Canada Rules the 900's

cyberdad · Apr 1, 2015

Interesting little AM bandscan here a couple hours before dawn this morning....

900: CHML...weak. Seemingly nothing in the way to stop its puny signal.
920: CFRY...weak. On top from time to time. No WOKY or WBAA with the radio aimed NW-SE.
950: CFAM...weak. Classical music...a little stronger than CFRY.
960: CFAC...fair. Owned the channel.
990: CBW...good. Reliable as ever. First adjacent WMVP is never an issue with them.

I've heard all of these before, but this is the first time all of them were in at the same time. All of them but CBW are rare or relatively so. CFAC was the most impressive. On top of the channel with minimal fading. CBS Sports Radio, but I was able to ID it during a break when one of the ads mentioned "highway 2, Calgary".

FWIW, The other channels were "business as usual" with one slight exception on 980.....

910: Mess, but I'm pretty sure WSUI was one of those in the mix.
930: Semi-Local relevant radio outlet.
940: WFAW Groundwave from Fort Akinson, WI. 550 watts aimed right at me from about 50 miles away. Not much to fight with on the channel ATM.
970: Mess. I heard country music, so perhaps KQAQ from Austin, MN. They aren't supposed to be sending any juice this way. But they're not uncommon.
980: WITY fighting with WONE and getting the better of it. Usually, its the other way around.

crainbebo · Apr 2, 2015

It was a good evening last night for AM DX as well. Highlights
550 KFYR ND Coast to Coast
570 WNAX SD Coast to Coast; local ad
600 CJWW SK country
690 CBKF-1 SK huge with FF
730 CKDM MB huge with Amy Grant hit from early 90s, "Baby Baby"
740 KVOX ND HUGE with ESPN. 940W!
780 WBBM IL
800 CHAB SK over/under CKOR
870 KJMP CO
920 CFRY MB
930 KTKN AK huge at times

-crainbebo

cyberdad · Apr 2, 2015

I was hearing country on 600 the night before last, as well. Weak, but clearly audible under (and mixing with) WMT. At first I thought it might be KSJB from North Dakota, but they throw a very severe null in my direction. And I've never heard them here before. Perhaps it was actually CJWW. Conditions to that part of Canada were certainly favorable. I also thought of CFCH as a possibility. I actually heard them here once in the car just after sunrise over WMT. But I'm not sure if CFCH is still on the air....or at least I'm not sure if they're still on AM.

Schroedingers Cat · Apr 2, 2015

CFCH is now CKAT. It is on the air, and often I suspect it is on day pattern and power after sunset. WMT has been on STA because of new cell towers nearby that weren't properly detuned.

cyberdad · Apr 2, 2015

Schroedingers Cat said:
CFCH is now CKAT. It is on the air, and often I suspect it is on day pattern and power after sunset. WMT has been on STA because of new cell towers nearby that weren't properly detuned.

Thanks for the update. What sort of power/pattern is WMT using? I haven't noticed any difference in their day signal. At night, if anything, they sound a little better than usual, but not to the point where I'd have guessed that anything signifcant was up with them. That said, as I posted in another thread, WMT and everything else on 600 was getting blown away one night recently by WSJS apparently operating on day power/pattern.

icybluelake · Apr 2, 2015

Interesting -- just a couple hundred miles west of you, cyberdad, I often hear CFRY on 920, CJGX on 940, and less frequently, CFAC on 960 (sometimes under or mixed in with KMA). Also usually hear CBW on 990, but have only rarely heard CFAM 950. 970 is usually a free-for-all and 980 is WITY/WONE. I don't think I've ever heard the 930 from Edmonton or from CKNW 980 Vancouver. CHML on 900 is harder to hear because of WLS and local WSUI on 910, but it's often there. So I never really thought about it but the Canadians do kind of own the 900s around my neck of the woods. I could throw in occasional visitor CKLQ Brandon, MB on 880, regular CJBC Toronto on 860, and semi-regular CFRB on 1010 (which is not what it used to be around here.

cyberdad · Apr 3, 2015

I think CFRY may be "forgetting" to go to their night pattern. Until recently, I never used to hear them here. 920 would be WOKY on top via groundwave, sometimes being overtaken by WBAA or even just the slop. "Back in the Day" CKCY (Sault Sainte Marie, ON) used to also turn up on a semi-regular basis. I used to hear CKCY frequently nighttime during my college years in Iowa, about 70 miles south of you.

As for the "Canada rules" title of the thread. I was referring to having all five of the stations I mentioned available at the same time. But you make an interesting point regarding those neighboring frequencies. CKLQ is an easy catch for me with WCBS nulled, while CFRB is also tougher than it used to be. You might want to keep trying for CFAC. I had never heard it until about 2-3 years ago. It's still nowhere near a regular for me, but it's not all that difficult. They run CBS sports overnight.

RyanHoward · Apr 3, 2015

Here in Warminster PA(Philly 'burbs), it goes like this at night:

900: CHML Hamilton ON(powerhouse signal), over top of local WURD
910: mess of stations, including WSBA from York PA
920: WCHR Trenton NJ(semi-local talk station)
930: mostly either WPAT from Paterson NJ or WBEN Buffalo NY(not to be confused
with our local 95.7 Ben FM)
940: zippo(used to get Montreal here at night)
950: WKDN Philly(local Family Radio station, ex-WPEN)
960: mess of stations, WHYL Carlisle PA and WTGM Salisbury MD among them
970: WWDJ Hackensack NJ(semi-local)
980: WWRC Washington DC
990: WNTP(local talk station)

Schroedingers Cat · Apr 4, 2015

The WMT null in the night pattern to the East-Northeast is roughly the equivalent of 1 kW. It was originally to protect Class III-A and III-B stations like WICC Bridgeport and WCAO Baltimore when WMT went to 5 kW directional nights. Stations like WTAC/WSNL Flint came on just after the war and were also in the null. If WMT was operating nondirectional at night, it would be 1250 watts on STA. But it almost seems like the Michigan postsunset time when it is still daytime in Cedar Rapids from the interference I hear. III-B interference isn't supposed to be more than 200 uV/m 10% skywave, and it seems like more than that from WMT and CKAT in Southeastern Michigan, nearly every night.

WFDF 910 is also dealing with new cell tower issues and is on STA with reduced power. I would expect that you could hear it at night around Chicago due to high angle radiation. There is a deep null toward WSUI at night closer to the horizontal. The reduced power is probably why you haven't heard them lately. You probably get KVIS Miami, OK and WSUI Iowa City at night like the old 1 kW night days of WFDF. KVIS is a 1 kW-U DA-1 station with a pattern that allows them to radiate the equivalent of 5 kW (an IDF of about 391.3 mV/m at one mile) toward both coasts from near the center of the country. It has a pattern which allows it to protect WSUI and then has huge lobes toward the ENE and WSW in the horizontal.

cyberdad · Apr 4, 2015

Thanks Schroedingers. A night 1.25kw ND STA is what I thought might be the case, and would explain why nothing unusual is noticeable with WMT's night signal here at my location. As for 910, that one is pretty much a mess around here at night, with "the big pig" most likely to surface on top....but not all that frequently. I'll have to check things out to see if I can hear WFDF. It would be a first for nighttime, although I think I may have heard them around sunrise or sunset. (KLCN from Blytheville, Arkansas, used to be something of a "sunset regular" on 910, but I haven't heard them for a while).