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AM Frequency of the Week: 680

cyberdad

cyberdad

Crysral Lake, IL:

Days: Splatter from local WSCR (670)

Nights: WSCR splatter is still an issue, but sometimes a signal on 680 can be strong enough to break through. Most recently, it's usually CJOB from Winnipeg (which used to be very rare here). I've also heard CFTR from Toronto a couple of times in recent months. For years, WCTT from Corbin, KY, was most likely to show up. But it's been several years since I've heard them. If I'm not mistaken, they have spent most of their existance running 500 watts at night, but lately they're at 830 watts nighttime. Perhaps the new DA that went with the upgrade is responsible for their absence.

More recently, just this past week, I was hearing sports on 680 a little after local sunrise. My guess is WHBE from the Louisville area, but I couldn't ID it.

Other Location: Also about a week or so ago, on the Peoria, IL, SDR, I was hearing CJOB mixing with WPTF. CJOB getting the better of it. I don't believe I've ever heard WPTF at my location, although I'm sure other Chicago area DXers undoubtedly have.
 
Overland Park, Kansas:

Day: A reasonably strong and listenable KFEQ in St. Joseph, MO. KFEQ is 5 kW directional both day and night. The daytime pattern is only slightly directional - east-west.

Night: The KFEQ nighttime pattern is a 3-tower figure 8 pattern that favors my location. However, on occasion the signal is overcome by 50 kW KNBR, San Francisco late at night. I have not logged any other stations to date.

Bob
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs WSCR splatter dominates 680 during the day. At night it's usually a combination of WPTF and CJOB. I've also heard CFTR a few times, but not in awhile.

Retro: WPTF used to be more dominant on 680 than it is now. Years ago when then WMAQ signed off on Monday mornings
WPTF was off too and KNBR was a regular catch. That was a long time ago and I have not heard KNBR in quite awhile.
 
Chicago by the lakeshore:

Daytime: nothing

Nighttime: Either CJOB Winnipeg or WPTF Raleigh. WPTF comes in better right on the lake and CJOB is more likely as you move inland. I've also gotten WCTT in Corbin, KY once, and CFTR Toronto twice.
 
Southwest suburbs of Chicago:

In the beginning, there was KNBR, only after WMAQ's Sunday night/Monday morning signoff. Never again since 680 got busier and 670 rarely signs off.

In order of appearance, there's been CFTR Toronto (and not recently), WCBM Baltimore, WPTF Raleigh, then a rare one in KKYX San Antonio. CJOB Winnipeg started becoming a regular in Oct. 2018 (at least when WSCR's then-usual IBOC was off), while WCTT Corbin, Ky., showed up overnight on 11/9/2019, all 830 watts of it. With the 670 IBOC gone, CJOB is there more often than not.
 
For those in the Midwest and points East, is KNBR the most reliable San Francisco station at night or KGO? My experience has always been that KNBR gets out better to points east and south whereas KGO is very reliable to the north and into Alaska.
 
East Tennessee: Days---a weak but audible WCTT, Corbin KY with big band/old school music. Around sunset, WPTF is a frequent visitor as is WCNN, Atlanta and WKAZ, Charleston WV. Nights----generally a mix of WCTT and WPTF. I have gotten CFTR once, but I'm thinking it was a day pattern at night situation.

Retro/other: WCTT gets out. This was well before the change but I heard WCTT in Fort Wayne IN in the early 90s with Cincinnati Reds baseball. On the Edinburgh IN SDR, daytime reception is WHBE, with Charleston and Corbin making appearances.
 
asugeorge1 said:
For those in the Midwest and points East, is KNBR the most reliable San Francisco station at night or KGO? My experience has always been that KNBR gets out better to points east and south whereas KGO is very reliable to the north and into Alaska.
Click to expand...
Definitely KNBR. I didn't put it in my original post, but as Radioman alluded to, KNBR was not a regular, but on a good Monday morning with WMAQ off it was occasionally doable for me. Even with WMAQ/WSCR on, it could sometimes turn up just about anywhere in Illinois outside of the greater Chicago metro area. KNBR was at least semi-reliable for me in most of the western Midwest, unless you were in one of KFEQ's two major lobes.

At my college location in southeast Iowa, KFEQ was audible daytime on 10kw day power, until sunset when (then) KBAT from San Antonio would boom in before going to night powe/pattern and then disappear.
 
asugeorge1 said:
For those in the Midwest and points East, is KNBR the most reliable San Francisco station at night or KGO? My experience has always been that KNBR gets out better to points east and south whereas KGO is very reliable to the north and into Alaska.
Click to expand...
I was never able to hear KGO in the Chicago area. WGY owns 810 in the eastern part of the US and KGO has a null in this direction. KGO is also reliable to the south as the signal is quite strong in Southern California at night. I don't know about now, but years ago KGO had an excellent night time signal into southern Mexico. In the middle of the US WHB has a good signal at night.
Back to 680 which is the topic, I haven't heard KNBR in the Chicago area in years, but it was doable in the past when 670 in Chicago was off the air.
 
Days::KNBR

Nights:::KNBR. One of the cleanest AM stations here in the San Fransisco bay area.. I don't hear anything underneath it, Nor does it fade like the 50KW Sacramento stations do.
 
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: usually CJOB

DX/RETRO: CFTR and WPTF used to be more common in the past. I have heard WCTT on couple occasions in the past two months with oldies format, but they are not as common as they used to be as well. Others heard in the past include KKYX (San Antonio, TX), WCNN (N. Atlanta, GA), WRVR (Memphis, TN), WOGO (Hallie, WI), WDCB (Escanaba, MI), WJIE (Newburg,TN)
 
Orange County, T Days a weak KKYX using long wire Nights KKYX with at times a weak KFEQ or WCNN.

A thanks goes out to cyberdad mentioning KBAT. On our yearly family trips to Kerrville that was one of our (teenagers) go to stations along with KTSA & KONO. At sunset we lost all three and then it was over to KOMA, WLS or KAAY. KLVI was listenable and of course that's what I listened to as it was one of my locals.
 
Central Louisiana

Daytime: Nothing

Nightime: KKYX when I orient my radio East-West. KFEQ when I orient North-South. KKYX usually has the stronger signal of the two.
 
It used to be 680 was 1 kW DA-1 CHLO, St. Thomas, ON, south of London, ON, Days and sometimes Nights. They moved to 1570 in 1970, in a deal with CHFI to expand on 680. For a while CHLO and CHFI were both on 680. Now CHFI is 50 kW DA-2 CFTR. CHLO's signal was very good to the West on 680. I used to listen back in the mid to late 1960s when it was Top 40. During the time CHFI was at lower power, I could easily hear WDBC Escanaba on a good Sony TRF portable by nulling out CHFI. I could never figure out how CHLO could go that well to the West and still protect KNBR, as it would exceed the IDF permitted under the Treaty and Skywave model apparently still used for the Treaty. I could never get the pattern information from Bill Dulmage, who had a coverage map for CHLO on his website at one time.

CHLO_1967-05-10_1.jpg
 
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From Mountain View, Hawaii ...

Daytime - Nothing

Nighttime - KNBR usually one of the strongest signals from the west coast.

The local on 670 doesn't even cause any splatter.

DXBob said:
Night: The KFEQ nighttime pattern is a 3-tower figure 8 pattern that favors my location. However, on occasion the signal is overcome by 50 kW KNBR, San Francisco late at night. I have not logged any other stations to date.
Click to expand...

The Kansas SDR from Overland Park is one of my favorites but I haven't tried for KNBR because of KFEQ, however I will now try for KNBR.

Thanks for the heads up!
 
WCJ said:
A thanks goes out to cyberdad mentioning KBAT. On our yearly family trips to Kerrville that was one of our (teenagers) go to stations along with KTSA & KONO. At sunset we lost all three and then it was over to KOMA, WLS or KAAY. KLVI was listenable and of course that's what I listened to as it was one of my locals.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the kind words.

KBAT really surprised me when it blasted in for about a half hour during late afternoons at least as often as not. Really strong. Then ir completely vanished without a trace when they powered down.
 
In NW San Antonio it's my local, classic country KKYX 24/7.

Aiming N-NW at night I get a very slight partial null in which I sometimes hear weak snatches of KFEQ when KKYX isn't playing any music. When KFEQ first goes to day pattern at early morning, I regularly hear it with a slightly stronger signal during the music breaks.
 
Carmichael, CA

Day & Night: KNBR San Francisco
gar hi said:
The Kansas SDR from Overland Park is one of my favorites but I haven't tried for KNBR because of KFEQ, however I will now try for KNBR.
Thanks for the heads up!
Click to expand...
I'm on the Kansas SDR something is under KFEQ & It's not KNBR
 
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