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AM Frequency of the Week: 1120

cyberdad

cyberdad

Far northwestern suburbs of Chicago....

Day: 1120 is moderate splatter from both first adjacents.... 1110 WMBI (Chicago) and 1130 WISN (Milwaukee).

Night: WMBI signs off and WISN powers down to the point where it vanishes. The result is KMOX strong and alone on 1120. One of the strongest and most reliable skywave signalsin the area.

Retro/Other Location: During my college years in southeast Iowa KMOX was weak, but still listenable daytime. KXOK (630) was slightly stronger, while KSD (550) was the best Saint Louis daytime signal. Easily listenable 24/7.
 
East Tennessee: Daytime -WKCE which has had a variety of formats and months of silence but has settled on oldies (deep, somewhat unfamiliar mixed with classic country) since adding a translator. By night, nothing but KMOX.

Cyberdad, a note about my time in Quincy, IL: KMOX wasn't particularly strong there, but in Hannibal MO it was strong. I'd heard something about the bluffs attenuating KMOX's signal which didn't neccesarily make any sense. KSD/KUSA rocked signal wise
 
Near north Chicago suburbs it's WMBI splatter during the day although sometimes during the winter I have heard KMOX daytime skywave.
At night it's always KMOX. In fact I have never heard any other station on 1120 at my home location.
 
gr8oldies said:


Cyberdad, a note about my time in Quincy, IL: KMOX wasn't particularly strong there, but in Hannibal MO it was strong.
Click to expand...

That IS a little strange. It's been a while since I've made the drive up U.S. 61 from St. Louis to the Hannibal-Quincy area, but I remember it as a relatively flat and unobstructed path. So maybe the bluffs do knock something out of the KMOX signal, Meanwhile, where I was at college in Iowa, the path was also relatively flat.
 
It doesn't quite make sense. Somebody out there told me that the attenuation was the reason WTAD was allowed to have a CBS affiliation. Those weren't being passed out like candy back ion the day, and of course KMOX was a CBS O&O. I've mentioned before that I could cross the bridge into Missouri with WLS tuned in during the day and it was like my car antenna re-connected. I never made the short drive into southeast Iowa while I was there.


cyberdad said:
That IS a little strange. It's been a while since I've made the drive up U.S. 61 from St. Louis to the Hannibal-Quincy area, but I remember it as a relatively flat and unobstructed path. So maybe the bluffs do knock something out of the KMOX signal, Meanwhile, where I was at college in Iowa, the path was also relatively flat.
Click to expand...
 
Nothing original here in Reynoldsburg, Ohio: Nothing daytime, always KMOX at night, usually with a great signal.
 
In Colorado by day, we patiently await the coming of the Catholic Radio Network to 1120. KLIM at Limon, which has been silent for the ten years I've lived here, was sold to CRN in the last year.

When (or if?) completed, the new relocated KLIM will be 50 kW by when the sun is sufficiently high in the day, with most of the DA headed for the I-25 corridor, with just enough on the backside to provide most of Limon with the required 5 mV/m signal. During AM and PM Critical hours, the power will drop to 3 kW from the original Limon transmitter site.

That's not a very long broadcast day for Denver and CO Springs in December and January. But CRN only paid $100k for the KLIM license plus construction cost for the new 50 kW DA , so short daytime hours in the winter may not be that big of a deal.
 
Don't count CRN out! If history is any indication, they'll fire up the 50kw rig and immediately hit the market(s) with their impactful "Wafers and Wine Giveaway™," which has propelled them to mind blowing success in other cities. Low budget outlets like K-Love don't stand a chance....
 
I thought I'd have to give this week a pass. Then I was surprised at what has been logged here in NE Pennsylvania on 1120 since I moved to here.

No dates available for
WUST Washington DC (near sunset)
KMOX St. Louis (loud nighttime regular)

Others were nighttime catches.
WPRX Bristol CT (Nov 1995, taped .... forgot to power down, perhaps?)
WKAJ Upstate NY (July 2014 .... thanks to this forum for the alert that they were doing strange things at night. They were an easy catch!).
 
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Here in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: Nothing possible due to WMBI on 1110 splatter just under 3 miles away from me.
Nightime: KMOX owns the frequency

The only DX catches on this frequency: WGGM Maryville, TN (1985) and WKQW oil City, PA (1987), both with KMOX partially nulled.
 
gr8oldies said:
It doesn't quite make sense. Somebody out there told me that the attenuation was the reason WTAD was allowed to have a CBS affiliation. Those weren't being passed out like candy back ion the day, and of course KMOX was a CBS O&O. I've mentioned before that I could cross the bridge into Missouri with WLS tuned in during the day and it was like my car antenna re-connected. I never made the short drive into southeast Iowa while I was there.

Click to expand...

I remember you posting about WLS and crossing the bridge.

And now, I'll throw out this....

I used to drive I-44 several times a year between St. Louis and Joplin. Primarily during the 1990s. During baseball season, once I got out of Saint Louis (and away from their local on 1430), I could regularly catch the Cubs games on WGEM (1440) from Quincy for about an hour or so. According to R-L, WGEM shouldn't be anywhere near there. But as a practical matter, it was very reliable.

The last time I made that run was just a couple of years ago. It wasn't baseball season, but about 40 or 50 miles southwest of Saint Louis, I decided to check out 1440. Sure enough, WGEM was right there. Same as it always used to be.
 
That's very interesting about WGEM, Cyberdad. I never really had a chance to follow them that direction. It does seem like that ground conductivity makes signals go on forever though
 
cyberdad said:
I used to drive I-44 several times a year between St. Louis and Joplin. Primarily during the 1990s. During baseball season, once I got out of Saint Louis (and away from their local on 1430), I could regularly catch the Cubs games on WGEM (1440) from Quincy for about an hour or so. According to R-L, WGEM shouldn't be anywhere near there. But as a practical matter, it was very reliable.

The last time I made that run was just a couple of years ago. It wasn't baseball season, but about 40 or 50 miles southwest of Saint Louis, I decided to check out 1440. Sure enough, WGEM was right there. Same as it always used to be.
Click to expand...

WGEM does have a rather odd "bunny ears" pattern that protects Topeka's 1440, and it seems like most of Missouri doesn't have a lot of competing 1440s covering it according to the Radio TimeTraveler maps from NF8M...

http://nf8m.com/pattern_maps/2016/NIGHTTIME-UNLIMITED/NIGHTTIME-UNLIMITED_map_1440KHz-1.html
 
Daytime: A weak KTXW, which is a 5.6 kW Christian talk station in Manor, TX, just NE of Austin. There's also a bit of splatter from local 1130 KTMR.

Night: KMOX is most dominant and usually steady with a moderately strong signal. Sometimes I'll get splatter from 50 kW 1130 KWKH in Shreveport. Aiming SE, I can hear a weak XEPOP "Formula 1120" in Puebla mixing in/underneath. It has an SS news/talk format but occasionally plays some American pop.

Sunset: KMOX comes up and takes over. Occasionally I'll hear daytimer KETU "La Diferente" in Catoosa, OK, mixing in.

Sunrise: KTXW goes back to day power (from 155w) and mostly covers KMOX. When KETU signs on for the day, it often dominates for a while.
 
gr8oldies said:
East Tennessee: Daytime -WKCE which has had a variety of formats and months of silence but has settled on oldies (deep, somewhat unfamiliar mixed with classic country) since adding a translator. By night, nothing but KMOX.

Man thanks for turning me on to this gem, fantastic oh wow tunes and the classic country is a sweet bonus, I'm in Philly so its the net for me also great stereo separation, your lucky to have this on the Terrestrial band.
Click to expand...
 
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