for January 2 were far more optimistic though. And true enough, at 07:00 we did hear the sweep tones on our Smøla island rigs. Later on, sweep tones and morse IDs were heard at the KONG site, and with quite a bit better signal than Smøla. At KONG, there was little interference except CFAJ fading up a few times, and CJRB/XEB lurking in the shadows.
The distance to Smøla is 6660 km, to KONG 7128 km. WCPH was also heard in Lemmenjoki, Finland, and Scotland. And maybe elsewhere in Europe for all I know.
Many thanks to the CPC and George Hudson for making this opportunity to catch a new station! I hope George is satisfied with how his station got out. A good start for 2021, DX-wise!
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