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AM Frequency of the Week: 810

cyberdad

cyberdad

Crystal Lake, Illinois (northwest of Chicago).....

Days: Mostly moderate splatter from semi-local WCPT (820). Sometimes in an open area, I can get "a whiff" of WZRK (ex-WDMP) from Dodgeville, WI. 250 watts ND from a distance of 109 miles..

Nights: WGY with a mostly underperforming weak signal, but still fairly reliable. I have heard the Bahamas, but not in recent years.

Wanted: The BBC blowtorch in Edinburgh, Scotland, I've heard it blasting at night in southeast England, as well as France and Germany, along with a number of Europe SDRs, but not on this side of the pond. In 1999, I spent a couple of nights in Edinburgh, and the BBC 810 was strong enough to peel paint in a brick and stone building, that not much else could penetrate. But no trace of it here at my location on this side of the pond.
 
From south Overland Park, Kansas:

Day: 50 kW non-directional WHB in Kansas City with a fairly strong daytime signal. I am located 35 miles SSW of their transmitter site. However, in winter during very early and late critical hours, I have ID'd WGY underneath WHB. This took a long time to ID. WHB does put out a great daytime signal footprint. I can receive the station on I-80 in Iowa all the way to Iowa City and east to Macomb, Illinois. Here is their daytime signal coverage area: WHB-AM Radio Station Coverage Map

Road Trips during Critical Hours: When WHB powers up to 50 kW in the morning, I have heard them in southwestern Wisconsin on U.S. 151 near Madison and on I-88 near Rochelle, Illinois before they fade out.

Night: WHB powers down to 5 kW with a 5-tower figure 8 pattern in order to protect WGY and KGO. I can hear signals otherneath WHB at times at night. One is clearly WGY. Additionally, at times WBAP on 820 kHz is strong enough to lay some splatter on WHB at night at my location. WBAP is the strongest nighttime skip signal I receive.

Bob
 
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Chicago by the lakeshore:

Daytime: Nothing
Nighttime: WGY Schnenectady is the most common. Recently I've also been getting WHB in Kansas City a good amount.
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs daytime is WCPT splatter. At night WGY with a decent signal, but not as good as the most of the others on the east coast. Critical hours I've heard Kansas City. When I first heard it many years ago it was KCMO.

Other: On the west coast it's all KGO at night with a big signal. I've heard it on the Arctic SDRs.
 
East Tennessee: Daytime-NADA
Night: Generally WGY with some other unidentified stations. In a particularly auroral night, I grabbed a good signal from ZNS3.

Retro/other: I had never heard ZNS on either 810 or 1540 in Ohio by 1980. I went to Florida for First Phone Wonder School, and traveled to Miami for the test. Yes, there is absolutely no reason you WOULDN'T get ZNS3 in broad daylight on I-95 but I thought it was cool to get "exotic DX" more or less like a local. (At the time the modulation was tinny, and I remember tuning them in late that night at the hotel, and hearing them begin The World Tomorrow with Herbert W. Armstrong. I subsequently heard ZNS3 once in Western Ohio (daytime was usually a weak WATI, beautiful music from Indianapolis).

Otherwise, the brief time I lived in Quincy, IL, I could listen to KCMO (at the time)'s talk show on the way to work in Hannibal at KGRC. No sign at night. (710 was WHB playing oldies, which I could also hear).
 
Update.....Forgot to mention, WSYW, a 250 watt non-directional daytimer from the Indianapolis area, has a history of sometimes staying on all night. When it does, at my location you can hear it mixing with r underneath WGY.

The Kansas City 810 has always been an "interesting" one for me. Both as KCMO and more recently as WHB, it was the best Kansas City day signal at my college location in southeast Iowa. Bob mentioned hearing it in Iowa City, I was about 45 miles south of there, and (as KCMO) during daytime, it was comfortably listenable. Then at night, it vanished.

Fast forward to my days of doing the drive between Omaha or Des Moines to Kansas City on a fairly frequent basis during business trips. Sometimes after sunset. 2-3 hours for either, depending on traffic, etc. On the Omaha drive on I-29, KCMO was rock solid for the entire distance. On the Des Moines drive, usually the signal was not listenable until almost the edge of the northeast suburbs.
 
Here in the far NW corner of the lower 48, of course it is all KGO all night long. Back in the diary days they used to show up pretty regularly up here in the ratings. Daytime you have this oddball 50kW daytimer out of Ephrata, WA KTBI. Guy signs on in 1983 and almost immediately starts making appeals to his listeners to call or write the FCC to let him stay on all night. Dude, you signed on to 810 in the west! What did you expect?
 
Tom Read owns KTBI, KYAK, and others. I still hear his voice on the ACN affiliates. If he's still alive, he must be pushing 90.
 
A lot of slop from local WVSG on 820 during the day around Columbus, Ohio during the day, but otherwise nothing.
At night, WGY. I heard Kansas City here once maybe seven or eight years ago but that was the only time.
 
gr8oldies said:
Otherwise, the brief time I lived in Quincy, IL, I could listen to KCMO (at the time)'s talk show on the way to work in Hannibal at KGRC. No sign at night. (710 was WHB playing oldies, which I could also hear).
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This confirms my experience on road trips through the Quincy-Hannibal area. BTW, back in the day, KGRC was a great Top 40 station. When I was in college in Macomb, Illinois, KGRC was my "go to" FM Top 40 station in my 9th floor residence hall dorm room. I had a SW exposure.

Bob
 
DXBob said:
This confirms my experience on road trips through the Quincy-Hannibal area. BTW, back in the day, KGRC was a great Top 40 station. When I was in college in Macomb, Illinois, KGRC was my "go to" FM Top 40 station in my 9th floor residence hall dorm room. I had a SW exposure.

Bob
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Very cool, that was a massive signal (I imagine 80-90 and translators have clipped its wings). By the time I got there, we had gone A/C with a love songs show at night. WQCY (99.5 at the time) was the top 40. Amazingly enough we were one of only a couple of 24 hour stations in the market at the time. I can remember DXing places as far out as Salina, KS on FM on a Sony portable from there.
 
Macomb IL was/is the home for Frank Merrill (unless he fully moved to Chicago this season) and to the greatest American TV DXer of all time...the late and forever, ever, great, Jeff Kadet (K1MOD). There's a reason why he caught 1,800 TV stations and hundreds of translators as far away as CO, TX and PA. It's those towers and 7 ft dishes.
 
crainbebo said:
Macomb IL was/is the home for Frank Merrill (unless he fully moved to Chicago this season) and to the greatest American TV DXer of all time...the late and forever, ever, great, Jeff Kadet (K1MOD). There's a reason why he caught 1,800 TV stations and hundreds of translators as far away as CO, TX and PA. It's those towers and 7 ft dishes.
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Interesting! I lived there (5) years while I was in college. It is a good spot for DX. There are few local signals to cause interference. The terrain is relatively flat. On the AM side, the ground conductivity is good but not as excellent as in the Great Plains.

Bob
 
South Mississippi:

Day- WSJC Magee, MS (religious) with weak signal, stronger in winter

Night - WHB Kansas City, WCKA Jacksonville, AL "Alabama 810" (country) also comes in during critical hours and sometimes at night.
 
From the southwest suburbs of Chicago:

Day: nothing.
Night: WGY is the usual suspect. I rarely sit on WGY, so the only other catches have been KCMO when it still went by that call, and on solo occasions, HJCY, the (then and still?) 250 kW blowtorch in Bogota, Colombia, and WCKA Jacksonville, Ala., which I'd guess was running 50 kW and not 500 the late evening in January when I caught it.
 
In west Houston, daytime (especially wintertime) is a fair-good XERI in Reynosa, recently carrying the Los 40 pop format. Strangely, I've never ID'd KYTY over in San Antonio, although sometimes there's something under XERI. At sunset, XERI mixes with WHB and WSJC. Nights are a jumble dominated by WHB.

I should be able to catch Bogota from here, need to find a less-noisy location and spend some time on 810.

Retro Tulsa in the 70's, then-KCMO was audible day and night, although not that clear at night. I also heard WGY, but don't believe I ever heard KGO.
 
In Dalton, Georgia, 810 is an odd frequency for me.

Daytime catch: Faint sounding WCKA from Jacksonville, Alabama.

30 minutes until local Sunset:
A Spanish station on 810 from Nashville, TN, called "La Jefe".
I nulled WMGC to hear WSJC from Magee, MS heard the ID.
 
cyberdad said:
I'm familiar with Dalton. I've spent several nights there on business trips between Nashville and Atlanta. Curious if you've ever snagged the 810 from the Bahamas there.
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Dalton, where the roads are carpeted. (I remember commercials in Dayton, Ohio for the Dalton Georgia Carpet Outlet). My daughter lived there very briefly. On WSBB-95.5's old tower, the signal made it to Dalton easily.
 
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