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AM Frequency of the Week: 1610

M

MarioMania

Carmichael, CA

Daytime: Splatter from KSMH West Sacramento
Nighttime: Nothing

Vallejo, CA

Daytime: Nothing
Nighttime: Nothing
 
Only two 1610 stations are logged in the NE PA list. Both at night.
CHHA from Ontario, foreign language last I'd heard, is often the loudest 'X-bander' here-- at least when I tune up that high. The GE SR 2 only goes up to about 1630, and I usually need a wrench to get it to that high.
The second station was that of a Talking House I heard for sale on a car radio. 'Address un-known' other than from one of a picturesque stretch of row houses on the 1100 block of West Norwegian Street in Pottsville.

Unlike back in Queens, near JFK Airport where I heard a half-dozen TIS's and HAR's, I've had no luck here with logging any of the conventional ones. (Those two widely-heard things from Dallas' airport on 1640 and 1680 don't count as standard-issue TIS's. Are they still there, btw?)
The spate of TIS's along, say, I-81 are erratic enough in the car, never mind at home. On a drive to the Catskills with the one we call The Intern so she could drive back another car, we heard a few TIS's around Scranton, giving the overnight temperatures.
From the night before. Temps for Binghamton..... Throop (said 'troop') ..... Pittston ....
We decided that they weren't going far back enough for material to sustain a new format called Solid Gold Weather.
 
East Tennessee: Not much to report, with only CHHA logged. It can come in fairly early in the winter.
On the Knoxville W8BUG SDR, there's a station playing old time radio shows, old Paul Harvey episodes, even old Conelrad tests. This is obviously a part 15 probably at the SDR operators house.
 
This  was an actual neighboring radio station, here in Tyler. Was KPYN Atlanta (TX, not GA), the expanded band facility to 900 KALT. It put in a halfway listenable signal here, having a 10kW authorization and standing alone on 1610. I believe it was the only station down here ever authorized to operate on 1610 kHz. It was surrendered at the turn of the century, 900 was retained (in one of the instances where a broadcaster actually abided by the original guidelines of surrendering one or the other after 5 years), and they swapped the 50+ year KALT call and brand to the surrendered X-band facility,, taking the reverse course for 900, which became (and still is) KPYN.
 
I just checked the FCC AM query and there are no US listings. In the past TIS have been on 1610. The Canadian and Mexican stations should be available at night or near the borders. If I was doing the expanded band 1610 would be the logical choice. Of course the X AM band was too little to late for most commercial operators.
 
ive heard CHHA Toronto like 2 or 3x out here
 
Denver, CO - spillover from local 1600 KEPN.
 
Local TIS here in Yakima, WQBV569 Union Gap (operated by WSDOT). Gets out very well at night. I've heard them in western Washington and also on SDRs up in the San Juans. Sometimes CHHA Toronto will float underneath them during good eastern conditions. I've heard other TIS stations (WQHE837 Stevenson comes to mind) when I take out the Union Gap station.

In Ellensburg, it's another WSDOT TIS, KNEF687, with Snoqualmie Pass and I-90 information depending on the season. This one also gets out, and has been heard as far as Alberta at night.

One that really gets out (heard by DXers in Alberta and I think even further) is the WQPW217 station at Neah Bay, Makah Emergency Radio.
 
secondchoice said:
I just checked the FCC AM query and there are no US listings. In the past TIS have been on 1610. The Canadian and Mexican stations should be available at night or near the borders. If I was doing the expanded band 1610 would be the logical choice. Of course the X AM band was too little to late for most commercial operators.
Click to expand...
I thought 1610 was strictly for TIS stations in the US, both before and after the expanded band was opened.
 
KeithE4 said:
I thought 1610 was strictly for TIS stations in the US, both before and after the expanded band was opened.
Click to expand...
Not so, Keith. KPYN was authorized, constructed, and began broadcasting in Atlanta, Texas around 2000. Late 2000, as I recall. 1610 was authorized for 10kW, and briefly operated at that power. The facility lasted until 2005, when it was decided to stay with the 900 facility, and was then surrendered. 1610 was only operating at 1/10th of what the original CP called for, by the time of surrender, but still reached Texarkana well, as it was the only service on 1610. There weren't, and for the most part still aren't, any TIS stations here in East Texas. I've often wondered what could've been for KPYN/KALT, had the ownership group decided on keeping it instead of 900. It would be the only full-power facility in the country. Even at such a high dial position, it likely would've gotten out pretty darn well with nothing else standing in the way. During the 10kW operation, it reached down here to Tyler with a listenable signal, in a building or automobile.
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: used to get a solid KNIG426 TIS from Addison, IL (only 1.5 miles from me located at Bloomingdale Rd and I290). They used to get out quite well, but for at least 2 years now they appear to be off the air. Even driving by their stick on Bloomingdale Road does not produce any hint of a signal. The only TIS heard recently was one in Naperville, IL while driving in that town. Their call letters are WQTW786.

Nighttime: CHHA Toronto alone with fairly good signal, but sometimes CHRN (Radio Humsafar) from Montreal can be heard.

DX/RETRO: Caribbean Beacon from Anguilla used to be a common station heard on 1610. They are no longer on the air. Another station that I heard as recently as 2018 was XEUACH from Mexico City, but they must have left 1610 as well. Back in 2000 when the expanded band was just starting to open up, KALT from Atlanta, TX operated briefly on 1610 kHz and used to be easily heard in Chicago, but their license was cancelled by FCC in January 2001. I remember they remained on the air until sometimes in 2003, when they finally went silent.
 
Clifton, New Jersey

Days: Mostly splatter from WWRL "New York's BIN 1600" New York, NY.

Nights: I get CHHA Toronto, ON with some splatter from WWRL. On 01/24/2024, I received CHRN Montreal, QC while nulling out CHHA.
 
East SFBA

Days and nights: A jumble of TIS'es from Berkeley and some other place. One of them is really oddball, operating on 1609 kHz, so as expected, it pretty much destroys the frequency for any other use because it manifests as a low, discordant rumble.

I try to operate my Part 15 on 1610, but my range is terrible. It's a shame I can't legally broadcast on 1710, since that frequency is so wide open that when I have tried it briefly for experimentation, I can get a range of about half a mile with nothing but a loose, ungrounded 10 foot wire attached to the transmitter operating at less than 100 mW.

Far North BA/Lake County (soon to be new main location)

Days: Nothing but static, with maybe some occasional splatter from 1600 KUBA and 1620 KSMH.

Nights: Pretty much the same, but with more consistent splatter possibly (I haven't had the opportunity to listen in at night up there so far, so I don't know for certain).

Either way, there's almost no interference relative to my current location, so having my station on 1610 up there should yield much better results. I ran a few quick tests, and already the electrical noise is notably absent, which is good (it's been a constant battle with stray hums and buzzes down here in the East Bay).

c
 
From NW San Antonio:

Day: Nothing

Night: When propagation is favorable, most commonly in fall/winter, I'll hear a weak but sometimes readable CHHA in Toronto. Also when conditions are good, aiming NW I'll hear a TIS, "K-YAK," in Indianola Beach Park, which is about halfway between Corpus Christi and Houston. It broadcasts info about wildlife in the area and the history of Indianola, as well as fishing tips.

On rare occasions when propagation is exceptionally good, I'll hear WPEZ840, a TIS in Buchanan Dam, NW of Austin, which relays an Austin NOAA weather station.

DX/Retro: Every now and then I used to catch XEUACH, Radio Chapingo, before it moved to 1130 a couple of years ago; it seemed to have limited broadcast hours. Also, on my very sensitive radios I regularly heard a weak Caribbean Beacon in Anguilla before it went off the air.

In addition, at sunrise I used to hear a TIS to my NW/SE that I was never able to identify because the signal was faint and noisy. There were some highway references, but those roads covered a fair distance in Texas.
 
West side of Houston TX

Days, occasionally one or more of the TIS stations around here
Sunset, nothing much
Night, when conditions are good, I sometimes hear a weak CHHA Toronto. XEUACH Radio Chapingo used to be a regular before they moved to 1130 in 2018.
 
From the southwest suburbs of Chicago ...

Once upon a time, there were a slew of TIS stations on 1610 along the Chicago expressway system. Don't hear them these days, but where I lived it was something of a jumble, especially at night.

Now the coast is clear for CHHA Toronto to bomb in with 6,500 watts at night and, in early morning, with 6,250 watts.
 
1610 CHHA "La voz de la comunidad" from Toronto was coming in strong this morning, about half an hour after sunrise here in NJ. Are they 6300, 6250, or 10,000 watts? I see multiple conflicting records.

I heard Indian music sometimes in the background, from 1610 CHRN in Montreal (1 kW).
 
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