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AM Frequency of the Week: 1200

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cyberdad

cyberdad

Far northwest Chicago Metro....
Day: WRTO with a fair-good signal. DA has a deep null to protect W)W).

Night: WRTO mixes with WOAI, WRTO gets the better of it, but nulling it results in "all WOAI". Night pattern has a deep null to protect WOAI.

(Note: I have conflicting info on how much power WRTO is running. One source says 20kw day, 4.2kw night, another source lists 10kw day, 1kw night. Both are fairly reliable, so I'm not sure which one is correct. Either way, the transmitter location is 48 miles southeast of me.)

Other Location: At my middle son's house in St. Charles, IL, about 20 miles south of me, WRTO is all but absent at night. In the null protecting San Antonio.
 
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East Tennessee: Daytime: Nothing.
Night: WOAI
Retro/other: Not much different except WRTO (may have been a previous call) in the morning in Lafayette IN
 
Near north Chicago suburbs days: WRTO with a pretty good signal. At night a mix of WRTO and WOAI. If I turn the radio one way I get mostly WRTO. If I adjust it I get more WOAI although WRTO is more often on top with WOAI in the background.
 
Hi cyberdad, hope you had a Merry Christmas
From Cheyenne, WY:
Daytime... Nothing
Nighttime: All WOAI, and it can get fairly strong despite being 800 miles away. It's one of the first stations that I could easily find because of its strength, and is convenient for NFL on Westwood One.
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: WRTO with their 20/4.5 kW 6-tower array in the Chicago's West Pullman neighborhood
Nightime: WRTO, but WOAI possible with partial null of WRTO

DX/RETRO: I can get a fairly decent null on WRTO at night at my location, but all I usually hear is WOAI. I remember that when WRTO (WVIV, WLXX, WOPA, WMXA) operated from their original 8-tower array at 103rd and I-94 they were tougher to null despite using lower power. Once they move to their current site in 2010 they became easier to null. Prior to 1988, before WRTO (then WMXA) came on the air, WOIA was the station that ruled the frequency in the Chicago area. Other frequent logs were KFNW (West Fargo, ND), and CFGO (Ottawa, ON). Also heard on this frequency in the 80's/90's were WBCE (Wickliffe, KY), WKOX (Framingham, MA), WAGE (Leesburg, VA). YVOZ (Caracas, Venezuela) is the only foreign station I ever heard on this frequency.
 
cyberdad said:
(Note: I have conflicting info on how much power WOAI is running. One source says 20kw day, 4.2kw night, another source lists 10kw day, 1kw night. Both are fairly reliable, so I'm not sure which one is correct. Either way, the transmitter location is 48 miles southeast of me.)
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I pretty sure you mean WRTO and not WOAI.

They currently use 20 kW days, 4.2 kW nights from the 6 tower site at West 127th Street. They use 4 of the towers during daytime and all 6 towers at night. The 10 kW Day, 1 kW night powers was their original 8 tower site site at I-94 and 103rd Street.
WRTO also applied for an auxiliary permit to use the WCEV/WVON tower at Kedzie Avenue in 2006, but it was dismissed by FCC.
 
From the southwest suburbs of Chicago (and a few miles due west of WRTO):

Days: WRTO, strong and bleeding over into 1190 and 1210.

Nights: WRTO, though with work the signal can be nulled to bring in WOAI. I did not know they had changed and modified their tower site, but I recall them un-nullable originally.

Previously: WOAI from sunset to after dawn, back in the time they were the only North American station on 1200 – and the last station to be sole occupier of a frequency. Tuning in WOAI was how to keep up with Southwest Conference football in that era.
 
Nothing in the daytime. Occasionally I can hear WRTO. Probably a daytime skywave thing, I think. Nighttime is sometimes WOAI, sometimes WFTO, often a mix of the two or more likely WOAI on top. I have tried to pick up CFGO Ottawa -- think I may have heard it one time but never got an ID or significant evidence to that effect. So it remains a question mark in my files.
 
San Jose, California.

Days::: 25kW KYAA out of Salinas

Nights:: 10kW KYAA is the dominate station, but fights with WOAI, on occasion.
 
CADXER said:
I pretty sure you mean WRTO and not WOAI.

They currently use 20 kW days, 4.2 kW nights from the 6 tower site at West 127th Street. They use 4 of the towers during daytime and all 6 towers at night. The 10 kW Day, 1 kW night powers was their original 8 tower site site at I-94 and 103rd Street.
WRTO also applied for an auxiliary permit to use the WCEV/WVON tower at Kedzie Avenue in 2006, but it was dismissed by FCC.
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Oops! Yeah, that's what I meant, WRTO. My bad, sorry! And thanks for clearing up the confusion over what power WRTO is running.
 
icybluelake said:
I have tried to pick up CFGO Ottawa -- think I may have heard it one time but never got an ID or significant evidence to that effect. So it remains a question mark in my files.
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I've heard CFGO in Wisconsin as well as on several SDRs, but not here at my home location yet. At least not that I could ID. Their day signal gets out pretty well, Typicall trips a car scan button in Montreal, a little over 100 miles away in an area where ground conductivity is only fair at best.
 
24/7 it's my local, WOAI.

I can get a very slight partial null of WOAI by aiming N-NW/S-SE. At night I'll occasionally hear a weak XECPAP (formerly XEQJAL) in Jalpan de Serra in that null. At sunrise it's a bit stronger and heard more consistently.

Last December I managed to hear a very weak KYOO in Bolivar, MO, with station ID in that null around sunset.
 
from Los Angeles --

Days: Nothing but noise

Nights: KYAA usually, KPSF sometimes briefly
Late at night when those two are in the mud
WOAI will rise above them briefly.
 
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