• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

AM Frequency of the weak: 1540

cyberdad

cyberdad

So what's up these days for you guys on 1540:

Days: The channel is relatively blank. Sometimes I can get a whiff of Milwaukee rimshot WTKM. More often....especially in winter...KXEL makes it in on daytime skywave.

Nights: KXEL is a monster. I used to hear WPTR from time to time in KXEL fades, but that hasn't happened in ages. I've heard The Bahamas 1540 only on very rare occasions.
 
Only thing I can remember hearing around Columbus, Ohio, is KXEL. Usually a very dependable signal at night.
Many years ago, we had a semi-local station on 1540 in WNRJ out of Circleville, 30 miles south of Columbus. I think that's been off the air for 20 years anyway. Don't remember format or anything else. Believe it was a daytimer.
When I lived in League City, Texas, from 2007-09 we had semi-local KGBC from Galveston on 1540. I loved their oldies format in 2009. That gave way to China Radio International less than a year later (I remember taking some flack around here for disliking the format change even though I already had returned to Ohio by then), and I think that remains their format today.
 
yep, it's a frequency of the weak, at least at night. KXEL occasionally fades in, but CHIN is more common.
That's a weird station- China Radio International, but it's mostly infomercials. And they never ID.

Daytime is a 10kw local. WREJ Rejoice Musical Soulfood, and indeed it is.
 
Here in the near north Chicago burbs it's a strong KXEL at night. The days are usually blank except in winter when KXEL sneaks in from time to time.
 
Hey cyberdad, how "weak" does 1540 need to be to qualify for this topic? Gotta love typos, lol...

I get a fair to weak signal from the Island's original facility, KGBC Galveston with 2.5kW during the day. Nights are non existent for KGBC up here in Houston, and with only 0.25kW, KGBC has a pretty tough time getting very far up the mainland. Programming for KGBC is China Radio International, which is relayed up here to Houston on Cypress's 22kW daytimer KYND @ 1520. I've tried picking up Radio Jalapeño from KEDA in San Antonio at night several times over the years, but to no avail. Not enough of a lobe towards me, nor enough power to push it this way at only 1kW. I've caught Spanish language programming on 1540, however it's not KEDA. I've never been able to ID it, but I suspect it's Monterey, NL.
 
When I first got interested in AM DXing in junior high, the first exposure to KXEL was on a school trip to Waterloo and I saw one of their signs: "KXEL 1540... 50,000 watts." I thought to myself, "big whoop, 50,000 watts but they're a daytimer." I'd never heard them at night.

The Ottumwa area is about 90 miles south of Waterloo, and 70 miles south of the KXEL transmitter. The bus went right past the KXEL towers on the trip to Waterloo. I remember thinking that must be some signal to be 20 miles south of their main city. Later I listened to 1540 at sunset, trying to catch their sign-off but heard the pattern change instead. KXEL was still there, but very weak. (Cyberdad, you had the topic right: "Frequency of the weak!")

The next summer, armed with some info from the National Radio Club I discovered KXEL was one of the fleet of class I-B clears, just like the monster KAAY where my older siblings listened to Beeker Street. So KXEL was a big deal. We were just in its main null.
 
In the St. Louis area, there is a nearby local on the air during the day--WSMI Litchfield, IL. Their format is Farm/Classic Country. At night, I hear KXEL and CHIN Toronto.
 
Located in W. Washington.

KXPA day and night, and on nights with excellent DX conditions KXEL appears in a very, very tight KXPA null.
 
Days, nothing.

Nights, KXEL and CHIN.

Sunsets, I've heard WTBI Pickens, SC. Should be able to hear quite a few daytimers around sunset, though my local WCKY, is very strong around that time, and it's single digits from my house.
 
purpledevil said:
Hey cyberdad, how "weak" does 1540 need to be to qualify for this topic? Gotta love typos, lol...
.
Click to expand...
Hah! Yes, a typo, but maybe somehow freudian? Or, hey, if you've only got a "weak" radio, and you're in the path of one of their nighttime lobes, as a DX-er you can always snag this one....right?

Maybe next time, I should do "AM frequency of the strong"....LOL!

Seriously, and back on topic.... I should have metnioned CHIN. It's pretty rare in the Chicago area, but I have heard it a few times in KXEL fades.
 
I've been aware of KXEL for most of my life, but actually never stopped to think about how strong a daytime signal of a 50 kW station in the midwest on 1540 is. I checked the radio-locator.com pattern map, and wasn't really surprised to find that it didn't differ all that much from 1 kW KXIC 800 from Iowa City. Nighttime is a different matter, obviously.
 
1540 -1000 = 540 kHz and the station about 90 miles west of Waterloo on US 20, KWMT Ft. Dodge. Their old QSL cards boasted how much power it would take to equal their 5000 watt daytime coverage at higher frequencies and by the higher end of the dial it was in the millions of watts. At night, we all know which of the two wins that one.

It seemed strange to me how close the old 1560 KCJJ Iowa City was to 2nd adjacent 1540 KXEL...less than 60 miles from KXEL's Dysart IA xmtr to Iowa City. 1540 was listenable in Iowa City, but not super strong.
 
During the daytime in S.A. it's local KEDA, Radio Jalapeño, which can be nulled to some degree when it goes to 1 kW at night.

Just prior to sunset in that partial null, I start getting XESTN, "Radio Red," a news/talk station in Monterrey.

Purpledevil - I'm pretty sure XESTN is the weak Spanish-language station you haven't been able to ID.

At night, XESTN gets a good bit stronger. On a few occasions, I've heard KGBC in Galveston come up very briefly.

Just prior to sunrise, a weak KXEL starts appearing and mixing with XESTN. Both of them eventually get taken out by KZMP, "ESPN Deportes," in University Park (near Dallas) when that station goes to 32 kW and its daytime pattern.
 
That never occurred to me about KCJJ's old frequency being close to KXEL, which I would have thought would be almost city-grade in Iowa City, but maybe not. Then they moved to 1630, which is very close to KGYM (formerly KCRG) on 1600 in Cedar Rapids, about 20-25 miles away. It's another odd arrangement probably premised on the Iowa City and Cedar Rapids markets being separate, although I don't think that's true.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom