AM Frequency of the Week: 1090

[dlf1]

Agreed. The possible facts were not what I was referencing.

 

[cyberdad]

WBAP has been blocked for the last 60 years or more by the 50 kw HJED in Cali, Colombia, and a 10 kw Venezuelan and several 820 operations in Central America, the larger of which is 10 kw in Guatemala. 1200 is a more local channel for Colombia and Venezuela, with numerous stations in each country.

While 1200 and 820 might put decent signals into much of Mexico, Texas is to far west to be an effective location for reaching Central and South America, which are far to the southeast. Of course, Mexico protects those channels by treaty, while the rest of Latin America does not.

There's a clear parallel with what crainbebo pointed out in his thread discussing WGY being his first log from New York State. A lot of us....certainly including myself....were surprised that WGY would be the first New York station that someone would hear in Washington State. But as I alluded to, and as crain effectively confirmed, the other channels occupied by 50kw stations in New York state have other issues that precludes those stations from successfully making the hop. Despite some of those generally being regarded as "getting out better" than WGY.

 

[schmave]

I've heard WBAL several times here in Columbus, Ohio. Never very strong, but it's often there.
Was doing a quick scan of the AM dial last night in Grove City, a southwest suburb of Columbus, and 1090 was basically mush. Not even WTAM was coming in well right at the time, although WBT on 1110 and KMOX on 1120 sounded quite strong.

 

[crainbebo]

Getting WCBS, WABC, etc would require a time machine back to 1970, at least! There are too many 770s and 880s to make the hop to WA.

 

[radioman148]

Getting WCBS, WABC, etc would require a time machine back to 1970, at least! There are too many 770s and 880s to make the hop to WA.

I've told this story before, but in 1963 I was in Seattle and heard not only the four Chicago clears well, but WABC, WNBC, and WCBS. Also, several other stations from the east in the days of REALLY clear channels. As late as 1980 I was able to hear WCBS in California after KRVN signed off at midnight CST. We truly live in a different radio era now.

 

[davideduardo]

Getting WCBS, WABC, etc would require a time machine back to 1970, at least! There are too many 770s and 880s to make the hop to WA.

In around 1962 I got KTIP in Porterville, CA, in Cleveland, Ohio. There were just as many stations on 1450 back then as there are now. It's all about being on the right frequency at the right time with the right conditions with either a beverage antenna or something like a phased loop and dipole combination.

KYW-1100 was about 20 miles from me. Yet using the right antenna, I was able to hear YVKE, a 10 kw station from Venezuela while KYW was on the air. And that was not a truly unusual reception.

 

[jim-satx]

Daytime in S.A. is blank with splatter from local KDRY on 1100.

At night aiming NW, it's news talker KVOP, "The Hub" (formerly "The Mighty 1090"), in Plainview, TX. It's the strongest consistent signal here. On Monday night I logged XEPRS for the first time ever. It was popping in and out weakly underneath KVOP. There's also still some KDRY splatter when aiming in this direction.

Aiming NE/SW at night, it's a mix of KAAY as well as XEWL in Nuevo Laredo (supposedly a daytimer) popping in and out with weak to moderate signals. In this direction at sunrise, XEAU in Monterrey comes up and mixes in. XEAU is also heard at sunset.

Unfortunately the blasted IBOC hash from KRLD is there when aiming NE at sunrise, sunset and night, and it sometimes comes up strong.

 

[charlestondxman]

1090 in Charleston, SC is a varying WBAL signal at night and during critical hours. I've heard WBAL as early as 3pm during the winter. I've also heard KAAY maybe one or two times. One of them was this year.

There are no 1090s close by during the daytime. Nothing even in FL. The closest is Selma, NC.

 

[NoMoreLurking]

1090 in the Bay Area, CA: KFAX-1100 trash during the day; a little bit less at night. XEPRS usually dominant after dark, but KBOZ Bozeman MT is common since they aim almost directly at me. Never have heard the Seattle 1090 although their pattern makes it seem that they could conceivably get here. Nor have I heard the Fortuna CA 1090, but that looks easy. Maybe I'm listening at the wrong times to catch them.

I think XERB (predecessor to XEPRS) must have run non-DA a lot of times at night, given the way I used to hear them in Southern Colorado back in the Wolfman days.

 

[crainbebo]

I have heard KTIP-1450 twice in the past three years. Took Au to hear them, but was able to get IDs both times at TOH. Yet there's other 1450s that are closer, that I've never heard. KEST and KVML are two examples.

 

[davideduardo]

I think XERB (predecessor to XEPRS) must have run non-DA a lot of times at night, given the way I used to hear them in Southern Colorado back in the Wolfman days.

XERB and XEPRS have a directional pattern that puts two narrow lobes out. One goes SSE down the peninsula the other goes NNW, right up the CA coast towards LA, Bakersfield and Santa Barbara. The power in each of the lobes is the equivalent of about 200 to 250 kw.

Were they non-directional, they would cover immensely less of Coastal California. The farther inland you get, the weaker it becomes... then and now. Ing. Wilkins built a nice transmitter site for the Bichara family that owns the station and has for many decades.

 

[davideduardo]

I have heard KTIP-1450 twice in the past three years. Took Au to hear them, but was able to get IDs both times at TOH. Yet there's other 1450s that are closer, that I've never heard. KEST and KVML are two examples.

Your equivalent would be to get a Michigan, Indiana, Ohio area station on a graveyard channel. Since little has changed in the level of the number of stations (although night power was raised to 1 kw on virtually all of them), it should still be possible but the right conditions and, particularly, antennas, is needed.

 

[rfry]

Your equivalent would be to get a Michigan, Indiana, Ohio area station on a graveyard channel. Since little has changed in the level of the number of stations (although night power was raised to 1 kw on virtually all of them), it should still be possible but the right conditions and, particularly, antennas, is needed.

Is it suggested that the rare times that a single, distant AM station might be ID'd through the QRM/QRN by patient and motivated DX-ers using specialized receivers/antennas from a crowd of dozens of other stations using that frequency in the U.S. alone justify the number of stations that the FCC has permitted to use that frequency?

 

[mimo]

Is it suggested that the rare times that a single, distant AM station might be ID'd through the QRM/QRN by patient and motivated DX-ers using specialized receivers/antennas from a crowd of dozens of other stations using that frequency in the U.S. alone justify the number of stations that the FCC has permitted to use that frequency?

Doubtful. The FCC is not concerned with the needs of DXers.

 

[cyberdad]

XERB and XEPRS have a directional pattern that puts two narrow lobes out. One goes SSE down the peninsula the other goes NNW, right up the CA coast towards LA, Bakersfield and Santa Barbara. The power in each of the lobes is the equivalent of about 200 to 250 kw.

Were they non-directional, they would cover immensely less of Coastal California. The farther inland you get, the weaker it becomes... then and now. Ing. Wilkins built a nice transmitter site for the Bichara family that owns the station and has for many decades.

On a bussiness trip about 12-15 years ago, one mid-afternoon, I checked into a Holiday Inn Express in Carpenteria....a coastal community basically adjacent to Santa Barbara. As is usually the case in hotels, the room had a dirt-cheap tiny clock radio, Normally I don't even bother to turn one of these on, but for some reason on this day I did. To my surprise, XEPRS was one of the strongest signals on the dial. As strong, if not stronger, than any of the big L.A. signals on this little radio with lousy sensitivity.

 

[ThePowerCow]

XERB in the Wolfman Jack days seemed to be targeting Los Angeles. How could it be heard there sandwiched between the KNX 1070 and KRLA 1110 blowtorches?
BTW, my boogaloo's just fine thank you.

 

[davideduardo]

XERB in the Wolfman Jack days seemed to be targeting Los Angeles. How could it be heard there sandwiched between the KNX 1070 and KRLA 1110 blowtorches? .

In many countries of the world, stations are assigned every 20 kHz. So on most radios, unless the listener was very near either the KRLA or KNX site, XERB/XEPRS could be heard very easily.

From the early 70's, the daytime programming of 1090 was in Spanish with studios in various locations in Hollywood. Until rules governing the relaying of programming across the border were relaxed, shows were taped one day and run in the matching time periods the next day after delivering the shows by car to the transmitter.

 

[radioman148]

XERB in the Wolfman Jack days seemed to be targeting Los Angeles. How could it be heard there sandwiched between the KNX 1070 and KRLA 1110 blowtorches?
BTW, my boogaloo's just fine thank you.

XERB put a fine signal into LA when I visited there several times in the late 60s. Wolfman was a must listen and could be heard well on almost any radio. Only a small cheap 60s transistor radio would have a slight problem tuning in XERB in the LA area at that time.

 

[Ai4i]

In many countries of the world, stations are assigned every 20 kHz.

It is like requiring that full power FM stations in the same markets be e-i-g-h-t__h-u-n-d-r-e-d__v-e-r-y__v-e-r-y__v-e-r-y__w-i-d-e__k-i-l-o-h-e-r-t-z__a-p-a-r-t.
These rules were established in an early part of the twentieth century when AM receivers were of the super regenerative type (the FM guy, Ed Armstrong later fixed that)
and when FM receivers had tubes that drifted as they s-l-o-w-l-y__h-e-a-t-e-d__u-p and then later incorporated s-u-p-e-r___w-i-d-e___A--F--C's.
I had an old AM receiver that could not handle strong signals on 910 KHz, double the IF frequency, but today's digital equipment does fine with shortly spaced strong FM signals 10.6-10.8 MHz apart.

Today's reasons for keeping the rules the same as when Truman was president is not to protect vacuum tube receivers from interference, but to protect existing stations from added competition.

 

[cyberdad]

XERB put a fine signal into LA when I visited there several times in the late 60s. Wolfman was a must listen and could be heard well on almost any radio. Only a small cheap 60s transistor radio would have a slight problem tuning in XERB in the LA area at that time.

For more than 30 years, I've been coming to So-Cal on business trips as well as to visit friends and family. Suffice to say hearing XERB/XEPRS has never been a problem for me in LA, Orange County, and/or adjacent areas.