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AM Frequency of the Week: 1300

cyberdad

cyberdad

Lets go up the dial this week and stop in the middle of a bunch of what used to be called "regional channels". So tell me...what are you guys hearing these days on 1300?

Here northwest of Chicago, it's a weak to fair signal from WRDZ during the daytime. They were Chicago Radio Disney outlet, but the signal, coming from a transmitter location in the southwest suburbs doesn't cover the market adequately....despite the fact that most of the juice is directed to the north.

At night, WRDZ mostly disappears into the slop, and no single station dominates. WRDZ sometimes does emerge. More likely....but still not often....it'll be either WOOD (Grand Rapids, MI) or KAKC (Tulsa). I've also heard KGLO (Mason City, IA) around sunset on day pattern.
 
Since WOOD went from 5000 watts DA-N with three towers in a line and large minor lobes, to 20000 watts DA-1 with a four tower in line with small minor lobes, you don't hear it as much as you used to unless you are NNE of the array. It's a huge pest in Scandinavia though. The endfire arrays like that don't have much high angle radiation where the pattern is different from the horizontal. It acts like taller towers because the pattern radiates very little in the directions perpendicular to the towers, and off the back the high angle is also reduced. Also, there is not the nondirectional operation after sunrise and before sunset where it used to be strong, where people used to hear it all over quite often. They also lost a lot of groundwave in the daytime toward Ottawa County.
 
In the near north Chicago burbs WRDZ is in during the day pretty fair, but a bit noisy. At night a weaker WRDZ and I've heard WOOD in the mix.
 
Schroedingers Cat said:
Since WOOD went from 5000 watts DA-N with three towers in a line and large minor lobes, to 20000 watts DA-1 with a four tower in line with small minor lobes, you don't hear it as much as you used to unless you are NNE of the array. It's a huge pest in Scandinavia though. The endfire arrays like that don't have much high angle radiation where the pattern is different from the horizontal. It acts like taller towers because the pattern radiates very little in the directions perpendicular to the towers, and off the back the high angle is also reduced. Also, there is not the nondirectional operation after sunrise and before sunset where it used to be strong, where people used to hear it all over quite often. They also lost a lot of groundwave in the daytime toward Ottawa County.
Click to expand...

Interesting stuff. I think I had heard before that WOOD was a pest in northern Europe. But even before WOOD boosted power and changed the array, it was never a particularly easy catch here. At least not for me.
 
cyberdad said:
Interesting stuff. I think I had heard before that WOOD was a pest in northern Europe. But even before WOOD boosted power and changed the array, it was never a particularly easy catch here. At least not for me.
Click to expand...

As one of the very early DAs, WOOD first contemplated the DA in the late 1930s and was finally licensed in the early 1940s, to increase night power from 1000 watts nondirectional to 5000 watts directional, and they only had to protect a few stations. Their three side lobes were each around 300 mV/m @ 1 mile as I recall. It was first designed for 1270 kHz, and the physical spacings were allowed to remain the same and modify the phase to keep the pattern close to the same at 1300 kHz. The null that is toward the station on 1300 in Mason City, IA is probably why Crystal Lake, IL listeners have always had a hard time receiving WOOD, except when it was 5000 watts nondirectional days.

If you look at the History Cards, you'll see a lot of changes in the very early DAs in the early years. WIND 560 went to two towers, then three, then four, in the first decade or so that they were directional. The war held up licensing of many arrays that weren't already essentially built. I think if they had concrete and tower bases in the ground, and steel delivered, they kept the physical tower arrangements they were initially authorized before NARBA, and were allowed to complete the DAs. In the case of WOOD, the three towers were 110 degrees apart at 1270, and 113 degrees at 1300.

Radio was given certain privileges because they were important in distributing information about the war to the people. After the war, and the spread of weapons, the Clear Channels were given even more privileges because of their wide reach, and to build a lot of back up systems for Civil Defense. The appeal to maintain skywave protection continues to this day and in the future for Class A stations, though the planning is more likely oriented toward use during natural disasters.
 
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icybluelake said:
KGLO Mason City, IA all night and day. About 110 miles away.
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I've always been impressed with KGLO's signal. It's in a location with really good ground conductivity, and at night the skywave signal kicks butt in Northern Minnesota and adjacent areas of Wisconsin.
 
Daytime here is a very weak KVET "The Zone," a 5 kW sports station in Austin. I can only get it on my best radios, and it requires nulling out the splatter from local KAHL on 1310.

At sunset KVET gets stronger, and KSYB "The Gospel Powerhouse" in Shreveport, LA, sometimes shows up for a bit with a weak to fair signal.

At night, KVET gets a bit stronger, and it sometimes fights with XEXV "La Z" in León. Aiming the radio NW, I get a fairly strong XEP "Radio Mexicana" in Ciudad Juárez.

Occasionally KAKC "The Buzz" in Tulsa will pop up for a bit over KVET/XEXV; however, it's more likely to appear after sunrise when it goes to day power. Also after sunrise I once logged bilingual Christian station KLAR "Radio Poder" in Laredo.
 
cyberdad said:
I've always been impressed with KGLO's signal. It's in a location with really good ground conductivity, and at night the skywave signal kicks butt in Northern Minnesota and adjacent areas of Wisconsin.
Click to expand...

A few years ago I caught KGLO on a little headset radio and it sounded like it was a very close broadcast. And FWIW they were doing an Iowa High School football playoff game involving a team I used to call games for when I worked in Albert Lea MN and we had a station just across the border in Northwood IA
 
Omni WKZN from Hazleton, 5000 w omni in the day, talk station, is essentially a local.

At night, they drop to 500 and pull it in, seemingly away from us in Frackville, so we can't hear them at all.

https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WKZN&service=AM&status=L&hours=N

That SW null is curious. Baltimore is not along that bearing.

Naturally, at night, Baltimore comes in here.

WQBK from Rensselaer NY was a sunrise catch from 1996. Hazleton may not have been running 5000 watts then.
 
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