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dx'ing from Canton, OH

Drt: I am 65 miles NW of Canton, as the crow flies.
560 - usually a mix of WRDT and WIND with WIND more dominant
610 - usually a mix of WTVN and WIP
630 - CFCO is always dominant here at night
850 - rarely hear WKNR here at night. A jumble usually with KOA sometimes on top. In the video I posted I was getting WYLF/Penn Yan, NY on day power past sunset playing 'Moon River'
 
Thanks again Buckeyes2001; only had about 10 minutes to dx tonight and 630 CFCO is so very faint, but I did hear a country song aiming the radio in that direction.

Tonight, 950 out of Detroit wasn't so clear, certainly not as strong as Radio Reloj in the foreground (and I thought I had left Florida!)

The Cuban station on 670 was also playing havoc with Chicago's 670..

drt
 
610 could've been CKTB (Niagra Falls)...which used to have some brokered stuff. I also agree that 560 was probably CFOS (Owen Sound, ON...located on the shore of Lake Huron). They have a good signal in just about every direction but west and southwest. I've heard them in Ohio before. As for the Chicagoans, thanks for including them. I'm surprised WMVP wasn't doing better, they usually do pretty well to the east...which is where their signal is aimed.

At any rate, I appreciate your report. Hope you had a great trip!
 
I am also surprised that WMVP doesn't do better in Ohio. From my experience driving east, which was many years ago, WMVP was Chicago's best eastern signal.
 
Thanks Bender, and you are right about the unpredictable nature of night time MW DX.

I've been hearing 540/WKFN evenings recently here in Cincinnati. Not strong, but listenable. This is not the norm as it is usually WAUK in Wisconsin.

Before retiring, I traveled extensively, but Northeast Ohio was not one of my destinations. Interesting to read of your and other posters experiences with DX'ing the opposite corner of my adopted state.

How was 1530/WCKY doing?
 
1530 has been coming in well every night in downtown Canton; consistently good.

In just the short time I had to dx last night; I was amazed that even at this latitude how well some of the pesky Cuban stations were coming in.

At home, I expect that (not that I'm happy with that).

Back in the St. Pete/Tampa area there are two stations that operate with "temporary power increases" to combat the Cuban interference, day and night.

These "temporary" increases keep being renewed, since the Cuban interference has not diminished...... and if anything has increased.

drt,
still in Canton,OH
 
Drt, have you done any FM DXing at all since you have been in Canton, OH? I visited a friend last month there and got stuck in traffic for a little bit on 77 so I did some on my Alpine car radio I have and got some surprising results. We could do some comparisions there if you want, for instance 92.3 WKRK came in fair but with no splatter from local WDJQ 92.5 (other car radios would get interference). Also I was able to get stuff on 93.9 and 94.3 despite WHBC 94.1 being about 4 miles away. The following link is to the thread I started about my results from there: http://radiodiscussions.com/showthr...an-from-North-Canton-OH-with-Alpine-car-radio
 
Buckeyes2001; I haven't dx much at all on the FM band; but night before last (would have been Monday night) I did notice some tropo; WOSU 89.7 was giving WKSU 89.7 some competion; yesterday in the rental I did notice that the FM band seems more crowded here than back home and I didn't think that was possible. Also notice what seems to be a lot of short spaced frequencies all across the FM band.

Unfortunately my last two full days here are going to leave very little if any time for dx'ing either band; but I will try. I would love to just have three or four nights here where I could dx without having to attend other functions.

drt
 
WMVP has applied for a couple of STAs for 12000 watts from the WLS tower. This would put the height at 219 degrees and it would have an annulus where the skywave is minimum. I'm not sure if they are using it at this point, but it might explain some of the lack of signal at times. I'm puzzled as to why they would be having that much trouble with the new array. But the new 50 kW solid state transmitters seem to have a lot of problems. I would think they that would have an old 50 kW tube backup transmitter in Downers Grove though. Maybe there was no room for the "old faithful" transmitters? Maybe it's hard to find AM transmitter people and AM DA engineers anymore, and they want to be paid what they are worth? Just speculation, anyone know what's really going on?
 
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drt said:
1530 has been coming in well every night in downtown Canton; consistently good.

In just the short time I had to dx last night; I was amazed that even at this latitude how well some of the pesky Cuban stations were coming in.

At home, I expect that (not that I'm happy with that).

Back in the St. Pete/Tampa area there are two stations that operate with "temporary power increases" to combat the Cuban interference, day and night.

These "temporary" increases keep being renewed, since the Cuban interference has not diminished...... and if anything has increased.

drt,
still in Canton,OH
Click to expand...

What stations are they with the temporary power increase?
 
Schroedingers Cat said:
WMVP has applied for a couple of STAs for 12000 watts from the WLS tower. This would put the height at 219 degrees and it would have an annulus where the skywave is minimum. I'm not sure if they are using it at this point, but it might explain some of the lack of signal at times.
Click to expand...

Those WMVP STAs were from a few years back when they were completely rebuilding the WMVP array in Downers Grove.

http://www.fybush.com/sites/2008/site-080118.html

Operating from the WLS site in Tinley Park allowed 1000 to stay on the air without frying the workers in Downers Grove. I don't think those STAs have been in force since the construction work wrapped up in 2007.
 
WMVP was recently granted auxiliary authorization for the former STA facilities. It still is for daytime only, so that may not explain it.

https://licensing.fcc.gov/cdbs/CDBS...?appn=101526721&qnum=5120&copynum=1&exhcnum=1

Actually, WLS should consider an auxiliary at the WMVP site. An auxiliary only has to fit within the 0.5 mV/m contour of the main facility. They might be able to use measured conductivity at the WMVP site from the proofs of performance if that were advantageous. It seems like the reason they couldn't move to Addison was because of disputed measured conductivity with a station in Wisconsin on 900.
 
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GarFla--
1. WTBN 570
2. WDAE 620

WTBN 570 is double power at night, so 10,000 watts night to combat Radio Reloj. I'm surprised that they either haven't asked or have been granted a power increase during the day as well since I often will hear Radio Reloj under WTBN during the day from downtown St. Pete and points south.

WDAE 620 is double power day and night

Neither of these is listed on Radio-Locator; you have to go to the FCC AM Query data base to confirm.
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Tonight I noticed a full power station out of Toronto on 1610; seems strange to hear something other than a TIS on 1610 on the AM band.

WIll have to scan the FM band later, time permitting; unfortunately I've wasted nearly an hour trying to access this site and to get a post submitted; earlier and more detailed replies have been lost in cyberspace.

drt
 
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Thanks, drt. Now I really notice the difference in the signal of WDAE from where I am in Tampa. It used to be kind of weak here in Town N Country at night but now it has a good solid signal.
 
Buckeyes2001; my rental is a 2013 Camry SE standard radio (no XM or HD); at any rate the selectivity is excellent; I was more or less getting something on every FM frequency; including the 92.3 despite 92.5 have a strong signal in Canton.

On my Sangean PR-D5, which is excellent for AM dx'ing, but the selectivity on the FM band isn't as good as I would like and I'm not able to pick up 92.3 on it; the local 925 bleeds over and all the strong locals bleed over onto the adjacent channels.
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Cyberdad, Did have lunch at Bender's today and that place surpassed my expectations; wish I could have spent some more time there, I took some pics inside and outside; and one of the waitresses took the time (fortunately they weren't jam packed at the time) to give me a quick tour of the other dining rooms. (I ate at a booth in the first room, where the bar is.)

I hope to be able to do some more dxing tomorrow morning on the way to the Akron/Canton airport from here, but that will be daylight morning dxing.

drt
 
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