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1520: Your Most Wanted Station

Steve Green NEPA

Steve Green NEPA

Dead or alive, hi.

Even though KOMA (back in Queens near JFK Airport) often became a sort of faint mid-60's pest when WKBW was off, I'd put KOMA as my craved 1520 catch here in the newer NE Pennsylvania. I've turned back the dials of the radios here to 000 for a do-over, hi.

* * * * * * *

I've heard five stations on 1520 since I moved to here. But on one occasion I had thought that the nearest city to me (Pottsivlle) had licensed another local station one sunshiney February afternoon. It was louder than WPPA 1360 and WPAM 1450.
Well, it turned out to be WWKBW. Wow, were they loud!

What 1520 station would you folks like most to come into and onto your radio ?

Perhaps even a then-and-now station ? Early in your career as a DXer and in later years?

* * * * * * *

And speaking of generational turns : Happy Columbo Day!
 
KOMA was always the strong one here in the near north Chicago suburbs. I would have liked to have heard WKBW more, but most of the time it was absent or blasted away by KOMA. I tried for the station in Port Hueneme, Ca when KOMA was off, but never heard it.

BTW: Last time I was in Hawaii about 10 years ago KOKC, formerly KOMA was heard.
 
There's nothing on 1520 near me, so I could list a few "most wanteds". I've never heard WWKB in Tennessee so that's one. A couple from the home area are WQCT, Bryan, Ohio and WSVL, Shelbyville IN.

Retro: I never heard WKBW in Ohio in the top 40 era, that would have been nice.


Brad
 
If I’m not mistaken, David heard WKBW in the Eastern suburbs of Cleveland. He may be the one that the Engineer claimed that the signal must have gone clear around the Earth for him to have heard it. I hear it in Michigan during Auroral events where it apparently reflects off of ion clouds North of Buffalo. Right after noting WWL is there, it usually begins recovery at the top of the band.
 
Schroedingers Cat said:
If I’m not mistaken, David heard WKBW in the Eastern suburbs of Cleveland. He may be the one that the Engineer claimed that the signal must have gone clear around the Earth for him to have heard it. I hear it in Michigan during Auroral events where it apparently reflects off of ion clouds North of Buffalo. Right after noting WWL is there, it usually begins recovery at the top of the band.
Click to expand...

Actually, it was KOOL in PHX that responded saying that their love went all to the SW and must have gone around the world to reach me.

But 1520 was quiet enough to be able to hear WKBW fairly easily, and with an azimuth adjustable loop, I could null either KOMA or WKBW to listen to either quite well.
 
KMPG Hollister and KKZZ Port Hueneme, both California, both getting away from me and an ID several times.
 
Here in Houston, our local KYND has been off the air more than on recently. Thus, KOKC dominates starting before sunset through an hour+ after sunrise. Most wanted here would probably be WWKB and any of the west coast stations.

In Tulsa in the early 70's, KOMA was it while they were on. At infrequent times early Monday mornings when KOMA was off, I never caught WKBW but do remember hearing the Oregon station KYXI once.
 
KOMA was as good as it gets back in the late 60s. My nighttime go-to at college in Iowa. At home in the Chicago area, I'd repeatedly try to get KOMA with a listenable signal, The "getting" part wasn't all that difficult. The "listenable" part was another story. The much stronger signals from WLAC and WCKY inevitably resulted in some extreme splatter on 1520. But after midnight Sundays, WLAC and WCKY were off, while KOMA kept going for another two hours. With the splatter gone, KOMA was then in the clear and very listenable.
 
When I was in Florida, WWKB was a most wanted for a long time until I finally got an ID when their signal temporarily rose above the rest.

The old WKBW was by far my favorite nighttime DXing station when I was growing up in Jersey.

It often had a local quality signal strength.
 

No 1520 in the Bay Area...at night I can pick up KKZZ (10 Kw, 1 Kw) out of Ventura County with heavy static. At least, I think it's this station. I will have to try again.
 
Street Novelist said:

No 1520 in the Bay Area...at night I can pick up KKZZ (10 Kw, 1 Kw) out of Ventura County with heavy static. At least, I think it's this station. I will have to try again.
Click to expand...

Yes, definitely KKZZ. I could tell because they were discussing the Mexican soccer league, Liga MX. I believe they are an affiliate of TUDN Radio.
 
Street Novelist said:

No 1520 in the Bay Area...at night I can pick up KKZZ (10 Kw, 1 Kw) out of Ventura County with heavy static. At least, I think it's this station. I will have to try again.
Click to expand...

All caps or all bold is for a headline or emphasis point. Please post in "normal" text, as it makes it easier to read for others.
 
Just a test here, to see if my usual font 'takes'.

After all, I started the thread. So there. Nyahhh.

* * * * * * *

Apropos of little else ; I learned this just last night:

Via a private message on an internet Oldies station chat room, I was informed of the reason we on the east coast got European Hets at 4 in the morning. I always wondered how the signals from a region would've gotten off the launch pad there when it was broad daylight by them.

'Partial polar path, if not total, especially in winter,' was the answer I got.

Duh, Green.

And there I was once, explaining the SAME PRINCIPLE about how KYW 1060 was heard in Hawaii -- curvature of the earth that their NW signal adhered to at night.

The same fellow who filled in this literally bi-polar blind spot also mentioned that WKBW 1520 (remember the frequency topic, hi?) was stationed in Germany during the Nam years. He says that WKBW was afforded pretty much the same geographical benefit at night to northern Europe. He tesiified that 'KB would bomb into places like Sweden and the British Isles.
 
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It is true that back in the day WKBW used to get into parts of Europe and Scandinavia. Now as WWKB I have heard it on some of the European SDRs in recent years.
 
DXBob said:
Reportedly, KOMA was occasionally heard by U.S. troops in Vietnam...

Bob
Click to expand...

I floated around on a destroyer with 32' whips and various longwire antennas for two years on the gunline and don't ever remember receiving anything from the States. The only English language commercial radio we ever got in any kind of listenable quality was Radio Diffusion out of Hong Kong and you had to be pretty close to get that. Worst hash, no matter the frequency, was the rule in S.E. Asia. We usually communicated via RTTY and, believe it or not, the most reliable signal we could reach was 12966kc San Francisco. It never lasted long but it was strong when it came in. The max power we had in the mid-60's was 1,000 watts single sideband but we usually ran 500watts AM because sideband was hard on our antenna impedance-matching tuners. AFRTS from Guam was usually receivable after midnight local but full of hash and not very listenable.
 
I remember hearing reports that KOMA and a few other US stations were heard way out in the Pacific. In fact I remember the night time DJs on WLS back in those days referring to the listeners they had out there and they weren't speaking only about the special tapes that were sent to the troops in Vietnam.
 
radioman148 said:
I remember hearing reports that KOMA and a few other US stations were heard way out in the Pacific. In fact I remember the night time DJs on WLS back in those days referring to the listeners they had out there and they weren't speaking only about the special tapes that were sent to the troops in Vietnam.
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I listened to KOMA growing up in Tucson where the only respectable rock n roll station was KTKT. It was a daytimer though so at sunset when "Radio Free Tucson" signed off we switched to KOMA. Generally got a respectable signal although never perfect.

Sailing out of Long Beach the middle of July 1964 we first put in at Pearl Harbor and homed in on KORL. That first night out we were still receiving some L.A. AM's but by daybreak day two nothing but static. That was probably normal back then as the L.A. stations had no listeners west of Catalina Island. Once out of Pearl and headed to Japan I don't recall hearing anything on the commercial radio bands until we were several hundred miles from Japan.

We tended to operate pretty far north off Vietnam so I wouldn't expect too much DX action. I don't recall ever receiving Vietnam AFRTS for instance. And with the mix of languages in that region you could never tell exactly what the calls were.
 
landtuna said:
Sailing out of Long Beach the middle of July 1964 we first put in at Pearl Harbor and homed in on KORL. That first night out we were still receiving some L.A. AM's but by daybreak day two nothing but static. That was probably normal back then as the L.A. stations had no listeners west of Catalina Island.
Click to expand...

Now many LA and many more California stations in general throw their night signals out into the Pacific in order to run more power.
 
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