1490 WVBG (AM) in Vicksburg, Mississippi, is a typical AM graveyard station with a news/talk format and 1 kW of power, maintaining a coverage radius of approximately 10 miles at night, according to owner Mark Jones. However, in September, DX’er Jim Solatie astonishingly captured its signal in Lapland, Finland, roughly 4,700 miles away. Solatie used a 3,000-foot antenna aimed at the U.S. East Coast, benefiting from skywave propagation, where radio waves are refracted back to Earth at night. This remarkable reception adds to Solatie’s impressive record of verifying 439 different graveyard AM stations since 1996. While he has achieved notable success, he acknowledged that Norwegian DX’er Odd-Jorgen Sagdahl and Finnish DX’er Hannu Niilekselä have even more verifications—about 2,700 receptions between them. The reception of these channels can be influenced by factors such as seasonal changes and auroral activity, which can enhance or reduce clarity, allowing faint signals to come in surprisingly clear at times. Click Here to read the full story on Radio World about the Radio Graveyard stations.
