A Little DX

[Bob_Hudson]

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.

I'm not sure that height is what makes the difference so much for most AM DX'ing - really what you want is a spot away from a lot of electrical noise, such as can be generated by signs, power poles, etc. - the real DX'ing is skywave DX, where the signals bounce off the ionosphere. The Mexicalli stations were probably just coming in as plain brute force groundwaves, the same as any local AM station: in that case height could give an advantage.


I think the coolest broadcast DX I ever heard was in the early 70's when I was working at a radio station in Great Falls, Montana. There literally was nothing on FM there except for a "beautiful music" station but there was a rumor that a new FM was coming to town. One afternoon just fopr the heck of it I turned on mt FM radio (it was a portable with collapsible antenna) and started tuning through the FM spectrum. I ended up picking up two FM's from Phoenix, Arizona: 1,300 miles south! Again, this was in the middle of the afternoon. The reception didn't last more than 10 or 15 minutes as I recall.

 

[mteran5]

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.

I'm not sure that height is what makes the difference so much for most AM DX'ing - really what you want is a spot away from a lot of electrical noise, such as can be generated by signs, power poles, etc. - the real DX'ing is skywave DX, where the signals bounce off the ionosphere. The Mexicalli stations were probably just coming in as plain brute force groundwaves, the same as any local AM station: in that case height could give an advantage.


I think the coolest broadcast DX I ever heard was in the early 70's when I was working at a radio station in Great Falls, Montana. There literally was nothing on FM there except for a "beautiful music" station but there was a rumor that a new FM was coming to town. One afternoon just fopr the heck of it I turned on mt FM radio (it was a portable with collapsible antenna) and started tuning through the FM spectrum. I ended up picking up two FM's from Phoenix, Arizona: 1,300 miles south! Again, this was in the middle of the afternoon. The reception didn't last more than 10 or 15 minutes as I recall.

Are you sure that was a Eskip, because one time I was in Chula Vista and again listening to my walkman which is a RCA directional antenna, I could not beleive that I picked up a 100.3 spanish station in Texas and at the same time 100.3 in L.A.was coming in at the same time.

 

[Lopaka]

Regarding "Superpower", the stories from the WLW 500kw experimental broadcasts are legendary. 'The Nation's Station' was a serious problem for adjacent WOR in New York. Lights would stay on for miles around the transmitter. Eventually after the license was cancelled the transmitter was reportedly dismantled and shipped to England where it was used in WW2 for various transmissions into Europe. Tracking down that transmitter would be a very interesting story!

Even tho the issue is as dead as it could ever be in the US, it would still be useful if only in theory to be able to cover the entire territory of the country with good quality signal, it could certainly be an advantage during national emergencies, but barring some truly bizarre events it is not likely to ever happen.

A friend from Canada told me that country was planning to phase out AM broadcasting and rely on FM instead, yet Canada (and Alaska) would be ideal candidates for "superpower" stations. I find it hard to believe a system as practical for covering vast distances, as AM is, could be dumped, especially in a country with as many wide open spaces as Canada.

 

[OldGringo]

A friend from Canada told me that country was planning to phase out AM broadcasting and rely on FM instead, yet Canada (and Alaska) would be ideal candidates for "superpower" stations. I find it hard to believe a system as practical for covering vast distances, as AM is, could be dumped, especially in a country with as many wide open spaces as Canada.

Canada is well on the way to ending AM in most areas of the nation. PEI no longar has any AMs, with each having exchanged the AM for an FM. The CBC eliminated most AMs since they believe that the defects of AM in bigger cities are many, and the old model of AM (using hundreds of LPRTs at CN stations) was defective, especially in the times of aurora, very prevalent away from the US border areas.

Except for the biggest cities, AMs are gone, going or reduced. Indstry Canada and the CRTC have made it possible for them to migrate to FM, and only certain AM allocations get reused, serving niche formats or ethnic groups (like various Asian tongues in Vancouver).

Except for these specialty AMs and a couple like CBK and CBW, most AMs are supposed to disappear eventually.

 

[Lopaka]

Thank you for clearing up my question of why Canada would dump AM. It never occurred to me that the aurora could be a factor, but it makes sense. Still...far flung places, farms way out in rural Alberta, long empty highways--its hard to see how FM could work as well as AM.

 

[zumahans]

Hasn't Canada tried and failed with Eureka 163?