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AM Frequency of the Week: 1170

cyberdad

cyberdad

40 miles northwest of downtown Chicago.....

Days: 1170 is almost always splatter from WYLL (1160). On very rare occasions, a weak WFDL from Waupun, WI sneaks in. 1kw ND daytimer, about 60 miles north of Milwukee.

Nights: Mostly a very weak WWVA. Less often, an even weaker KFAQ. For a few weeks last year, WFDL was staying on all night and became an easy catch with a fair signal.

Sunrise: Usually when KFAQ powers up, they're in for about a half hour or so.

Retro/Other location: At my college location in Iowa,1kw KSTT (later KBOB) from Davenport was a regular go-to. 65 miles with a fair-good day signal. Vanished completely at night when they shot their 1kw straight up the Mississippi river.

And speaking of "go-to". One of my online go-tos is 2CH from Sydney, Australia. 5kw on1170. I've heard them via skywave on a couple of Aussie receivers, and tried for them on the Kaneohe, Hawaii SDR. No luck so far, but I'll keep after it. To put it mildly, the fact thatHonolulu's 1170, KOHO, is long gone should be a big help! :)
 
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Here in Wood Dale, IL (near NW suburb of Chicago):

Daytime: just splatter from WYLL
Nightime: WWVA or KTSB

DX/Retro: others heard include KKZX (now KBOB) (Davenport, IA), WLKE (now WFDL) (Waupun, WI), WCXN (Claremont, NC), WDEK (Lexington, SC), KFOW (Waseca, MN), KJXX (jackson, MO) and HJNW (Cartagena, Colombia)
 
From the southwest suburbs of Chicago:

Day: nothing.
Night: WWVA Wheeling, W. Va., is the usual suspect. KFAQ Tulsa, Okla. (since the KVOO days), is an occasional visitor until its pattern change at sunset.
Also: WFDL Waupun, Wis., when it was on all night in May 2020; KFOW Waseca, Minn., with a similar oops overnight, 2.5 kW detected on the ICF-2010 with a Tecsun loop sitting on top of the radio on 12/5/2020, a year ago today!
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs daytime is all WYLL splatter. At night a weak WWVA is usually there. KFAQ is sometimes there
during critical hours.
Other: when I was in Hawaii in 2009 I could hear KFAQ many nights as they send their nighttime signal in that direction.
 
East Tennessee: Splatter from local WKCE, and a hint of WWVA around sunset (today in the 3pm hour). During one of this facility's off-air period I got KFAQ near sunset. A hint of WDEK.
Night: WWVA or not much of anything. In 2011, WWVA's towers were toppled during a "derecho" that passed through several states. WWVA's engineers rigged up a longwire to get back on the air and I could get that signal.
Retro/other: Not much of anything to report. Fun fact: Clear Channel was trying to find a way to move this signal into the Cleveland market at one tims.
 
From SE Michigan near Detroit:

Days: Weak WWVA with my loop aimed toward it. Barely there, right down at the noise floor.

Nights: WWVA. Not a boomer here, but listenable.

1170 isn't one I'm overly familiar with, for whatever reason. I'll have to listen some more and see if anything else is present there.
 
Chicago by the lakeshore:

Daytime: just splatter from WYLL.

Nighttime: Nothing too listenable, usually. Most likely is WWVA in Wheeling, WV, followed by the former KFAQ in Tulsa, now called KTSB. I've also logged KOWZ in Waseca, MN, KBOB in Davenport, IA, and WFDL in Waupun, WI.
 
From Cheyenne, WY:
Daytime: KJJD Windsor, CO at moderate strength, sometimes strong.
Nighttime: KFAQ, er KTSB Tulsa. I often see the HD flash, but rarely lock in. It will be hard to adjust to the new call letters.
 
When I first started going to Silicon Valley on business in the 80s, KLOK was my go-to, Oldies, IIRC. What I do remember for sure was a great signal up and down the peninsula.
 
Here in Pickerington, Ohio, it's all WWVA by day. Decent signal but not too strong, given that it's 50K getting toward the upper portion of the dial and there are some areas of poor ground conductivity between here and the tower outside St. Clairsville. That's about 100-105 miles east of me.
WWVA completely vanishes at pattern change. I can count on one finger the times I've heard it here after nightfall, and even then it was extremely weak.
I have heard it very well at night east of Cleveland and in the DC suburbs.
 
In west Houston, daytimes nothing except occasionally KTSB daytime skywave in the winter. At sunset both KTSB and XERT "Ke Buena" from Reynosa start to come in, with KTSB usually stronger. That situation continues all night and I've ID'd nothing else here.

Back in the early 70's I lived 4 miles southwest of KVOO's towers, with most of their signal aimed at me. As you can imagine, you could hear them on household appliances and occasionally your fillings. My poor Realistic TRF radio was no match for them, and they slopped over 1150-1200. I remember them saying they'd had reception reports from soldiers in Vietnam. They weren't off very often and when they were, very little was heard. I heard WWVA once very weakly and something in South America (can't recall). Never heard KCBQ.
 
cyberdad said:
They might have been busy entertaining the fish in Mission Bay. :)
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When I was in Hawaii it was KCBQ I thought I would hear when I tuned to 1170. Instead I was very surprised to get Tulsa, at the time KFAQ. The signal was so good that on a few nights I heard it on the rental car radio.
 
West Central Georgia - 1170 am is an empty frequency here most of the time.

Days: Rarely hear WGMP 850 watts alternative rock from Montgomery AL

Critical Hours: Sometimes hear WDEK Lexington/Columbia SC Jammin Hits 10000D/3300C or WCXN Claremont/Hickory NC 7700D/1000C Mexican

Nights: Occasionally hear WWVA but very very weak. Have also heard KFAQ/KTSB from Tulsa (rare). Also sometimes hear a very weak oldies station that is probably WCLN Clinton NC 5000D/1000C remaining on air at night. Can't hear it well enough to catch an ID.
 
radioman148 said:
When I was in Hawaii it was KCBQ I thought I would hear when I tuned to 1170. Instead I was very surprised to get Tulsa, at the time KFAQ. The signal was so good that on a few nights I heard it on the rental car radio.
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Tulsa is 50 kW, San Diego at one time was only 700 W (per FCC mandate) now they're around 2 kW. Many years ago KVOO Tulsa complained to the FCC that KCBQ's 5 kW directional nighttime signal interfered with KVOO's protected nighttime coverage. They apparently did and the FCC made them knock their night power down to 700 Watts. After a time they were able to reconfigure their night pattern and they cranked it up to 2.9 kW. Lower than their original 5 kW night power.

It's interesting to note that KCBQ's 700 Watt night power was actually hard to hear in Downtown San Diego! KLOK San Jose was easily heard right underneath! (the KCBQ xmitter was, and still is out in Santee ( diplexing off of 910), about 15 miles or so from SD)
 
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I should also say that in the heyday of Top 40 Radio back in the 60's in North San Diego County, where I spent a lot of time, KCBQ on night pattern was half-way decent and was the station of choice at night. KGB 1360 was audible but it's 1 KW non- directional night signal was plagued with way too much interference as was KDEO 910. And of course, LA's KHJ and KRLA at night were unavailable. As an alternative though SF's KFRC 610 put in a consistently good signal!
 
Over the years, I have heard KVOO...KTSB between WWVA Pattern Change and KTSB Pattern Change.

Do you ever hear KGLC...KVIS on 910? Their Pattern is 1 kW DA-1, and is the equivalent of about 5 kW ENE and WSW.
 
radioman148 said:
When I was in Hawaii it was KCBQ I thought I would hear when I tuned to 1170. Instead I was very surprised to get Tulsa, at the time KFAQ. The signal was so good that on a few nights I heard it on the rental car radio.
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I was a high school junior living in Hawaii when I was talking to an engineer who used to work at KCBQ. (He was at KGMB...now KSSK...when I talked to him.) He told me that the reason KCBQ went to 50kw days was to impress under assistant associate media buyers fresh out of college to buy schedules on the station. The thinking was that none of them had never heard of directional antennas, and would have no idea that most of KCBQ's signal was directed right at the Pacific Ocean.
 
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