AM Bandscan Highlights: Santa Barbara, CA

[cyberdad]

Hotel in Downtown Santa Barbara. Across the street from Pacific Ocean. 93 miles northwest of Los Angeles. Daytime unless otherwise indicated.....

540:: XESURF - Weak
570: KLAC - Very weak
600: KOGO - Weak-Fair (In general, San Diego area signals are slightly better here due to salt water path)
640: KFI - Fair
680: KNBR - Fair. Ii expected this one to be better, but it wasn't
690: XEWW - Weak (audio also sounded "muddy")
720: KDWN - (night) - Fair
740: KBRT - Fair by day/KCBS strong by night.
760: KGB - Fair
790: KABC - Weak
810: KGO - Fair
840: KXNT - (night) Good, Stronger than KDWN.
860: XEMO - Fair
930: KHJ - Very weak
940: KFRE - Very weak
950: XEGM - Weak
980: KFWB - Barely Audible (Local on 990 not helping matters)
1020: KTNQ: Weak - Fair
1070: KNX: Good. Best LA signal. Transmitter near the ocean, definitely helps up here.
1090: XEPRS: Good. Best San Diego area signal
1110: (ex-KRLA) - Weak
1170: KCBQ - Weak
1330: KWKW (L.A.) - Fair. Mild surprise....Especially with a semi-local on 1340
1530: KFBK - (night) Good skywave signal
1540: KMPC - Fair (better than I expected)

 

[davideduardo]

Hotel in Downtown Santa Barbara. Across the street from Pacific Ocean. 93 miles northwest of Los Angeles. Daytime unless otherwise indicated.....

540:: XESURF - Weak
570: KLAC - Very weak
600: KOGO - Weak-Fair (In general, San Diego area signals are slightly better here due to salt water path)
640: KFI - Fair
680: KNBR - Fair. Ii expected this one to be better, but it wasn't
690: XEWW - Weak (audio also sounded "muddy")
720: KDWN - (night) - Fair
740: KBRT - Fair by day/KCBS strong by night.
760: KGB - Fair
790: KABC - Weak
810: KGO - Fair
840: KXNT - (night) Good, Stronger than KDWN.
860: XEMO - Fair
930: KHJ - Very weak
940: KFRE - Very weak
950: XEGM - Weak
980: KFWB - Barely Audible (Local on 990 not helping matters)
1020: KTNQ: Weak - Fair
1070: KNX: Good. Best LA signal. Transmitter near the ocean, definitely helps up here.
1090: XEPRS: Good. Best San Diego area signal
1110: (ex-KRLA) - Weak
1170: KCBQ - Weak
1330: KWKW (L.A.) - Fair. Mild surprise....Especially with a semi-local on 1340
1530: KFBK - (night) Good skywave signal
1540: KMPC - Fair (better than I expected)

Fascinating. All the times we've gone to Santa Barbara it's always been with a backpack and no radio... half the fun was taking the train from Van Nuys or, even better, Union Station and enjoying the beautiful ride. Anyone visiting LA should consider that ride as a wonderful day trip.

 

[radioman148]

Hotel in Downtown Santa Barbara. Across the street from Pacific Ocean. 93 miles northwest of Los Angeles. Daytime unless otherwise indicated.....

540:: XESURF - Weak
570: KLAC - Very weak
600: KOGO - Weak-Fair (In general, San Diego area signals are slightly better here due to salt water path)
640: KFI - Fair
680: KNBR - Fair. Ii expected this one to be better, but it wasn't
690: XEWW - Weak (audio also sounded "muddy")
720: KDWN - (night) - Fair
740: KBRT - Fair by day/KCBS strong by night.
760: KGB - Fair
790: KABC - Weak
810: KGO - Fair
840: KXNT - (night) Good, Stronger than KDWN.
860: XEMO - Fair
930: KHJ - Very weak
940: KFRE - Very weak
950: XEGM - Weak
980: KFWB - Barely Audible (Local on 990 not helping matters)
1020: KTNQ: Weak - Fair
1070: KNX: Good. Best LA signal. Transmitter near the ocean, definitely helps up here.
1090: XEPRS: Good. Best San Diego area signal
1110: (ex-KRLA) - Weak
1170: KCBQ - Weak
1330: KWKW (L.A.) - Fair. Mild surprise....Especially with a semi-local on 1340
1530: KFBK - (night) Good skywave signal
1540: KMPC - Fair (better than I expected)

Thanks for the report. Many years ago I was right off the water in Laguna Beach up on a hill and heard KGO and KNBR mid day in winter. They were weak, but there.

 

[cyberdad]

Fascinating. All the times we've gone to Santa Barbara it's always been with a backpack and no radio... half the fun was taking the train from Van Nuys or, even better, Union Station and enjoying the beautiful ride. Anyone visiting LA should consider that ride as a wonderful day trip.

My son in law has taken that train ride. The focal point of our trip has been to visit our daughter, who lives in Santa Monica. The reason for this week is that she's on break from her teaching at USC. We spent the weekend at the nearby Marina Del Rey Marriott...a high rise with too much noise, steel, and concrete for significant DXing. Then came up to Santa Barbara for two days of mother-daughter wine tasting. I was supposed to be the designated driver, but they were able to walk (or stumble) to all the tasting venues. A good time was had by all.

I really had hoped to snag any one of KNBR, KVBS (under KBRT) or KGO during daytime. I've heard all of them in Solvang, only about 40 miles from here, on business trips. Alas, no luck here in this open, but still urban. setting of the hotel courtyard.

BTW, should have mentioned earlier that the radio I'm traveling with is my (relatively) new C Crane Skywave....which is proving to be a pretty good little travel radio. The Sony SRF-37 that I've owned for years is comparable, if not quite equal, on AM. But the Crane packs in more useful features into a slightly larger package and performs better on FM.

 

[davideduardo]

My son in law has taken that train ride. The focal point of our trip has been to visit our daughter, who lives in Santa Monica. The reason for this week is that she's on break from her teaching at USC. We spent the weekend at the nearby Marina Del Rey Marriott...a high rise with too much noise, steel, and concrete for significant DXing. Then came up to Santa Barbara for two days of mother-daughter wine tasting. I was supposed to be the designated driver, but they were able to walk (or stumble) to all the tasting venues. A good time was had by all.

I really had hoped to snag any one of KNBR, KVBS (under KBRT) or KGO during daytime. I've heard all of them in Solvang, only about 40 miles from here, on business trips. Alas, no luck here in this open, but still urban. setting of the hotel courtyard.

BTW, should have mentioned earlier that the radio I'm traveling with is my (relatively) new C Crane Skywave....which is proving to be a pretty good little travel radio. The Sony SRF-37 that I've owned for years is comparable, if not quite equal, on AM. But the Crane packs in more useful features into a slightly larger package and performs better on FM.

Did you buy the C Crane direct or via Amazon or another retailer? I'm thinking of getting one now that traveling seems safe again.

 

[crainbebo]

Are you able to get any San Diego FMs on the car radio from Santa Barbara? There is a pretty regular tropo path from San Diego up to the Malibu and Santa Barbara area when the inversions come in.
Someday I hope to head down there...have a family member on my mother's side living in Chino Hills that I've never met. It won't be this year, but maybe in '22? I can't imagine what that plan could look like. Knock out a day or two at Disneyland, head over to the O.C. beaches, travel up to Santa Monica and maybe experience Universal. Let me try and win the lottery first.

 

[radioman148]

Did you buy the C Crane direct or via Amazon or another retailer? I'm thinking of getting one now that traveling seems safe again.

I have the radio also and bought it direct. It's great for traveling.

 

[fordranger797]

Are you able to get any San Diego FMs on the car radio from Santa Barbara? There is a pretty regular tropo path from San Diego up to the Malibu and Santa Barbara area when the inversions come in.
Someday I hope to head down there...have a family member on my mother's side living in Chino Hills that I've never met. It won't be this year, but maybe in '22? I can't imagine what that plan could look like. Knock out a day or two at Disneyland, head over to the O.C. beaches, travel up to Santa Monica and maybe experience Universal. Let me try and win the lottery first.

I would live to know the answer to that question as well! Also curious to hear if any of the LA FM's made it in. I would expect that Mount Wilson signals are probably too far to the east to traverse some of the mountainous terrain.

 

[wildthangjim]

Back in the 90's I traveled often to our office in Ventura, on the coast about 30 miles east of Santa Barbara. I sometimes heard 91X and possibly other San Diego stations on the rental car radio from there. Many LA stations could be received as well. I remember they played K-Earth over the speakers in our office.

 

[davideduardo]

I would live to know the answer to that question as well! Also curious to hear if any of the LA FM's made it in. I would expect that Mount Wilson signals are probably too far to the east to traverse some of the mountainous terrain.

Many formerly usable LA signals in Santa Barbara have been covered by newer adjacent channel stations and translators. Back in the late 90's, LA's KLVE was often top 10 in that market, but a new adjacent allocation wiped it out.

 

[crainbebo]

The adjacent in question being another Spanish station - KIST-107.7 'Radio Bronco', Regional Mexican.
I do know that 97.9 (KLAX), 98.7 (KYSR), 102.3 (KJLH), and 104.3 (KBIG) are blocked out there in any case by translators in Santa Barbara. Power 106 is also blocked out by KRAZ, a small country station in Santa Ynez. 97.9 and 102.3 are AM revitalization translators, KTMS and KCLU. Of course, the local 105KW grandfathered blaster, KRUZ 103.3 goes out forever, all the way to San Diego most days with the water path.

 

[radioman148]

Same thing in the Coachella Valley. Several LA FMs used to come in such as KRTH which actually could be heard better in the eastern part of the valley away from Mt San Jacinto. Now the translators and adjacents have taken over.

 

[crainbebo]

Do any of the L.A. FMs make it into Victorville and maybe even Barstow? Or has that area been swallowed up by translators? I know they don't make it into Ridgecrest. There used to be a Global Tuners receiver in Ridgecrest. Decent FM antenna, but as for Los Angeles, only a very weak 94.7 the Wave made it in, and the 97.5 in Riverside.

 

[MarioMania]

Are you going to do a FM Scan?

 

[davideduardo]

Do any of the L.A. FMs make it into Victorville and maybe even Barstow? Or has that area been swallowed up by translators? I know they don't make it into Ridgecrest. There used to be a Global Tuners receiver in Ridgecrest. Decent FM antenna, but as for Los Angeles, only a very weak 94.7 the Wave made it in, and the 97.5 in Riverside.

I don't know about specific High Desert communities, but the market is called Victor Valley.

LA stations that show or have shown recently in the market include:

KYSR
KWVE
KTWV
KSCA
KRRL
KROQ
KPWR
KOST
KLVE
KLOS
KKGO
KIIS
KBIG

This is a map of the Nielsen Victor Valley market

 

[davideduardo]

The adjacent in question being another Spanish station - KIST-107.7 'Radio Bronco', Regional Mexican.
I do know that 97.9 (KLAX), 98.7 (KYSR), 102.3 (KJLH), and 104.3 (KBIG) are blocked out there in any case by translators in Santa Barbara. Power 106 is also blocked out by KRAZ, a small country station in Santa Ynez. 97.9 and 102.3 are AM revitalization translators, KTMS and KCLU. Of course, the local 105KW grandfathered blaster, KRUZ 103.3 goes out forever, all the way to San Diego most days with the water path.

KLAX, KYSR and KJLH are not on Mt Wilson, and would not reach out of the immediate area anyway; they do not even cover all the LA metro well. KLAX is on the Verdugo Peak in Glendale, KYSR is on Mulholland Drive and KJLH is in the Baldwin Hills near Inglewood.

 

[fordranger797]

Many formerly usable LA signals in Santa Barbara have been covered by newer adjacent channel stations and translators. Back in the late 90's, LA's KLVE was often top 10 in that market, but a new adjacent allocation wiped it out.

That's a shame, though I'm not surprised that the translators have moved in. While it's pretty much par for the course for translators to take over "open" frequencies, I wonder if any of the local residents cared or complained. Many of us signal geeks will complain about translators on a website like Radio Discussions, but not actually care in the real world since none of us actually listen to most of the stations we catch. However, it sounds like there are some people in the Santa Barbara market who actually did listen on a regular basis to some of the LA signals.

 

[cyberdad]

Did you buy the C Crane direct or via Amazon or another retailer? I'm thinking of getting one now that traveling seems safe again.

Direct. Got it two days later. $89 IIRC. Amazon had a similar price, but was out of stock. Definitely a good little radio for travel. Lots of features, although it's missing a BFO function for SW and a DX/Local switch for FM, Weather band blows the doors off the SRF-37 Walkman. It does come with ear buds, but I'm not an earbud guy. But it spunds just fine with my $25 Sony headphones.

 

[cyberdad]

Do any of the L.A. FMs make it into Victorville and maybe even Barstow? Or has that area been swallowed up by translators? I know they don't make it into Ridgecrest. There used to be a Global Tuners receiver in Ridgecrest. Decent FM antenna, but as for Los Angeles, only a very weak 94.7 the Wave made it in, and the 97.5 in Riverside.

David answered your question better than I could have. Actually at my brother in law's location KRTH seems to be the strongest LA signal. My brother in a law's house, which he built about twenty years ago, is on an acre in an open location between Hisperia and Victorville, about a mile off the I-15, Most of the LA FMs area audible there, but not all of them,

And @Mario.... No, I didn't do an FM bandscan that I can report. Basically, I was pretty busy with family stuff and only had time for a quick scan or two.

 

[cyberdad]

David answered your question better than I could have. Actually at my brother in law's location KRTH seems to be the strongest LA signal. My brother in a law's house, which he built about twenty years ago, is on an acre in an open location between Hisperia and Victorville, about a mile off the I-15, Most of the LA FMs area audible there, but not all of them,

And @Mario.... No, I didn't do an FM bandscan that I can report. Basically, I was pretty busy with family stuff and only had time for a quick pass or two of the FM band.