AM Frequency of the Week: 1180

[cyberdad]

Crystal Lake, IL:

Days: WSQR from Sycamore, IL. 900 watts from about 25 miles to my southwest. Good signal.

Nights: WHAM with a good signal. WSQR at one watt and invisible> Rebelde chorus from Cuba sometimes underneath

Other location: Gulf Cast near Pensacola. Rebelde from Cuba 24/7. Strong emough at night to completely blow out WHAM.

 

[fybush]

Rochester NY: do I even have to say it? 🤣

However, I was in the Florida Keys a few weeks ago and had 1180 on for parts of the drive down from Miami. It's amazing how directional the Marti 1180 in Marathon is. You can be almost in view of the towers from the north and still mostly be hearing Cuba. Staying in Key West for a couple of nights, I could certainly hear Marti on 1180 but with Cuba very audible underneath. And on the Florida mainland it's definitely Cuba dominating.

While other signals from the north were decently usable (hi, WBZ!), there was essentially no sign of WHAM down there.

 

[Mark Roberts]

This will be quick.

Denver, CO - Nothing, day or night. There's a little bit of low-level noise at night but I haven't been able to get anything readable from it.

 

[radiofan2023]

Here in Kansas - nothing

 

[cyberdad]

Rochester NY: do I even have to say it? 🤣

However, I was in the Florida Keys a few weeks ago and had 1180 on for parts of the drive down from Miami. It's amazing how directional the Marti 1180 in Marathon is. You can be almost in view of the towers from the north and still mostly be hearing Cuba. Staying in Key West for a couple of nights, I could certainly hear Marti on 1180 but with Cuba very audible underneath. And on the Florida mainland it's definitely Cuba dominating.

While other signals from the north were decently usable (hi, WBZ!), there was essentially no sign of WHAM down there.

My experience in the Keys and three nights in Key West was exactly the same as yours.

 

[fybush]

My experience in the Keys and three nights in Key West was exactly the same as yours.

It was interesting to hear which Cubans were effectively local signals. Enciclopedia on 530 ("Relaxing with Raoul"), Progreso on 640 and Reloj on 950 were by far the biggest ones. And we're down to just one AM on the air in the Keys aside from 1180 - WKWF chugs along on 1600, while WFFG on 1300 is silent for now.

 

[radioman148]

Near north Chicago days: WSQR weak but there, nights WHAM strong but Cuba underneath sometimes.

 

[KenoGuy]

Kenosha, WI Days- Local powerhouse (ha ha) WPUR937, TIS station run by the Kenosha Convention and Visitors Bureau. 10 watts, about 7 miles northwest of me, weak but intelligible. Always bubbling underneath is WSQR Sycamore, IL, sometimes overriding the TIS.

Nights- WHAM Rochester, NY usually strong, sometimes un-ID'd Espanol underneath (assume Cuba), and my local TIS in WHAM's null.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

Fascinating stuff about Radio Marti, folks.

Days on 1180 here, about 100 miles NNW of Phila, had been a faint WFYL coming in on the GE SR 2. I say 'had been' because the daytime dial has gotten so noisy that quite a few recently hired announcers have taken to shouting on the air. So I don't know if this shoe-horned daytimer talk station (obviously hoping for frugal fame with those call letters) is still on the air. King of Prussia, colloquially called 'KoP' is its COL. Heck -- if traditional, FULL-time Philly 1000 watt omnis like WHAT and WCAM are already at the bottom of the ratings there ......
WHJM Knoxville was a SSS catch from -- wow -- 30 years ago. I've been living here that long?
WHAM fills in all the other blank places.

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[CADXER]

Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: WSQR, Sycamore, IL with fairly decent signal.
Nighttime: WHAM dominates. Otherwise the many Cuban transmitters trying to block Radio Marti.

DX/Retro: prior to WSQR moving to this frequency I managed to hear WLDS (Jacksonville, IL) during daytime in 1982. Others heard: WJNT (Pearl, MS) heard few times with WHAM/Cuba nulled. Also managed to hear WSAF (Trion, GA) once during their sign off, WGAB (Newburgh, IN) and WGUE (Turell, AR). My most recent new log on 1180 is the daytimer WXLA (Diamondale, MI) leaving their transmitter on at night back in July of 2022.

One of my goals for this frequency is to hear Radio Marti (Marathon, FL) here in the Chicago area, but unless they switch to non-directional pattern I think it's almost impossible.

 

[TXPH97]

DFW, Texas

Daytime: Spillover from local 1190-KFXR.

Nights: IBOC hash from 1170-KTSB. Aiming away from Tulsa, Cuba's Rebelde is weak but consistent. Sometimes I can hear WJNT "Pearl/Jackson News 1180". I've only heard WHAM once, very weakly, overnight with Coast to Coast AM.

Sunrise: I have heard KLPF Midland, TX (Catholic programming), KZOT Belleview, NE (CBS Sports), and WGUE Turrell, AR (Memphis) with regional Mexican.

 

[ente]

South Mississippi:

Day: very weak WJNT Pearl, MS - NewsTalk 1180/96.9, gets stronger towards sunset
Night: Radio Rebelde, and WJNT sometimes

 

[anwar]

Wilmington Delaware

Days - As Steve Green NEPA already stated WFYL in King of Prussia is meant to be there for the Philly metro but I heard nothing on 1180 yesterday afternoon in West Chester PA so it may be just be on the internet. Their website name starts with 1180 but there is no mention of 1180 on the website itself.

Nights - Disappointing signal from WHAM Rochester NY. Every night it is battling it out with the Cuban station(s). Tonight it is on top but last night the Cuban was winning the battle with WHAM barely audible when I turned the radio NW. Adjacent WWVA is much stronger and sometimes splatters onto 1180.

 

[cyberdad]

Enclopedia on 530 ("Relaxing with Raoul"),

Love it!

 

[Battenkill50]

Melbourne FL

Multiple Cuban transmitters....

WHAM not heard for many years

 

[gr8oldies]

East Tennessee: Local oldies WKCE, which makes it to the Central Indiana SDR frequently SRS-SSS. During a previous oldies format, it stayed on 24/7 and was widely heard.
Night: Depending on propagation, it's either WHAM or the Rebelde chorus, sometimes both (or all).
Retro/other: I've not been to Key West in person, but I have virtually. There was a great SDR there, operated by Trans World Radio, presumably to monitor their own 800 signal. I can confirm what Scott said. It was a strong Radio Marti with an almost-as-strong Rebelde underneath (presumably Havana).
If memory serves, before Marti, I logged the former VOA Marathon in Ohio.

 

[schmave]

From Pickerington, Ohio ...
Daytime: Nothing
Nights: Usually a solid to strong WHAM. The adjacent-channel slop used to drive me nuts when I tried to listen to WOWO in its 50,000-watt days. Even in western Ohio where WOWO has a local signal, a turn of the radio would lead to some WHAM slop being heard way under WOWO rather than over top of the signal.
I have heard Cuba up here, but usually WHAM rules the channel.
When I visited Panama City Beach many years ago, Cuba was blasting daytime on 1180 thanks to the salt-water path. I am not sure I ever checked the channel at night.

I've never tried for WHAM daytime while visiting the in-laws in Conneaut, Ohio. We won't be back up there until summer, but I'll try to remember. WGR is a very easy catch there.

 

[fybush]

I would be surprised if WHAM is very difficult daytime in Conneaut. The signal has deteriorated some in recent years (thanks, Vertical Bridge, for questionable maintenance of the site and ground system), but the ground connectivity up here is still decent enough that you'll have some day signal there if overall conditions aren't too noisy.

Having said that, I just checked to see how WTAM does at noontime up here, which is about a 60 mile longer path than WHAM to Conneaut. It's pretty much lost in the noise inside my house.

 

[tvnut]

From the southwest suburbs of Chicago ...

Days, it's little WSQR Sycamore, Ill., all 900 watts of it. Nights, 1 watt has no shot.

Nights, it's WHAM Rochester. I remember in the early 1970s it still carried the Rochester Symphony on some Sunday nights – following Rochester Americans hockey, quite the combination.

Bonuses: WGAB Newburgh, Ind., one night in 2017, and Radio Rebelde from Cuba, on occasion. Radio Marti, no.

 

[cyberdad]

South Mississippi:

Day: very weak WJNT Pearl, MS - NewsTalk 1180/96.9, gets stronger towards sunset
Night: Radio Rebelde, and WJNT sometimes

I've heard WJNT a few times at my home location. but not recently. I had a major customer in Jackson and I was always amazed at how myc much better WJDX's 5kw day signal was at 620 than WJNT was doing with 50kw on 1180. Going south on I-55, WJNT was pretty much spent around Maccomb. WJDX was good just about all the way to Lake Pomchartrain. I never heard WJNT at night at the Gulf, but I did hear WJDX ON 1kw night power/pattern a few times.