dx'ing from Canton, OH

[drt]

I will be in Canton, OH (downtown) for the next week; other than checking out the Chicago flamethrowers for Radioman 148, Cyberdad and others; is there anything else I should be checking out?

Last year the reunion I went to was in Baton Rouge and the AM reception in the hotel room was beyond horrible and I basically had to do all dx'ing from the rental car's radio in the parking lot. (FM reception wasn't that great either). I was away from the elevator, but I guess the construction of the hotel plus all the new type of lights; TV's in adjoining rooms etc pretty well wiped out all but the strongest 2 or 3 local AM's..........certainly hope the reception is better this year.

At any rate it will be nice to hear something other than the Cuban stations on nearly every "clear channel", day and night like I do here in St. Petersburg,FL

drt,
st. Petersburg, fl today
Canton tomorrow - 21 Sept 2013

 

[purpledevil]

drt, could you check 1560 for any signs of KGOW Bellaire, TX? When it first upgraded to 50 kilowatts there were reports of it in IL, IN, & OH. It's moniker is "Yahoo Sports Radio 1560" and airs a TOH ID around :02-:07 as KGOW Bellaire-Houston. It has dropped power back down to 46 kilowatts, so I'd love to hear if there's enough left to make it up that far during critical hours operation.

Thanks,
pd

 

[crainbebo]

New York blowtorches? And maybe try 850 to the west (if WKNR isn't in the way). You might be able to just barely snag KOA.

Also WHYL 960 Carlisle PA sounded like it was on day power the other night "Nice 960" - heard it on a Global Tuners receiver in NW Connecticut.

-crainbebo

 

[dxingtraveller]

New York blowtorches? And maybe try 850 to the west (if WKNR isn't in the way). You might be able to just barely snag KOA.

Also WHYL 960 Carlisle PA sounded like it was on day power the other night "Nice 960" - heard it on a Global Tuners receiver in NW Connecticut.

-crainbebo

I'll be very interested on what's received on 850...in the years I've lived in Northern Ohio was never able to snag KOA (even when I was well over 100 miles from the WKNR tower).

 

[cyberdad]

I don't believe I ever have snagged KOA in Ohio. I seem to recall hearing WJAC underneath WKNR...which definitely has a few holes in its nighttime signal by the time it reaches Canton. You might want to check out my previous threads from Canton if you can or have time to see what I've snagged there. Nothing remarkable comes immediately to mind. I don't recall offhand hearing KGOW there.

As for the Cubans at night.....640 will yield (semi) local WHLO with a good signal. 670 should be pretty much WSCR, but Cuba might sneak through underneath. 690 might still have Cuba present, but usually it would be CINF (or whatever the calls are for Montreal). 710 is usually WOR, 880 is WCBS, and 890 WLS. The latter two usually with good signals. WOR not quite as good.

Have a safe/fun trip. Please post anything you come up with. And if you're staying downtown, and you get the chance, check out Bender's Tavern. Old school historic landmark restaurant in a restored old building. Excellent food and atmosphere. And, of course, it goes without saying that the Pro Football Hall of Fame is well worth a visit.

 

[drt]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Will finish reply later; with this now color combo, I can't even see what I'm typing and right now I'm guessing I'm about 40,000 feet up.

drt

 

[drt]

Not much time to dx so far, but the good news is that I've never had such a dx friendly hotel room. The hotel (at least in my room) doesn't have the new type interference causing light bulbs much to my surprise.

Here are some very partial results from the short time I've had.

540 was WKFN Clarksville,TN, 550 was several very weak stations; sort of weak jumbled mess, could not identify any of them.

560 - Nostalgia - was not able to I.D.

850 was mostly Cleveland, could hear another station in the background, but could not i.d.
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The Chicago stations, much to my surprise 670 - WSCR was receivable, but weak when the radio was turned toward Chicago, but in any other direction, the Cuban station was unbelievably strong. Also experienced the Cuban interference on WOR 710.

720 WGN was weak, but listenable, 780 WBBM a little stronger than 720 but not much.

890- WLS - Listenable and no Cuban interference from here tonight.

1000 - the weakest, receivable but not really listenable.

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WCBS 880 , WBZ 1030 and WHO 1040 were all coming in much better than any of the Chicago stations.

This small time of dx,ing was done between 11PM and 11:25 Saturday 21 Sept 2013.


One other interesting note; just remembered to tune into 610 - expecting to receive WTVN, but what I am receiving is gospel music, so if it's WTVN out of Columbus, this must be a brokered program or another station that I am unable to ID.
drt

 

[MarioMania]

WAGG Gospal plays Gospel Music

 

[radioman148]

Thanks drt. As always I'll be interested in all your reports. Thanks again!

 

[ddsparxx]

The nostalgia 560 is CFOS, Owen Sound, ON, I often hear it here in VA at night.

 

[schmave]

You're probably out of the nighttime WTVN lobe in Canton. 30 miles west, it's a different story. But they throw a null in that general direction.
The Chicago reception surprises me (that said, I trust your reports). Usually 1000 is the strongest, but here in central Ohio all five flamethrowers are usually reliable every night, all night. Your account of the Cuban on 670 reminds me of the 90s. There used to be nights the Cuban would completely blot out then-WMAQ. I mean there was no trace of WMAQ some nights, and because they had Bulls games then it drove me out of my mind.
I've snatched KOA here around Columbus several times. It's never very strong, but it's often there (especially during the colder months). WKNR absolutely disappears here at pattern change. There one second, vanished the next.
How did WTAM sound in Canton? The one time I got to check it there when I was in town this past February for work, WTAM sounded good with maybe a little noise underneath. I think the cancellation zone started around Dover and New Philadelphia heading south on 77.

 

[drt]

Thanks ddsparxx for the info on 560; I forgot to mention that I was also getting good reception on 570; which is a semi-local to Canton.

Schmave (sp?): I was surprised by the lack of signal strength from the Chicago stations as well; maybe it was just a one night thing; we'll see. Since the big picture window in my room facies north, I was thinking that maybe east/west signals would be subpar due to all the "interior real estate", but that wouldn't explain WCBS to the east coming in so well last night.

WTAM was like a local here last night and of course, it comes in during the day as well.

Also 740 out of Toronto wasn't as strong as I expected last night and yet it was coming in albeit weakly during the daylight hours, but the 860 CBC French service on 860 (and aren't they on the same tower?) was coming in stronger.

Sometimes there just doesn't seem to be rhyme or reason for some of these things.

Also received last night was a relatively stong WSM 650, a slightly weaker (than WSM) WBT 1110 and a weaker yet, but listenable WSB 750, Atlanta.

drt,
Market Ave, Downtown Canton

 

[MarioMania]

Did you try on 810?

I wonder if you could try to get KGO, if null out WGY

 

[crainbebo]

DRT, you are just about 65 miles away from Buckeyes2001 in Vermilion. He does quite a bit of MW DX as well - maybe you could share DX posts.

KGO starts fading out at night in UT, and barely shows up in AB, CO etc. No way to get KGO this far east (except for kilokat's amazing moment in Michigan) Maybe WHB at sunset/sunrise but not KGO.

-crainbebo

 

[Buckeyes2001]

DRT, you are just about 65 miles away from Buckeyes2001 in Vermilion. He does quite a bit of MW DX as well - maybe you could share DX posts.

KGO starts fading out at night in UT, and barely shows up in AB, CO etc. No way to get KGO this far east (except for kilokat's amazing moment in Michigan) Maybe WHB at sunset/sunrise but not KGO.

-crainbebo

Here is a evening bandscan video I did August of last year about 30 min past sunset here in Vermilion, OH:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6S8C30rk3U (Part I)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HT83doZIP0k (Part II)

 

[drt]

Thanks for the great audio you-tubes Buckeyes2001 and while listening and watching the frequencies; I recalled that I realll didin't check out the 630 AM Stereo station out of Chatham, Ontairio last night.... did check it out tonight and it's there but not really listenable. How far west of Canton are you?

Also, is it possible that Canton is in the cancellation zone for both WJR 760 and CKLW 800? Yesterday and today, neither came in better at night than during the day and I was expecting both of them to come in better.

I did get the highly directional All News 950 out of Detroit this evening.

Also tonight on 550, I was picking up WDUN out of north Georgia.

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Radioman 148, the Chicago stations were coming in better tonight than last night as was Zoomer 740 out of Toronto, which comes in during the day here as well.

That said , the Cuban station was still giving 670 a run for their money.

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Also got a French language station on 730; don't know if it's broadcasting from Ontario or Quebec; wasn't able to i.d. or listen long enough to see if it was CBC or something else.
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My only regret is that I'm only here for a week and am doing good to dx about an hour at the most per day. (too many other events going on).
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Cyberdad, I have not yet been to or located Benders, of course, I got the name mixed up and while checking in yesterday afternoon, asked the guy at the front desk where "Grinders" was and of course, I got a blank look! before he said, he didn't know.
________
Also I did null out 810 and there was nothing there on 810 around 9PM this evening other than the Syracuse station.
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I'm enjoying the cool weather as much as the radio here. The high today was 61º; it'a nice to have a break from heat and humidity as well as a break from Cuban stations dominating the AM band back home, day and night.

Also thanks to suggestions on things to try and info from Crainbebo and MarioM.

Tomorrow, I may not have any time to dx at night due to an USO dinner and show that I need to and want to attend.

drt,
reporting live (somewhat! ) from downtown Canton,OH

 

[drt]

One other thing; the station on 610 that was playing gospel music, I later identified as broadcasting from Birmingham, AL.
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Cyberdad, can you give me some good selling points for Bender's; I did ask someone about it today and they said they thought it was expensive. After going to the FHOL Wednesday, I was wanting to go there with two people from my division, but one of these people is very tight with his $$, so I will have to think of an angle to get him to want to part with some of his $$.
(maybe I'll have to offer to pay!)
drt

btw- I hope all of this is coming through; this is my first reunion w/o a laptop; just using an iPad mini and a Bluetooth keyboard. (one post was while in the air!)

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

Although I would expect WMVP (WCFL) to be weak to unlistenable in Ohio in the daytime, it has almost always been the strongest skywave of the 50000 watt Chicago stations in the Great Lakes Region. Sometimes, when the now WYLL was WJJD, and operating after Chicago sunset and before KSL sunset, it would also have a very strong skywave, partly due to the shorter towers having more high angle radiation than the 180 and 195 degree towers in the shorter skywave distances.

 

[schmave]

DRT: I think Canton does fall into CKLW and WJR's cancellation zones. That said, it's a good deal south of CKLW's main pattern at night.
I sometimes catch WWJ (950) from Detroit at night in Columbus, but never daytime. It's extremely weak when it does get here. Detroit's 1270 (WXYT) also gets in here and has a battle with semi-local WQTT, an oldies station from Marysville, 30 miles northwest of Columbus.
The only place I've heard WMVP daytime in Ohio is within 20 miles or so of the Indiana border, but yes, it's much weaker than the other Chicago 50Ks. In the winter, I've heard the skywave as early as 3 p.m., so only 2 p.m. in Chicago.

 

[fybush]

The 730 you're hearing in French is CKAC Montreal, the dominant 50 kW clear on that channel. They're all-traffic, all the time. Listen for the slogan "Radio Circulation" ("rah-dee-oh seer-cue-lah-see-ohn") and you'll know you have 'em.

810 is WGY Schenectady, 120 miles or so east of Syracuse.