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The Mother Lode

D

dlf1

It may not be the farthest, but what DX ranks as your favorite?

On the AM side it was pulling in KFI in Ohio (1979 in their Top 40 days).

On the FM E Skip side in Ohio was receiving KLOL and 99.5 KISS back in 1990: the only time I heard good AOR in SW Ohio.

The all time best was here in Texas in 1982: I heard rock music on 94.7 and it turned out to be KMET.
 
dlf1 said:
It may not be the farthest, but what DX ranks as your favorite?

On the AM side it was pulling in KFI in Ohio (1979 in their Top 40 days).

On the FM E Skip side in Ohio was receiving KLOL and 99.5 KISS back in 1990: the only time I heard good AOR in SW Ohio.

The all time best was here in Texas in 1982: I heard rock music on 94.7 and it turned out to be KMET.
Click to expand...

My AM favorites from NE Ohio are:

830 KIKI Honolulu with 250 watts.
1000 1ZD Tauranga, NZ with 10 kw
780 AFRTS Ramey AFB, Puerto Rico with 50 watts
1450 KTIP Porterville, CA with 250 watts.
660 KFAR, Fairbanks, AK, 10 kw
805 HCFV1, Quito, Ecuador with 1 kw (on a trip back to Ohio in 1966)
 
From my youth in Bloomington IN, 1967-73:

Italy 845 kHz
Belize 834 kHz
KFI Los Angeles 640 kHz
KNX Los Angeles 1070 kHz
KBIG Catalina I. 740 kHz

The first two were received on a Hammarlund HQ-145, with the selectivity cranked down as far as it could go. The other three were heard on standard AM radios.

Haven't done much Ancient Modulation DXing in Phoenix. Except for CHRB 1140 in Alberta, heard in my car while driving to work back around 2010, the best I've been able to do here is WBBM Chicago.
 
In the Chicago area my most exciting DX at the time was snagging KFI in 1962. I didn't realize then that had I had proper equipment I could've really landed some exotic stuff.
 
Think my favorite FM Eskip log was KXKL-105.1 Denver on the 4th of July 2015. It was logged around 8:30 at night, at the same time that Kool 105 was beginning a simulcast of synchronized music at the Arvada CO Independence Day fireworks show. There was a big opening about an hour before sunset and I logged 16 or 17 new ones including Tulsa (1450 miles) and Oklahoma City (1400 miles) stations.
Another favorite was 92.3 KBRY Sargent NE when they were airing an American Legion baseball game out of Broken Bow. Small town radio at its finest, serving the community with country music & local events.
Yet another favorite was a combination between a 2009 log of KKHI-101.9 in CO and 2015 log of KFEZ-101.3 CO. Both were running smooth jazz. The latter had it all day Sunday and on weeknights at that time, rest of the time was a Soft AC format. Both of them no longer run smooth jazz. The icing on the cake, and my most-wanted FM log EVER, would be one of the KOAZ translators, 95.9 Santa Fe or 103.7 Albuquerque. Every time skip has opened to NM and I've tried those channels, 95.9 has always been KSSR, and 103.7 normally has KPZA down in Jal, hundreds of miles SE of ABQ.
Finally KYOY 92.3 in WY, logged towards the end of that ridiculous opening on 6/30/17 that also brought double-hop to Waco TX. They were airing 'I'll Be Alright Without You' by Journey. A rarity to hear on the radio nowadays. Started listening a little more online and I really like their freeform adult hits format. Everything from Yes to Jimi Hendrix to Jane Child to Mariah Carey.
 
radioman148 said:
In the Chicago area my most exciting DX at the time was snagging KFI in 1962. I didn't realize then that had I had proper equipment I could've really landed some exotic stuff.
Click to expand...

Too bad... in '62 Monday mornings in your area would have found Hawaii, Argentina, even some Europeans. :(
 
The one that sticks out in my mind was a station in southern Sinaloa, Mexico, I heard on my Sanyo boombox / 3 ft. spiral loop in the 1980's. I don't recall the call letters, but the station was near Los Mochis, or a town nearby. XEVQ 830, Navolato, SIN Mexico. It was during an early Sunday morning, and the music and talk was fairly clear -- it was one of the most interesting stations to hear in my headphones in all my years DXing. The station apparently no longer exists.
 
Great topic! From my youth in Western Ohio:
As others have mentioned:
640 KFI, early 80s when Cuba was off overnight
834 Belize
Sunset skip during auroral conditions inclding 1380 in Baton Rouge
790 WTAR, 1380 WLCY (later hearing them "like a local" in their own area)

FM DX: When the cable system had an antenna that allowed all frequencies. Most memorable was WKJF, Cadillac MI on 92.9 with a Tigers game, but I heard a lot of stuff there. A memorable ESkip opening went East to West, Florida to Texas (every other Texas station was carrying Dr. Charles Stanley on that Sunday night). Then there was my first E-Skip opening somewhere other than the southeastern US, into Colorado and Wyoming.

TV DX: Getting Cuba on channels 3 and 6

Ham radio: Woeking the Mt. Mitchell NC repeater from Ohio and talking to hams in NC, SC, AL, FL and GA
 
During my first phase of AM DXing from 1984-1988 or so from the San Francisco area, the best I got were WLS 890 in Chicago, WCCO 830 in Minneapolis, and WHO 1040 in Des Moines. I don't know if I have any preference between these.

As for my current phase in Chicago (in the last year or so), my favorite would be 1620 WDHP in the US Virgin Islands. It's much harder to get distant stations below the X-band for me now than it was as a kid back in California... there are just so many AM radio stations in the eastern half of the US that the farther stations get blocked.
 
Agreed, dlf1 - nice thread.

Back in the days before the expression 'retro' was in extensive use, near JFK Airport, mid-late 60's, KYMN 1520 Oregon City was my prize. I was the worst DXer of the four who hung out. But we each heard 46 of the 50 states, only we each were missing different states to be first on our block to hear all 50. I heard nothing from Nevada, Idaho, and for some mysterious reason, Alaska or Hawaii. None of the other three heard Oregon.
I THOUGHT I had KIKI 830 from Hawaii one overnight. Pop music ... English .... very faint. No ID, though. And my pal Vinny, the better DXer of the two, talked me out of counting it. His convincing reasoning was that, 'If *I* haven't heard Hawaii yet, you're not allowed to hear it either.'
Fair enough.

2nd-best JFK Airport catch probably was HJAS Colombia. Two things:
1. I thought they were saying 'Radio Libertol' as a positioner. A buddy at work next night, Reyes Burgos, said no; that they were saying 'Radio Universal -- and then heard them ID as HJAS.
2. On that dark pre-sunrise morning, the Aurora must have been visible in the Antilles. There was Spanish on every one of the six graveyard frequencies. HJAS was one of them -- on 1400.

* * * * * * *

When I lived and worked in Springfield Mass, the best catch was Radio Paradise on 1265.
The queer thing there was that right across the Connecticut River, blinking away, were the two sticks of WSPR 1270. I guess they weren't on that night.

* * * * * * *

Best 'modern' catch over here in NEPA was Roumania on 855 -- on a Topaz car radio.

Now they didn't ID in English with, 'Hi, Steve in Frackville. This is Roumania; thanks for tuning in,' but at the time they were reportedly heard by several East Coast DXers.
 
My most exciting catch was KFI in New Jersey in the winter of 1977-78.

After spending the previous summer in northern California where KFI was like a local at night, I spent months listening and listening to 640 every night to hear something but all I ever got was the station from Akron, Ohio.

Then one night I heard the song I Go Crazy by Paul Davis and right as it was ending I heard "64 KFI".

It was gone within a minute or two and I didn't hear it again there.

That same catch would be impossible now with the local on 640.


Certainly not my greatest catch in terms of distance, as AM stations from a lot farther than that are nighttime regulars in Hawaii but there's something rewarding about wanting to hear something for so long and then finally hearing it.
 
Right you are, Gar. 'Rewarding' is exactly the sensation.

I heard KFI back near JFK in all those 60's years *once*. Even KNX came in better in the post-sunset racket once. 1070 had several stations on the frequency even in the past.
640 had only CBN and Cuba in the way. CBN used to sign off at 1:07 (12:07 our time).
Akron wasn't on late at night. GREAT station then. They signed off at LSS time in Los Angeles.

What I'm wondering is why stations like WCBS 880, WBZ 1030 and the rest were all heard on the West Coast as veritable regulars (almost pests, I suppose :). All those signals had to conquer the same mountain ranges irrespective of direction, right ? Certainly, WBZ *sent* it all that way. But WNBC, WABC and WCAU 1210 did not.

Maybe KFI had the substandard signal vis-avis KNX ?
.
 
Good questions Steve. As excited as I was when I first heard KFI in the Chicago area in the early 60s, I was also excited to hear the Chicago and other eastern stations on the west coast. We had family on the west coast and used to visit out there in August during some 60s summers. Not only did I hear the four 1A Chicago blowtorches, but I did hear WCBS and WBZ. I even picked up WABC early one morning when KOB was off the air.
I'm guessing back in radios early days there were more rural areas in the east and Midwest that needed to be served.
 
Agree.... Great topic! Just off the top of my head, a few of my favorite catches.....

KFRU: 1400 Columbia, MO. My first graveyard DX and made me realize GY channel DX was possible. WLAY 1450 from Muscle Shoals, AL followed not long after.

R. Enciclopedia: 530 Cuba at my brother-in-law's house in the Southern California High Desert.

WOKY: 920 Milwaukee 1kw night pattern at my college location in Iowa taught me that patience pays off. i'd been trying for about two years. Not long after, I also snagged WRIT on 1340 from Milwaukee.

CKWX: 1130 from Vancouver, BC. I assumed this would have been impossible until I heard it about 8 years ago. I've subsequently heard it a few times since.

WDGY: 1130 from Minneapolis. In all morning one Saturday in February 1964. My introduction to daytime skywave.
 
Great topic! When I was MW DXing in Tulsa Oklahoma as a kid in the early 1970's, interesting to me as I recall were things such as the British Virgin Islands on 780, UK on 1215, Radio Belize on 834 (?), Bahamas on 1540, Jamaica (can't remember frequency). There were also many Colombians/Venezuelans, etc. All of this was using a barefoot Realistic TRF portable. Unfortunately my log book from that time was lost, so I'm relying on my memory. I also remember discovering E-skip, both on TV and FM. I particularly remember catching Miami channel 4 and 7 one afternoon. On FM, I once heard and QSL'd WRVO in Oswego, NY, which was <1,000 watts in those days.

In Perth Australia from 2012-16, lots of interesting stuff. Probably the most memorable, if not the toughest, was just after we moved. I was up in the night with a bad cough and turned on the radio as a distraction. Within 10 minutes I heard 2 VOA's from Africa- 909 from Botswana and 1530 from Sao Tome - for the first time. That's when I realized what a DX paradise I'd moved to! Other interesting ones I heard while there included Moldova 1413, Radio Free Tanzania 1377, Mayotte (island near Madagascar) 1458, and various stations in the Middle East.

Since I moved back to Houston in 2016, nothing quite as interesting as those. Maybe the most interesting thing to me nowadays is the X-band. I heard Radio Chapingo XEUACH 1610 from the Mexico City area before they moved to 1130 in September 2018.
 
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AM - In February of this year, I was listening on 780 as WBBM was fading and unexpectedly heard a "Radio Viva" ID, followed by Spanish-language music and then a unique ID jingle. It was HJFV in Pasto, Colombia, my furthest AM logging at 2,395 miles and only catch from South America. The receiver was a CCRadio-2E coupled to a Terk Advantage antenna.

FM - In August 2016 I came home and turned on my Boston Acoustics Horizon Solo radio (just connected to a 30" wire antenna) and immediately heard a "Super K - La Super Estación" ID followed by reggaeton music. It turned out to be 89.5 HRKK in San Lorenzo, Honduras. The station was gone before I could start recording. Also, during the same June 30, 2017, nighttime e-skip opening in which Crainbebo logged Waco via double hop, I briefly caught a weak 98.9 KKZX in Spokane. It's my longest FM catch at 1,596 miles and only double hop logging. That reception was made on a SPARC SHD-T750 radio connected to a dipole placed above an outside window.

LW - Just before sunset on Nov. 23, 2016, I took my Sony 7600GR and 14" PK loop to a nearby park to escape the ever-present RFI in my neighborhood. On 162 kHz I heard what I thought at first was a weak image of a local AM station. The song "Little Sparrow" by Leyla McCalla was playing. This was followed by French-language talk and time signal pips. I was able to match what I was hearing to France Inter's webstream. I couldn't believe it and am still amazed to this day. I've yet to make any other transatlantic LW catches.
 
Steve Green NEPA said:
Right you are, Gar. 'Rewarding' is exactly the sensation.

I heard KFI back near JFK in all those 60's years *once*. Even KNX came in better in the post-sunset racket once. 1070 had several stations on the frequency even in the past.
640 had only CBN and Cuba in the way. CBN used to sign off at 1:07 (12:07 our time).
Akron wasn't on late at night. GREAT station then. They signed off at LSS time in Los Angeles.

What I'm wondering is why stations like WCBS 880, WBZ 1030 and the rest were all heard on the West Coast as veritable regulars (almost pests, I suppose :). All those signals had to conquer the same mountain ranges irrespective of direction, right ? Certainly, WBZ *sent* it all that way. But WNBC, WABC and WCAU 1210 did not.

Maybe KFI had the substandard signal vis-avis KNX ?
.
Click to expand...

I could hear WCAU late at night back in the 70's in northern California after the station in Oklahoma signed off.

Since it's all sky wave across the country at night, I don't think mountain ranges would have much effect if at all on reception, unlike with ground waves during the day.
 
hawaiigar said:
I could hear WCAU late at night back in the 70's in northern California after the station in Oklahoma signed off.

Since it's all sky wave across the country at night, I don't think mountain ranges would have much effect if at all on reception, unlike with ground waves during the day.
Click to expand...

I also heard WCAU on the west coast back in the 60s. Oklahoma must have been off.
 
I remember getting REV 89.5 KTSC FM Pueblo, Colorado on 07-14-2010 at 6pm on my Sony Walkman then it faded out

On TV, In Vallejo, CA around 5:30pm - 6pm..I was playing around with my Sony Watchman scanning VHF lo..I got a faint piture on Channel 2, I quicky ran up the stairs to get a better signal..I also hooked up a antanna on the big TV..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUvieLSbd_s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3lSt2-Gaj4

I think it was going on for like 45 mins the skip...

I don't know if it was the farthest, But UNIDed

on AM, WOAI from Las Vegas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-t3Hq1GYBE&feature=youtu.be on 07-06-2012

But the farthest on AM is JOUB 774 kHz Akita, Japan 4,973 mile In West Sacramento, CA

Right before 2 am, I decided to check 774 kHz ..I got it under KKOB's splatter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePDZPy9ni-I
 
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