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AM Frequency of the week: 1500.

cyberdad

cyberdad

Update: As he posted a few days ago, Frank has asked me to assist in moderating the Frequency of the Week boards. Both AM and FM. Specifically, what I will be doing is pinning the FOTW boards as they are posted. Then unpinning them after two weeks. This is in response to the "bumping up" of old FOTW threads. As David pointed out in a brief discussion of the matter, what's happening is that often the old threads contain outdated and thus currently inaccurate material. Therefore, rather than revisit out of date threads, just post instead in the "Post Your Latest DX" thread".

Thanks, and okay here we go with this week's AM FOTW, 1500. From my location northwest of Chicago, 1500 sounds like this.....

Days: A weak WPJX from Zion, IL. 250 watts with a figure eight pattern aimed east-west. "Rebel Radio" heavy metal format. Distance is 27 miles to my east-northeast.

Night: KSTP is usually on top with a signal even weaker than WPJX's anemic day signal. WFED sometimes also sneaks in. WLQV very rarely.

Sunrise sunset: Usually KSTP when they're on day pattern. Which blows out WPJX and everything else on the channel.
 
First of all thanks Cyberdad for the great job on the frequency of the week boards. You've done a fine job for years and I look forward to many more.
From the near north suburbs of Chicago on 1500: daytime I get a very weak WJPX. During afternoon critical hours KSTP comes in pretty well. At night a weak KSTP and a few times I've heard WFED formerly WTOP most often during critical hours. I've heard Detroit a couple of times in the past.

Other: KSTP comes in well on some of the western SDRs at night. I've also heard KSTP on the arctic SDR.
 
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EastTennessee: Daytime-Maybe a hint of WDEB Jamestown TN days. Sunset is most often WBRI, Indianpolis of WFED,Washington.
Night: hints of WFED, KSTP or WLQV, Detroit.
Retro/other: When I lived in the Dayton, Ohio area WBZI was a local daytimer. Nights were WLQV, WFED or KSTP.
 
1500 is an odd one in that it's an old Class I/II frequency, and with old Class IIs sort of dominating. It used to be that at night, depending on conditions, I could get either KSTP Twin Cities (the Minneapolis-St. Paul city limits run right through the center of the building) or WTOP Washington. Sometimes both. When the North Stars played the Capitals and the stations carried their local team, the play-by-play voices would fade up and down if conditions were right.

It's more of a mess these nights. KSTP is more regular, especially early mornings, and WFED is a more rare catch, but WLQV Detroit (first caught as WDEE) crashes the party often. It's in right now, in fact.

I've never gotten WPJX Zion with its away-from-me pattern, or WAKE Valparaiso, Ind., a graveyard-powered outlet currently silent.
 
Chicago by the lakeshore:

Daytime: Not much. I've logged WPJX in Zion on Lake Shore Drive before, but usually there's nothing around where I live. As for WAKE, I might have gotten it but I never got an ID. It's off the air now, so maybe I never will get it.

Critical Hours: KSTP often comes in quite early in the afternoon. One day recently I heard it as early as 2:30 PM, which is pretty amazing since they are to my northwest.

Nighttime: It's a jumble. Probably WLQV Detroit is the most common, but it's still not too consistent. I've heard KSTP at night too but it's rare. As for WFED, I've heard it on Lake Shore Drive around sunset, but I'm not sure if I've heard it anywhere else.
 
KSTP which I usually hear at various strengths. It's one of my DX barometers. I've received KSJX a little less often, and once I received the Mexico City station (XEDF) during an auroral condition on my Sanyo boombox and a small loop. That was in 2011 or very early 2012.
 
I haven't gotten it here yet, in central Texas, but recall KSTP coming in strong during the late 70s in western Kansas, where it and 1520 KOMA boomed.

Here, I haven't really picked up any station on 1500, though I'm in KSTP's propagation range.
 
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Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: WPJX with poor signal, but WAKE was also possible before going silent
Nightime: normally KSTP but WLQV and WFED also possible

Retro/DX: when I lived in Chicago (near Montrose & Central) WPJX (ex WDDZ, WNIZ, WRJR, WKJA, WTAU, etc.) was a very difficult catch mostly due to severe splash from nearby WOPA (current WPNA) on 1490 kHz. It was frustrating for me not to be able to hear this station while fellow CADXers who lived north of me were able to hear the station on fairly regular basis. Once I moved to my current location, the reception of WPJX become easier. The only other station logged on 1500 kHz is WGEN (Geneseo, IL), but they are no longer on the air.

Concerning WAKE, they are silent under STA due to financial reasons. The silent STA expires on July 22, 2022 and if they don't return to the air by then, they will lose their license. WAKE was also granted a CP to change their COL to Hobart, IN and move their operation to the WLTH nighttime transmitter site with 250 Watts daytime/11 Watts nighttime. It's unclear if that will happen though.

@ cyberdad, thanks for good job on the frequency of the week series.
 
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Thanks for handling this, cyberdad, you do a great job. As for WPXJ, that must be a labor of love. 250W day and 2W night? With Heavy Metal? I also noticed they have a 65W translator. They should've bought a boat, you know? A hole in the water you throw money into. It would've sank faster.
 
Dondd said:
1500s

View attachment 2524
Click to expand...
Again, those are not usable coverage maps; stop treating them as if they were. Another example: WMNT is in a town less than 30 miles from "downtown" San Juan, PR. Yet it can not be usably heard there daytime and not at all at night. Yet the map shows it "covering" all of the Dominican Republic and most of Haiti... where they can not be heard at all, ever, except for very rare DX occasions. WMNT's daytime 10 mV/m signal covers less than 5% of the population of Puerto Rico so using these maps as "coverage maps" is a major error.
 
From west Houston, days are gospel from KANI down in Wharton TX. At sunset, I've heard KJIM in Sherman TX w/nostalgia music until they sign off. Also typically in the mix are KCLF (good soul and zydeco music), KSTP, and one in SS (probably XEDF but have not officially ID'd them).
 
From north DFW suburbs:

Daytime: KJIM Sherman, TX (55 miles) with good signal.
Nighttime: KSTP St. Paul, MN is reliably strong with sports programming. If I aim the radio E/W, I hear a fair KCLF New Roads, LA with urban oldies. They are listed as a daytimer, but I hear them in the evenings.
 
CADXER said:
Concerning WAKE, they are silent under STA due to financial reasons. The silent STA expires on July 22, 2022 and if they don't return to the air by then, they will lose their license. WAKE was also granted a CP to change their COL to Hobart, IN and move their operation to the WLTH nighttime transmitter site with 250 Watts daytime/11 Watts nighttime. It's unclear if that will happen though.

@ cyberdad, thanks for good job on the frequency of the week series.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the kind words....and to Mitch as well....

As for WAKE, I hope they find a way to survive., Even though I'm out of their range. Last time I drove through their coverage area, a few years back, they were running a classic pop/nostalgia format. (Sinatra, Pat Boone, etc.). A rarity nowadays, and the odds...at least for that format...are undoubtedly against them.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Again, those are not usable coverage maps; stop treating them as if they were. Another example: WMNT is in a town less than 30 miles from "downtown" San Juan, PR. Yet it can not be usably heard there daytime and not at all at night. Yet the map shows it "covering" all of the Dominican Republic and most of Haiti... where they can not be heard at all, ever, except for very rare DX occasions. WMNT's daytime 10 mV/m signal covers less than 5% of the population of Puerto Rico so using these maps as "coverage maps" is a major error.
Click to expand...

They are a good indicator of how crowded the frequency is. I think they're an interesting add, if not entirely accurate, and don't take anything away from a given discussion.
As for 1500 itself ... in Pickerington, Ohio, nothing daytime and if anything, a really weak WFED at night. Even that is a rarity.
 
Daytime, usually nothing, but I get KSTP surprisingly often. About 215 miles from St. Paul.
Nights, usually KSTP. I'm surprised by the number of people here who've picked up WFED in the midwest. I've never heard it from here.
 
From Cheyenne, WY:
Daytime: Nothing, but KSTP Minneapolis (600+ miles) is usually the first to show up if there's daytime skip. During sunset, I can hear something under KSTP, but not enough to identify.
Nighttime: KSTP is one of my strongest skywave signals, and most consistent, which makes for comfortable sports listening. Considering that KRAE switched from ESPN radio to oldies, I haven't had a true ESPN affiliate in years, and KSTP is my defacto affiliate.
Sunrise: Also KSTP sometimes.
 
Actually heard a new one today on 1500. WPMB Vandalia, Illinois at 4:48 pm CST with "15 Hundred on AM, WPMB" ID followed by Adult Contemporary music. Quite a nice surprise.
 
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