Airplanes over Indy can see Sears Tower and other Downtown Chicago Buildings...W

[Mid West Clubber]

I heard fro a not so reliable sourse that the Chicago skline can be scene from Indianapolis if our up high enough in a plane..... I think he's full of hot air, but then again it may be possible cause you can still pick up Chicago radio FMs over Indy when your up high.

 

[kd8hho]

i would have to say its possible. but the wx conditions would have to be just right

 

[bigtime]

If you take off from Indy on a clear night you can see the lights from Evansville once you reach a good altitude.

 

[radioho]

If you take off from Indy on a clear night you can see the lights from Evansville once you reach a good altitude.

That's nothing! On a clear day the governor of Alaska can see Russia from her house!

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

While living in Indy, I made several trips to the Pikeville, KY area. A straight line connecting Indy/Pikeville goes just a little southwest of Cincy.... pretty much over their big airport. I remember coming back to Indy one clear night and I got to sit up the right front seat. Not only could we see the lights of Indy from Cincy, I could see the runway at Indy staring back at us.

Flight control brought us straight in. Longest approach I ever sat through. 45 minutes? 100+ miles.

Daytime approach you could pick up the Pyramids on the horizon somewhere about Cincy.

 

[skippertthomas]

I forget which early WLS top forty jock used to fly out of Megg's Field by the Observatory on Lake Michigan and go over to Benton Harbour/St.Joseph, MI to do Friday or Saturday night dance gigs / appearances for WLS, but he stated that most nights (except cloudy or bad weather, in which he stayed the night and road back by rail or bus the next morning), the "Windy City Skyline would rise, almost immediate, as the single engine plane would leave the runway and get about 100 to 200 feet above the ground and Lake Michigan.. At night, he said it was spectacular site! Even if the Prudential Building at 50 or 60 stories was the tallest building there, at that time... Imagine what It looks like today, with the Sears, Hancock and other monster towers on the lakefront!

 

[Mid West Clubber]

I guess it could be possible since in an Airplane over Indy you pick up B-96 from Chicago on 96.3 until you decend much lower...

 

[BobOnTheJob]

In theory, it's true. The formula for Line Of Sight over flat ground is the square root of 1.5 x height above ground. Staring out into the ocean, if you're eyes are 6' above ground, the water disappears over the horizon at 3 miles. Of course, if you're on a roof top at 100', that figure becomes about 12 & 1/4 miles. From 35,000', the ground should be visible about 229 miles. Start talking about 1400' tall buildings on the skyline and Chicago would be visible well past Indy...probably into parts of Kentucky, but the skies must be quite clear for this to happen, such as when a powerful, quick moving winter cold front sweeps through from the northwest. And from experience, I know that at 4000' above Indy, Columbus, Ohio comes in on 97.1 even though our buddy Hank is less than a half mile below.

 

[KyDXIn]

In theory, it's true. The formula for Line Of Sight over flat ground is the square root of 1.5 x height above ground. Staring out into the ocean, if you're eyes are 6' above ground, the water disappears over the horizon at 3 miles. Of course, if you're on a roof top at 100', that figure becomes about 12 & 1/4 miles. From 35,000', the ground should be visible about 229 miles. Start talking about 1400' tall buildings on the skyline and Chicago would be visible well past Indy...probably into parts of Kentucky, but the skies must be quite clear for this to happen, such as when a powerful, quick moving winter cold front sweeps through from the northwest. And from experience, I know that at 4000' above Indy, Columbus, Ohio comes in on 97.1 even though our buddy Hank is less than a half mile below.

I picked up Hank 97.1 back in February of last year on the southeast side of Louisville at Bardstown Rd. and I-265. I had to search the net to find where "Hank" was coming from.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

In theory, it's true. The formula for Line Of Sight over flat ground is the square root of 1.5 x height above ground. Staring out into the ocean, if you're eyes are 6' above ground, the water disappears over the horizon at 3 miles. Of course, if you're on a roof top at 100', that figure becomes about 12 & 1/4 miles. From 35,000', the ground should be visible about 229 miles. Start talking about 1400' tall buildings on the skyline and Chicago would be visible well past Indy...probably into parts of Kentucky, but the skies must be quite clear for this to happen, such as when a powerful, quick moving winter cold front sweeps through from the northwest. And from experience, I know that at 4000' above Indy, Columbus, Ohio comes in on 97.1 even though our buddy Hank is less than a half mile below.

I picked up Hank 97.1 back in February of last year on the southeast side of Louisville at Bardstown Rd. and I-265. I had to search the net to find where "Hank" was coming from.

I built Hank before he was Hank...he was originally WENS Light Rock 97 starting in the early 1980's. Good signal. Tower sits 103 I-65 miles n of the river. Hard to imagine that someone hasn't found a way to shoe horn a Louisville area signal on 97.1 like they did on 94.7 & 93.1...93.1/Indy once carried to Scottsburg...now it starts getting trashed in Seymour.

 

[KyDXIn]

I picked up Hank 97.1 back in February of last year on the southeast side of Louisville at Bardstown Rd. and I-265. I had to search the net to find where "Hank" was coming from.

I built Hank before he was Hank...he was originally WENS Light Rock 97 starting in the early 1980's. Good signal. Tower sits 103 I-65 miles n of the river. Hard to imagine that someone hasn't found a way to shoe horn a Louisville area signal on 97.1 like they did on 94.7 & 93.1...93.1/Indy once carried to Scottsburg...now it starts getting trashed in Seymour.

Can you imagine my surprise when the 94.7 went on the air in Louisville as a religious talker. I drove to Bloomington to attend IU and would listen to "Bob & Tom" before they were syndicated in our area in the early 1990s. I still can get 92.3 here on the north side of the river and enjoy their music. So tell me, what would the cost be on building a signal at 97.1 in this area?

 

[radiorob2.0]

Since you can see it from Indiana, I'll add this marker. In the last ten years of existence, the Executive Inn Rivermont Owensboro complex was trimmed in red neon. I often wondered how far you could have seen it from the air on a clear night. Of course, it is now dark

 

[BobOnTheJob]

I picked up Hank 97.1 back in February of last year on the southeast side of Louisville at Bardstown Rd. and I-265. I had to search the net to find where "Hank" was coming from.

I built Hank before he was Hank...he was originally WENS Light Rock 97 starting in the early 1980's. Good signal. Tower sits 103 I-65 miles n of the river. Hard to imagine that someone hasn't found a way to shoe horn a Louisville area signal on 97.1 like they did on 94.7 & 93.1...93.1/Indy once carried to Scottsburg...now it starts getting trashed in Seymour.

Can you imagine my surprise when the 94.7 went on the air in Louisville as a religious talker. I drove to Bloomington to attend IU and would listen to "Bob & Tom" before they were syndicated in our area in the early 1990s. I still can get 92.3 here on the north side of the river and enjoy their music. So tell me, what would the cost be on building a signal at 97.1 in this area?

WAMZ's existence at 97.5 will keep anything from being on 97.1 within 40 miles or so and I think there may be a 97.1 out by Tell City or near there. Fortunately, not every Indy channel is used in Louisville. I can look out my window & see 92.3's tower at night...it's on Indiana's tallest tower at Trafalgar at the junction of Indiana 135 & 252. That tower is owned by WTTV channel 4.

I'm torn on the number of stations on the air & how close they are to each other. On one hand, I hate it. On the other hand, I work for several of them & they put food on the table. "Necessary evil" sums it up.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

There is a 97.1 in Owensboro and Somerset, KY. Might be possible to put another one on around Sellersburg, IN. Probably class A only, and it wouldn't city-grade the entire metro. Not even close.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

There is a 97.1 in Owensboro and Somerset, KY. Might be possible to put another one on around Sellersburg, IN. Probably class A only, and it wouldn't city-grade the entire metro. Not even close.

Has to be at least 111 miles south of Hank, which would put it south of Louisville...probably near the WAMZ site, which pushes it 40 miles south of Brooks Road. By that point, it's probably too close to Somerset.

 

[jimbo700]

Getting back to the original subject.... I once flew from LAX to Indianapolis with a stop in Detroit (it was Northwest airlines and they have a major hub in Detroit).
We few directly over Chicago at nearly 48,000 feet. I was sitting on he right side of the cabin over a wing and visibility was spectacular. We could see forever, including the Indy skyline (it was daytime). Until we began our decent you could follow the curvature of lake Michigan. It was really incredible. Next time I did that same flight (LAX to DET to IND) only it was at night. Flying over Chicago at night is another amazing experience. Each section of Chicago had slightly different colored streetlights (slight variations on the quartz/halogen orange). It was beautiful, but you had to be 36,000+ feet to appreciate it. Again I could see the lights of Indy on the horizon (it wasn't clear enough for details).
The funny part, I listened to BEE-93 (WBCT Grand Rapids) for well over an hour, traveling at 600+ MPH at 38,000 feet. That signal is incredible.
-Jim-

 

[Mid West Clubber]

Yeah,, that 93.7 has a phenominal signal,,, it has 325,000 watts,, the most power of any station in the U.S,,, and since our local 93.7 QKCC went silent, I can hear it here about 30 miles south of indianapolis almost any time of day on a normal car radio.. Grand Rapids is at least 300 miles from here. Im sure Bob on the Job can pull it in to, he is in my general area and has a fantastic Antenna DX setup,,, even with Phasers to null out locals and pull in distant stations on the same frequency. Bob,, was that you that said you could sometimes pull in WOKI 100.3 in knoxville, and you could null out WFMS and pull in Q95.5 from Prestonburg KY?????

BTW,, BOB, if you go up on this bluff-ridge near my house in martinsville I can see the WTTS-WTTV Towers too,, but only in Winter when the leaves are off the trees and there is no Fog or haze. So you cant be that far from me..

 

[BobOnTheJob]

100.3 from Knoxville was there before WYGB moved to 100.3. Haven't heard anything other than WYGB on 100.3 since then. Closest station I can phase out is Franklin on 95.9 at 13 miles. WKID/Vevay,IN 95.9 and the Bloomington 95.9 translator are always there. It takes slightly better than dead band conditions, but Prestonsburg, KY on 95.5 isn't uncommon here. I'm about 12 miles from WTTV & can see most of the lights on their tower. I knew a guy who lived south of Greensburg (Jimbo...I'm referring to Bert Baltus...R.I.P.) who walked his dog every night. In the winter, he could see the Trafalgar antenna farm at 32 air miles on clear winter nights without the leaves.

 

[Mid West Clubber]

Wow,,, that is amazing that he can see the WTTS WTTZ as well as Pax tv 63 and TBN 42 all on that farm.. Greensburg should be farther than 32 miles,, but I suppose Line of site air miles is much different from road miles...

I used to be able to DX WOKI Knoxville in Martinsville in the summer, but it had to be good DX conditions,, usually early morning,,, I heard it alot between 1988 and 1993,,, after that I think WIFE in Connersville bumped up the power... I used to get a station from Lexington KY on 98.1 too,,, this was very common,,, it is Country now,, but at the time I could DX it in Martinsville it was AOR as 98 Double Q,,,,, I beleive the station still exists on 100.1,,, Formerly CHR as X-100.. Also used to get Power 94.5 Lexington and K-93 AKA 92.9.... These stations are all still in existance but have changed their names,,, 92.9 is now THE BEAR,,, 98.1 is THE BULL, and Power 94.5 is now Mix 94.5.... I havent heard Lexingtons 100.1 here since 1993???

Hey Bob,,, have you ever been able to pick up Quiksie 98.3 in Elizabethtown,,, its not really that far,, but I often get interference from it during the summer when trying to listen to Plainfields Disney Radio for the Youngins..... Other catches I can catch alot in the summer,, on 107.5 I can get THE RIVER from Nashville TN and sometimes WZKL I think its called,,

 

[Mid West Clubber]

BTW the other 107.5 I can sometimes get is from Winston Salem North Carolina,,, and I have pulled in WGCI Chicago on 107.5 lots of times..... The Chicago stations on 100.3 LOVE FM,,, Formely Windy 100, and before that it was called THE POINT in the early 90s,,, that one and Q101.1,, and the former 99.9 WBUS THE BUS,,, Which was actually a Kankakee station,, all these can be picked up on a car radio south of Indy when the Band opens up,, on just a normal car radio..