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AM Frequency of the week: 1020

cyberdad

cyberdad

Far northwest edge of the Chicago metro....

Days: Splatter from local WNVR 10kw on 1030 with a transmitter located only a couple of miles from me.

Nights: WNVR operates sporadically with 120 watts at night. (Not sure how/why they get away with that). But even with them on, I'm in the null, and splatter is not an issue. More on WNVR next week.

As for the topic at hand.... KDKA is reliable at night. The signal had been underperforming for about a year or so. But for the past several months, KDKA has been back to normal. Which means somwhere between fair, good, and usually alone. Very occasionally, I can hear Spanish underneath, which I presume is Cuba. I've also heard (what's now) KJJK from Fergus Falls, MN a few times. Presumably on 2kw day power.

Other location: On my Maui visit in 1994 KTNQ was rock solid every night. Easily the strongest mainland signal.
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: usually nothing, but WPEO (Peoria, IL) has been heard an many occasions
Nightime: KDKA rules the frequency, but sometimes KMMQ (Plattsmouth, NE) or KJJK (Fergus Falls) can be heard.
cyberdad, KMMQ might actually be your Spanish speaking stations as they carry a Regional Mexican format.

DX/RETRO: others heard on this frequency include KCKN (Roswell, NM) during a DX test running 10kW non-directional. Also heard few times with regular programming. Also heard WJEP (Ochlocknee, GA), Radio Reloj, Cuba, YNAS La Asuncion, Venezzuela. Back in 1990's Caribbean Chriastian Radion from Turks & Caicos used to be a regular log in the Chicago area.
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs day I get enough splatter from WNVR to be annoying, but on a good radio I can hear a weak WPEO during the day.
At night a usually solid KDKA. Back in the day when stations signed off on Monday morning I tried quite often back then to hear KGBS, but I never got it

Retro/other: Whenever I'm the far west KTNQ is solid. Also when I was in Hawaii, KTNQ was among the strongest mainland signals at night.
 
East Tennessee: Daytime-absolutely nothing.
Night: KDKA with some Spanish

Retro/other: Dayton, OH area, weak KDKA days, stronger KDKA at night
Lafayette IN and Quincy IL: Both had WPEO, Peoria in the daytime

I remember getting a high-powered Carribean based religious 1020 in the mid 90s from Lafayette. Never found out what it was.
 
In the city of Chicago:

During the daytime I can barely make out WPEO on my car radio if I'm in the southern or western areas of the city. I have never heard it on the north side. At night, KDKA is consistently there. Not heard anything else at night.
 
Mason City, IA:
Daytime/nighttime- Hash from adjacent channel KRNI, though if you’re away from town, KDKA can somewhat be made out.

Central KS:
Daytime: Nothing local, though in December, I picked up KMMQ from Omaha.
Nighttime: Have never received KDKA (or any of the East Coast clear channels for that matter).
 
1020 is a whole bunch of nothing here in the midday.

One sunset I was getting WKZE from NW Connecticut. I heard the Turks & Caicos one night, and a year later caught them on 1025. All of those (except for KDKA) are on tape somewhere.

But nights, KDKA is atop 1020.
 
CADXER said:
cyberdad, KMMQ might actually be your Spanish speaking stations as they carry a Regional Mexican format.
Click to expand...
Hmmm....Even the 50kw day pattern doesn't favor us. But on that day pattern they still manage to get out to the east and northeast into Iowa. And I definitely wasn't hearing R. Reloj. So you may be correct, and I thank you for the insight.

As for WPEO, I don't stand a chance with WNVR in my backyard. But before they came on, I could hear WPEO from time to time....mostly in winter. They were also a regular for me at my college location in Iowa during the late '60s.

I never did hear WPEO when they famously (at least for Peoria) launched an unsuccessful challenge to WIRL for the top 40 audience. By all accounts a very hard-fought bonafide brawl.
 
WPEO had a problem in that they were a daytime only station. Also, longtime New York morning man Harry Harrison held down mornings on WPEO before he went to New York.
 
cyberdad said:
Far northwest edge of the Chicago metro....

Days: Splatter from local WNVR 10kw on 1030 with a transmitter located only a couple of miles from me.

Nights: WNVR operates sporadically with 120 watts at night. (Not sure how/why they get away with that). But even with them on, I'm in the null, and splatter is not an issue. More on WNVR next week.

As for the topic at hand.... KDKA is reliable at night. The signal had been underperforming for about a year or so. But for the past several months, KDKA has been back to normal. Which means somwhere between fair, good, and usually alone. Very occasionally, I can hear Spanish underneath, which I presume is Cuba. I've also heard (what's now) KJJK from Fergus Falls, MN a few times. Presumably on 2kw day power.

Other location: On my Maui visit in 1994 KTNQ was rock solid every night. Easily the strongest mainland signal.
Click to expand...

A staiton isnt required to operate at night, it can sign off at sunset if it wants and be legal.
 
cyberdad said:
Far northwest edge of the Chicago metro....

Days: Splatter from local WNVR 10kw on 1030 with a transmitter located only a couple of miles from me.

Nights: WNVR operates sporadically with 120 watts at night. (Not sure how/why they get away with that). But even with them on, I'm in the null, and splatter is not an issue. More on WNVR next week.

As for the topic at hand.... KDKA is reliable at night. The signal had been underperforming for about a year or so. But for the past several months, KDKA has been back to normal. Which means somwhere between fair, good, and usually alone. Very occasionally, I can hear Spanish underneath, which I presume is Cuba. I've also heard (what's now) KJJK from Fergus Falls, MN a few times. Presumably on 2kw day power.

Other location: On my Maui visit in 1994 KTNQ was rock solid every night. Easily the strongest mainland signal.
Click to expand...


I know KJJK's engineer.. ive heard it a time or two in Laramie, WY along with KBRF. They operate legally day to day.

Have you caught an ID or anything for the spanish on 1020? KMMQ "Omaha" calls itself "La Nueva"
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
A staiton isnt required to operate at night, it can sign off at sunset if it wants and be legal.
Click to expand...

Admittedly I am not too conversant with the rules on AMs that have very low power cutbacks at night as I have never been associated with one directly.

But I thought the only fulltime AMs that did not have to do a minimum operating schedule including nights were those with PSSA powers and Class D stations; those were use them if you like.

§73.1740 Minimum operating schedule.

(a) All commercial broadcast stations are required to operate not less than the following minimum hours:

(1) AM and FM stations. Two-thirds of the total hours they are authorized to operate between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. local time and two-thirds of the total hours they are authorized to operate between 6 p.m. and midnight, local time, each day of the week except Sunday.

(i) Class D stations which have been authorized nighttime operations need comply only with the minimum requirements for operation between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., local time.

WNVR has a license and even a separate directional pattern for nights, but is a Class D so they only have to comply with the daytime operation requirement.

Hopefully someone with knowledge of the current rules (Paging Mr. Fybush) will clarify.
 
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cyberdad said:
Other location: On my Maui visit in 1994 KTNQ was rock solid every night. Easily the strongest mainland signal.
Click to expand...

When I was programming talk on KTNQ oh-so-long-ago, a night would not go by that the night guy, who did a show about aliens, myths, superstitions and the like, did not get a call from Hawaii.

One night, when Miss Hawaii had won some beauty pageant, he comment that he thought that the contestant from another nation was more deserving. He got dozens and dozens of calls from Hawaii telling him to stuff it!
 
gr8oldies said:
East Tennessee: Daytime-absolutely nothing.

I remember getting a high-powered Carribean based religious 1020 in the mid 90s from Lafayette. Never found out what it was.
Click to expand...

That would be Caribbean Christian Radio broadcasting from Grand Turk in Turks& Caicos. They were listed as using 20 kW, but I believe they used a more powerful transmitter as their signal was fairly good.
 
DavidEduardo said:

Class D stations which have been authorized nighttime operations need comply only with the minimum requirements for operation between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., local time.[/I]

.....WNVR has a license and even a separate directional pattern for nights, but is a Class D so they only have to comply with the daytime operation requirement.

Hopefully someone with knowledge of the current rules (Paging Mr. Fybush) will clarify.[/SIZE]
Click to expand...

And, indeed, WNVR does operate on 1030 at night. At night power and apparently with the night DA. But seemingly only when they feel like it! Some nights they're on. Others they're not.

I'm three miles away from their site at most. In the nighttime null. The result at my home location when they're on during hours of darkness is a signal that's still solid, but very easy to null. So much so that WBZ typically comes through strong enough to blow out WNVR, which completely vanishes.

A couple of other things that might be worth noting....

WNVR has very short towers. I happened to drive within about a half mile of their sticks this morning, and they're not visable. There are some trees along the road, but there are gaps in them. And meanwhile, the WAIT/WZSR three tower site is clearly visible two miles away. I can also see the WAIT/WZSR towers from the second floor of my house, but not WNVR.

WNVR also has a translator (on 107.1). This appears to be operational fulltime 24/7. The translator is located about 5 miles east of where the AM towers are situated. The result of this setup for WNVR, a station which broadcasts in Polish, is that the AM signal at night reaches very little of the target area. This is because of the null. The translator....while far from ideal....does a much better job. (The day signal puts a good signal pretty much all of the Polish enclaves in the Chicago area as well as a good chunk of them in Milwaukee and adjacent southeast Wisconsin.

I appreciate you and SomeRadioGuy pointing out that class D AMs don't have to be on at night. I didn't know that. As an "old rules" guy, I thought that if you had an authorization to be on at night, there was some requirement for minimum hours of operation. But even with that, the "come and go" operation of WNVR is a little hard for me to fathom. Especially given that their night power and pattern seem to be in compliance.
 
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If I remember correctly, Caribbean Christian Radio was also on 1025 khz for a while. With the high power it was easily heard on the east coast of Florida.
 
Days, here, its nothing. Nights its KDKA. Never heard the Roswell NM station this far east.
 
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