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3/15 9:20 AM 101.9 WLMG "Magic"
New Orleans, LA adult contemporary weak.
100kw 980 ft a new one!

Here's a question. The Tecsun PL-880 seems to be directional on FM. Even with the vertical whip antenna, when you "point" the radio in a particular direction it affects the reception, just like on AM. Anyone know why that is?

105.3 WECB Dothan, AL country. 10kw 434 ft. Weak copy.

96.1 WRKH Mobile, AL "The Rocket" classic rock. 73kw 1755 ft. Weak/fair.
 

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In recent months, have caught a couple of FMs way outside their primary estimated coverage regions.

KUHF 88.7 Houston
1955' height above average terrain, 100kw
Caught in my car northeast of Waco, Texas, 170 miles from the transmitter and 70 miles outside of the station's primary estimated contour.

I often catch it here at my home northeast of Austin, 139 miles away

1742057101478.png

The signal often travels much farther than its typical guesstimated zone.

1742057176403.gif
 
222 miles is nothing on the Gulf Coast. Mike needs a 4-element or 9-element FM antenna, on a 10-20 ft. mast, and then he'll be getting 600-700 mile Gulf tropo in no time. Houston to Reynosa and everything in between. Sometimes the tropo goes to 900+ miles.

New log last night in (snowy, again) Cascade ID... 103.1 KYKV Selah WA w/ Leanna Crawford's "Still Waters (Psalm 23)" matching KLXI-99.5, the Boise K-LOVE station. Heard around 5:30 yesterday afternoon, 5.4KW at 256 miles.

Stellar Labs 4-element antenna and TEF6686 radio at about 6 ft above the ground. Would like to increase that to 15 feet on a mast and rotor. My landlord would probably blow a fuse however.
 
3/16 9:30 PM 1280 KC WIHB Macon,GA
"The Bull" Classic Country weak 99 watts one tower.

Two other music stations unable to identify. One was playing "Free Falling" Tom Petty.
Other possibly adult contemporary, not sure.
Antenna north/south.
 

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3/17 9:50 PM 1270 KC WMPM Smithfield, NC urban oldies/gospel 145 watts very weak
one tower. 671 miles.

11 PM 1280 KC WHVR Hanover, PA
Adult contemporary fair copy 500 watts 2 towers. This is the same town that has the pretzel company. Made my night!

Both frequencies have gotten to be good for dx.
 

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SE Wisconsin 3/17/25 10:30 PM CDT- 900 WKDA Lebanon, TN (Nashville area). Listed as 5000 Watts Day, 136 Watts Night, both ND. Playing 40s / 50s standards. It took a while to get a positive ID, as they would come up fairly strong and then disappear for a while. As to whether they were actually running 136 Watt night power, who knows?

900 has been pretty quiet here since CHML left the building.
 
KFAL 900 Fulton, MO 8:04a CST 1304 UTC ✓ ID 3/18/25 295 miles

WKKX 1600 Wheeling, WV 5:57p CST 2257 UTC ✓ ID 3/18/25 411 miles

WTZQ 1600 Hendersonville, NC 6:36p CST 2336 UTC ✓ Livestream 3/18/25 555 miles

KDIZ 1570 Golden Valley, MN “Freedom 1570” 6:51p CST ✓ ID 3/18/25 332 miles

📻 Sangean HDR-16 𝑩𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒕, 𝑰𝑳
WNW suburb of Chicago
about 12 miles W of ORD (O’Hare Int’l.)
 
KFAL 900 Fulton, MO 8:04a CST 1304 UTC ✓ ID 3/18/25 295 miles

WKKX 1600 Wheeling, WV 5:57p CST 2257 UTC ✓ ID 3/18/25 411 miles

WTZQ 1600 Hendersonville, NC 6:36p CST 2336 UTC ✓ Livestream 3/18/25 555 miles

KDIZ 1570 Golden Valley, MN “Freedom 1570” 6:51p CST ✓ ID 3/18/25 332 miles

📻 Sangean HDR-16 𝑩𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒕, 𝑰𝑳
WNW suburb of Chicago
about 12 miles W of ORD (O’Hare Int’l.)
Nice catches. I’ve only gotten WKKX Wheeling of that quartet here southwest of Chicago. Internal antenna or something fancier?
 
That's quite a catch. Imagine not many 5kw stations from the East Coast at night make it to Kenosha (or Chicago).
They don't any longer because so many stations are on 24/7. In the 60's I heard things like a 250 watt station from Hawaii and a 50 watt station from Puerto Rico in Ohio. And in the 30's folks on the East Coast hear low power stations from Australia and New Zealand. It is not about the power, but the congestion of frequencies.
 
How do auroral conditions affect AM signals?
Example: from Cleveland, OH, in the early 60's there was a big auroral night and, on the frequency of the local 50 kw "clear channel" on 1100 I heard election returns from a 10 kw station in Venezuela... less than 25 miles from the local station's transmitter and on 1100 also.

In general, as mentioned before by another poster, auroral conditions will often block even high power stations nearby at the same latitude or in the region, while allowing stations much farther to the south to be heard clearly. Sometimes stations to the east or west or north of one's location will just disappear, opening the channel for unusual reception from the south.

Again, back in Cleveland, I often heard Gulf Coast USA stations, Georgia, AL, MS and Louisiana as well as Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Colombia, Venezuela and the Netherlands Antilles among others during auroral conditions, often over higher power close by co-channel stations. My bellwether station for such openings was 500 watt WKWF in Key West, FL, on 1600. If it was roaring in over that congested channel, there were many other catches to be had.
 
In Houston, a few new ones recently

640 WCRV TN Collierville 3/12 0725 w/Christian talk. Strong signal w/KWPN underneath along w/unID SS, probably KTIB.
750 KBNN MO Lebanon 3/5 1815 Dave Ramsey Show, KBNN news at :30. Fair/good signal in WSB null and KTRH slop
930 WSFZ MS Jackson 3/19 0725 BIN programming. Fair signal sometimes rising above the din of KLUP, WKY, etc.
1030 KBUF KS Holcombe 3/9 2050 country music (I Walk the Line, etc.) //stream dominating regular XEQR
1510 KCTE MO Independence 3/19 0745 ESPN interview w/Mel Kiper //stream. Fair/good mixing w/WLAC and others
 
In Houston, a few new ones recently
1030 KBUF KS Holcombe 3/9 2050 country music (I Walk the Line, etc.) //stream dominating regular XEQR
Good catch.
I've captured the Garden City KS area station maybe twice, very weak here on the northeast side of Austin, Texas, but recognized the cities discussed.
It's a strong station that covers almost half of KS, a good part of CO, the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles, and the northeast corner of NM.
 
this morning’s catches…

WFRL 1570 Freeport, IL 7:43a 1243 UTC
✓ ID 3/20/25 1kW omnidirectional 76 miles
mixing with WBGX Harvey, IL

KGLO 1300 Mason City, IA 7:48a 1248 UTC ✓ ID 3/20/25 5kW directional: north bearing 267 miles

KMBZ 980 Kansas City, MO 7:56a 1256 UTC ✓ ID, Livestream 3/20/25 strong 9kW
5/8 wave omnidirectional 390 miles

tonight was a mess, no luck!

📻 Sangean HDR-16
𝑩𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒕, 𝑰𝑳
WNW suburb of Chicago
 
Had another new FM on 3/14/25 with KYKV-103.1 Selah WA, K-LOVE with Leanne Crawford's "Still Waters (Psalm 23)". Matched to weak fringe KLXI-99.5 Fruitland, also K-LOVE, around 4:30 PM MT. 5.4KW at 256 miles. Aircraft scatter helps so much with cleaning out regionals (and of course, this wide-open dial).
 
KKOB has been broadcasting under STA with a non-directional antenna at night using 12.5 kW. This is the main reason why they have been getting around lately. Get them while you can before they fix their antenna towers and go back to using their licensed directional pattern.
 


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