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830 WTRU Kernersville, NC on top of WCCO tonight

I

Icangelp

If you haven't logged 830 WTRU, tonight is the night, and now is the time.

Listened for a 1/2 hour from 8:30 PM EST to 9:05 PM, and they were dominating the frequency.

They are DA-2 with 50KW days & 10KW nights, both times directional towards the SE.

I assume they are still on their daytime pattern, which does send some of their signal in a NE direction.
 
Thanks for the tip. I'll take a stab at it later this evening.

I think a number of stations may be running daytime patterns/powers during the unusual winter weather that's currently gripping much of the country.

This morning before dawn, KFAB was blasting in like a local on 1110 here in Northern Illinois. Had to be at least 2 or 2 1/2 hours before Omaha sunrise. However instead of local weather/storm info, they were broadcasting ag market reports and Rush Limbaugh promos.
 
Wound up dealing with a computer issue last night, so I never got the chance to try for WTRU.  I might give it a try tonite.

Not sure how I'll do. 'CCO is pretty potent here every night.
 
I tried last night. WCCO was very strong here in the northern Chicago suburbs although I did hear something under it. Couldn't tell what it was though.
 
Didn't hear WTRU however, I'd like to! I'm still getting WCRN on an almost daily basis. Has anyone else heard WCRN?
 
stormy01 said:
Didn't hear WTRU however, I'd like to! I'm still getting WCRN on an almost daily basis. Has anyone else heard WCRN?
Click to expand...

Yes, I eeked out WCRN the other day from this area. Couldn't believe it - I used to listen to them now and then when I lived back in New England and they never did well at night west of their tx location. A big dx for them used to be hearing them in Albany, NY.
 
BRNout said:
stormy01 said:
Didn't hear WTRU however, I'd like to! I'm still getting WCRN on an almost daily basis. Has anyone else heard WCRN?
Click to expand...

Yes, I eeked out WCRN the other day from this area. Couldn't believe it - I used to listen to them now and then when I lived back in New England and they never did well at night west of their tx location. A big dx for them used to be hearing them in Albany, NY.
Click to expand...

WCRN's tower parameters must have changed. Propagation alone couldn't account for me hearing 'CRN on a fairly regular basis (let's say 4/7 days of the week)
 
stormy01 said:
BRNout said:
stormy01 said:
Didn't hear WTRU however, I'd like to! I'm still getting WCRN on an almost daily basis. Has anyone else heard WCRN?
Click to expand...

Yes, I eeked out WCRN the other day from this area. Couldn't believe it - I used to listen to them now and then when I lived back in New England and they never did well at night west of their tx location. A big dx for them used to be hearing them in Albany, NY.
Click to expand...

WCRN's tower parameters must have changed. Propagation alone couldn't account for me hearing 'CRN on a fairly regular basis (let's say 4/7 days of the week)
Click to expand...

Not officially anyway. They did up their power to 50 kw a while back, but we're directly in the null here. Not sure what's going on, but I'm getting them here almost as well as I got them in Albany 2 years ago (and, again, that was a pretty good catch). All of that juice is supposed to go east (main lobe at 85 deg) and they have an awesome signal at night in Maine - for example. They're supposed to protect WCCO and a slew of other 830's, not the least of which is WEEU Reading, PA.

830 is pretty crowded around here these days because I'm also hearing music and religion in the background - not to mention a usually strong WCCO.
 
Finally got around to trying WTRU just before dawn today, and I think I had it.

WCCO was pounding in, but there was definitely talk going on underneath. I tried nulling 'CCO, but that had the effect of nulling the other station as well. This would fit WTRU, since I'm pretty much on a straight line between the two. Finally, after about fifteen minutes, 'CCO faded, and the other station rode in on top of the channel. The talk I'd been hearing was indeed a religion broadcast. The 'CCO fade lasted only about a minute, so I never got an ID. So while I can't say for sure that I had WTRU, everything fit what I would have expected. BTW, the receiver I was using was the SRF 37 (Walkman).

Has anyone else noticed that WCCO seems stronger lately than it used to be? That would be contrary to the usual trend, but here northwest of Chicago, their nighttime signal has been one of the strongest on the dial. For most of the last 30 or so years, my memory of 'CCO is that it regularly got trashed by more robust signals from both WBAP and WHAS. Now 'CCO repeatedly more than holds its own against both of those.
 
cyberdad said:
Finally got around to trying WTRU just before dawn today, and I think I had it.

WCCO was pounding in, but there was definitely talk going on underneath. I tried nulling 'CCO, but that had the effect of nulling the other station as well. This would fit WTRU, since I'm pretty much on a straight line between the two. Finally, after about fifteen minutes, 'CCO faded, and the other station rode in on top of the channel. The talk I'd been hearing was indeed a religion broadcast. The 'CCO fade lasted only about a minute, so I never got an ID. So while I can't say for sure that I had WTRU, everything fit what I would have expected. BTW, the receiver I was using was the SRF 37 (Walkman).

Has anyone else noticed that WCCO seems stronger lately than it used to be? That would be contrary to the usual trend, but here northwest of Chicago, their nighttime signal has been one of the strongest on the dial. For most of the last 30 or so years, my memory of 'CCO is that it regularly got trashed by more robust signals from both WBAP and WHAS. Now 'CCO repeatedly more than holds its own against both of those.
Click to expand...
Yes, I have noticed WCCO has a stronger signal here, especially compared to may years ago.

I'm wondering if the recent improvement has something to do with the extremely low sun activitity period we are in. They may not be far enought north, but I've been told this is the very situation that is allowing us midwesterners to hear the Euro stations on LW and MW.

When the curve spikes back up, those days will be behind us, and the Southern signals will again have their day.
 
Not to belabor the point, but when I say 'CCO has been pounding in, I mean sounding almost like a local on most nights.

For most of my 40 years of DXing, I've pretty much considered 'CCO to have a relatively "puny" nighttime footprint for a (former) 1-A clear. But not lately!

Never thought much about the sunspot cycle, but I agree that that could explain this and a lot of other recent stuff.
 
WTRU must have been on daytime power and towers, creating enormous interference for WCCO around 4 a.m. this morning in Northern Illinois. WCRN from Worcester, Mass. in there too. What a mess!
 
As one of those "evil DXers", I have noticed that powering down or changing patterns has increasingly become optional...
 
audioguy said:
As one of those "evil DXers", I have noticed that powering down or changing patterns has increasingly become optional...
Click to expand...

Indeed... As posted in another thread, I was in Canton Ohio Friday night listening to high school football blowing out CFZM on 740. Later that night....and Saturday and Sunday night, the serious challenge was completely gone. There was a little bit of slop in the background, but CFZM strongly dominating the channel.
 
WTRU has been wiping out WCCO for a few weeks now here in Central KY. Another religious station has also been heard (probably Boston) some evenings but I have not been able to catch an ID. Very strange because WCCO usually OWNS 830 here at night.
 
KR4BD said:
WTRU has been wiping out WCCO for a few weeks now here in Central KY. Another religious station has also been heard (probably Boston) some evenings but I have not been able to catch an ID. Very strange because WCCO usually OWNS 830 here at night.
Click to expand...
I'm thinking they are remaining on their day pattern.
 
radioman148, if you do a calculation of what just one 5 kW day station staying on day pattern and power does to the Nighttime Interference Free contour of a well protected heritage III-A or III-B station, it isn't pretty. This time of year, you hear stories about their Friday night high school football "STA" PSSAs.
 
Schroedingers Cat said:
radioman148, if you do a calculation of what just one 5 kW day station staying on day pattern and power does to the Nighttime Interference Free contour of a well protected heritage III-A or III-B station, it isn't pretty. This time of year, you hear stories about their Friday night high school football "STA" PSSAs.
Click to expand...

Apparently the FCC looks the other way.
 
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