Darkness and catches

A few hours ago (about 3:50 a.m., Central Time, to be exact) I am in a halfway state between being awake and asleep. At that time of the morning that's not unusual for me. The fan is humming away (I like to sleep with white noise). Then silence.

A few moments, then I'm fully awake.

It's not only quiet, it's very dark.

Then my mind begins to function. Power outage!

Sure enough. The only source of light in my room comes from the "sleep status" light on my MacBook. Hmmm, I wonder what the view outside my window looks like? Is this a neighborhood thing or is the entire area affected?

Struggle to find my glasses in the dark (took a little time), then slowly and carefully walked to the window (took a little more time, but I didn't crash into anything).

It's dark out there! No moon (yet). The whole town is enveloped in blackness. Somewhat reminiscent of that scene from "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind." Even the red light on top of the water tower is out. The only things with power appear to be the transmission towers south of town, still blinking red.

Anyway, I'm now wide awake and in the dark. And it's cold. What to do now? How about grabbing the (battery-powered) radio and seeing what I can DX?

Let me explain. Trying to pull in distant stations on the AM dial has long been a hobby of mine. Yet I haven't engaged in this activity for many years, mainly due to my move into full adulthood which meant devoting my time to family activities and keeping a household functioning.

But for right now I'm alone in a new town. In an area of the country to which I am new. DX heaven! And having only two truly local signals on the dial is just icing on the cake.

So what do I hear? Some new signals, ones I haven't been able to get doing my early night DXing. Such as WJR from Detroit, plus some west coast signals: KNX, KFI, KNBR. And 620 KTAR, from my old stomping grounds.

Even though I've been listening to stations that I haven't been able to pick up since my days in Houston, I still have yet to catch a couple of "Holy Grail" signals here in western Kansas. One is actually any station from New York. Most likely I would pick up either WABC or WFAN, both nighttime powerhouses. But on 770 (WABC's frequency), I get KKOB from Albuquerque instead. WFAN operates on 660, but that spot on the dial just gives me garbled gibberish. WFAN and KTNN are probably duking it out. I have no hope of getting WCBS, another strong NYC station. You see, I am about 45 to 50 miles (as the crow flies) from the sticks of KRVN, the local blowtorch which operates on the 880 frequency--same as WCBS.

Why New York? Never have caught any of those stations in my many years of DXing. (It doesn't help that I haven't been east of the Mississippi River in over three decades.) I have heard stations from Los Angeles and Chicago, the other two major media markets, so NYC remains a goal for me.

The other desired capture for me would be CKLW from Windsor, Ontario. (Just across the river from Detroit.) Sadly when I tune my radio to 800, I hear XEROK from Ciudad Juarez rather than CKLW. What's significant about this station from the Great White North? A whole lot of history. See here. And listen here.

Speaking of radio, is our local station operating during this blackout? A quick check of both frequencies, and yes, the local AM/FM combo is on. Playing "American Pie." Yeeesh.

I'm glad there's other stuff out there.