AM Frequency of the week: 14909

[cyberdad]

Just in time for Haloween, our last graveyard channel of this series.

From my location in the far northwest suburban Chicago area.....

Day: 1490 is a battle of weak underperforming signals. WGEZ from Beloit, WI (45 milesd), and WPNA from Oak Park, IL (33 miles). Both are 1kw non-directional, but WGEZ usually gets the better of it. With those two nulled, I can often hear WZOE from Princeton, IL. Definitely not underperforming with 1kw ND from a distande of 90 miles.

Nightt: The usual GY jumble. My most recent catch (earlier this month) was WIGM from Medford, WI (230miles). Off the top of my head, others include KBUR (Burlington, IA), WDAN, Danville, IL, and WOSH from Oshkosh, WI. All of which ar within 200 miles..

 

[radioman148]

In the near north Chicago suburbs, daytime is WPNA with a good signal. At night WPNA is there, but there is a big graveyard mess underneath which makes it pretty tough for me to ID anything else.

 

[MichaelTheZ]

Chicago by the Lakeshore:

During the day, WPNA in Oak Park.

At night, the only thing I've ever identified is WPNA, yet at the same time it's not really listenable. This in spite of the fact that the transmitter is only 9 miles away from where I live. It makes me appreciate how hard it is to broadcast on these frequencies, if the range of a 1000 watt non-directional station is only a few miles at night.

 

[tvnut]

From the southwest Chicago suburbs:

I've never IDed anything here on 1490 except WPNA (nee WOPA and later WBMX) Oak Park. If I null WPNA at night, the usual jumble of noise appears but nothing rises above the mush for more than a few seconds.

WPNA's transmitter has forever been a tower on the roof of the Oak Park Arms, a hotel-turned-assisted living center on Oak Park Ave. at Washington St. in Oak Park. It's a throwback to the early days of radio, and something of a local landmark. OPA in the original call sign means Oak Park Arms. Without a standard ground radial system, that 1 kw isn't going to have the usual oomph, but it covers its community and expected audience well enough.

 

[CADXER]

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

Daytime: WPNA with fair signal.
Nightime: with WPNA null nothing but a graveyard mess

DX/RETRO: way back when WNDU (South Bend, IN) was still on the air (they left 1490 in 2009) they would be an easy catch in Chicago. Others heard on this frequency include WABJ (Adrian, MI), WGEZ (Beloit, WI) and WJMO (Cleveland, OH)

Like tvnut mentions WPNA is one of two Chicagoland AM stations that have their antenna tower on the roof of a building. The other one is WNTD AM 950 daytime tower at 1500 S. Western Avenue in Chicago.

Here is aa pic of the WPNA tower at 408 S. Oak Park Avenue in Oak Park, Illinois:

 

[gr8oldies]

East Tennessee: Nothing that exciting. Local fire and brimstone screamer WITA (sister station to WNQM Nashville and WMQM Memphis). If you get far enough out during the daytime, you might catch WFXY, Middlesboro KY. Night....a graveyard mess under WITA, even a few miles from downtown.

Retro/other: Dayton, Ohio area, WKBV, Richmond IN by day, a graveyard mess by night. Lafayette IN brought WDAN, Danville IL.

 

[cyberdad]

Apologies for the typo in the thread title line. My bad.

I wasn't aware that the WPNA tower was on the roof of a building, Which explains why the signal here isn't as good as expected forr 1kw from 32 miles. The urban development in the area obviously doesn't help matters. And, yep, I remember the station in it's WOPA, I renenber it as brokered programming for various ethnic groups including some really good blues shows.

 

[bulwnkl]

Just west of Phoenix, all I’ve been able to get out of the noise is a station I can’t ID. It runs the same nationally-syndicated programming as AM1310 KIHP, but I’ve no idea where it’s coming from. At night I can’t pull anything out of the soup of low-level signals down around my main portable’s noise floor. There are multiple weak signals in there, but I can’t get enough out of any of them to identify.

 

[crainbebo]

How far are you from KIHP 1310? Could it be a spur/bleedover? I don't see any Catholic religion anywhere in AZ, CA, UT or NM on 1490 khz.

1490 here is usually KYNR Toppenish, but much weaker than in Yakima. Great format, ran by the Yakama Nation with a variety of music and Indian powwow music along with Native Voice One newscasts. AND NO STREAM IN 2020.
Sometimes KEYG-AM Grand Coulee makes the daytime trip with country, along with KTEL Walla Walla (News/Talk).

Heard at night...another long list
KBZY Salem OR (Oldies)
KBKR Baker OR (News/Talk)
KSKR Roseburg OR (Sports)
KFKB Forks WA (now silent, was country)
KLOG Kelso WA (Sports)
KWOK Aberdeen WA (Fox Sports)
KBRO Bremerton WA (Spanish Religion)
KDBM Dillon MT (Country)
KCID Caldwell ID (Spanish Religion)
CJSN Shaunavon SK (Country - and CKSW-570 is still unheard here)
KZNB Petaluma CA (Regional Mexican)
KOWL South Lake Tahoe CA (News/Talk)
KSYC Yreka CA (Jefferson Public Radio)
KUGR Green River WY (Talk/Classic Hits/AC) - my farthest graveyarder in the eastern direction.

KUGR has been slightly off-frequency for months now, so they have been surprisingly common as dirt in the graveyard slop!

 

[bulwnkl]

How far are you from KIHP 1310? Could it be a spur/bleedover? I don't see any Catholic religion anywhere in AZ, CA, UT or NM on 1490 khz.

I couldn’t find any reasonable sources, either. Straight-line I’m somewhere in the 30-40 mile range from that transmitter site. I get the same thing in the car, just sort of ‘around the corner’ from the transmitter site. So, maybe it’s a strange spurious signal. IDK <shrug>

 

[jim-satx]

From NW San Antonio:

Day: On all of my radios, to varying degrees, there is splatter from local 1480 KCHL, a weak image of very close local 1350 KXTN, and a heterodyne whine.

Sunset: By aiming NE/SW I can null out the noise somewhat. In that null, regular sunset visitors include KWMC in Del Rio, KHVL in Huntsville, KLNT in Laredo, KPLT in Paris, and KTSN in Austin. KHVL usually comes up the strongest.

Night: KXTN goes directional and KCHL drops in power, and there's just a faint whine remaining. In the nighttime graveyard mess, KWMC and KBST in Big Spring are heard most often. KPLT, KVWC in Vernon, and KZZN in Littlefield are heard to a lesser extent.

Sunrise: Stations that I only hear during this timeframe include XECJC in Ciudad Juárez and KNEL in Brady.

DX/RETRO: I've heard KYZS in Tyler and WHOC in Philadelphia, MS, just once each. (WHOC is the only station I've heard on 1490 from a state outside TX.) In past years I've heard XEMS in Matamoros around sunset, but there's been no trace of it here in quite a while.

 

[cyberdad]

I had an errand to run yesterday (11/2) that involved an eight mile drive due south. Stop and go traffic, about 20 minutes through a relatively noise free area, about 1pmCST. So I thought I'd check out 1490. Result: WGEZ and WOPA mixing along the entire route. Neither station got the better of it, and I think I was also hearing WZOE along with it.

On the return trip, I also checked 1480 (empty...no WSPY). Then 1470. Mild surprise....a very listenable WMBD. I assume daytime skywave. Radio was th stock base GM model in my 2018 Equinox. A good (as opposed to great) radio.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

Semi-llocal WAZL from Hazleton PA, about 18 miles to our northeast, is the daytime regular. They get some steady flak from downstate WBCB Levittown PA, a good null approaching 90 degrees. When the dial was quieter, co-linear Lancaster was audible as well. But in the car at lunch hour it's WAZL.
That station was the loudest non-regular back in Queens NYC at SSS. It sometimes could wreck semi local WGCH Greenwich CT and water-path WUSS from Atlantic City at those times. Hazleton is the highest-up city in eastern PA.

WAZL is a terrific 'pilot' station for ripe Auroral conditions. When the great Northern lights are smiling at night, a steady, loud WAZL is atop 1490 with very little of that GY grumble.