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AM Frequency of the Week: 1240 (a challenge!)

Wanted to update my 1240 catches, so here you go...

CJOR Osoyoos, BC (AC)
KJOP Lemoore, CA (Religious)
KNRY Monterrey, CA (Religious)
KSMX Santa Maria, CA (News/Talk, graveyard station record with 878 mile distance)
KSUE Susanville, CA (News/Talk)
KWIK Pocatello, ID (News/Talk)
KOFE St. Maries, ID (Oldies)
KEJO Corvallis, OR (Sports)
KQEN Roseburg, OR (News/Talk)
KRDM Redmond, OR (SS)
KTIX Pendelton, OR (Sports)
KCVL Colville, WA (Country)
KXLE Ellensburg, WA (News/Talk)
KGY Olympia, WA (Classic Hits)

-crainbebo
 
That's an impressive list. Nicely done!

My experience last week in Omaha was with KFOR in Lincoln, 50 miles away. The signal wasn't city-grade by any means, but stood up reasonably well in the steel and concrete "canyons" (such as they were) in downtown Omaha. It wasn't strong enough to avoid getting buried at night, however.
 
Most of these were caught with patience, and turning the radio to wide mode on 1238 khz to help blot out the other stations. Sometimes it's dead on 1240, mostly in aurora.

-crainbebo
 
crainbebo said:
Most of these were caught with patience, and turning the radio to wide mode on 1238 khz to help blot out the other stations. Sometimes it's dead on 1240, mostly in aurora.

-crainbebo
Click to expand...

You have amazing patience Crainbebo. Just thinking about spending all that time tuning those frequencies is giving me a headache. ;D
 
Just trying to get as many new logs as possible! I've got 462 right now...

-crainbebo
 
Usually during the daytime it's WJIM Lansing and CJCS Stratford. At night a few years ago I heard the same Adult Standards satellite feed on 1230 and 1240, alone. I assume it was WGRY Grayling and WCBY Cheboygan, but I didn't hear an ID for either. And of course, it faded, or I had to go to work, or somebody turned on an electronic noisemaker, or somebody called on the phone before I could ID it.
 
North suburbs of Chicago it's WSBC whenever they are on the air. I think they really have a good signal for a 1240 1 kW graveyard station. They also sound good, especially when they play music between time brokered programs.

When they're off, nothing but a jumble here. However, I drive to SW Michigan fairly frequently during the summer and one day I decided to see how far I could hear WSBC. Once I got out of the Hammond/Gary area, they were in solid all the way to South Bend and actually they were "in there" as far as the Mishawaka exit on the Indiana Toll Road. This is in the daytime, obviously. I think that is pretty remarkable for a Class IV station.

Going the other way, they seem to have a decent signal in the western suburbs albeit with some jumble underneath early in the early morning. But they hold the channel pretty well. For some reason the other Chicago area graveyarders (1230, 1450, 1490) don't do nearly as well. I can hear 1450 and 1490 in the daytime but they're always weak.
 
Very good!

I could hear KWLE 1340 in Bothell pretty well. Around 1-2 on the S-meter with a booster. KONP 1450 also made it 99% of the time at noontime from Port Angeles, about 70 miles W.

-crainbebo
 
I don't tune the GY channels very often. I'm located in W. Washington state, and here's my list of stations heard at night on 1240, some of them don't exist anymore (CFVR & CKGO):

CFVR, Abbotsford, BC
CKGO, Hope, BC
CKOO, Osoyoos, BC
KQEN, Roseburg, OR

Looking over the MW station listing for 1240 I think there are others I have heard but probably didn't bother to log, or I lost the log.

For example, I know I've heard KGY Olympia numerous times in the past, even on my first transistor radio.... and I'm pretty sure I've heard KXLE Ellensburg. But I don't have either of them in my log....

At night there is considerable hash from KKDZ's IBOC leaching over onto 1240, but I still hear signals through it, just don't bother to listen. KQEN was a logging from this year.
 
After 12AM, KKDZ turns on the IBOC here. From sunset to midnight, it is open.

-crainbebo
 
Yeah, I have noticed that sometimes they switch patterns after midnight, and sometimes they don't.

I know they have to protect KWSU, but sometimes they appear to switch patterns back when KWSU goes off the air.
 
zz
audioguy said:
North suburbs of Chicago it's WSBC whenever they are on the air. I think they really have a good signal for a 1240 1 kW graveyard station. They also sound good, especially when they play music between time brokered programs.

I wonder if anyone "back in the day" ever did a signal strength comparison of WSBC/WEDC/WCRW, the infamous 1240 triplets.
I believe 2 of the 3 had rooftop radiators (WSBC at 2400 W. Madison, WCRW on Pine Grove near Lincoln Park). It's possible WEDC did also at one time. And one more thing I've never been clear on is toward the end of the "triplet" era did all these stations wind up broadcasting from the same tower site (Belmont Ave).

I know Pat Sajak got his start at one of the triplets, I think it was WCRW.
Click to expand...
 
Out near the WJJD towers I brought a Sony Radio with a good signal strength meter on it on several visits over 10 years or more. WSBC was quite strong, and I think WEDC was the weakest. I think two had already consolidated their TLs. But as I recall, for a short time, one of them was licensed with a series limiting resistor and the other was not, making them a different signal strength from the same site. There was some discssion about how ridiculous it was for one to have an efficiency resistor. I think that there still may be reduced efficiency due to using a tall tower if you look at AM Query. This is done to reduce adjacent channel overlap. Efficiency reduction is now done by reducing power.
 
audioguy said:
North suburbs of Chicago it's WSBC whenever they are on the air. I think they really have a good signal for a 1240 1 kW graveyard station. They also sound good, especially when they play music between time brokered programs.

I wonder if anyone "back in the day" ever did a signal strength comparison of WSBC/WEDC/WCRW, the infamous 1240 triplets.
I believe 2 of the 3 had rooftop radiators (WSBC at 2400 W. Madison, WCRW on Pine Grove near Lincoln Park). It's possible WEDC did also at one time. And one more thing I've never been clear on is toward the end of the "triplet" era did all these stations wind up broadcasting from the same tower site (Belmont Ave).
Click to expand...

I lived in Morton Grove [a nearby suburb to the city of Chicago] over 20 years ago, and WCRW had a noticeably worse signal than WEDC or WSBC, especially when the three stations had to cut back to 250 watts at night [before 1kW was allowed 24/7] Often at night, WCRW's signal was lost in the jumble at only about 7 miles away! That rooftop antenna that WCRW was using - even with its tophat - must not have been too efficient!
 
The Local Frequencies often go from decent to unlistenable at night within a few miles. NIFs for Locals are in the 20-25 mV/m range. It may not be the efficiency if it's further away.
 
cyberdad said:
Far northwest suburbs of Chicago, it's semi-local WSBC with a fair signal daytime. WSDR, Sterling, IL underneath.

Night is all slop all the time. I don't keep logs, but I have hung out on 1240 every now and then down through the years. Nothing remarkable comes to mind, but I do recall WTAX, from Springfield, IL, a couple of times. That's around 200 miles.
Click to expand...

So those are the two stations under WSBC. I get a pretty good signal from WSBC at night too. Not as good as during the day. I am listening to Italian Radio Theater right now and it's clear as a bell. I do hear some AC but most nights, it's off in the background, and it makes occasional, brief interference with WSBC. I just looked up WSDR.

Also, whenever I listen to WSBC at night, I hear brief, occasional snippets (here and there) of right-wing talk. I just looked up WTAX and that's exactly what it was. So, I now can say that a Springfield and a Sterling, IL station are DX catches. When it comes to IL stations, I have recieved a few from Peoria, Danville, Aurora, and Elgin.
 
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