I used to hear CKOC every night in the fall in southeast Iowa until I was about 6 miles west of Burlington. Strangely with CJRC silent here in Ottawa, I don't get CKOC that well. I think it's because they're still protecting Ottawa. There's a rumour going around that someone is very interested here in re-activating 1150 AM again. My source is Barry McLarnon, and he's pretty damn reliable. As much as DXers love a wide open dial with no local signals, I still think it's sad that we only have 3 AM's in a city of over one million.
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A FEW RECENT DX CATCHES ON AM
- Thread starter stormy01
- Start date
radioman148 said:
That's before WOBM went on the air from Lakewood Twp., NJ. http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WOBM&service=AM&status=L&hours=N
BRNout said:radioman148 said:
So far, NO WLS. Not even a trace of it, making me wish to dial back my raving reviews of its signal from that night I spent in Nebraska! :
Once again, it's the weakling of the big Chicago blowtorches. But I'll keep trying for it.
I'm wondering why you can't get it if KDXU isn't bothering it?
I know when I was in the Palm Springs, Ca area WLS would come in very well in the 80s before KDXU ran at night. Sometimes you could even hear WLS under KDXU.
radioman148 said:BRNout said:radioman148 said:
So far, NO WLS. Not even a trace of it, making me wish to dial back my raving reviews of its signal from that night I spent in Nebraska! :
Once again, it's the weakling of the big Chicago blowtorches. But I'll keep trying for it.
I'm wondering why you can't get it if KDXU isn't bothering it?
I know when I was in the Palm Springs, Ca area WLS would come in very well in the 80s before KDXU ran at night. Sometimes you could even hear WLS under KDXU.
The directional pattern for KDXU is interesting. It booms into areas west of the Wasatch Mountains (like Salt Lake) at night - but was barely audible 75 miles to the east in WY. However, there's a strong Mexican on that frequency which dominates in western WY. Even when the two aforementioned stations faded, I have been unable to hear even one peep of WLS from Evanston, WY. Now I'm staying in the Salt Lake area and thus don't have a prayer of getting them from here.
Interestingly, WGN was the champ in SW WY - perfectly audible every night and often pretty strong. WBBM was second, I could always hear it faintly. WSCR could be heard, but was fighting with KBOI and - yes - that Denver area religious station on 670....KLTT Commerce City. It's little 1400 watt signal would sneak in now and then. 1000 is KOMO in this region, so that's it from Chicago.
The farthest signals I heard from Evanston were traces of Radio Reloj at 790 (under KGHL Billings) and CJBC Toronto - I definitely heard French on 860. Toronto is about 1,600 miles from where I was. No such luck with CFMZ; there were a few stations in the mud on 740 and the strongest was KCBS.
BRNout said:radioman148 said:BRNout said:radioman148 said:
So far, NO WLS. Not even a trace of it, making me wish to dial back my raving reviews of its signal from that night I spent in Nebraska! :
Once again, it's the weakling of the big Chicago blowtorches. But I'll keep trying for it.
I'm wondering why you can't get it if KDXU isn't bothering it?
I know when I was in the Palm Springs, Ca area WLS would come in very well in the 80s before KDXU ran at night. Sometimes you could even hear WLS under KDXU.
The directional pattern for KDXU is interesting. It booms into areas west of the Wasatch Mountains (like Salt Lake) at night - but was barely audible 75 miles to the east in WY. However, there's a strong Mexican on that frequency which dominates in western WY. Even when the two aforementioned stations faded, I have been unable to hear even one peep of WLS from Evanston, WY. Now I'm staying in the Salt Lake area and thus don't have a prayer of getting them from here.
Interestingly, WGN was the champ in SW WY - perfectly audible every night and often pretty strong. WBBM was second, I could always hear it faintly. WSCR could be heard, but was fighting with KBOI and - yes - that Denver area religious station on 670....KLTT Commerce City. It's little 1400 watt signal would sneak in now and then. 1000 is KOMO in this region, so that's it from Chicago.
The farthest signals I heard from Evanston were traces of Radio Reloj at 790 (under KGHL Billings) and CJBC Toronto - I definitely heard French on 860. Toronto is about 1,600 miles from where I was. No such luck with CFMZ; there were a few stations in the mud on 740 and the strongest was KCBS.
Thanks for the reports. I'm surprised KDWN doesn't give WGN more competition. I wonder what city that Mexican station on 890 is coming from?
radioman148 said:
That's another issue having to do with which side of the mountains you're on & where the null is. For example, KXNT 840 from Vegas is loud and clear at night in both Salt Lake and Wyoming. And that's with 25 kw, but with a lobe pointed northeast. However, KDWN is different. Over in WY, 720 is WGN while in the Salt Lake/Wasatch Front area, it's all KDWN and no WGN at all! Very tight directional null from KDWN seems to keep all the signal from the I-15 corridor westward. Looking at Radio-locator, it looks like most of Utah is nulled out at night, but it's not so. Same with KGO for that matter. The maps on R-L are fun and make for a nice guide, but.......................are not always accurate.
On this trip, I've been amazed at what a difference 75 or so miles can make with AM skywave - if you have a set of mountains there!!
BRNout said:
Interesting that the Wasatch front makes such a difference.
BRNout said:
It may not have been Toronto. There's a station in Saskatchewan that is also Radio Canada (same format as CJBC) on 860 and it's a 10,000 watter day time...I'm not sure what they do at night. I think that might have been what you're hearing. If you don't hear AM 740 from toronto, you most likely won't hear CJBC.
I remember camping at Lake Mead a couple years ago, and not hardly getting a peep from 840 KXNT North Las Vegas. At night here in southern California they blast in like a local. Go figure 
tfcwings said:I remember camping at Lake Mead a couple years ago, and not hardly getting a peep from 840 KXNT North Las Vegas. At night here in southern California they blast in like a local. Go figure
Directional antennas are amazing.
mimo said:
You might have something there mimo! I didn't realize that there was a station on the same frequency in Saskatchewan with the same SRC programming as Toronto. It runs 10000 watts and is directional, though I can't get info on where the nulls are. So it is more likely that I actually got the one from Saskatchewan. Funny, I knew about the one on 690 from southern SK - but didn't know about the larger station from Saskatoon. My bad.
crainbebo said:
I wish I had the time to do that, but I was a bit limited thanks to work stuff. One thing is for sure: there's a heck of a lot more to hear on AM when you're in a place with no strong locals interfering with things!!
crainbebo said:
Thanks. Unlike most stations that are unidentifiable in the mud, RR makes it easy with the time ticks and Morse code "RR." So you can pick it right out of an otherwise muddy frequency. In this case, it was in the background of KGHL Billings, MT and it's 1.8 kilowatts of power.
Hearing Radio Reloj Ticks/"RR" Morse Code on 820 under the WBAP/CHAM slop at times on the overnight. Also ESPN on 730 from the Memphis area and KSIR 1010 Brush/Ft. Morgan, Colorado. This Colorado station was a bit hard to believe with 280 watts at night, and it was positively ID'ed - but one of the station's strongest signal lobes is aimed right at my area. KSIR 1010 has been coming in reliably for several nights in a row, so if you want to catch something other than KOA or KPOF (which I also have heard recently), try for it! And Radio Estrella XEFW 810 from Tampico, Mexico was coming in very well last night. Wanted to add that propagation from the East Coast was not that good, so that's why I was hearing Mexico on 810 and Colorado on 1010. (Normally WGY, WINS and CFRB dominate those frequencies) When there's a home ball game on WSCR 670 the "HD" signal is turned off for home games so try to catch KFEQ, WCTT or WCBM on 680.
stormy01 said:
Thanks for the heads up Stormy. I'll give some of these a try.
As you know, I'm not far from you guys. I've heard KSIR a few times. (They have a MONSTER daytime signal). WCTT also has been relatively easy for me on 680.
BTW, nothing to report from my 3 days here in Austin, TX. High rise hotel I'm in eats AM signals. Not even the biggest stick in town....KLBJ/590...can get in. Locals 1300, 1370, 1490 are audible...but just barely. As or FM, the locals are fine, but no way any of the e-skip stuff can get past them.
BTW, nothing to report from my 3 days here in Austin, TX. High rise hotel I'm in eats AM signals. Not even the biggest stick in town....KLBJ/590...can get in. Locals 1300, 1370, 1490 are audible...but just barely. As or FM, the locals are fine, but no way any of the e-skip stuff can get past them.
cyberdad said:
Any shot at the Chicago 50KW AMs in Texas? If you're going over to the Florida panhandle please let us know if you can hear any down there.
Last night around 10 p.m. I logged WXJC 850 Birmingham, Alabama - this station sounded a lot louder / the signal strength seemed a lot stronger than their 1kW night power.
Also several days ago heard WXLA 1180 Dimondale, Michigan signing on with an excellent signal just before 5 a.m. (my local time)
Also several days ago heard WXLA 1180 Dimondale, Michigan signing on with an excellent signal just before 5 a.m. (my local time)
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