Lake Ponchartrain North Shore AM Bandscan Highlights 10/4/16

[cyberdad]

I spent last Tuesday night in a hotel about a mile north of the lakefront, roughly 25 miles north of downtown New Orleans. Interesting DX spot not only because I was on a balcony on the top floor of a relatively noise-free hotel. But also because of Lake Ponchartrain's brackish shallow water. Not the same conductivity of sea water, but a significant enhancement nonetheless. Here are some of the highlights. Nighttime unless otherwise indicated....

530: R. Enciclopedia very weak daytime....fair to good night. No trace of R. Rebelde on the channel.
560: KLVI..fair but solidly on top
570: Mess..but R. Rebelde pips break through
600: WVOG..good. 31 watts "cruisin" across the lake. Memphis in the background
640: R. Progreso...fair. Trashing whatever was left of KTIB
670: WSCR and Cuba fighting it out. Cuba gets the better of it.
650: WSM...good
690: WQNO...good. As WTIX, they had nighttime issues on the north shore. Not so this night (now operating 1kw dir E-W if as per latest CP)
710: "Cuban Chorus". Fair at best
720: WGN...good
750: WSB...fair-good
780: WBBM..good
800: WSHO...good (233 watts)
830: Norco, Louisiana, with local-quality signal
840: WHAS...good
870: WWL...easily the strongest signal
890: WLS...good with R. Progreso underneath
940: WYLD...good (500 watts dir towards me)
950: Similar to 570, but with more slop. Nevertheless, R. Reloj pips were able to break through consistently
990: WGSO...good (400 watts)
1000: WMVP...weak, but mostly on top of XEOY
1030: Religion....no WBZ (Memphis?)
1070: WDIA...fair-good
1090: KAAY...fair-good
1120: KMOX...fair
1130: KWKH...fair
1180: "Rebelde Chorus" - fair
1200: WOAI...fair-good
1230: WBOK...good, but with slop underneath
1280: EX-WDSU in whatever it's current form...good (5kw dir)
1350: WWWL (ex WSMB).. fair (5kw dir)
1510: WLAC...fair
1520: KOKC...fair-weak, but on top of KRHW
1530: WCKY...fair

 

[radioman148]

Thanks for the report Cyberdad. When I used to spend a lot of time in New Orleans in the early 70s, as I had relatives there, I noticed many differences.
WLS was like a local at night. In fact my cousins had a button set on it in their car. Also 560 was a good signal from WHBQ
And 680 was WMPS. Not nearly as much Cuban interference and many more empty frequencies at night in those days.

 

[mimo]

Believe it or not, I always heard AM 740 (CFZM) at night in New Orleans quite well, every night.

 

[cyberdad]

I used to hear WMPS regularly on my trips to NOLA. I'm pretty sure I had the Memphis 680 under what was moderate splatter from WQNO, but I didn't hang around for a positive ID. I've also heard WHBQ in the New Orleans area. from time to time. As well as WJDX from Jackson, MS on 620. If those latter two were present on my visit last week, I couldn't pick them out. As for CFZM, I didn't hear music on 740 that night, but I did hear them under a very strong KRMG the night before at my hotel in Pratville, Alabama (Montgomery area).

One surprisingly strong signal I forgot to mention in my original post was 630 from St. Louis. Used to hear them all the time around New Orleans at night in their KXOK days. Another one was KLEB from Golden Meadow, LA on 1600. They were sounding quite potent for 250 watts. Perhaps they were on 5kw day power. Distance from me was about 75 miles over what would be a path of basically lakes, bayous, and swamps.

 

[radioman148]

Yes, back in the day KXOK used to put a very good signal into NOLA at night.

 

[schmave]

Believe it or not, I always heard AM 740 (CFZM) at night in New Orleans quite well, every night.

Pretty impressive, especially with KTRH not so far to the west. I know the main lobe goes away from New Orleans, but enough does go east for it to be listenable.
As I've written elsewhere around here, I have never heard anything but CFZM on 740 here in the Midwest.