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AM Frequency of the week: 1000

cyberdad

cyberdad

Far northwest Chicago suburbia....

Day: All WMVP....a local 800-pound gorilla with a 50kw slightly directional pattern from a transmitter site about 30 miles south-southeast of me.

Night: WMVP goes to a more severe directional pattern. This results in noticeably weaker....but still very good....signal at my location. If I null it...I can sometimes hear XEOY underneath. I've also heard KTOK exactly once. KOMO is on my wish list, but I've never heard it.

Other Location/Retro: On my biz trips, it's been my experience that KOMO is typically one of the better skywave signals all up and down the west coast

During my college days in southeast Iowa, Then-WCFL was present 24/7, but not comfortably listenable. Splatter from the sadly-departed WCAZ was the issue in the daytime issue. Mixing from XEOY was the culprit at night. I also heard KTOK a few times, but again no KOMO.
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs it's a strong WMVP day and night. The few times I have caught AM1000 off the air I've heard XEOY several times and KTOK a couple of times.

Retro/other: Back in the late 60s and early 70s when I was in college at NIU in De Kalb, Il just 60 miles west of then WCFL, their daytime signal at that location was just fair. At that time most of us were listening to WLS or WCFL and WCFL's day signal just 60 miles west was about half as good as WLS. At night WCFL sounded like distant DX without the fading.
On trips to the west coast KOMO is usually strong, but I also have never heard it here although I have heard it on the Northern Ireland and Arctic SDR's.
 
Mason City, IA
Day/night: splatter from KRNI next door

Central KS:
Day: Can somewhat get KTOK/OKC
Night: Have received KTOK at night before, but mostly hash otherwise. WMVP is non existent here.
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL (near NW suburb of Chicago):

Daytime: WMVP
Nightime: WMVP

DX/Retro: In the good old days (1970's-1980's), WCFL used to have a regular silent period every Monday morning, right after midnight. This of course produced some DX opportunities. This used to be the best bet to hear AM station from Washinton state as KOMO (Seattle) which used to be audible in the Chicago area most of the time during the WCFL silent period. My other 3 catches besides KOMO are KTOK (Oklahoma City, OK), XEOY (Mexico City) and HJAQ (Cartagen, Colombia).

Not exactly sure when the regular silent period stopped, but it must have been around the time WCFL became WLUP AM.

Also sometimes around 2006, WMVP operated under STA (Special Temporary Authority) as a diplex from the WLS site in Tinley Park at a reduced power. If I remember correctly this arrangement was only during daytime, so the workers could work on the replacement towers. During the night they would switch back to the Downer Grove site.

BTW my profile picture shows the new 3-tower array of WMVP in Downers Grove, IL
 
East Tennessee: Daytime-absolutely nothing.
Night: WMVP for the most part. I can remember getting the warbling het which turned out to be one of 2 Cubans.

Retro/other: Growing up in Western Ohio, WCFL’s signal was comparable to (maybe a little stronger) than WLS. Very weak during the day, but stronger at night.
 
radioman148 said:
Retro/other: Back in the late 60s and early 70s when I was in college at NIU in De Kalb, Il just 60 miles west of then WCFL, their daytime signal at that location was just fair. At that time most of us were listening to WLS or WCFL and WCFL's day signal just 60 miles west was about half as good as WLS. At night WCFL sounded like distant DX without the fading.
Click to expand...

As I posted a couple of years back, I spent a week at a hotel in DeKalb for my summer job. 1968. I was rather astonished at how weak WCFL was there at night.

Fast forward to today at my current home location, and WMVP is measurably slightly stronger than WLS during the day. At night WLS, being non-directional, stays constant at the same strength as daytime. However WMVP on night pattern becomes about 33% weaker than WLS. Still very listenable.

Then if you go 12 miles east to the town where I grew up (Wauconda), WMVP is still measurably stronger than WLS both day and night. But if you go 12 miles west of my current location to the next town (Marengo), some cancellation fading starts to creep in.
 
Last edited:
cyberdad said:
As I posted a couple of years back, I spent a week at a hotel in DeKalb for my summer job. 1968. I was rather astonished at how weak WCFL was there at night.
Click to expand...

It was quite surprising to me when I got to De Kalb to find out how weak WCFL was at night. They weren't exactly stellar during the day either. WIND was stronger.
 
Reynoldsburg, Ohio: Nothing daytime, always WMVP with a very good signal at night. It's always the first Chicago 50K to come in; I've personally heard it as early as 3 p.m. in the winter months. Obviously the directional signal with that monster lobe to the east is a help.
In my experiences driving between Chicago and Ohio at night, WMVP usually suffers from cancellation far before the other 50Ks. I've heard some flutter as close as Valparaiso, but I think by the time you hit Fort Wayne it's much stronger (whereas in that area, the other Chicago 50Ks are struggling with cancellation issues).
I've been on the backside of their night signal when I've visited family in Naperville and my experiences echo everyone else here. The difference in signal is noticeable even that close and one of my cousins has told me how tough it is to hear 1000 in parts of town before sunrise (no, I did not go into a long explanation as to why ...).
The only time I ever visited DeKalb, many years ago when I was a student at Toledo and was in town to call a basketball game vs the Huskies, I (tried to) listened to a Bulls game on the drive back to Chicago and it was rough going until we were almost to Aurora. The signal dramatically improved at that point and then became its usual blaster self once we passed the towers, visible from I-88.
 
Yakima WA

KOMO Seattle (All-News) day and night. They are quite good during the day, delivering about an S7. KIRO has a little bit of a punch during the day, KTTH is slightly weaker, and KVI is much weaker.

Other logs on 1000 include KCEO Vista CA (Catholic), KKIM Albuquerque NM (Religion) and XEOY Mexico City DF (Mil AM).
The most-wanted, of course, is WMVP Chicago. Even when WBBM is S9 some nights, ESPN 1000 is directional away from Seattle (duh), and so they never show up. Perhaps KOMO can go off for maintenance some night and I'll hear WMVP finally.
 
From Laramie, WY (SE corner of the state)

Right before/at sunrise: KCEO Sandy Eggo.. sometimes, but not very good. Often KKIM ABQ

After sunset, KOMO Seattle

Sometimes KSOO Sioux Falls right before or after sunset
 
ksradiogeek said:
Mason City, IA
Day/night: splatter from KRNI next door

Central KS:
Day: Can somewhat get KTOK/OKC
Night: Have received KTOK at night before, but mostly hash otherwise. WMVP is non existent here.
Click to expand...

Forgot to mention, on certain days, I can also pick up KXFT/Manson (Ft. Dodge). Even at 25k watts, its still very difficult to pull in unless you get out from under the RF cloud in town.
 
Here's our daytime regular.
https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WIOO&service=AM&h=D
The den is just about on that blue outer contour where it bisects Pottsville and Hazleton.
Radio-Locator has them listed as 16,000 watts omni now. That's quite a leap from their originally-licensed 1000 watts. Often at sunset on that 1000 watts they'd come into our crew near JFK Airport. And that was with 1010 WINS on.

I have WMVP Chicago listed as the nighttime regular.

Sporadic catches at sunset were WRNJ Hackettstown NJ before their move to 1510, and one night in came CKBW from Nova Scotia.

* * * * * * *

From the retro days I see 11 stations in the log, the best of which was KTOK from Oklahoma.
 
In west Houston, days are all slop from local 1010 KLAT. At sunset I've heard XENLT in Nuevo Laredo but understand they've migrated to FM. At night, XEOY dominates with a couple of unidentified SS stations in its null.

In Tulsa in the early 70's, I could hear KTOK in the daytime with a poor signal, but they mostly disappeared at night (I was 100 miles northeast of OKC, so in their null toward WCFL). Early on Monday morning, I heard KOMO and WCFL once or twice.
 
Warminster PA(Philly 'burbs):

Daytime: mostly splatter from local 990 WNTP. Sometimes, a very weak WRNJ from Hackettstown NJ.
Night: always WMVP.
 
In Hotlanta, days its splatter from 1010 WTZA and 990 WISK (both Hispanic). Nights its WMVP.
 
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