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Oddities in Western SD

Z

ZantennaG1

I went on a road trip to Rapid City with some new equipment, and the weirdness just started rolling in.

First we have off the air:
580 KZMX, despite it's 96.7 counterpart mentoning 580 (it's back to classic hits, after a few months of CCM). I intend to make a separate thread about it, which I'll link here.
Then transmitter issues:
980 seems to be on lower power, and is a struggle even in Downtown,
1490 KGOS Torrington was not audible until practically inside town.
1610, the TIS in Rapid City kept running weird tones
1710, apparently a TIS for Hot Springs? Would only pop up if I stuck my headphones in to my Radiwow R-108 in the Audio port.

Now for the good stuff:
740 KNFL was recieved in Eastern Rapid City on North Street at 379 miles!
600 KSJB was recieved at the same spot, which gets me 286 miles
550 KFYR was audible just south of the city, giving me a distance of 255 miles as the crow flies.
650 KGAB was easily heard in Edgemont and even Hot Springs, so a distance of 165 miles.
I suspect I also heard CBK as well. There are daytime catches on 660 and 1060 that I'm not sure of.

Disclaimer: All of this was between 10am and 4pm Today, so each catch is groundwave. You have got to love the Conductivity in the plains!
 
I can speak to a few of these from my travels....albeit from a perspective a number of years removed. KSJB has a favorable pattern in the direction of Rapid City, IIRC. I've heard them....along with KFYR and KGAB at distances greater than the respective mileages to Rapid City. I'm also guessing that what you heard on 540 was in all liklihood CBK. Their day signal is beyond impressive.

Now my own disclaimer.... I've been to Rapid City exactly once. And the room at my hotel east of town had too high of an electrical noise floor for me to do any DX-ing. All I was able to do were a couple of quick bandscans in the car.
 
ZantennaG1 said:
I went on a road trip to Rapid City with some new equipment, and the weirdness just started rolling in.

First we have off the air:
580 KZMX, despite it's 96.7 counterpart mentoning 580 (it's back to classic hits, after a few months of CCM). I intend to make a separate thread about it, which I'll link here.
Then transmitter issues:
980 seems to be on lower power, and is a struggle even in Downtown,
1490 KGOS Torrington was not audible until practically inside town.
1610, the TIS in Rapid City kept running weird tones
1710, apparently a TIS for Hot Springs? Would only pop up if I stuck my headphones in to my Radiwow R-108 in the Audio port.

Now for the good stuff:
740 KNFL was recieved in Eastern Rapid City on North Street at 379 miles!
600 KSJB was recieved at the same spot, which gets me 286 miles
550 KFYR was audible just south of the city, giving me a distance of 255 miles as the crow flies.
650 KGAB was easily heard in Edgemont and even Hot Springs, so a distance of 165 miles.
I suspect I also heard CBK as well. There are daytime catches on 660 and 1060 that I'm not sure of.

Disclaimer: All of this was between 10am and 4pm Today, so each catch is groundwave. You have got to love the Conductivity in the plains!
Click to expand...
Two guesses:

660 is KEYZ out of Williston, ND; they have a directional pattern that looks unfavorable in the Rapid City direction, but that ground conductivity up there is excellent.

1060 is probably KGFX from Pierre, South Dakota.
 
99% sure on KGFX 1060 Pierre. It's a flamethrower out there and I've heard them on skywave at night, but rarely.
 
Thank you all for your responses. I was able to confirm KGFX later :) I should update this to say I also snagged WNAX at 305 miles, very listenable in the truck
 
Here's the video for the bandscans:
AM....
FM....
 
ZantennaG1 said:
I went on a road trip to Rapid City with some new equipment, and the weirdness just started rolling in.

First we have off the air:
580 KZMX, despite it's 96.7 counterpart mentoning 580 (it's back to classic hits, after a few months of CCM). I intend to make a separate t
Click to expand...

KZMX has had very questionable erratic operation under Jan Charles Gray... its been off alot more than its been on and hes gotten trouble numerous times for how his operated his stations, in the eyes of the FCC
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
KZMX has had very questionable erratic operation under Jan Charles Gray... its been off alot more than its been on and hes gotten trouble numerous times for how his operated his stations, in the eyes of the FCC
Click to expand...
Any chance Jan Gray is affiliated with Mt. Rushmore Broadcasting Corp? They always seem to find trouble. Also, I think KZMX can be saved, if only they would just sell it to someone level-headed.
 
ZantennaG1 said:
Any chance Jan Gray is affiliated with Mt. Rushmore Broadcasting Corp? They always seem to find trouble. Also, I think KZMX can be saved, if only they would just sell it to someone level-headed.
Click to expand...
Thats him. He used to own KGOS/KERM in Torrington and sold it to the guy whos dad started it. He's an ex grocery store chain lawyer from Southern California. Just grab some popcorn, coffee and google him..
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
Thats him. He used to own KGOS/KERM in Torrington and sold it to the guy whos dad started it. He's an ex grocery store chain lawyer from Southern California. Just grab some popcorn, coffee and google him..
Click to expand...
Remember 1240 KRAL? That one went down the drain ages ago because of MRB.
 
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