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AM Frequency of the Week: 1220

cyberdad

cyberdad

I posted this thread yesterday, but somehow it apparently disappeared. So here goes again..... Far northwest suburban Chicago.

Days: WKRS from Waukegan, IL. 25 miles east-northeast of me. 1kw. Pattern is pretty much not unfavorable towards me, so the result is a weak signal. WLPO from La Salle, IL is sometimes faintly audible underneath or with WKRS nulled, WLPO is also 1kw with a rather tight east-west pattern, which also doesn't favor my location.

Nights: WKRS powers down to 90 watts and disappears. Cleveland (WHKW) is on top of the mess more often than not. I've also heard XEB a few times.

Other Location" At our vacation spot near Pensacola, XEB is a fairly reliable regular. Usually with a fair signal. Also....a few nights ago I was tuning the New Braunfels TX SDR and had XEB when I stopped at 1220. Signal was not as strong as I expected. Fair at best. So I was wondering if perhaps they're running less than their authorized 100kw.
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs during the days it's mostly WKRS with a fair to weak signal. WLPO can be faintly heard underneath.
At night both disappear and WHKW is usually on top of a big mess of stations.

Retro: Have heard Mexico City in the past, but not for awhile.
 
During the mid-1980s, I listened to WGAR (now WHKW) Cleveland at night. I enjoyed listening to WGAR's play-by-play coverage of the Cleveland Force of the Major Indoor Soccer League. When WGAR wasn't covering the Cleveland Force, it simulcasted WGAR-FM's country music format. Reception was generally good in New York City.
 
East Tennessee: Days---nothing really
Night: Mostly WHKW

Retro/other: I also listened to WGAR, but in the 70s when they were Hot Adult Contemporary/Gold with a lot of personality. A friend turned me on to Phil Gardner and all of his characters (Phil is still in radio as the much more subdued Fort Wayne Christian host, Phil Reasor). From my teenage-hood home in West Central Ohio, we weren't in a strong lobe for WGAR (we got it off the side of the pattern) but it was definitely listenable. We had a semi-local daytimer in the next county (still there) in WERT, Van Wert. Just after sunset, WGAR would still be strong underneath WERT inside Van Wert county.

"1220 WGAR, Cleveland. A Ralph Smith station" (the name changed daily)
 
Ellensburg WA

Days - nothing...albeit my daytime DX record sits here. CJRB Boissevain MB (Full Service), around 1pm on 12/21/18 at 967 miles!

Nights - Slopping mix of CJRB, KSLM Salem OR (Conservative Talk), and occasional peaks of KHTS Canyon Country CA (Full Service). Often at sunset, KDOW San Jose (Business Talk) will be heard, but they go down to 145 watts at night. Even more rarely, XEB Mexico City (La B Grande) peaks up.
 
Nights here in the Seattle metro I get the 1220 talker out of Salem, OR (used to be KPJC Hebrew Nation radio, now conservative talk) and I've heard KHTS from Santa Clarita, California. I usually get a nice spur from the local on 1640, though. On every radio.
 
1220 is a huge jumble here in central Ohio, only 130 miles or so from Cleveland.
WHKW, the former WKNR, is never a factor here because it severely tucks in its signal to the southwest at night.
I remember trying to tune in back in the 1990s when WKNR had Indians games (a time when no Columbus station carried the Indians) and its own lack of a signal was more an issue than the splatter from local 1230 WCOL (now WYTS).
Additionally, during the day I remember it being a powerhouse in Massillon, Alliance, Canton, etc., but once you drove west on 30 toward Wooster the signal was noticeably and drastically reduced and by Mansfield it is pretty much gone. As close as Lorain County to the west, it's much weaker than WTAM.
 
Daytime it's a weak WJUN from Mexico.
Mexico PA, that is :)
The calls are for Juniata County. Been those calls for decades.

Nights, it's Cleveland.

One sunset I got WFAX from Fairfax VA.

One bright afternoon on a paint job while listening to talk WPHT 1210, I heard them being splashed on. The culprit was an Oldies station on 1220 ... standard-issue, sitthroughable and paint-throughable listening for a while. It turned out to be the daytime skip, from WGNY Newburgh NY. Distance was some 125 miles. They were solid for about :45 minutes. I never heard them again. But I mean, splattering all over 50,000 watt WPHT ?!?

https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WGNY&service=AM&h=D

They send 'some' of that wattage sort of our way. But not THAT much. We're 'just' off the map on the left side, between the Hazleton and the Reading circles
 
I keep thinking WKNR belongs in Detroit (WKNR AM FM Dearborn. Offices in the Sheraton Cadillac Detroit) and 1220 in Cleveland is WGAR.

schmave said:
1220 is a huge jumble here in central Ohio, only 130 miles or so from Cleveland.
WHKW, the former WKNR, is never a factor here because it severely tucks in its signal to the southwest at night.
I remember trying to tune in back in the 1990s when WKNR had Indians games (a time when no Columbus station carried the Indians) and its own lack of a signal was more an issue than the splatter from local 1230 WCOL (now WYTS).
Additionally, during the day I remember it being a powerhouse in Massillon, Alliance, Canton, etc., but once you drove west on 30 toward Wooster the signal was noticeably and drastically reduced and by Mansfield it is pretty much gone. As close as Lorain County to the west, it's much weaker than WTAM.
Click to expand...
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: WKRS (Waukegan, IL) fair signal being 27 miles away from my location.
Nightime: WHKW usually heard, but easily nulled with a loop antenna.

Retro/DX: WLPO (La Salle, IL) heard few time during daytime with WKRS nulled, or when WKRS was off air when their transmitter was flooded. Other DX catches: KZYM (Cape Girardeau, MO), KVSA (Mc Gee, AR), KZEE (Weatherford, TX), WTCN (Stillwater, MN), WSLM (Salem, IN), CJRB (Boisevan, MB). Foreign AM DX on this frequency is mostly XEB (Mexico City), but also heard HJVN (Barranquilla, Colombia), and my best DX catch on this frequency: Radio Globo (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) in October, 2012.
 
Warminster PA(Philly 'burbs):

Daytime: zippo, due to WPHT's IBOC noise.
Night: if WPHT would turn their IBOC off, I would hear either WKNR or maybe XEB.
 
West Central Georgia:

Days: Sometimes hear weak signal from WZOT Rockmart GA 0.5kW Southern Gospel

Nights: Nothing, but occasionally pick up WCPH Etowah TN 0.109kW playing Oldies at night

Dusk: Have heard WDYT Kings Mountain NC 25kW Spanish religious and WENC Whiteville NC 5kW Gospel
 
Slop from KHAT 1210 Laramie, WY.. I'm 1 1/2 miles away from them.
 
@ CA DXer -- that's some fine retro DXing. Thx for sharing that. Wow, if the AM dial were a lot quieter and played more music, perhaps that band's ratings would tend to return to what we used to consider as 'normal'.

@ WahooWah : That ''Etowah' you mentioned was the river that Jerry Reed mentioned in his sleazy rhythm-guitar-driven song 'Koko Joe'. I never knew that until the internet. I thought he was singing 'the dirty old river'. So maybe this post Y2K computer info and streaming stuff might replace both the AM AND FM dials one day soon. Ya think? Lol.
 
In west Houston I can sometimes hear little KMVL in Madisonville, TX, 500w at 90 miles, during the day in the wintertime. Otherwise, days are nothing but a bit of slop from the local on 1230. I can get South Asian KZEE from Weatherford (DFW), Texas fairly often at sunset. Nights are all XEB. I have also heard another Spanish station, possibly XESAL from Saltillo, near Monterrey, but have never heard an ID.

If memory serves, XEB was much stronger back when I was DXing from Tulsa in the 1970's.
 
Chicago by the lakefront:

During the day it's WKRS in Waukegan, which is a Chicago suburb on the lake near the Wisconsin border. It doesn't really come in that well but it's generally present to the point where you can readily get an ID ("ESPN Desportes", though I've heard they've recently changed format). Once I drive away from the lake it tends to disappear. Once that happens, in the right situation there will be a barely audible WLPO, located only about 80 miles to the southwest but it's very hard to hear. It took me several tries to figure out what it was.

At night it's WHKW in Cleveland, if I hear anything. When that happens it's not too strong, but it can fade in well enough to listen to for a while.
 
MichaelTheZ said:
Chicago by the lakefront:
WLPO, located only about 80 miles to the southwest but it's very hard to hear. It took me several tries to figure out what it was.
Click to expand...

As I said earlier WLPO has a very tight east-west pattern. R-L's pattern map depicts the signal as being audible in a narrow band from Indiana to Iowa Barely so in the case of each state. You'd figure to have an easier time hearing it in the south suburbs than what you're experiencing in the city.
 
Brian
Dalton, GA

1220 kHz is super hard frequency to DX on.

I can hear severe splatter from WBLJ, and it's difficult to null to get WCPH from Etowah in the day. At night, I can get a faint sounding Spanish station from Birmingham, Alabama.
 
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