This was unbelievable, on my way back from Dallas, TX I was able to pick up 880 WCBS not clear, but listenable just outside of Little Rock Arkansas! Is that normal or was it just the atmospheric conditions?
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880 signal
- Thread starter Hardrocker9
- Start date
Considering we just had a major solar storm, I' not surprised, anything's possible...
recto101 said:
You must mean Ionosphere, not the Ozone layer. WCBS AM is a 50Kw Non directional station with it's transmitter located on a small island in the Long Island Sound. While it's challenged to get a signal into the west side of Manhattan, it has a tremendous signal nearly everywhere else. It’s limiting factor is all the post sunset daytimers which operate post sunset at reduced power when years ago they would have to shut down and the breakdown of the Clear Channels. That and the right condx make all the difference. Many nights in NY you can hear the heterodyne on 1520 caused by the mega powered station in Saudi Arabia. Years ago I heard KFI in the NY metro area and could regularly receive KSL, KOA, WOAI & WBAP in the suburbs of NYC. In the 1980’s receiving trans Atlantic splits was also a fairly easy thing to do. Those days are long gone.
When I was a news anchor on a NYC based national network, WCBS was one affiliate, and sometimes on the drive home from work I would see how many other affiliates I could pick up on my AM car radio.
From outside the Holland Tunnel and along the Pulaski Skyway, I can remember easily picking up affiliates in Kentucky, Cleveland, New Orleans, Minneapolis and even WHO in Des Moines, Iowa. They were all on clear channels, and could be picked up most of the time during the night hours.
Canadian stations near Detroit, and in Toronto are still available in the NYC area most nights, as are a couple of Chicago stations, WWVA in West Virginia, WBT Charlotte, WBAL Baltimore, and WBZ in Boston.
I used to regularly listen to WABC in Miami, and had no problem hearing the Los Angeles CBS all news station, KNX, in Hawaii where I also picked up a lot of AM stations from Japan. The farthest AM station I ever picked up around New York was from Norway.
There are Yankees fans all over the Eastern half of the US, who follow the team by listening to the games at night on WCBS. That is one advantage that AM has that FM never will.
From outside the Holland Tunnel and along the Pulaski Skyway, I can remember easily picking up affiliates in Kentucky, Cleveland, New Orleans, Minneapolis and even WHO in Des Moines, Iowa. They were all on clear channels, and could be picked up most of the time during the night hours.
Canadian stations near Detroit, and in Toronto are still available in the NYC area most nights, as are a couple of Chicago stations, WWVA in West Virginia, WBT Charlotte, WBAL Baltimore, and WBZ in Boston.
I used to regularly listen to WABC in Miami, and had no problem hearing the Los Angeles CBS all news station, KNX, in Hawaii where I also picked up a lot of AM stations from Japan. The farthest AM station I ever picked up around New York was from Norway.
There are Yankees fans all over the Eastern half of the US, who follow the team by listening to the games at night on WCBS. That is one advantage that AM has that FM never will.
recto101 said:
Actually, AM signals "reflect" from the d-layer of the ionosphere...
(Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_propagation )
... which becomes "charged" at night and acts as a waveguide deflecting signals back to earth.
The Ozone Layer is a different beast.
The City Island transmitter site, a single tower which doubles for WCBS 880 and WFAN 660, is a fantastic location for Eastern seaboard reception due to the saltwater path. The daytime signal of both blankets Cape Cod, and I have carried WCBS all the way up the Maine coast in THE DAYTIME!
In Bermuda, both stations used to often be heard at times during the day, and very clearly at night, although I am not sure if that is still the case.
In Bermuda, both stations used to often be heard at times during the day, and very clearly at night, although I am not sure if that is still the case.
The City Island transmitter site, a single tower which doubles for WCBS 880 and WFAN 660, is a fantastic location for Eastern seaboard reception due to the saltwater path. The daytime signal of both blankets Cape Cod, and I have carried WCBS all the way up the Maine coast in THE DAYTIME!
In Bermuda, both stations used to often be heard at times during the day, and very clearly at night, although I am not sure if that is still the case.
In Bermuda, both stations used to often be heard at times during the day, and very clearly at night, although I am not sure if that is still the case.
I followed 660, in Kahn Stereo, and 880, during the day, all the way south on both I-95 and I-81, to the south at the Virginia state line, near North Carolina and Tennessee.
At night, I picked 660, in Kahn Stereo, in Bradenton, once they went C-QuAM, nope, 880 in the Spring and Fall!
In the 70's, I could pick up 800 and 660 in Bremerton, Washington. I don't think it can be done today because of the 880 in St. George, Utah.
I NEVER picked up KFI in New Jersey, day or night.
It was a goal not realized, YET!
Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
At night, I picked 660, in Kahn Stereo, in Bradenton, once they went C-QuAM, nope, 880 in the Spring and Fall!
In the 70's, I could pick up 800 and 660 in Bremerton, Washington. I don't think it can be done today because of the 880 in St. George, Utah.
I NEVER picked up KFI in New Jersey, day or night.
It was a goal not realized, YET!
Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
DavidEduardo said:
Sorry, the D layer of the ionosphere acts to absorb AM signals. It what prevents medium wave signals from traveling great distances during day light. It's the E & F layers responsible for RF refraction or bounce, if you will. Short Wave signals travel through the D layer and bounce off the upper regions of the ionoshpere during sun light hours. The sunspot cycle basically works in reverse as we travel lower in the spectrum. Medium Wave propagation is better during the winter and during periods of low sun spot activity.
R.F. Burns said:
My bad. Should have said that the D layer prevented daytime skip, usually, and weakened at night, allowing... as you said, other layers to reflect. All I know of propagation came from the brilliant engineers and frequency coordinators at HCJB, so I should have thought that through better.
Picking up a 50kw NYC station in Arkansas is not at all rare, although these days a bit harder because the FCC has shoehorned in some other station on these formerly clear channels.... not to mention the increased electrical interference. When I lived back in New Jersey I used to pick up AM stations from Denver, San Antonio, Dallas, St. Louis, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Chicago, and Salt Lake regularly. I did catch KFI out of LA once (I had to brave a lot of interference from 640 in Cuba) as well as some 5kw stations from as far away as St. Louis and Denver.
I picked up WCBS 880 late one night in Tucson...in about 1966.
This was before KRVN Lexington, NE assumed the same frequency.
I also got WABC 770 in the late '60s in Tucson on an early Monday
morning one time. (K)KOB Albuquerque happened to be off the air.
Yeah, I DXed a lot when I was five years old. :
(How old???)
This was before KRVN Lexington, NE assumed the same frequency.
I also got WABC 770 in the late '60s in Tucson on an early Monday
morning one time. (K)KOB Albuquerque happened to be off the air.
Yeah, I DXed a lot when I was five years old. :
(How old???)badjef said:
I know there's now an 880 in Seattle, WA. Was it there in the 70s?
No, there was a 770.radioguy39nj said:
A correction: the St. George, Utah station, I was thinking of was a CP on 890, not 880. Someone correctly pointed out KRVN in Nebraska as the station on 880. But that station was still a day timer, if it was on at all.
But the point was that WCBS would come in very well at night. It was a great area to DX.
I don't know what these guys were using for KFI in New Jersey, but I was never able to hear them. I chalked it up to local blasters overloading the front end across the dial, whereas the Pacific Northwast had none of those conditions present to hinder the radio from doing its job.
Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
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