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AM Frequency of the Week: 1110

cyberdad

cyberdad

Two more positilons up the dial this week, and we stop at 1110. What have all of you been hearing there lately?

Here northwest of Chicago during the daytine, its a good signal from local WMBI. At 4,2KW as a daytimer, WMBI isn't as strong here as the 50KW blowtorches, but it's still potent enough to block out anything else that might otherwise come wafting in during "critical hours".

At night with WMBI off, the channel becomes pretty much open due this location being in the nulls of both KFAB and WBT. KFAB is by far, the more frequent visitor of the two, but it's far from reliable. The best time for WBT is sunrise when they go to day pattern before WMBI signs on. At sunset, KFAB frequently takes over after WMBI signoff for a while before going to night pattern.

Before they left the channel about 10-15 years ago, CKTY from Sarnia, Ontario actually had been the most frequent nighttime visitor. They may have been "cheating" to send any significant signal in my direction. But I think the more likely explanation was simply that they weren't maintaining their authorized night pattern, given that they were planning to go dark.
 
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In the near north Chicago suburbs it's all WMBI during the day. At night it's usually a weak KFAB. When KFAB is ND it is quite strong. WBT comes in when they're on ND, but that's it. Otherwise I only hear KFAB varying from strong to weak depending on their pattern.
 
In Charleston, SC, it is usually WBT day and night. WBT is weak during the daytime, even though it is 170-175 miles away. With a loop you can get it with a weak but listenable signal. The night signal varies a lot depending on skywave/groundwave cancellation. Depending on the night, it could be stronger than all the local stations but a couple, or in the mud with a couple foreign signals.

It has one of the weaker of the 50kw signals daytime. You have to go to Columbia (80-90 miles from the transmitter) before it becomes really listenable in the daytime on anything but a good radio. It gets out well to Florence, SC, but the daytime signal maybe covers half of North Carolina. 610 AM with 5kw actually does a better job to the east than WBT.

WTIS Tampa comes in during critical hours with their religious format. I've heard KFAB twice in the years I've been DXing, once about 10 years ago or so just after sunrise and another time more recently.
 
Here in Baldwin County, Alabama, during the day it's all WTOF (The Tower of Faith) in Bay Minette, which is about 30 miles north of here as the crow flies, so it's weak but strong enough to blot out anything during critical hours, for the most part.

(Updated) At night it's a mix of KFAB and WBT with neither really being dominant, which is surprising considering how much further away KFAB is. Right now on the horizontal loop and SDR, WBT is just barely above the floor (~-90 dBm) and it keeps fading out and something else, presumably KFAB, pushes its way onto the frequency.

This is a difficult night frequency for me due to the HD sideband from KMOX. For some reason their lower HD sideband is always a lot stronger than the upper one, and it requires me running in upper sideband mode on the SDR @ 1110 kHz to pull out anything enough to hear it.
 
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Nothing listenable now, but when I was growing up in Miami, WBT had the strongest skywave of any domestic station, second only to PJB.
Until I left the area thirty some-odd years ago, I had never heard anything else on 1110 except for WALT<WQYK<WTIS, Tampa just after signon and before signoff.
WBT's three Blau-Knox diamonds effectively radiate about 175KW up and down the Atlantic coast.
 
A faint WNAP here in the midday.

WBT is well atop at night. I * do * have a CKCY logged from 1994 there from one night, too.

* * * * * * *

It's water under the dam now, of course; so much has changed. But in the Olden Days near JFK Airport, 1110 was pretty generous -- despite 1100 WHLI being the fourth-closest station to the den. WHLI sent most of their signal east, away from us.
The 'water-path' helped matters, but do did SRS and SSS. WHIM from RI and the less-frequent 'Zam 11' from Norfolk were regulars in early mornings. KFAB and CBD from Nova Scotia were overnight catches at times. WMBI Chicago was a random one-shot one SSS, as was WSFW from western NY. WUPE from Mass -- 'whoopee' -- was a SRS catch.

But the midday 1110 came to hold two charming stations, daytime regulars, maybe 12-15 years apart. In the late Seventies the wee WTBQ from near Greenwood Lake; a pop-leaning A/C. And the aforementioned (re Ryan Howard) WNAP was little omni WNAR in the Sixties. I forget if they were 1000 watts or 500 watts. I was coming to like MoR back then, and WNAR's music plus their approach to the format was a great primer for an aspiring DJ. They were a laid-back, smooth, full-service adult MoR station, seemingly very content there on the Schuylkill, with their local ads, news, revenue and allegiances from Norristown, Conshohocken, what there was of King of Prussia at the time. They didn't strive to be a * Philadelphia *station in the least.
Despite being a teenaged rock-and-roll punk, I'd listen to them for like a half an hour at times to enjoy the approach -- and to learn.
 
In the Sacramento area, it's KLIB. They are actually a tenant at one of my many tower sites that I manage...

dave


cyberdad said:
Two more positilons up the dial this week, and we stop at 1110. What have all of you been hearing there lately?

Here northwest of Chicago during the daytine, its a good signal from local WMBI. At 4,2KW as a daytimer, WMBI isn't as strong here as the 50KW blowtorches, but it's still potent enough to block out anything else that might otherwise come wafting in during "critical hours".

At night with WMBI off, the channel becomes pretty much open due this location being in the nulls of both KFAB and WBT. KFAB is by far, the more frequent visitor of the two, but it's far from reliable. The best time for WBT is sunrise when they go to day pattern before WMBI signs on. At sunset, KFAB frequently takes over after WMBI signoff for a while before going to night pattern.

Before they left the channel about 10-15 years ago, CKTY from Sarnia, Ontario actually had been the most frequent nighttime visitor. They may have been "cheating" to send any significant signal in my direction. But I think the more likely explanation was simply that they weren't maintaining their authorized night pattern, given that they were planning to go dark.
Click to expand...
 
In Southeast Michigan, it's similar to cyberdad and radioman148 except that around Sunset, you hear WJML Petoskey, MI, WMBI Chicago, IL, and WGNZ Fairborn, OH, often all in the same 30 minute period around Sunset.
 
Steve Green NEPA said:
A faint WNAP here in the midday.

I * do * have a CKCY logged from 1994 there from one night, too.

* * * * * * *

.
Click to expand...
1110 was CKTY, while CKCY was on 920. As you said, Steve, it's water under the dam now. Both of these are long gone from the AM band. "Back in the day", however, I used to hear both of them. CKCY occasionally under WOKY. CKTY during it's last couple of years would as likely as not be on top of 1110 despite supposedly being only 1,000 watts at night.
 
Here in Pittsburgh it's WBT after sundown.

In the daytime it used to be WKZV, a 1kW directional daytimer in Washington, PA
that played classic country. They went dark three years ago after the longtime owner died.
 
cyberdad and radioman148, I don't know if you knew that John Harrington from WBBM was the original owner of WJML, and the call letters were the initials of his children.
 
In eastern Iowa, daytime, mere hints of KFAB. Or is that WMBI? Nighttime, similar murkiness, with KFAB occasionally audible, but usually not.
 
icybluelake said:
In eastern Iowa, daytime, mere hints of KFAB. Or is that WMBI? Nighttime, similar murkiness, with KFAB occasionally audible, but usually not.
Click to expand...

For a stretch of about 20 miles on I-80 between Iowa City and Davenport, with a good car radio, you can hear KFAB and WMBI mixing. These days, it should be easy enough to distinguish them. WMBI is mostly, if not exclusively broadcasting in Spanish. English language programming is on WMBI-FM. (90.1 with a killer signal).
 
East Tennessee.....it takes winter daytime skip to bring in WBT, which is more difficult with WKCE-1120 back on. No WBT at night,but KFAB around sunset.
 
When I lived in southeast Iowa in the 80's and 90's, CKTY was a regular night time visitor, along with CHOK. KFAB was what we heard in the daytime. I could never hear WMBI until the Quad City area, but, I wasn't trying for it. Once I learned Spanish, I was mostly trying to listen to WIND or What was then WOPA/WLXX on 1200.
 
SF Bay Area: KFAX-1100 slop daytimes, though one would think KLIB Roseville (Sacramento area) could make it here with 5kw. Apparently they just told the FCC they're done with STA's and back at full power daytime, after quite a long time at reduced, probably nighttime, power. I'll have to try for them again, but for years they've been a no show during daylight hours. ("KLIB" - Air America should have purchased those call letters back in the day. They do Asian programming now.)

At night it's KDIS from the home of the Rose Parade©, Pasadena, perhaps the last surviving terrestrial outpost of Radio Disney™. Mixing with KDIS is KBND Bend, Oregon. The echo I've heard on the Coast-To-Coast show could be KFAB way behind KBND, but I've never positively ID'ed Omaha. KLIB is way down in the mush after KDIS and KBND, and of course there's KFAX-1100 slop (50kw at about 7 miles as the crow flies) to contend with.

On the east coast, all WBT. In the midwest it was all KFAB. Sheesh, I've lived everywhere.
 
Daytime in S.A. is splatter from local KDRY on 1100 and a very weak KVTT, FunAsia Radio, in Mineral Wells near Dallas. To hear KVTT, I have to be in a low RFI area and use my Terk loop.

Sunset is a fairly strong KVTT with KFAB occasionally audible underneath. Still some KDRY splatter at sunset and at night.

When KVTT signs off for the day, KFAB dominates. XERED in Tlalnepantla can be heard weakly under KFAB and especially in its partial null. Also, I've heard XEWR in Ciudad Juárez a few times and classic rock daytimer KEJL in Hobbs, NM, once during critical hours.

For a while during spring last year, I was hearing KTTP in Pineville, LA, playing urban gospel at night, although it's supposed to be daytime only.

Pre-sunrise KFAB still has a fairly good signal, and WTOF sometimes pops up for a while. When KVTT signs on, it takes over.

I've yet to hear daytimer KTEK in Alvin (south of Houston).
 
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In North Alabama:
Daytime - WSLV, Ardmore TN/AL
Critical Hours - WSLV, with WBT and sometimes WTOF in the background
Nighttime - Lots of IBOC hash from KMOX, on occasion WBT
 
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