• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

What is the farthest you've ever heard?

For AM, the farthest is 2814 miles, picked up one of the Anchorage, Alaska AM newsstations in 1995 while on my honeymoon while sitting in the parking lot of our hotel in Kihei, Maui on the car radio (can't remember the frequency or ID, listened to the local weather forecast and it came in rather well)

In the 70's picked up the 500 kw Trans World Radio from Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles almost nightly on 800 from Villa Park, IL that is about 2250 miles or so. Is that station still broadcasting? I haven't tried to hear it for many years.
 
> For AM, the farthest is 2814 miles, picked up one of the
> Anchorage, Alaska AM newsstations in 1995 while on my
> honeymoon while sitting in the parking lot of our hotel in
> Kihei, Maui on the car radio (can't remember the frequency
> or ID, listened to the local weather forecast and it came in
> rather well)
>
> In the 70's picked up the 500 kw Trans World Radio from
> Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles almost nightly on 800 from
> Villa Park, IL that is about 2250 miles or so. Is that
> station still broadcasting? I haven't tried to hear it for
> many years.

I'm sure someone has a more complete answer, but I'm gonna add what I can. I've tried to get that 800 for years from my home in Ohio, and occasionally on vacations in Florida and Texas. I have yet to hear it. I'm not using the most sophisticated radios, but still.
 
> > For AM, the farthest is 2814 miles, picked up one of the
> > Anchorage, Alaska AM newsstations in 1995 while on my
> > honeymoon while sitting in the parking lot of our hotel in
>
> > Kihei, Maui on the car radio (can't remember the frequency
>
> > or ID, listened to the local weather forecast and it came
> in
> > rather well)
> >
> > In the 70's picked up the 500 kw Trans World Radio from
> > Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles almost nightly on 800 from
> > Villa Park, IL that is about 2250 miles or so. Is that
> > station still broadcasting? I haven't tried to hear it
> for
> > many years.
>
> I'm sure someone has a more complete answer, but I'm gonna
> add what I can. I've tried to get that 800 for years from my
> home in Ohio, and occasionally on vacations in Florida and
> Texas. I have yet to hear it. I'm not using the most
> sophisticated radios, but still.
>
Well, this won't make you happy, but when I lived in Cleveland in the late 1960s, Trans World Radio on 800 would mix with and override CKLW at times. And that was on the car radio!

You're in Columbus, aren't you? So am I.
 
> > > For AM, the farthest is 2814 miles, picked up one of the
>
> > > Anchorage, Alaska AM newsstations in 1995 while on my
> > > honeymoon while sitting in the parking lot of our hotel
> in
> >
> > > Kihei, Maui on the car radio (can't remember the
> frequency
> >
> > > or ID, listened to the local weather forecast and it
> came
> > in
> > > rather well)
> > >
> > > In the 70's picked up the 500 kw Trans World Radio from
> > > Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles almost nightly on 800 from
>
> > > Villa Park, IL that is about 2250 miles or so. Is that
>
> > > station still broadcasting? I haven't tried to hear it
> > for
> > > many years.
> >
> > I'm sure someone has a more complete answer, but I'm gonna
>
> > add what I can. I've tried to get that 800 for years from
> my
> > home in Ohio, and occasionally on vacations in Florida and
>
> > Texas. I have yet to hear it. I'm not using the most
> > sophisticated radios, but still.
> >
> Well, this won't make you happy, but when I lived in
> Cleveland in the late 1960s, Trans World Radio on 800 would
> mix with and override CKLW at times. And that was on the
> car radio!
>
> You're in Columbus, aren't you? So am I.

Yep, the Pickerington area, the part of town where local AM reception stinks after nightfall! That sounds right about AM 800 in the 60s. I've read that Bonaire clobbered CKLW in as close as northern Ohio, and of course up and down the East Coast. I don't think they're at half a million watts anymore, but I'd still like to hear it someday.
 
> > I tried to find the distance from Guinea
> > to the Gulf Coast (punched in Tampa as a
> > reference even though that may not be where
> > you are) and failed, but I'm gonna guess
> > 4,000 miles.

> It would be just shy of 5000 miles, and, yeah,
> practically all water.

Conakry (CKY)-Tampa (TPA) = 4632 st. mi.
 
> How far is the farthest station you have ever yeard?
>
> I live in Dallas, and I have fotten KDKA 1020 in Pittsburgh.
> And I was inside. I've also gotten WBGG 970 in Pit. That
> is 1070 miles away.
>
> How far for you?
>
> here's a tool to tell you the distance between 2 cities...
>
> http://geobytes.com/CityDistanceTool.htm
>
> ~CTL

Here in Fla...

On AM, KOA Denver, just once, years ago.
And a station on 1620 in the USVI last year, early morning.

On SW, all the big ones. Either Radio Moscow, Radio RSA
(South Africa), or NHK (Japan) was probably farthest.
 
> I'm sure someone has a more complete answer, but I'm gonna
> add what I can. I've tried to get that 800 for years from my
> home in Ohio, and occasionally on vacations in Florida and
> Texas. I have yet to hear it. I'm not using the most
> sophisticated radios, but still.

Where in Fla?

Years ago it would overpower the local station on 790
after dark if you were outside of greater Miami.
 
> Here in Fla...
>
> On AM, KOA Denver, just once, years ago.
> And a station on 1620 in the USVI last year, early morning.
>
> On SW, all the big ones. Either Radio Moscow, Radio RSA
> (South Africa), or NHK (Japan) was probably farthest.
>


Shortwave these days can be tricky, I listen to Radio Japan frequently and it's not always from Japan. 11.840 is a Sri Lanka relay, 15.535(?) is from Acention Island, and 6.120 early each morning is from Sackville Canada (best on east coast). However because you said Radio Moscow and not Voice of Russia, I'm assuming you're not talking about "these days" as things were much different as little as 20 years ago, I used to get Radio Moscow as strong as any local AM station, but today, VOR is much too weak.

I almost forgot to add some of mine to this list.

I have lived in New Britain or Middletown CT for most of my life (only 20 miles apart) and from here, I've done pretty well for distance, I will neglect Shortwave as it is a global service.

On LW, and only in really good conditions I can get some of the stronger stations, like BBC4 on 198, and formerly Atlantic 252

AM, hmm, not sure, under normal nighttime conditions I hear Chicago, Altanta, Nashville, I dunno, the usual 1000-1500 mile AM radius.

FM - one of my best catches was 88.1 KVSC St. Cloud, Minn. the entire FM band was running wild that day, local stations were fading out and replaced with others. I can't remember if it was on (I think it was), but I am literally four blocks away from 1.5kw erp WESU also on 88.1 and couldn't hear them at all.

TV - Hard to say, I was using a 19 inch B&W RCA tv with rabbit ears once and got WPBT ch 2 in Miami, I thought that was impressive. I have alo pulled in KOTV (ch6?) in Tulsa on the channel master 75 mile range antenna with rotor I used to have. That day the stations started north and as each would fade, one from a more southern location would fill in, I think I started getting Iowa (Take 6? I never did ID that one) and eventually started losing signals by the time it hit Missouri. UHF DX was never quite as good, but on occasion it did happen, mosty of the time too fuzzy to make out, but one night I was watching WGGB (40) and another station came right in over it for a few seconds, then vanished, same goes for WGBX 44.<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by DJKraze on 02/10/06 02:10 PM.</FONT></P>
 
> > Here in Fla...
> > On AM, KOA Denver, just once, years ago.
> > And a station on 1620 in the USVI last year, early
> morning.
> >
> > On SW, all the big ones. Either Radio Moscow, Radio RSA
> > (South Africa), or NHK (Japan) was probably farthest.
> >
> Shortwave these days can be tricky, I listen to Radio Japan
> frequently and it's not always from Japan. 11.840 is a Sri
> Lanka relay, 15.535(?) is from Acention Island, and 6.120
> early each morning is from Sackville Canada (best on east
> coast). However because you said Radio Moscow and not Voice
> of Russia, I'm assuming you're not talking about "these
> days" as things were much different as little as 20 years

Correct... I haven't had my SW radio hooked up to an
external antenna in years, but after I re-roof
(per Wilma), I will. Meanwhile, I use my new
Grundig M300BR Mini300 Handheld Shortwave World Band Radio
ir

which I bought last summer.

I guess I have some catching up to do.

It was funny in the 70s to hear Radio Moscow
haranguing about Vietnam and American
Imperialism, etc. Now you have to listen
to Air America if you're nosralgic
for such silly anti-American propaganda.

> ago, I used to get Radio Moscow as strong as any local AM
> station, but today, VOR is much too weak.
>
> On LW, and only in really good conditions I can get some of
> the stronger stations, like BBC4 on 198, and formerly
> Atlantic 252

What kind of antenna do you use for longwave?

I've never been able to get anything but beacons.

I'd like to hear BBC4! (But you can hear it on the web.)

73s from 954
 
The farthest I've ever heard was: KSTP 1500 in the winter this year (1400 mi ;)) (AM) FM: KTRA Farmington, NM during either July or August of 2007 (1000 mi+ ;D)
 
I'll do this by location from a few cities I've lived in.
In Calgary Alberta AM: WSM (before CFFR signed on) FM: WASH FM in Washington DC.
Vancouver, B.C AM: CBW 990 Winnipeg FM: the Seattle FM's
In Southeast Iowa: AM: CKWX Vancouver, and Radio Caracol, in Cartagena Colombia. FM:, 93.3 in Monterrey MX.
Ottawa, AM: 750 in Caracas Venezuela, XEW 900 in Mexico City, ZIZ 555 St. Kitts and Nevis. No distance on FM except for Montreal (Q92 and CBC Radio 1 in Kinston, over rimshot CFTX 107.5)
 
My best AM catches are as follows:

While in Hawaii (Oahu) in Nov 1978 I picked up Chicago WLS 890, WBBM 780 and New Orleans WWL 870.
While in London, England in 1977 I picked up WCBS AM 880 NYC .
Those are my best catches over water. Over land my farthest are:

While in Portland, Oregon in Aug 1963, WABC 770 and WCBS 880 NYC and WBZ 1030 Boston.
 
530 AM, Turks and Caicos, the other night, heard in Georgetown, TX, area, just north of Austin.
1,700 miles
 
Dondd said:
530 AM, Turks and Caicos, the other night, heard in Georgetown, TX, area, just north of Austin.
1,700 miles
Click to expand...
From Houston, I've only heard the 2 Cubans on 530 (Radio Enciclopedia and Rebelde).
 
schmave said:
> For AM, the farthest is 2814 miles, picked up one of the
> Anchorage, Alaska AM newsstations in 1995 while on my
> honeymoon while sitting in the parking lot of our hotel in
> Kihei, Maui on the car radio (can't remember the frequency
> or ID, listened to the local weather forecast and it came in
> rather well)
>
> In the 70's picked up the 500 kw Trans World Radio from
> Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles almost nightly on 800 from
> Villa Park, IL that is about 2250 miles or so. Is that
> station still broadcasting? I haven't tried to hear it for
> many years.

I'm sure someone has a more complete answer, but I'm gonna add what I can. I've tried to get that 800 for years from my home in Ohio, and occasionally on vacations in Florida and Texas. I have yet to hear it. I'm not using the most sophisticated radios, but still.
Click to expand...
Have you heard it since 2006?
 
A question like this is deceiving.....50000 watts from across the country can be less of a challenge than 1000 watts on 1450 from 100 miles away.

I'm going to go with Belize when it used to be on 834. That from Ohio on MW.

FM BCB: KBFM McAllen TX, several from Wyoming
FM Tropo: One of the Memphis stations
TV Tropo: Wausau WI
TV ESkip: Channels 3 and 6 from Cuba.
Sorry but I no longer have logbooks from that era
 
Last edited:
7zr 936khz, Hobart Tasmania Australia.. 10kw 2 tower directional .. heard it 8000 miles away in McGrath, Alaska.
 
On AM not sure which is further. WBZ in Mountain View California (I have a recording of that somewhere) or the Tampa TIS station in Los Angeles.
 
gr8oldies said:
Have you heard it since 2006?
Click to expand...

I have not. I even lived in Texas for two years in the interim and barely got XEROK from Houston then.
At this moment, a weak CKLW - a very rare catch for me in Columbus - is on top of 800 with some country music (I think) in the background.

PS The post threw me off when I saw my name and then something about Anchorage, Alaska ... realizing I answered that post 16 years ago! I've never been to Alaska myself.
PS2 The person who asked where in Florida I tried for TWR probably won't see this answer, but it was in Panama City Beach in the summer of 2004.
 
Since I've been in Houston, the farthest is probably TWR in Bonaire, farthest domestic is WBZ.

In Tulsa, OK in the early 70's I heard 1215 in the UK (I guess Radio 1 then) and a couple of Colombians.

In Perth, Western Australia from 2012-16, 1413 Radio Rossi FM in Moldova (7,600 miles), 1530 VOA Sao Tome (7,300 miles), and 1233 TWR Cyprus (7,000 miles) are the farthest I heard. These were all very high powered of course. Before sunrise there, after all the Aussies/Chinese were gone, you could also hear lots of Middle Eastern stations. Amazing what a low noise floor, fewer stations, and a saltwater path will do...

All of this was with a portable radio (barefoot or, in Perth, with an AN200 loop).
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom