On Friday evening WEIS Radio General Manager Jerry Baker received the following email and recording from an individual in Finland…You never know whose listening to WEIS. Hannu said that in his 40 plus years in the hobby that this was one of the most miraculous and clearest signals he’s heard.
Hello WEIS Radio – very warm Season´s Greetings to you all from Northern Finland – 200 miles beyond the Arctic Circle ! Would you ever have imagined that WEIS 990 AM might be heard as far away as in Finland, some 4500 miles ? In any case that is what just might have happened early this morning, December 15, 2017 – provided that you can agree to the details of my reception…Let me take a moment of your precious time to explain in a bit more detail… My greatest passion is for distant AM radio reception and every now and then I spend a couple of weeks 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle here in Finland – with a hope for distant signals with my communications receiver and several 3000 -foot long wire antennas.
I strongly believe that if the Lord wants me to hear a far away station, that kind of miracle happens. I am currently again “up here” for 2 weeks of intensive listening. I´m glad to report that the atmospheric skip is quite favorable in the direction of your great country .At around 5 am your time was monitoring 990 AM. Normally it is quite seldom that I can hear any stations on 990 AM due to the low powers. Not much came through this time either, but a station fades in just after 5 am your time Central (exactly 5.02 to 5.04 am) with a male voice.
It is fairly weak, but upon listening to my recording very carefully and twisting my ear, I think he (Merry Jerry) is saying details like : “…CLEAR SKIES IN THE…LAKES AREA… …ON 100.5 FM AND 990 AM….CALL THE AMERICAN AUCTIONEERS TODAY 256-927-5263 OR STOP BY THEIR OFFICE AT 1033 WEST MAIN STREET IN CENTRE… …AND A GOOD MORNING, IT IS TIME FOR THE WEATHER UPDATE….HIGH TODAY WILL BE NEAR 85…” So this was just a short “burst”, but I hope that what I think is being said would match with what was broadcast early this morning at little past 5 am. I am also enclosing an mp3 recording of the underlined part of the material, starting with “100.5 FM and 990 AM”. It is weak and partly under a strong Canadian station, but all the length of this recording (1 minute and 20 seconds) your signal can be recognized. I hope that you have a chance to listen to them with good speakers or headphones, since otherwise this may be hard to hear. !
This place is Lemmenjoki, Finland. If you want so see how far north I am, just put “Lemmenjoki ” on Google Maps. I am at about the same latitude as Barrow, Alaska… I hope that I have correctly identified your station…In that case, thank you for extending a little bit of your programming all the way over here. Should you confirm back to me this being your station, it would definitely be one of my greatest success stories in this hobby ! Hoping to hear back from you with positive news, Very best regards and Season´s Greetings !
Hannu Niileksela, Helsinki Finland
LISTEN CAREFULLY AND YOU CAN HEAR THE AMERICAN AUCTIONEERS AD BEING READ..
