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AM Freqency of the Week: 660

cyberdad

cyberdad

Far northwest Chicago.....

Days: Splatter from WSCR (670), which has it's transmitter 25 miles to my southeast.

Nights: WFAN sometimes is strong enough to break through the afore mentioned WSCR splatter. WFAN is the weakest if the 50kw NYC non-directional signals.

Wanted: KTNN. I know it's been heard by others in the northeast Illinois area, but where I am WSCR has a very potent signal. I do hear KTNN regularly at night up and down the west coast on my trips there , but I think they'd have to be on day pattern for me to have even a ghost of a chance here. I'd also put CFFR on my "want" list.
 
In the southwest suburbs of Chicago, the only station I've gotten on 660 is WNBC / WFAN. It was a very rare catch in the days of having only rather unselective portable radios (hello, WMAQ / WSCR, 24 miles away), and soon after more regular reception was achieved, along came 670's IBOC, wiping out 660 and 680. But the IBOC pest is gone from 670 (and 780), hopefully for good, so WFAN is there almost every night on my two really good portable radios, and on the car radio as well.

WFAN will probably have to be off for me to have a shot at anything else.
 
In south Overland Park, Kansas:

Day: A very weak KCRO, Omaha, NE, at 1 kW during the day, 54 watts night.

Critical Hours: KCRO gives way to KTNN, which is easily listenable until they change to their directional night pattern.

Night: Usually nothing. On rare occasion, WFAN.

Bob
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs it's all WSCR splatter during the day. I'm less than 20 miles from their tower.
At night WNBC/WFAN comes in usually pretty well on a good radio. I can null WSCR pretty well.
I've never heard KTNN here, but whenever I'm on the west coast it's an easy catch.
 
In Phoenix, Arizona proper, 660 during the day is usually splatter from 620 KTAR AM and their massive daytime signal broadcasting from the Arcadia neighborhood of Phoenix, but if you are in the far East Valley like I am in Gilbert, you can hear very faintly KTNN during the day with their massive ground wave signal from Window Rock, Arizona. Night-time, it’s KTNN all the time. Like other posters have said, you can hear KTNN up and down the west coast. It is a very distinctive format since they air Navajo music and country music overnight so you know right away if you are picking up KTNN. Funny thing is, KTNN is Arizona’s only 24/7 50,000 watt AM station. Even the fifth most populous city in the country, Phoenix, doesn’t have a 24/7 50,000 watt AM station!
 
asugeorge1 said:
Even the fifth most populous city in the country, Phoenix, doesn’t have a 24/7 50,000 watt AM station!
Click to expand...
Radio markets are not ranked on the "central city" but on the metro. Phoenix is the 13th largest radio metro.

There are a number of very large markets that don't have a decent 50 kw AM... some have none, others have very deficient ones... like Miami. The "good ones" were allocated in the 1930's and places like Phoenix were not very big back then.

Window Rock, along with places like Guyman, OK and Lexington, NE, got 50 kw stations when the FCC decided to allow new ones to serve "gray areas" that had few or no radio signals. Phoenix or Tucson did not qualify.
 
Chicago by the lakeshore:

Daytime nothing. Nighttime WFAN in New York City. It's not too strong but it's usually there.

Retro: Bay Area, California in the 1980s. KTNN came into existence while I was DXing back then. It was a "cool rock and roll" type station back then, and came in quite well. I also have CFFR Calgary logged. Not sure if this was pre-KTNN or not. It still is at 50 KW to this day. Both stations don't have the best patterns for my current location, but given how many Saskatchewan stations come in where I am, I wonder if CFFR might be an easier catch than KTNN.
 
Nothing daytime. Nighttime is usually WFAN. It's striking to me that even with so many more stations on the air at night, WFAN seems stronger and more reliable at my place at night than it used to be. Years ago I remember struggling to find WNBC.

I finally logged KTNN on a couple of consecutive nights this fall/winter. Still never heard CFFR, although I regularly pick up 3 other Calgary stations at night. Also recently picked up some tidbits of KSKY Dallas, not during critical hours but well into the nighttime.
 
From Mountain View, Hawaii ...

Daytime - nothing

Nighttime - KTNN with a weak signal

Haven't heard a trace of WFAN since I've been here.

Never even heard WNBC from California in the pre KTNN days when it was an empty frequency out west.
 
gar hi said:
From Mountain View, Hawaii ...

Daytime - nothing

Nighttime - KTNN with a weak signal

Haven't heard a trace of WFAN since I've been here.

Never even heard WNBC from California in the pre KTNN days when it was an empty frequency out west.
Click to expand...
I did hear WNBC in California in the 1960s during the clear channel years. Since then--never.
 
East Tennessee: Day--wide open but as we get close to sunset, we have recently reactivated and downgraded WESC, simulcasting its FM night it's all WFAN.
Retro/other: Just about every place I've lived in Ohio and Indiana, I've received WXIC, the 1kW Southern Gispel station in Waverly, Ohio, which since moving from 1380 a few decades ago has been one of those 1Kwers that seems to travel forever. It's regular daytime reception on the Edinburgh, IN SDR. I'd love to DX it from here in Tennessee, and it's not beyond the realm of possibility. Night is WFAN (WNNnnnnnn BC).

KTNN was received East of the Rockies during their recent antenna problems, but I didn't personally hear them. Checking out the Key West SDR, it was a solid Radio Progreso, listed as being from Jovellanos (though I take Cuban listings with a grain of salt).
 
MichaelTheZ said:
Chicago by the lakeshore:'''
I wonder if CFFR might be an easier catch than KTNN.
Click to expand...
I've wondered that myself. CFFR has an awesome day signal. It's also the only Calgary signal that tripped my car radio scan button when I was in Banff several years ago. Of course being able to "take on" the Canadian rockies has nothing to do with CFFR possibly being audible around here. But maybe some night if they "forget" to switch on the night pattern ....
 
cyberdad said:
I've wondered that myself. CFFR has an awesome day signal. It's also the only Calgary signal that tripped my car radio scan button when I was in Banff several years ago. Of course being able to "take on" the Canadian rockies has nothing to do with CFFR possibly being audible around here. But maybe some evening if they "forget" to switch on the night pattern ....
Click to expand...
 
Orange County, TX Days a weak KSKY using a Terk or long wire, barefoot nothing. Nights KSKY quite stronger with Spanish language underneath with at times WXQW Fairhope, AL. Back in April 2016 KFAN was in for about 3 minutes with TOH ID. Also in April, 2016 KTNN was there for a while with TOH ID.
 
Before all the electronic noisemakers "signed on", you could hear a ground wave from WMIC 660 at 1 kW 2 tower DA beamed North from Sandusky, MI in the Thumb, all the way up to the Straits of Mackinac. It's buried in noise now. I'm going to try hearing it in a nearby nature preserve when the snow is pretty much gone. In the 1980s, they moved from 1560 with 1 kW DA. I wonder if they got that idea from their image being on 650, some newer radios on 660. The manager may have walked in one day and asked the engineer if they really could be on 660. Plus the fact that the skywave CH protection is pretty much the same on 660 and 1560. They have shallow nulls toward WNNNNNNBC/WFAN CH and WMAQ/WSCR ground wave.

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Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: nothing but splatter from the nearby (5 miles away) WSCR 670
Nightime: normally WFAN

DX/RETRO: now that the IBOC is off on WSCR things are little bit easier to hear. Heard some new stations as a result of this recently (Radio Progreso, Santa Clara, Cuba, XECPR Radio Chan Santa Cruz). As for KTNN the first time I heard them was in 2006. However in the past 3 months I have heard them on several occasions. Even sent them a reception report and received a nice QSL letter from them about a month ago. KTNN is quite an interesting and unique station. Other DX on this frequency include KSKY (Dallas, TX), WVAL (Sauk Rapids, MN), WESC (Greenvillle, SC), CMEB (Cuba), HRNN (La Ceiba, Honduras), YNALN La Voz de Nicaragua (Esteli, Nicaragua), XEPRM (Mexico City, Mexico). The last two are no longer on the air.
 
Picayune, MS:

Daytime: nothing
Critical hours: WXQW Fairhope, AL (news/talk)
Night: KSKY Balch Springs, TX "660 The Answer" (news/talk), also XEFZ Monterrey, Mexico "ABC Deportes" (sports)
 
WFAN comes north to New England with ease at night but it isn't bad during the day either. If you can put up with the accents --dreadful-- it's a 24/7 sports station that comes into NH,Ma,RI no problem (not sure about Vt,Me).
 
Central Louisiana

Middle of the day all I get is RF noise.

Early morning, late afternoon, and night, I can pick-up a weak KSKY from Dallas (Balch Springs). Sometimes I hear a Spanish speaking station, which I now know is XEFZ thanks to Ente's post.
 
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