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Good places to live to pull in a ton of stations

Any spot between two cities – or three if spaced properly – will yield a bounty of local stations but make DX harder. Lake and McHenry County in Illinois are tremendous for Chicago and Milwaukee FM and TV, and in McHenry County, add in Rockford and, if you want to work for it, Madison. A family member lived in central McHenry County, had an antenna on a tower with a rotor and had no trouble picking up Chicago, Rockford and Milwaukee on TV in the analog days. I'd imagine it would be the same today with the exceptions of co-channel stations, and maybe even then with precise aiming.

New Jersey between New York and Philadelphia is another good one. Not many blank spots on the dial.

The late Jeff Kadet, renowned TV DXer, moved to Macomb, Ill., in part because it was without a VHF station, and with his setup – 80-foot tower and multiple antennae – soaked up some kind of DX almost every day on low VHF.

Here's his setup, archived from 2002:

 
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schmave said:
@vw86, I bet the same applies to areas east of Cleveland where the Erie stations come in in addition to Cleveland, Akron and Youngstown.
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Very much so! There are areas of Trumbull, Mahoning, Columbiana and even Portage County where you can get the Cleveland, Akron, Canton, Youngstown and Pittsburgh mix. Go north to Lake and Ashtabula counties and you essentially swap out Pittsburgh and Canton stations for Ashtabula, Erie and Meadville/Franklin while keeping Cleveland, Akron and Youngstown.
 
The west coast of Michigan is really good. I grew up in (and my parents still live in) Manistee, and in addition to the Manistee, Ludington, Traverse City, and Cadillac stations, Green Bay and Sturgeon Bay have a few FMs in 24/7 and other Wisconsin and UP Michigan markets are fairly common (Sheboygan, Milwaukee, Appleton/Oshkosh, Marinette/Menominee, Iron Mountain, Escanaba, Marquette, Wausau/Stevens Point). 104.5 Eau Claire and 98.3 Park Falls are not uncommon at over 200 miles each despite closer stations on both frequencies.

I haven't been to the Wisconsin side of Lake Michigan in many years, but based on my experiences in Michigan, I would guess that stations many of the stronger (88.7, 91.1, 92.9, 103.5) or close to the lake (95.5, 98.1) stations in the Traverse City/Cadillac area are fairly common along most of the Wisconsin shoreline, depending of course on locals.
 
Lakeland, FL is a good spot to receive Tampa and Orlando stations. I’ve never lived there, but I’ve driven through it more times than I can count.

I did live in Venice, FL where I could get Tampa and Fort Myers stations. Even the cable TV lineup had both market’s local stations. It was kind of cool having two choices for each network.
 
Xale57 said:
I always imagine the Northern parts of the Pine Barrens in NJ. Manchester/Lakehurst where you can get Atlantic City, Philly, NYC, Wilmington DE, possibly Allentown, PA, and Long Island with often tropo.
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Growing up in Jersey in the 70's, we had friends with a summer house in Toms River where you could get the Philly and New York TV, AM, and FM stations all the time.

Their TV antenna was aimed at New York but we once went up on the roof and turned it towards Philadelphia and we got all the VHF stations just about as well.
 
vw86 said:
Very much so! There are areas of Trumbull, Mahoning, Columbiana and even Portage County where you can get the Cleveland, Akron, Canton, Youngstown and Pittsburgh mix. Go north to Lake and Ashtabula counties and you essentially swap out Pittsburgh and Canton stations for Ashtabula, Erie and Meadville/Franklin while keeping Cleveland, Akron and Youngstown.
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I was definitely thinking southern Ashtabula County anyway. By the time you get to my in-laws on the very western edge of Conneaut, most of the Cleveland stations except 92.3 and 105.7 have disappeared or otherwise struggle badly. Erie stations blast in for the most part. I bet 10-15 miles south is a different story, especially for Youngstown and some of the other Cleveland stations, but I never get to "South County" as my wife and in-laws call it.
I've never heard Pittsburgh up that far. I don't know their radio dial all that well but I do know there are locals on 93.7 and 102.5 up around Conneaut that block The Fan and WDVE.
 
Yeah, there's really no good place to get *everything*, but it's always been my favorite area to pick up multiple markets at once.

When I would visit my parents in Summit County Ohio with my old 2002 Ford Focus I used to park the car half in/half out of the garage at a precise spot. In that one spot I could pick up stations from Columbus, Toledo, Pittsburgh and Meadville/Franklin like they were locals. Pull the car all the way in the garage or all the way out in the driveway and they'd be gone. When I was on the air in Meadville/Franklin in the days before streaming, my parents would do the same trick with their cars to hear me on air.

My parents still live in that house and I've tried it as recently as earlier this year, but it doesn't happen anymore. I think it's a combination of translators and newer car radios.
 
vw86 said:
Yeah, there's really no good place to get *everything*, but it's always been my favorite area to pick up multiple markets at once.

When I would visit my parents in Summit County Ohio with my old 2002 Ford Focus I used to park the car half in/half out of the garage at a precise spot. In that one spot I could pick up stations from Columbus, Toledo, Pittsburgh and Meadville/Franklin like they were locals. Pull the car all the way in the garage or all the way out in the driveway and they'd be gone. When I was on the air in Meadville/Franklin in the days before streaming, my parents would do the same trick with their cars to hear me on air.

My parents still live in that house and I've tried it as recently as earlier this year, but it doesn't happen anymore. I think it's a combination of translators and newer car radios.
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Were the stations AM or FM? If they were AM the increased interference from LEDs, plug in wall adapters, etc. has reduced a lot of AM reception in the last 20 years.
 
@ ftball fan

Sometime back some guy from PA asked what would be the ideal spot (if there was one) where a DXer might be able to hear all 50 US states on AM in modern times.
'Modern times' would include with every tinpot AM daytimer ever licensed with 23 nighttime watts from an office building, clam shack, potato shed or FM hall closet.
The consensus was near where you grew up -- Michigan. Northern Michigan to be exact, perhaps the U.P.
The reason I asked was the three Norhtern New England states (ME, NH & VT) were never licensed a 50,000 watt AM station. Those states must be the devil to log for most of the country.
Much depends on how you count 'em, of course. Geogrpahy being as it is, for example: some 15 NYC signal AM stations have had their sticks in New Jersey for decades.

FWIW: Each of the four DXers who hung out near JFK Int'l in Queens between 1962 and 1977 heard 46 of the 50 states. Oddly, we were each missing different sets of four. Lol -- I heard some 1500 AM stations myself and was considered the lousiest DXer of the bunch! But those were way different times.

That sounds like a pretty good spot for FM where you are. 73!
 
when i lived in NW PA, I was in Ridgway, NW of DuBois. I was south of town on route 219 up on a hill. i was at about 2000 feet in elevation just a mile north of the WKNI 93.9 WJNG 100.5 and W232BS 94.5 tower. I had a 5 element yagi. I heard Southern/SW Ontario 125 miles away almsot every day...... RDS and all.
 
RMarino said:
Lakeland, FL is a good spot to receive Tampa and Orlando stations. I’ve never lived there, but I’ve driven through it more times than I can count.

I did live in Venice, FL where I could get Tampa and Fort Myers stations. Even the cable TV lineup had both market’s local stations. It was kind of cool having two choices for each network.
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Speaking of Polk County, my parents once Airbnb'd a house near Babson Park (Lake Wales) for a month in 2023. While there, not only was I able to pull in Tampa and Orlando on a regular basis, but Fort Myers/Naples, the Treasure Coast, and the stronger WPB stations would waft in occasionally, with farther-afield markets being heard once or twice, such as Miami, the Keys, Gainesville, and Jacksonville, with 92.5 WPAP (PCB - also known as the Redneck Riviera), 93.9 WMTM (Moultrie GA), 95.5 WTVY (Dothan AL), 97.7 WYYX (also from PCB), and 104.5 WKAK (Albany GA) all being heard at least once
 
Honorable mention should go to Santa Barbara, CA, especially when at Arroyo Burro Beach. It is possible to hear San Diego, Los Angeles, Inland Empire, and local Santa Barbara FM stations. The south-facing coastline provides a direct path to the San Diego stations.
 
@ AM-FM-DXer

I'd heard recent word that tropo cx aren't as plentiful on the West Coast as they are on the Atlantic shore. Have you found this to be so?

[Just for reference' sake here; consider as you see fit some possibly related climate stuff: Many (if not most) plants and crops grown for years on the coast of China also flourish on the USA's Atlantic seaboard. And because of currents, some places on the left coast of Ireland have palm trees growing.]
 
Steve Green NEPA said:
@ AM-FM-DXer

I'd heard recent word that tropo cx aren't as plentiful on the West Coast as they are on the Atlantic shore. Have you found this to be so?

[Just for reference' sake here; consider as you see fit some possibly related climate stuff: Many (if not most) plants and crops grown for years on the coast of China also flourish on the USA's Atlantic seaboard. And because of currents, some places on the left coast of Ireland have palm trees growing.]
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That has been my experience. Water-based conductivity seems to help more than anything in Santa Barbara, coastal L.A. County, and San Diego. When I listened to San Diego stations from Santa Barbara, reception is clear. It's not in-and-out (no California pun intended) like tropo conditions can be.
 
In the Carolinas I'd say the best spot for FM DX is I-95 in South Carolina basically anywhere from MM 30 to 120. You have Charleston, Columbia, Savannah, Florence, Augusta, and any tropo brings in Florida stations or deep into North Carolina. There aren't many frequencies left when you get into all of those signals. Also, being far enough away from the major markets means you get Charlotte and sometimes Atlanta on tropo when that doesn't usually happen in the cities.

Once you get north of Georgetown, between there and Murrells Inlet is also a sweet spot. Charleston, MB, Wilmington, basically anything on the coast during the summer. Where I am during the summer my range is basically from West Palm Beach to Cape Hatteras in Charleston on FM. Very occasionally tropo brings in Miami or further north toward Hampton Roads. I've heard Tampa signals maybe 2-3 times.

Being on the coast anywhere in SC was also very strong for AM reception when there was actually something worth listening. 630 Savannah was a local station pretty much for the Charleston metro before it signed off, along with 690 WOKV. Cuba comes in on 570 as far as the southeastern NC coast during the day.
 
ftballfan said:
Speaking of Polk County, my parents once Airbnb'd a house near Babson Park (Lake Wales) for a month in 2023. While there, not only was I able to pull in Tampa and Orlando on a regular basis, but Fort Myers/Naples, the Treasure Coast, and the stronger WPB stations would waft in occasionally, with farther-afield markets being heard once or twice, such as Miami, the Keys, Gainesville, and Jacksonville, with 92.5 WPAP (PCB - also known as the Redneck Riviera), 93.9 WMTM (Moultrie GA), 95.5 WTVY (Dothan AL), 97.7 WYYX (also from PCB), and 104.5 WKAK (Albany GA) all being heard at least once
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Where I am about 15 miles south of Orlando is a good spot too. All the Full class C Tampa stations, all the Orlando stations, plus Space Coast stations some in well. Plus you can add the Lakeland-Winter Haven FMs.
 
CentralFL said:
Where I am about 15 miles south of Orlando is a good spot too. All the Full class C Tampa stations, all the Orlando stations, plus Space Coast stations some in well. Plus you can add the Lakeland-Winter Haven FMs.
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If you consider tropo, the Space Coast is one of the best places to DX. With the right conditions from Melbourne, I have pulled in stations from Charleston to Miami.
 


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