Babler State Park is located about 25 miles west of downtown St. Louis in the city of Wildwood. The parking area from where I DXed is on the western end of the park, toward Wild Horse Creek Road. Access is through Babler Park Drive (State Road BA) off Missouri 109.
The picture below is of the two receivers I used on the DXpedition. For the AM broadcast band, I used my trusty General Electric Superadio III with a built-in ferrite rod antenna, which I bought in 1994. For the shortwave band, I used a Tecsun PL-600, which I bought in 2017.
(G.E. Superadio III, Tecsun PL-600)
The picture below is the shortwave antenna I used. I attached the 20-foot longwire that came with the PL-600 to the car radio antenna on the 2002 Chrysler Voyager.
The noise floor was non-existent where I set up my listening post. When I turned on the Superadio III around 2:15 p.m. local time (2015 UTC), I found that the adjacent channel interference from the St. Louis stations was significantly reduced versus my shack in Hazelwood. The digital sidebands from KFUO 850, the last remaining AM station broadcasting in Hybrid Digital (HD), were noticeably less, allowing me to pull in DX on 820, 830 and, after 3:00 p.m. (2100 UTC), 860 and 870. Chicago AM stations were coming in with good to fair signals; WSCR 670 was at semi-local strength. It was around 2:45 p.m. (2045 UTC) that signals from stations in the Great Lakes region were rolling in. The biggest surprise was WMKT 1270 (see the logbook later in the blog entry). Before I packed up around 4:00 p.m. (2200 UTC), Southern stations began to come in.
DX was even coming in with a few of the lower-powered St. Louis stations after 3:00 p.m. (2100 UTC). During that hour, WBAA West Lafayette, IN was coming in under WGNU on 920. The park is in a null of WSDZ 1260 toward the west; KSGF Springfield, MO was coming in at equal strength with WSDZ after 2:30 p.m. (2030 UTC).
On the shortwave bands, conditions were good toward the Americas, Europe and Africa. The biggest surprise I had was WWVH from Hawaii taking out WWV on 15 MHz. WWV was in like a local on 10 MHz. I didn't check the Ham or utility bands during the DXpedition. I'll make sure I check these bands on a future DXpedition. The only piece of Amateur Radio equipment I had was a tri-band Yaesu VX-5 (6 meters, 2 meters and 70 cm) handheld transceiver and a Diamond dual-band magnetic-mounted antenna.
Babler State Park is an excellent place for a daytime DXpedition less than 40 minutes from downtown St. Louis. Take a radio and/or antenna with you on your next day trip to this part of the area locals call West County.
AM RADIO LOGBOOK (All times Eastern...for local time, subtract one hour)
Equipment: General Electric Superadio III, built-in ferrite rod antenna
600 kHz WMT Cedar Rapids, IA at 1655 with Mayo Clinic Radio, local ads, The Family Minute with Mark Merrill, "This is Newsradio 600 WMT Cedar Rapids, an iHeart Radio Station" legal ID into Fox News Radio. A fair signal was noted over WREC; no adjacent channel interference from KFNS 590.
640 kHz WCRV Collierville, TN at 1627 with local ads, mention of the Bott Radio Network in a promo, Christmas programming promo, weather forecast for the Memphis area. A fair signal was noted over WOI; no adjacent channel interference from KYFI 630.
710 kHz KCMO Kansas City, MO at 1631 with local ads. A fair to poor signal was noted.
750 kHz KBNN Lebanon, MO at 1529 with Dave Ramsey and local ads. A fair signal was noted with second adjacent channel interference from WEW 770.
750 kHz WNDZ Portage, IN at 1632 with a Christian teaching program in Russian. A good signal was noted over KBNN.
760 kHz WJR Detroit, MI at 1633 with Michigan State University football play-by-play. A fair signal was noted with adjacent channel interference from WEW 770.
800 kHz KREI Farmington, MO at 1549 with a health talk show and local ads. A fair signal was noted; alone on the frequency.
900 kHz KFAL Fulton, MO at 1552 with Country music, "Real Country 900 KFAL" ID. A fair to poor signal was noted.
930 kHz WTAD Quincy, IL at 1532 with University of Illinois football play-by-play and local ads. A fair signal was noted over KWOC.
1000 kHz WMVP Chicago, IL at 1543 with Northwestern University football play-by-play. A fair signal was noted with minor adjacent channel interference from KXEN 1010.
1080 kHz WNWI Oak Lawn, IL at 1602 with news in Polish. A fair signal was noted over WRYT.
1110 kHz WMBI Chicago, IL at 1604 with Contemporary Christian music and "Radio Moody" ID in Spanish. A fair signal was noted with adjacent channel interference from KMOX 1120.
1200 kHz WRTO Chicago, IL at 1519 with sports talk in Spanish. A good signal was noted with minor adjacent channel interference from KQQZ 1190.
1270 kHz WMKT Charlevoix, MI at 1640 with local ads, college football scores and "1270 AM and 102.3 FM WMKT" ID. A fair to poor signal was noted, mixing with KIIK and other stations.
1330 kHz WRAM Monmouth, IL at 1607 with a Country-style Christmas song, weak calls into a Country selection. A fair to poor signal was noted with no adjacent channel interference from KSIV 1320.
1370 kHz WSPD Toledo, OH at 1648 with local ads into a health talk show. A fair signal was noted over KDTH and WCCN with adjacent channel interference from KXFN 1380.
1470 kHz WMBD Peoria, IL at 1612 with Bradley University basketball post-game show, local ads and "1470 and 100.3 WMBD" ID. A good signal was noted with adjacent channel interference from KHOJ 1460.
1580 kHz WHLY South Bend, IN at 1616 with local ads in Spanish. A fair to poor signal was noted over KTGR.
1610 kHz CHHA Toronto, ON at 1621 with pop music and announcements in Spanish. A fair to poor signal was noted with adjacent channel interference from KATZ 1600.
SHORTWAVE LOGBOOK (All times UTC...for local time, subtract six hours)
Equipment: Tecsun PL-600, 20-foot longwire antenna
6070 kHz CANADA CFRX Toronto, ON at 2108 with discussion, local ads and "In-Depth Radio, News/Talk 1010" ID in English. A fair signal was noted.
7310 kHz ROMANIA Radio Romania International at 2143 with talk on Romanian and European literature in English. A good signal was noted.
9690 kHz SPAIN Radio Exterior de España at 2015 with play-by-play of a soccer match in Spanish. A good signal was noted.
11900 kHz SÃO TOME É PRINCIPE Voice of America relay at 2041 with a discussion in Hausa. A good signal was noted.
15000 kHz HAWAII WWVH Kehaha, Kauai at 2035 with time signals, announcement at 2036. A good to fair signal was noted, taking out WWV.
15140 kHz CUBA Radio Havana Cuba at 2034 with commentary in English. A very good signal was noted.
15580 kHz BOTSWANA Voice of America relay at 2026 with a discussion in English. A fair to poor signal was noted.
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