AM daytime saltwater DXing

[gar hi]

I was going to make a reply on the 1070 thread but since E Skip season is unfortunately done and there's quite a while until any worthwhile nighttime AM DXing opportunities, I thought it a good time to think about daytime AM DXing and start a separate thread to reply to this interesting and informative post.

I have always found that places with "salt air" are horrible DX locations. The salt in the air coats power line insulaters, allowing leakage. The salt corrodes contacts on transformers and in substations and individual home and business drops, and even builds up where lengths of line are joined. I think it even effects the noise that the various electrical components of a car radiate.

Twice I lived on the beach in Puerto Rico in the Condado and Isla Verde areas of San Juan. Very poor DX. When I moved inland into the hills of Guaynabo and Río Piedras, 7 or 8 miles inland, noise was much lower and DX was quite good.

My only good beachfront DX was when I ran 6 50' extension cords right onto the beach and sat with a folding table with a loop and my Drake R8. Lots of low powered Brazilians and other good deep South American things as well as some Western Africa catches. This was at Guánica in SW Puerto Rico.

While daytime AM reception along the Gulf coast in central Florida is so much better than only a couple miles inland, I agree that electrical interference can put a damper on it depending exactly where you go.

While there's good reception in Clearwater Beach, the reception on Honeymoon Island only a few miles north is SO much noticeably better. It's probably the best spot in all of Florida and for a reason.

It's not only a lot more isolated from the mainland but there's no electrical interference at all. Here's a map so you can click it on, zoom out and see.

https://www.google.com/search?q=honeymoon island&rct=j


On Honeymoon Island, you can get some stations that you can't hear at all on Clearwater Beach.


For example, here's KTRH from Houston @ 775 miles.

It's behind WYGM but the station ID is heard at 12 seconds into the video. This is from when the station from Mexico was off the air.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WcH0JN1irg


Here's WSHO (only 1 kw) from New Orleans @ 465 miles. It can be heard a bit on Clearwater Beach but not nearly as good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djAgueBwbt0


Here's what 790 AM sounds like midday. It and many other frequencies sound more like what an AM frequency might sound like at night.

This was made in late winter but it sounds the same in summer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEWZwxHfkzo


Here's what 1030 AM sounds like on Honeymoon Island. The station didn't stop for an ID break but it had to be KCTA from Corpus Christi being that it was a religious preacher in the background of the closer station Oviedo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsW21MVXM8Q


And while I've never heard anything audible there from KNVS, there is always that co frequency interference fluttering when the radio is faced in the direction of Texas.

Don't know what else it could be but from KVNS.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjDPHQl6owY


Those are a few of my many catches from all the times I've been there.

If you're ever in the area, it's well worth the extra time and the $4 to get into Honeymoon Island State Park.

My experience at the beachfront places where we stay in St. Pete Beach and Pensacola has been somewhat similar. I can go out on the balcony (three and eight stories up, respectively) and AM reception is so-so. But if I'm 100 yards away from he building on the beach itself, things seem to magically open up. Especially at the Pensacola location....23 miles of horrible ground conductivity away from the city. There...unlike St. Pete Beach...there are also no local AM band pests to gum up the works. Mexico (what's left of the AM band), Cuba, and other points around the Caribbean come roaring in.

Cyberdad, next time you're down this way, hope you can get out there. You will notice the difference from St. Pete Beach for sure.

 

[schmave]

I might be in the Florida Keys next summer or possibly in the winter of 2015-16 for a wedding. I remember CyberDad saying a while back that DXing from the Keys is not particularly great, but I'm interested to try it.
I don't think we've ever settled on just how far AM signals carry over water. Obviously you are hearing weak signals from Houston at 600 or so miles, so that might be the limit. If it was infinite, so to speak, KVNS and KCTA should be much louder. The one time I got to DX in Galveston, Texas, basically right on the beach, it was unspectacular. I got some nice catches from Mexico and KVNS and KCTA were very loud, but absolutely nothing from Florida or Cuba.

 

[davideduardo]

I might be in the Florida Keys next summer or possibly in the winter of 2015-16 for a wedding. I remember CyberDad saying a while back that DXing from the Keys is not particularly great, but I'm interested to try it.
I don't think we've ever settled on just how far AM signals carry over water. Obviously you are hearing weak signals from Houston at 600 or so miles, so that might be the limit. If it was infinite, so to speak, KVNS and KCTA should be much louder. The one time I got to DX in Galveston, Texas, basically right on the beach, it was unspectacular. I got some nice catches from Mexico and KVNS and KCTA were very loud, but absolutely nothing from Florida or Cuba.

In about 1980 I sailed a boat I had just taken delivery on from West Palm Beach to San Juan. Once I was away from the noise of Florida and the Nassau area, I could hear WBZ and several of the NYC clears during the daytime. Once I was near the coast of Hispaniola, it was harder to get them due to local stations in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

During the daytime, the boat ran with no electronics running most of the time, so there was no noise source.

 

[cyberdad]

Cyberdad, next time you're down this way, hope you can get out there. You will notice the difference from St. Pete Beach for sure.

I had Honeymoon Island on my bucket list this past January. Never made it. Mrs. Cyberdad kept running off with the car (and the credit card) ...LOL.

If I get down there this coming January....which is the tentative plan...I'm bringing the Superradio II and won't be denied! I was able to pull in some of those stations you mentioned on Treasure Island, but what you described is considerably different. For example, I was looking for KCTA, but didn't hear a trace of it under the Orlando area station. I did hear a very weak KTRH under Orlando in a parking lot next door to Caddy's. Didn't hear it during the daytime anywhere else. WSHO was a nice surprise. For 1kw, it makes the hop from New Orleans quite nicely. I was hearing it on the beach in front of the place where we stay, and it was quite listenable.

Schmave.... My problem with DXing was in Key West itself. The other keys are pretty much a different story. If you drive down, you'll cross numerous small islands with not much on them other than park land. I was getting all manner of stuff on the car radio all the way between Key Largo and Key West. So for whatever might be disappointing about Key West itself, your radio dial on the drive should be quite interesting. You may also get snatches of FM from Cuba.

Speaking of driving. I've got another Cyberdad road trip coming up later this month. A big one! More on that within the next several days.

 

[gr8oldies]

Biggest thing I remember from Sarasota in 1980 (at First Phone Wonder School) was getting WKWF 1600 in broad daylight. WWL was strong too, and of course, lots of high powered Cubans (including a Radio Moscow relay on 600 that started at 3pm). I had a Sony ICF5900W.

 

[radioman148]

>>Speaking of driving. I've got another Cyberdad road trip coming up later this month. A big one! More on that within the next several days. >>

I'll be looking forward to hearing all about that!

 

[dxho]

The Outer Banks of North Carolina does pretty good. Daytime summer reception was astounding, even a half mile from the beach.

 

[charlestondxman]

It is like this pretty much anywhere within a few miles of the coast from Maine to Florida. It depends on where you are. NJ and NY beaches often can get Providence and Boston stations, while New York's biggest clears can carry up into Maine with the right radio.

The graveyarders in Atlantic City can be heard all the way to Virginia Beach and the Outer Banks in the daytime, along with the NY clears. The dividing line is the Outer Banks. NY and Boston is usually heard north of the Outer Banks, while Florida stations are predominant south of the Outer Banks. The Outer Banks can get both.

In the Charleston area, we can get most of the Jacksonville AMs daytime 24/7, along with the stronger AMs from the Orlando market. The 570 Radio Reloj from Cuba is almost always heard here daytime. Here is an example from downtown Charleston.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtSEldi4r7U

This is Point Pleasant, NJ. This wasn't on the beach, BTW. AMs from as far as Boston.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YejMidVdfYc

This is Folly Beach, SC (near my home). Almost every frequency has a signal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0myvdJZuSw

 

[schmave]

>>Speaking of driving. I've got another Cyberdad road trip coming up later this month. A big one! More on that within the next several days. >>

I'll be looking forward to hearing all about that!

Same!
Makes sense about Key West itself, given all the interference I am sure is present.
The other place the wedding I mentioned earlier *might* take place is the Bahamas. They are unsure if they want to do that for logistical reasons. I certainly would look forward to DXing there, too, if I even got the chance while I was there.

 

[crainbebo]

I think the only time I've played with saltwater DX was hearing KWRO 630 Coquille, OR at Pacific Beach State Park, just feet away from the surf, in 2011. Mixed with a real weak KCIS from Edmonds/Seattle.
I mainly played with FM however, and stations from Lincoln City/Newport were like locals at 150 miles (KCRF 96.7 one example - it is VERY reliable up there!) and heard tropo from Eugene at over 200mi - KODZ, KKNU, KLCC and KMGE were in. KDUX blocked the powerhouse KDUK from that market.

-crainbebo

 

[davideduardo]

Same!
Makes sense about Key West itself, given all the interference I am sure is present.
The other place the wedding I mentioned earlier *might* take place is the Bahamas. They are unsure if they want to do that for logistical reasons. I certainly would look forward to DXing there, too, if I even got the chance while I was there.

Nassau is very noisy, for the same reasons that Key West is... amplified by a less developed infrastructure.

But get away from there and DX is great. I had the opportunity to try it at Staniel Key and at Long Island where I had AC at dockside an it was relatively noise free and loaded with opportunity.

 

[gar hi]

I don't think we've ever settled on just how far AM signals carry over water. Obviously you are hearing weak signals from Houston at 600 or so miles, so that might be the limit. If it was infinite, so to speak, KVNS and KCTA should be much louder.

But they are much higher up on the band, so the ground conductivity won't be as good as for those lower frequencies.

I had Honeymoon Island on my bucket list this past January. Never made it. Mrs. Cyberdad kept running off with the car (and the credit card) ...LOL.

If I get down there this coming January....which is the tentative plan...I'm bringing the Superradio II and won't be denied! I

Sounds good.

Honeymoon Island is a popular destination for the beach too, so you'd have a good excuse to go there.

There are also slightly wooded areas with picnic tables, etc but you have to watch out for those gnats if you are there in the summer, especially.

This is Point Pleasant, NJ. This wasn't on the beach, BTW. AMs from as far as Boston.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YejMidVdfYc

Thanks for the video. I see you got a good signal from WBZ.

When I was up in Jersey last fall, I was disappointed with my little DX adventure that I was looking forward to for years.

When I was growing up and we went down to beach Haven, it was nice to hear WBZ and the local sounding signals from many of the big New York Stations but I never attempted any serious long distance DXing.

So when I finally made it down there after so long, there was no trace of WBZ because of strong interference from a local. Was really hoping I could maybe hear WQAM if I nulled out WFIL but nothing there.

On 790, I was able to get WINS from Norfolk and behind that, I heard the ID of 'ESPN Radio' which had to be WAXY South Miami however it was around 3:30 in the afternoon in November, so I would most likely chalk that one up to a skywave.

I'll never forget the time back in the 70s when I was in the car with my parents going up the Garden State Parkway around Ocean City around sunset, so I tuned the radio to 790 hoping to hear the then WFUN from South Miami and I heard it with a pretty good signal too. They were playing the song 'Don't Call Us We'll Call You' by Sugarloaf right before the station ID.

That was obviously skywave enhanced by the saltwater skip. In spite of all the listening I did to hear it again back home near Philly, I never did. WAEB Allentown which also played top 40 at the time would often tease me and get my hopes up. LOL