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AM Frequency of the Week: 980

cyberdad

cyberdad

40 Miles northwest of downtown Chicago,,,,,

Days: 980 is usually empty. Sometimes I can get a "whiff" of WCUB in Manitowoc, WI. 5kw, but my location is in their null. (Manitowoc is located about midway between Milwaukee and Green Bay, The signal is beamed in the general direction of the latter).

Nights: WONE owns 980. One of the better 5kw skywave signals here. Usually good and usually alone. Then there's WITY from Danville, IL. 1kw from Danville, IL. Pretty much aimed right at me, although slightly to my east. But WONE usually trashes it. I've also heard heard CFPL (London, ON), KMBZ (Kansas City), and WCUB on rare occasions.
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs 980 during the day is a very weak WITY just above the noise level on a good radio.
At night WONE comes in with a pretty good signal most often. WITY can be heard in the background.

Retro: WONE used to be a good listen way back in the day when they played Top 40.
In addition to the stations mentioned I have heard KMBZ a few times.
 
From 25 miles SW of downtown Kansas City:

Day and Critical Hours: A strong and solid local signal from local 9 kW non-directional day, news-talk format, KMBZ. I am located 15 miles from their transmitter site.

Night: KMBZ at a reduced power of 5 kW, directional pattern. I do hear signals underneath late at night but none can be identified. Occasionally, there is some light splatter from 46 kW, CBW on 990 kHz in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Bob
 
In west Houston, it's local KQUE 24/7. They run Spanish Christian Radio Aleluya. I've caught then running open carrier a couple of times, and WRNE Gulf Breeze FL is heard with a fair signal on top of KMBZ.
 
wildthangjim said:
In west Houston, it's local KQUE 24/7. They run Spanish Christian Radio Aleluya. I've caught then running open carrier a couple of times, and WRNE Gulf Breeze FL is heard with a fair signal on top of KMBZ.
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WRNE is interesting. Our vacation spot on the gulf is technically within the Pensacola city limits, but 23 miles southwest of downtown via a land path mostly over barrier island sand. Even with that, their 4kw day pattern produces one of the better Pensacola signals. At night when they go to 1kw they mostly disappear into the slop. But the night pattern is aimed mostly in your direction to the west.

Back in the 1980s, the place where we spent vacations was the beach 30 miles EAST of P-cola. But WBOP/WRNE was listenable there 24/7 due to an almost entirely salt water path. That was even true for the P-cola graveyard stations on 1230 (WNVY) and 1450 (WBSR).
 
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East Tennessee: Daytime, a weak WWTB, Bristol VA

Other times: WONE (former local) is usually in there at night, sunrise, sunset and even sometimes winter daytime skip. Other possibilities are Nashville's BBN station, WYFN.

Retro/other: Dayton, OH. WONE is a local but easily nulled on night pattern. I had clear reception of WYFN in WONE's null in Bellbrook/Sugarcreek Twp.

Lafayette IN: Daytime was a weak WITY, Danville but nighttime usually brought WONE.
 
West Central Georgia:

Days: Weak WDDO Perry GA 2600/80 Religious

Nights: WYFN Nashville TN 5000 Religious most common visitor, also catch WAAV Leland/Wilmington NC 5000 News/Talk occasionally

Mornings: sometimes hear WWTB Bristol VA 5000/1000 Cool "rhythmic contemporary"
 
Chicago near the lakefront:

Daytime you can hear WAKV from Otsego, MI playing oldies. It fades pretty fast if you move away from the lake. Once I'm far enough from the lake I can sometimes here a faint WITY in Danville, IL.

At night, WONE in Dayton is the strongest.

A little before sunset a few times I've picked up CFPL in London, Ontario.
 
ere in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: usually nothing, but WAKV and WITY heard in the past
Nightime: WONE

DX/RETRO: I would consider WONE a pest, usually preventing any good DX opportunities. Besides WONE others heard on this frequency include WCUB (Two Rivers, WI), WSIX (Nashville, TN), WILK (Wilkes-BBarre,, PA), WWRC (Washington DC), WFGH (Bristol, VA), CHEX (Peterborough, ON), CKRM (Regina, SK) and TIRI (Alajuelito, Costa Rica)
 
CADXER said:
ere in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: usually nothing, but WAKV and WITY heard in the past
Nightime: WONE

DX/RETRO: I would consider WONE a pest, usually preventing any good DX opportunities. Besides WONE others heard on this frequency include WCUB (Two Rivers, WI), WSIX (Nashville, TN), WILK (Wilkes-BBarre,, PA), WWRC (Washington DC), WFGH (Bristol, VA), CHEX (Peterborough, ON), CKRM (Regina, SK) and TIRI (Alajuelito, Costa Rica)
Click to expand...

Good catch on WWRC. I've tried for that one many times, but have never heard it here.
 
Yeah that was back in 1987. Not heard again since then.
 
radioman148 said:
Unfortunately I've never been able to hear it here in Northern Illinois. Maybe I have to try harder.
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From what I've found, Critical Hours and Daytime Skywave result from a lower effective height of the ionosphere, resulting in closer skywave returns. So it tends to favor shorter distances in my experience. Maybe I'm more in the maximum of the 50 kW Day Pattern. WRC was one of the first stations to figure out how to get 50 kW on a Regional Channel. Some used existing towers. Some, like WTMJ, built new sites, but they were exact parallelograms. When Glen Clark (RIP) got involved with his supercomputers, the dogleg and other odd arrangements began to show up.
 
Orange County, TX Days KQUE Rosenburg, TX.Nights- slop. Close to sunrise KMBZ comes in fairly strong over the slop.
 
From NW San Antonio:

Day: A very weak KQUE that's only detectable on my most sensitive radios.

Sunset: KQUE comes up with a decent signal, and urban gospel station KOKA in Shreveport mixes in and sometimes takes over. WRNE in Gulf Breeze occasionally pops up as well. Aiming north to null those stations, KMBZ in KC MO can be heard. Also, to the northwest, "K-MINE Country" in Grants, NM, pops up a little later.

Night: KMBZ is stronger and WYFN in Nashville is in/out. Aiming E/W it's KQUE, WRNE, and to a lesser extent KOKA swapping in/out.

Sunrise: KQUE is much stronger. When KOKA goes to day power, it becomes dominant until skywave is gone. to the NW, KMIN is always heard at daytime powerup.

DX/RETRO: My best DX catch on 980 has been KFWB in Los Angeles (1,190 miles) at sunrise this past November 10th. Retro loggings include the retired XENR in Nueva Rosita and XEFQ in Cananea.
 
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