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AM Frequency of the Week: 550

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cyberdad

cyberdad

This week we begin a new cycle. We work our way through what used to be commonly known as the "regional" channels, "graveyard" channels, and the AM band's most recent addition, the X-band. Starting at 550 and ending at 1700, but excluding the (formerly known as) "clear" channels, which we just finished last week.

Okay, so here we go with 550. 40 miles northwest of downtown Chicago......

Days: Mostly splatter from local WIND (560). But with a good radio, KTRS from St. Louis is usually present underneath. Very weak.

Mights: KTRS owns 550. Usually, I can hear an unidentifiable signal or two underneath, but with KTRS comfortably on rop. On very rare occasions, WKRC (Cincinnati) is audible in identifiable form.

Other Location(s): KFYR, 5kw from Bismark, North Dakota has the biggest daytime coverage area of any U.S. radio station. There's some dispute about that, but I personally believe it. I've heard KFYR only once or twice at my location during nighttime hours. But I can vouch for it being rock solid the entire distance of the drive I used to do once or twice a year from Minneapolis to Winnipeg.....nearly 400 miles.

Wanted: WSAU from Wausau, WI. 15kw day, 25kw night. But I'm in the null.....which is especially deep at night. Other DXers around here have heard WSAU, but not me. At least not in identifiable form. Wausau used to be an occasional overnight stop on business trips, and the hotel where I stayed was about two miles north of the transmitter site. Obviously as a result, the signal was in the "peel paint" category in my hotel room. So I guress I'll have to settle for that!
 
From Pickerington, Ohio, WKRC at about 5-6 out of 10 in strength daytime despite their null toward Buffalo and nothing at night.
Along the Lake Erie shoreline in Conneaut, Ohio where my in-laws live, a solid WGR by day with about the same signal strength of WKRC in Columbus and nothing at night that I've heard.
 
From Cheyenne:
Daytime: A very, very weak KRAI Craig, CO (148 miles) that is usually covered up by IBOC splatter from KLZ. If I null out KLZ, and I'm outside, then it pops up.
Nights: Usually nothing, but KRAI did make the visit strongly once. I have yet to recieve KFYR or KFRM from my town.

Travel:
I once stayed in Riverton, WY, where the KRAI signal (177 miles) was medium-low, but listenable. And of course, I've been to Rapid City, SD where KFYR just blasts in from 231 miles away.

I fail to understand how the FCC thought that KFYR would not interfere with CBK, LOL.
 
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cyberdad said:
Other Location(s): KFYR, 5kw from Bismark, North Dakota has the biggest daytime coverage area of any U.S. radio station. There's some dispute about that, but I personally believe it. I've heard KFYR only once or twice at my location during nighttime hours. But I can vouch for it being rock solid the entire distance of the drive I used to do once or twice a year from Minneapolis to Winnipeg.....nearly 400 miles.
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The ground Conductivity of the Dakotas and the plains just astounds me!
 
Chicago by the lakeshore:

Daytime: With great difficulty you can sometimes pick up KTRS in St Louis, but barely.

Nighttime: KTRS or WKRC are the most common. Probably KTRS is the most likely. Sometimes you can also pick up WGR Buffalo, especially if you're right on the lake.
 
East Tennessee: Days, nearby WDUN in Gainesville GA and occasionally WKRC, Cincinnati. I've caught WSVA, Harrisonburg VA near sunset.]
Night: A jumble, sometimes KTRS.
Retro/other: Dayton, OH, WKRC day and night but especially in the 90s/00s, several stations cheating, including WDUN and WAYR, Then-Orange Park FL. Also have logged WSVA and once, WGR, very early in the morning. Lafayette IN area, a mix of KTRS (KUSA) and WKRC, with KUSA, dominating.
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs: Daytime a weak but steady signal from KTRS. On a good car radio away from noise it comes in even better.
At night mostly KTRS with WKRC sometimes coming through. KFYR breaks through pretty well mostly before sunrise.
I've heard WGR once or twice.
@cyberdad I have heard WSAU weak just north of you in the Lake Geneva area during the day.
 
In Carmicheal

Daytime: Nothing
Nighttime: Very Weak KUZZ Bakersfield, CA

In Vallejo

Daytime: Slop from 560 KSFO San Francisco, CA
Nighttime: Very Weak KUZZ Bakersfield, CA

Why is the "AM Frequency of the Week" get more attention then the FM one?
 
From DFW, Texas:

Daytime: Weak KTSA San Antonio if outside or in the car.

Nighttime: KTSA San Antonio or KCRS Midland, depending on which way I aim the radio. KTRS St. Louis and KFRM Salina, KS are also regularly heard on the channel. I have heard KFYR Bismarck, ND once overnight. I have been trying to hear KFYI Phoenix, to no avail yet. At sunrise, I can often hear XEPL in Chihuahua, Mexico come up.
 
I get WSAU in Northern Michigan during CH. and sometimes Nights. As I recall, there's a lot of programming overlap with WKRC, and that has a great signal Day and Night despite being 1 kW. WGR is often heard Day and sometimes Night.

Before Jesse Champion left as my English teacher in Michigan in late 1969, and went to Taft's WBRC, soon WERC Birmingham, to do News, we discussed the other Taft stations, and I really impressed him with my radio knowledge, telling him how I could get both WGR 550 and WKRC 550 in Genesee County in the Daytime just by rotating my SuperSensitive Sony portable with TRF stage. Those conversations worked wonders for the PTA Conference!
 
From central CA....Daytime, KUZZ Bakersfield.125 miles..and at night a faint signal. Would listen to it in the 60's-70's when it was KAFY ,The Big 55- with a pop format.
 
Day/night: KOAC Corvallis; kind of weak but listenable.

"Listenable" as far as signal quality is concerned, anyways. Hard to believe, but that little bitty college mediumwave station out in the middle of nowhere would eventually become the main official propaganda mouthpiece of the Portland politburo almost a century later.
 
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KTSA is rock solid daytime in Canyon Lake, TX. At night, the signal is weaker, but I have not heard anything underneath.

A few months ago, KTSA was off the air at dusk for a couple of hours; I was hoping to snag KTRS or KFYR; instead I received what I believe was something from Western Cuba.
 
Moses Lake, WA DN07ic

Daytime: KARI Blaine, but faint
Nighttime: KARI Blaine and KOAC Corvallis are both regulars, with KBOW Butte (w/ TOTH ID) and KUZZ Bakersfield logged previously.
 
radioman148 said:
In the near north Chicago suburbs: Daytime a weak but steady signal from KTRS. On a good car radio away from noise it comes in even better.
At night mostly KTRS with WKRC sometimes coming through. KFYR breaks through pretty well mostly before sunrise.
I've heard WGR once or twice.
@cyberdad I have heard WSAU weak just north of you in the Lake Geneva area during the day.
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That's just a little over twenty miles north of me, and I get up there every so often for one reason or another. Actually I'm planning a "Spotted Cow run" for an upcoming Easter gathering, so I'll be sure to give it a try.
 
cyberdad said:
That's just a little over twenty miles north of me, and I get up there every so often for one reason or another. Actually I'm planning a "Spotted Cow run" for an upcoming Easter gathering, so I'll be sure to give it a try.
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If you're in a good reception area (harder to find these days) you can hear it underneath KTRS or whatever else was on the frequency mid day. I haven't been up there in a couple of years.
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: KTRS barely in WIND splash
Nightime: usually KTRS or WKRC

DX/RETRO: others heard in the past include KTSA (San Antonio, TX), KFYR (Bismarck, ND), KCRS (Midland, TX), WGR (Buffalo, NY), WSAU (Wassau, WI) as well as couple Radio Rebelde, Cuba outlets and the now defunct CHNO (Sudbury, ON)
 
A short list from the southwest suburbs of Chicago:

Days: KTRS St. Louis if I set the Sony ICF-2010 just so, especially with snyc turned on. Audible, and better with the Tecson loop. Still some WIND hash, but you can listen to it. Other radios, no dice, though I haven't tried in the new car. Might get a daytime hint of it there.

Nights: KTRS.

Other: 550 St. Louis has been IDed as KSD, KUSA, KSD (again) and now KTRS, despite WIND's looming presence. Two others over the years: KTSA San Antonio, Tex. (guessing during a WIND silent period), and WGR Buffalo when it was on day pattern for a few nights in Dec. 2020.
 
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