In Ventura for the weekend for a wedding, during some down time I had to try DXing SD stations. Right by the ocean, the straight line and salt water conductivity brought almost all SD area stations in fairly strong, even 540, 800, 1270, 1310 and 1550. Only 910 and 1040 missing. On FM 92.5, 93.3, 94.1 made it thru, others overridden by local operations.
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A Little DX
- Thread starter Lopaka
- Start date
Lopaka said:
The reverse is also true. In some places in San Diego, on FM, I can hear the 93.7 and 103.3 from Santa Barbara.
On AM, I can hear (from near the coast near Ocean Beach or Encinitas (two spots I have tried), with the aid of a Select-A-Tenna):
660 KGDP Orcutt, CA (also available at my house in the Mt Helix area, requires the SAT)
670 KIRN Simi Valley, CA (also @ my house w/built-in antenna on walkman)
990 KTMS Santa Barbara, CA (competes with a Mexicali station at my house, Mex seems to be winning slightly)
1250 KZER Santa Barbara, CA (also available @ home - barely detectable w/o SAT)
1290 KZSB Santa Barbara, CA (usually needs SAT @ home - if I null KZSB, KKDD San Bernardino is audible underneath)
1340 KIST Santa Barbara, CA (barely detectable @ home w/o SAT - 1360 KLSD splatters over unless I null the local)
1400 KUNX Santa Paula, CA (I was wondering what that station I was hearing faintly on the SAT on 1400 @ my house... I'm guessing it's this one)
1450 KVEN Ventura, CA (battles with KFSD Escondido in Ocean Beach, unavailable @ my house due to being wiped out by KFSD)
1490 KBKO Santa Barbara, CA (battles with KICO El Centro with SAT @ my house)
1520 KVTA Port Hueneme, CA (barely detectable w/o SAT @ my house. I often listen to Kim Komando on Saturday afternoons on this station.)
1590 KKZZ Ventura, CA (wiped out @ my house by a station from Mexicali.
I like what I've heard from their format when I've been in their service area (in Ocean Beach, for example))Hmm.. interesting... guess that's pretty much ALL of them.
So, as for the San Diego ones, did you get all of them? here's a list:
540 XESURF Tijuana - standards
600 KOGO San Diego - talk
620 XESS Rosarito - spanish
690 XETRA Rosarito - spanish
760 KFMB San Diego - talk
800 XESPN Tijuana - ESPN
860 XEMO Tijuana - spanish
910 KECR El Cajon - religious (Family Radio) (maybe wiped out by the 910 in Oxnard?)
950 XEKAM Rosarito - spanish
1000 KCEO Vista - talk
1030 XESDD Rosarito - spanish
1040 KURS San Diego - gospel/soul/etc
1090 XEPRS Rosarito - Sports ("Mighty Double-X")
1130 KSDO San Diego - spanish religious ("Radio Nueva Vida")
1170 KCBQ San Diego - talk
1210 KPRZ San Marcos - religious/talk
1240 KSON San Diego - multi
1270 XEAZ Tijuana - spanish
1310 XEC Tijuana - spanish
1320 KKSM Oceanside - music
1360 KLSD San Diego - talk
1390 XEKT Tecate - spanish (probably wiped out by KLTX Long Beach)
1420 XEXX Tijuana - spanish
1450 KFSD Escondido - classical music (most likely obliterated by your local 1450)
1470 XERCN Tijuana - spanish
1550 XEBG Tijuana - spanish
1630 XEUT Tijuana - spanish
1700 XEPE Tecate - talk/sports ("Cash 1700")
Now, some time, what I'd like to do from the San Diego coast, with a good antenna (for example one of Bruce Carter's antennas, which I have yet to get around to building), is to try to DX some stations up and down the coast, as well as across the pacific. A few that I would like to try for include, but are not limited to:
650 KENI Anchorage, AK
680 KNBR San Francisco, CA
740 KCBS San Francisco, CA (but I guess I can't get an antenna directional enough to null KBRT
)750 KFQD Anchorage, AK or KXL Portland, OR
730 CHMJ Vancouver, BC
810 KGO San Francisco, CA
870 KHNR Honolulu, HI
1000 KOMO Seattle, WA
1130 CKWX Vancouver, BC
any others that might be likely to make it to San Diego, CA, over the Pacific? (only reason I didn't include any Asian stations is cause I don't know what ones to try for.)
Hi, I got all except 910, 1000, 1030, 1040, 1240, 1320, 1390 (didn't even know there was one!), 1450, and I did not even think to try for 1630 or 1700. From where I live in OB, KCBS and KGO boom in every night, but I have never heard KNBR here due to XETRA. As a Hawai'i fan I have tried many times to get even one station from there but never have, tho I understand that KPUA 670 in Hilo can be heard in Santa Barbara occasionally. Hilo is the likeliest city to receive, with no mountains, just ocean between there and here, frequencies are 620, 670, 850, and 1060. The 870 transmits from western Moloka'i so it, too, has only ocean, no mountains in the way. Might be directional tho, to avoid interfering with KRLA.
Camped on the east coast of Maui at night with nothing to do but DX with a cheap transistor radio it was amazing to pick up stations from the center of the continent, WBAP, KOA, KKOB, WHO for instance, in addition to w. coast power houses you'd expect like KNX.
I think one thing that has amazed me about radio ever since I was a kid is the long distance its capable of. Altho a transmitter is an impressive piece of equipment, it is incredibly modest compared to its power to throw a signal over half a continent.
Camped on the east coast of Maui at night with nothing to do but DX with a cheap transistor radio it was amazing to pick up stations from the center of the continent, WBAP, KOA, KKOB, WHO for instance, in addition to w. coast power houses you'd expect like KNX.
I think one thing that has amazed me about radio ever since I was a kid is the long distance its capable of. Altho a transmitter is an impressive piece of equipment, it is incredibly modest compared to its power to throw a signal over half a continent.
w9wi said:
You mean KRLA, they haven't been KIEV since -- what-- 1999???
And what do you mean "increase power"? 870 KRLA reduces power at night from 20kw down to 3kw. Or is there a permit app to increase night power?
SuperRadioFan said:
KRLA is 50 kw day, 3 kw night. They went to the 50 kw day CP about 90 days ago. The 37 kw night CP is still in the works, as it is off 6 towers at a different site, between West Covina and Pomona, just north of Walnut. The 37 kw night was contingent on 870 in Hawaii going directional or off the air; it is actually taking a third alternative and moving to 880 in the first pentaplexed AM I have heard of... KAIM plus co-owned KHCM (690) and KGU (760), plus KRUD (1130) and KZOO (1210).
.
Re: KRLA and KKGO
BTW the same can be said about the horrible signal of 1260 AM KKGO. They're supposed to be 20kw daytime? Again, no difference where I'm at from when they were 5kw daytime.
I'll take your word for it though I noticed no discernable difference in signal strength in Orange County north and south. I'm sure most of the power is directed away from OC.OldGringo said:
BTW the same can be said about the horrible signal of 1260 AM KKGO. They're supposed to be 20kw daytime? Again, no difference where I'm at from when they were 5kw daytime.
Re: KRLA and KKGO
Our offices in Glendale look right at the 870 site (complete with the "hanging" third "tower" and we definitely noticed the increase in field strength, as did the new Highway Patrol radio center at the 134 and the 2 FWY. Our chief confirmed with Salem's engineers that the 50 kw had been lit up.
You are right, it sends a hunk of power towards Ventura County. Of course, it protects XEMO in Tijuana, which explains that.
SuperRadioFan said:
Our offices in Glendale look right at the 870 site (complete with the "hanging" third "tower" and we definitely noticed the increase in field strength, as did the new Highway Patrol radio center at the 134 and the 2 FWY. Our chief confirmed with Salem's engineers that the 50 kw had been lit up.
You are right, it sends a hunk of power towards Ventura County. Of course, it protects XEMO in Tijuana, which explains that.
File under peripheral trivia...50 kw = 67 horsepower. Just 67. You can cover a continent with less power than a car, you can span an ocean with it. When KFI got their 50kw in the 1930's they did a DX contest, the winner was in Spain. KCBQ did a contest when they got theirs in the 1950's, they got entries from the Philippines.
B
Bob_Hudson
Guest
Lopaka said:
And if you use shortwave frequencies, it doesn't even take that: when I was a ham in the 60's I used to communicate trans-Atlantic on 20 watts!
Speaking of DX'ing: I''d been trying to pick up Rick Dees new station in LA at 93.9 FM. I figured I might have some luck along the North San Diego Coast so I punched in the frequency one morning as I was driving south. It was really bad reception, just barely punching through and not really enough to listen to. Then, I pulled into the 7-11 on the Coast Highway in downtown Encinitas and parked in one of the two or three spots in the alley right beneath the mural. Lo and behold, 93.9 came through like gangbusters!
Wow, short wave! I had a short wave set as a kid, how amazing to hear Radio Moscow...Moscow Mailbag, why yes, we did invent the light bulb and the car and and and...and it was all stolen by the capitalists! Peiking, HCJB the Christian voice of the Andes, yes, truly incredible. I don't know why, with all the stations on the net now, anybody bothers broadcasting short wave any more, but there is something about pulling it in yourself over a radio, the way God meant it to be, that makes just the process itself much more interesting than tuning Berlin, say, with a point and a click.
Touring New England a few years ago I stopped at Wellfleet on Cape Cod where the installation built by Marconi in 1903 once stood, but now has for the most part rusted away or fallen into the sea. It was from here that Marconi sent his historic signal to the King of England, forever changing the world by launching radio. Yes, there is a museum, and it is interesting, but somehow to have let the towers fall in to the sea, and the equipment rust to powder, seems...well...sad, disrespectful of such important history. Oh well. It only shows what a taken for granted normal part of human life that revolution has become.
Touring New England a few years ago I stopped at Wellfleet on Cape Cod where the installation built by Marconi in 1903 once stood, but now has for the most part rusted away or fallen into the sea. It was from here that Marconi sent his historic signal to the King of England, forever changing the world by launching radio. Yes, there is a museum, and it is interesting, but somehow to have let the towers fall in to the sea, and the equipment rust to powder, seems...well...sad, disrespectful of such important history. Oh well. It only shows what a taken for granted normal part of human life that revolution has become.
Z
zumahans
Guest
As a regular commuter between Point Dume and Ventura, the SD FM stations are really all there is - that and the Pigeon Pass, Riverside transmitters of KGGI, KOLA and KVCR-FM.
LA FM is nonexistant. Mt Wilson and the K-JOY tower end coverage at Paradise Cove.
Not much Santa Barbara reception here - it all ends at Pt Mugu. KRUZ 103.3 used to boom in, and Rap y Mas still does, but the format sux.
It's really strange here at Zuma, where KOLA and KTYD overlap. I have actually heard them once playing the same song - Bob Dylan's Positively Fourth Street - about 15 secs apart on top of each other.
Interestingly, the strongest FM signals between points Dume and Mugu on highway 1 are the Tijuana sticks, plus little old KPRI. KFMB FM and KGB are blowtorches, usually, although sometimes the entire SD band just disappears, notably during Santa Ana winds - go figure.
The Pepperdine LPFM on top of KGB is audible for about 1000 yards on PCH right at the school. What a waste of electricity.
KPBS FM covers Malibu fairly well. Right at Point Mugu it is replaced for 500 yards by the NPR affiliate in San Luis Obispo, and when you go around the corner into the strawberry fields the K-LOVE repeater covers up SLO.
KSDS FM on 88.3 is a reliable catch, usually as strong at KKJZ. Interestingly, the engineers at KCLU have to use a directional antenna at Broadcast Hill in Santa Barbara to keep KSDS out of the KCLU repeater at 102.3. One week, the wind rotated the recieving antenna slightly and San Diego was rebroadcast at Santa Barbara.
To listen to All Things Considered between here and Ventura, I routinely start on 89.5 SD, then bounce to 89.9 KCRW, then 88.3 KCLU, 89.1 KCRU, then 88.3 again. If in Thousand oaks, add 102.3 KCRW repeater to the mix.
And the dinky KPBS repeater in La Jolla at 89.1 is heard more often at Zuma than KCRU Oxnard, which must have a directional antenna and certainly has significant terrain blockage.
The county sheriff's Malibu repeaters are located on Black Jack Mountain, near the Catalina Airport, "46 miles across the sea."
LA FM is nonexistant. Mt Wilson and the K-JOY tower end coverage at Paradise Cove.
Not much Santa Barbara reception here - it all ends at Pt Mugu. KRUZ 103.3 used to boom in, and Rap y Mas still does, but the format sux.
It's really strange here at Zuma, where KOLA and KTYD overlap. I have actually heard them once playing the same song - Bob Dylan's Positively Fourth Street - about 15 secs apart on top of each other.
Interestingly, the strongest FM signals between points Dume and Mugu on highway 1 are the Tijuana sticks, plus little old KPRI. KFMB FM and KGB are blowtorches, usually, although sometimes the entire SD band just disappears, notably during Santa Ana winds - go figure.
The Pepperdine LPFM on top of KGB is audible for about 1000 yards on PCH right at the school. What a waste of electricity.
KPBS FM covers Malibu fairly well. Right at Point Mugu it is replaced for 500 yards by the NPR affiliate in San Luis Obispo, and when you go around the corner into the strawberry fields the K-LOVE repeater covers up SLO.
KSDS FM on 88.3 is a reliable catch, usually as strong at KKJZ. Interestingly, the engineers at KCLU have to use a directional antenna at Broadcast Hill in Santa Barbara to keep KSDS out of the KCLU repeater at 102.3. One week, the wind rotated the recieving antenna slightly and San Diego was rebroadcast at Santa Barbara.
To listen to All Things Considered between here and Ventura, I routinely start on 89.5 SD, then bounce to 89.9 KCRW, then 88.3 KCLU, 89.1 KCRU, then 88.3 again. If in Thousand oaks, add 102.3 KCRW repeater to the mix.
And the dinky KPBS repeater in La Jolla at 89.1 is heard more often at Zuma than KCRU Oxnard, which must have a directional antenna and certainly has significant terrain blockage.
The county sheriff's Malibu repeaters are located on Black Jack Mountain, near the Catalina Airport, "46 miles across the sea."
Lopaka said:
Did anyone try to DX WLW's 500,000 watt signal in the 30s?
Sometimes, on a good night, I can get 900 XEW from Mexico City, which broadcasts at 250,000 watts. How they've been allowed to do that amazes me.
livingfruitvirus said:
Some might argue that the WLW 500 kw signal was not DX anywhere in the US!
XEW was allowed to use 250 kw for several reasons.
First, it's in Mexico. As it grew to a 250 kw station, the Mexican government realized that much of Mexico's population was rural (still is, in fact) and would not likely have any local radio for decades. So they authorized many stations with powers above that that the US limited its stations to.
Second, the US is a bad example as a reference. The FCC and a populist Congress long believed in local radio. Thus, very few big signals, and lots of little ones. The clear's fought through about '67 to have the maximum power increased to as much as 750 kw (more like Europe and the rest of the world), but eventually lost as the FCC put more local stations on even the clear channels.
(The unfortunate consequence is that most metro area fulltime AMs, licensed in the 20's through the 40's, were adequate to cover dense, central cities but not to cover today's sprawling suburban cities. So there are very few metro area AMs in the US that cover thier own whole market day and night)
Third, Latin America has never had any concept of local radio similar to that of the US, so there is a tendency to put big stations in the big cities, often with power levels much higher than usual in the US due to a different licensing and service philosophy.
if you scan to the bottom of http://www.davidgleason.com/Mexico-Photos-E.htm you will see the XEW transmitter in 1963, including a picture of yours truly inside one of the 3 250 kw transmitters they ran.
That's "26 Miles across the seazumahans said:
Catalina Island is-a waitin' for me"
Good line about KOLA and KTYD playing the same Dylan song. Recently someone in my office had a radio on tuned to KLOS (during Joe Benson's shift) playing the original version of "Layla" while I cranked up the computer, "tuned" to Radio Paradise.com and they were ALSO playing the same "Layla" version slightly ahead of KLOS.
Z
zumahans
Guest
I know the song, but it's 46 miles from the Black Jack repeaters to Malibu. That must be why it takes so long for the sheriff to show up for any calls.
OldGringo said:
Well I thought maybe they held a contest and someone could DX it in Pakistan or whatever that land was carved up into back then.
OldGringo said:
M
mteran5
Guest
Speaking of D'xing where do you think in San Diego is a good spot to pick up AM stations from a long distance, I'am taking about night time wise with a Sony Walkman with a non-directional anttena, I know
Mt Helix is a good spot because there I could get Mexicalli stations, but where else is there a good spot.
Mt Helix is a good spot because there I could get Mexicalli stations, but where else is there a good spot.
livingfruitvirus said:
That is not particularly unusual. From the Western states, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia on 1475 was long the bellweather station for reception into the deep Pacific. Long distance DX reception back in the 30's of 100 watt stations in Japan in the American Midwest was common.
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