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AM Frequency of the week: 1050

cyberdad

cyberdad

40 or so miles northwest of downtown Chicago....

Day: WLIP from Kenosha, WI, 250 watts non-directional from about 36 miles to my east-northeast resulting in a fair signal.

Nights: WLIP becomes part of the mix. Sometimes managing to stay on top. If not, CHUM occasionally becomes "top dog". But not very often. More rare, but "occasional", I can hear WDZ from Decatur, IL.

Retro: CKSB from Winnipeg used to be relatively common before they migrated to FM. Especially before sunrise. Easy to identify because of classical music and French language. Going farther back still, I used to hear XEG quite a lot. But they've been mostly missing in action for me in recent years. My guess is that they're running lower power than was the case when they were a "border blaster" complete with Wolfman Jack.
 
Warminster PA(Philly 'burbs):

Daytime: WEPN(very weak signal, now that KYW has turned off its IBOC!!).
Night: WEPN, plus some of either XEG or CHUM.
 
East Tennessee: Daytime-a whiff of WFSC, Franklin NC
Night: Nothing really dominant, I've caught CHUM

Retro/other:
Dayton, OH area: Daytime-a weak WGRI (ex WCVX and WZIP). You still see the tower just across the Brent Spence Bridge on the side of the highway.
Growing up in Western Ohio, and even on our Michigan vacations in the 60s and 70s, it was always a nighttime battle between CHUM Toronto and WHN, New York, which were pretty close together. By the mid-90s CHUM would be alone near sunset.
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs during the day it's a weak WLIP. At night it's a mix of stations.
WEPN, CHUM & WDZ. WEPN is not heard as much as it was years ago when it was WHN. Haven't heard XEG in years.
 
Near the Chicago lakefront... daytime it's WLIP and it comes in decently. At night it's a jumble of stations away from the shore but when you get right near the lake CHUM usually comes in stronger than the rest. One of seven Toronto area stations I have heard here.
 
in west Houston during the day, it's local KCHN in Chinese until they sign off at sunset. Otherwise, it's XEG with a consistently strong signal (400 miles from here). When I lived in Tulsa in the 70's, XEG was one of the stronger distant signals.
 
MichaelTheZ said:
Near the Chicago lakefront... daytime it's WLIP and it comes in decently. At night it's a jumble of stations away from the shore but when you get right near the lake CHUM usually comes in stronger than the rest. One of seven Toronto area stations I have heard here.
Click to expand...

For whatever reason, the skywave path between Chicago and Toronto seems to be particularly good. The Chicago big signals come in unusually well there, too. So does (or did) one little signal....1690. When it first came on as WRLL, it was an easy catch on my business trips to the Toronto area. "On the flip side", you've got the likes of CIAO and CHHA as easy duty here in the Chicago area. Not to mention occasions....albeit rare...when CHIN roars in from out of nowhere and overtakes the usually very strong KXEL.

@radioman.... It's been a while since I've heard either XEG or WEPN around here. WHN/WMGM?WEPN has always been rather tough for me. But still doable on occasion. XEG...as I indicated earlier...used to be easy. WEPN can be explained as a signal that wasn't very good here to begin with on a channel that's now more crowded. But my guess with XEG is that they're running less than their former 150kw. Probably a lot less. If they're at 30kw or thereabouts, that might explain them being strong in Texas and adjacent areas, but not able to make it through WLIP and the slop at my location.

If David is lurking, perhaps he might be able to give us his insight on what's going on.
 
cyberdad said:
@radioman.... It's been a while since I've heard either XEG or WEPN around here. WHN/WMGM?WEPN has always been rather tough for me. But still doable on occasion. XEG...as I indicated earlier...used to be easy. WEPN can be explained as a signal that wasn't very good here to begin with on a channel that's now more crowded. But my guess with XEG is that they're running less than their former 150kw. Probably a lot less. If they're at 30kw or thereabouts, that might explain them being strong in Texas and adjacent areas, but not able to make it through WLIP and the slop at my location.

If David is lurking, perhaps he might be able to give us his insight on what's going on.
Click to expand...

I haven't heard XEG in a long time so I agree with your guess that they're running less power. WMGM/WHN/WEPN used to come through once in awhile years ago. It was a pest for me when I tried to listen to CHUM during their Top 40 years. In recent years I hear NYC less and CHUM a bit more. 1050 for me these days at night is mostly a mess.
 
Mostly a lot of nothing here in central Ohio day at night. I've caught a weak CHUM before but that's about it.
If WHO is strong enough, there's a little slop on 1050. Other than that, it's usually a dead spot between WHO and KYW.
When I lived in Houston, XEG blasted in from Monterrey every night. It's been several years since I've been back down that way and even longer since I've DXd there but I remember it sounding like a local most every night. As with many other Mexican stations that can be heard in Houston without much effort, I've never once caught XEG in Ohio.
 
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XEG still booms in at night here in Canyon Lake, TX (35 miles north of San Antonio). They are still listenable in The Valley (Brownsville/McAllen) during the day. There is a station on 1060 just a little south of the Rio Grande, which can cause some issues for 1050. Going up US 281 out of the Valley, they are listenable to George West. I can’t remember if they make it all the way to the IH 37/US 281 Interchange just north of Three Rivers (70 miles from San Antonio).

XEG can be heard in Laredo during the day as well, but the signal isn’t as strong as in The Valley.
 
1050 seems like a void around here at night since the Manitoba station is gone, and I haven't heard XEG in years either. KLOH from Pipestone, MN is the one signal that I can hear above the mush. I've been hoping to make some interesting catch but haven't found anything yet. WHO is right next door at 1040 but doesn't seem to crowd 1050 too much at night, which it does somewhat during the day.
 
cyberdad said:
For whatever reason, the skywave path between Chicago and Toronto seems to be particularly good. The Chicago big signals come in unusually well there, too. So does (or did) one little signal....1690. When it first came on as WRLL, it was an easy catch on my business trips to the Toronto area. "On the flip side", you've got the likes of CIAO and CHHA as easy duty here in the Chicago area. Not to mention occasions....albeit rare...when CHIN roars in from out of nowhere and overtakes the usually very strong KXEL.
Click to expand...

Interesting that it goes both ways. What impressed me about the Toronto stations when I started AM DXing here last winter was both the strength and consistency of the signals from Toronto. You mentioned CHIN... I'd sometimes even start hearing CHIN during the later part of daylight hours and it would block out KXEL. Now that it's summer these effects have been diminished. For example I have finally heard WINS over CFRB here recently. But the New York City stations are a lot less consistent here and there are very noticeable differences from day to day.
 
With apologies for the veer....

I think CHIN is probably not operating within established parameters for it's DA. I never used to hear it around here. But during the last 2 or 3 years it hasn't been all that uncommon.

Chicago AM's tend to do well in Canada at night. In addition to the path to/from Toronto that I wrote about the other day, at least the big signals are also usually solid every night in Montreal and Ottawa. Same goes for Winnipeg. Not much to block them when they get on the other side of the border. I'm planning to be in Winnipeg and the far western Ontario north woods this coming week. Even WIND sometimes does well up there....on top of WEBC and KMON. If anything of note turns up...from Chicago or anywhere else...I'll post in a new thread.

Also, if any of you guys have suggestions for me to try, let me know and I'll try to give it a shot. Don't forget that nights are pretty short up there at this time of year.
 
CIAO is now CHLO 530, after the former 680/1570 station went to FM as CFHK, and the call letters went unused for years. 680 and 1570 both really got out. US 1570s all used to sign off, and the Mexican border blaster, XERF, was off and on, so you could hear CHLO far and wide. 680 had a great groundwave, and surprisingly, toward KNBR as it was 1000 watts DA-1/U3.
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: WLIP with a decent signal
Nightime: usually CHUM or WEPN

DX/RETRO: Surprisingly I don't have a confirmed log of WDZ in my log book. I heard them tentatively, but did not hear an ID to count it. Agree about XEG. Used to be a regular log, but not heard in a long time. Others heard on this frequency include KMIS (Portageville, MO), WPAG/WTKA (Ann Arbor, MI), WGRI (Cinncinati, OH), CFYN (Sault Ste Marie, ON), CKSB (Winnipeg, MB), CMLL Radio Victoria, Cuba
 
Mason City, IA:
Daytime- Fairly decent signal from KLOH/Pipestone, MN
Nighttime- Splatter from WHO

Central KS:
Daytime- Have picked up KLOH during the day last winter. During the summer, nothing.
Nighttime- Nothing
 
I logged a surprisingly strong XEG at 6:20am this morning. Almost full quieting and stayed that way for just under 20 minutes!

Bob
 
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