-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
KFI to be off
- Thread starter mofocat
- Start date
Conway was HILARIOUS when he announced the station would be going off the air and switched off his microphone for roughly 20 seconds in the middle of a sentence and then came back.... I so love his show....
As of 12:00 AM PST, KFI is now off the air so it’s a good opportunity to DX. I am heading a Spanish language station in the background. Probably the same Spanish language station I hear in the background fighting it out with KFI during the evening hours before it powers down sometime around 9 or 10:00 P.M.
As far as the background Spanish, It might be XENQ out of Hidalgo, MX although it's pretty far away and drops to 25,000 watts at night. I was thinking it could also be XEJUA which is along the U.S. border but they're daytime only. I don't see any U.S. stations on 640 that have a Spanish format and and anyway they are a few states away from California plus their nighttime power is way low. Same goes for Canadian stations, of which there are only three that broadcast on 640. Could be other stations in South America along the coastline that could be shooting a signal that travels up the coastline. As far as stations in the USA on 640, here's a link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/640_AM#In_the_United_States
It could be Radio Rebelde in Habana Cuba. Their stations tend to be massively over-powered.
From their website: Radio Rebelde has 891 kilowatts of broadcasting power with 44 transmitters that cover 98 percent of the island. It also operates on short wave on the 60-meter band at 5025 Mhz and on four FM frequencies at 92.1, 92.7, 96.7 and 102.9 on the radio dial. A total of 274 people work at Radio Rebelde. The station has correspondents in all cuban provinces, including the special municipality of the Isle of Youth.
From their website: Radio Rebelde has 891 kilowatts of broadcasting power with 44 transmitters that cover 98 percent of the island. It also operates on short wave on the 60-meter band at 5025 Mhz and on four FM frequencies at 92.1, 92.7, 96.7 and 102.9 on the radio dial. A total of 274 people work at Radio Rebelde. The station has correspondents in all cuban provinces, including the special municipality of the Isle of Youth.
If what the poster is hearing powers down, it's not a Rebelde
How long were they off?
For DX listening, aggregate power is not material.
Cuba is over 800 miles wide, and has horrible ground conductivity in most areas, just like Puerto Rico, The Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.
640 is a main frequency, and the repeaters together cover much of the island but certainly not all.
as a reference, even in Puerto Rico it takes four or five signals on AM to cover most of the Island and PR is only 100 miles wide and about 35 miles high!
Last edited:
David, so sorry for a brief off-topic interlude, but I thought you had a page (maybe on WRH) with the different types of music that might be heard on Spanish language stations. If so, could I get a link to it? Thanks!
I had not updated that page for more than a decade, and so I killed it as it was way out of date and it took a lot of work to make the sample hooks and to keep it current.
Anything Cuba on 640 was likely Radio Progreso. They get out very well, often heard in the Pacific NW with KFI phased. I didn't listen last night because eastern conditions seemed weak, but a DXer in the Seattle area heard KTIB in Louisiana early this morning along with the Juarez station.
35 miles high? That mountain range really dwarfs Everest! And I had thought there was no snow in PR…🤪🤣
Sorry, to busy thinking in Spanish today and literally translating.
I can safely assume you have been up Cerro de Punta due to the transmitter facilities there…view as breathtaking as advertised?Sorry, to busy thinking in Spanish today and literally translating.
There is little radio on Cerro de Punta. The group I was with had one of its stations "next door" on Cerro Maravilla, which is a better location for regional coverage and populated with transmitters. Other sites for FM with lots of transmitters are Cerro La Santa (Major San Juan TV and several FMs, including WPRM), Cerro La Marquesa overlooking San Juan, and Monte del Estado just East of Mayagüez.
I've been to all of those, along with a few lesser used sites such as El Cubuy, used by a number of San Juan stations, and the foothills of El Yunque in the rainforest where 96.5 has its site.
Views are quite amazing from all of them. From Monte del Estado you can barely make out the eastern shore of the Dominican Republic on a good day.
Cool, thanks!
UPDATE 1/5/2022. Announcement on air at 7:30pm saying the transmitter will be off air for maintenance tonight Wed. 5 2022
I just heard that announcement too during the Tim Conway Jr. show! If it was like last time, it will probably happen late at night around midnight. I’ll be listening and update if I hear anything (or lack thereof!)
It was announced on the Tim Conway Jr. Show that the AM 640 transmitter will be down from 11:00 PM to 5:00 AM. They were joking how the engineer that was going to work on the transmitter was going to be dropping F bombs on air as he is working on the transmitter. Most likely, the 640 tower will be back up and running before 5:00 AM, but they were giving the engineer a hard time!
KFI is now off the air as of 11:30 PM. I am hearing a Spanish language talk and music station coming in when I point my radio in a northwest / southwest direction. Could it be AM 640 XENQ from Hidalgo, Mexico that broadcasts with 25,000 watts? The direction of the signal I am receiving would be coming from the general direction of Hidalgo. There is another Spanish language station that appears stronger in the background of KFI during the evening hours before it powers down, but I think that might be the Juarez AM 640, XEJUA, that is a daytime only station. This AM 640 Spanish language talk and music station I am hearing appears to be weaker, but listenable with KFI off the air here in Southern California.
Last edited:
- Status