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AM Frequency of the Week: 1540

cyberdad

cyberdad

40-ish miles northwest of downtown Chicago.....

Days: 1540 here is usually vacant except when KXEL is in on occasional daytime skywave. More common in winter.....as would be expected.

Night: KXEL blasts in nightly with one of the best skywave signals on the dial

Other Location: I hear the Bahamas 1540 24/7 in southern and eastern Florida. The signal is usually just "fair" at best. But in the north and west part of the state, the signal is usually absent by day. Weak at night.
 
East Tennessee: Days--Short and to the point..there isn't much close to us on 1540. We can get a whiff of WKVQ, Eatonton GA or WJJT, Jellico, TN especially during the winter.
Night---A tossup between KXEL and CHIN.
Solar eclipse---KXEL was the first station identifies about 10 minutes before totality and it was in the clear.

Retro/other: Dayton, Ohio: Daytime: The last breath of the former WADM, Decatur IN but KXEL was one of my day skip indicators. Otherwise, KXEL and CHIN, mostly KXEL.

SDR: Puerto Rico: ZNS blasting in at night on that SDR
 
West Central Georgia:

Day: WKVQ Eatonton GA 10.0kW Day Religious programming - weak

Night: Nothing dominant. Most regular visitor is CHIN Toronto CA 50.0kW Day/30.0kW Night with ethnic programming and classic radio programs in English after midnight
Rare catches include KXEL Waterloo IA 50 kW, ZNS-1 Nassau, Bahamas 50 kW, and WBNL Boonville IN broadcasting the Cubs 0.250kW Day and 0.001kW at night (must stay on day power for Cubs games)

Dusk: KBOA Kennett, MO 1.0kW Day, 0.530kW Critical and 0.003kW Night
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs I hear nothing during the day except during the winter when KXEL can come in with daytime skywave.
At night KXEL comes in quite strong.
 
Chicago near the lakefront:

During the day there is a weak WLOI from La Porte, Indiana which is in the NW corner of the state. It's a daytime-only 250 watt station.

At night KXEL in Waterloo, IA tends to dominate. Sometimes early on CHIN in the Toronto area will dominate instead, before KXEL is at its full strength. I've even heard CHIN on daytime skywave a few times.
 
I heard CHIN in SE Michigan during an intense thunderstorm (intense ion clouds) in the Summer once. Also CHKT 1430. I think they need to do more research into "Sporadic D". It's much shorter distances than the E layer allows. People who listen to CH and Daytime skywave extensively know that as it gets closer to solar noon, the stations heard are usually much closer. It could be the E layer, but at a much lower level.
 
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Orange County, TX-Days KGBC Galveston, nights a weak KGBC along with a weak KEDA, San Antonio & KXEL fighting it out for top dog.
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: usually nothing, but KXEL and CHIN have been heard via daytime skywave in the past
Nightime: KXEL with solid signal, but CHIN occasionally takes over the frequency

DX/RETRO: ZNS1 Bahamas heard couple of times but it's not an easy catch. Used to be reported a lot more back in the 70's and 80's in the Midwest. Others heard on this frequency are KHND (Harvey, ND), KGBC (Galveston, TX), KNNT (Kennett, MO), KEDA (San Antonio, TX), WZAL (Mc Donough, GA on DX Test), WLOI (La Porte, IN), WPTR (Albany, NY), WMBC (Martinsville, IN), WSMI (Litchfield, IL), WABQ (Cleveland, OH), WBRy (Woodbury, TN)
 
From west Houston, days is all KGBC in nearby Galveston. At sunset, it's all Spanish-language with KGBC, KEDA "Radio Jalapeno" San Antonio, and KZMP from the Dallas area fighting it out, with KGBC still dominating. At night, I've heard KXEL occasionally, but mostly it's KGBC and the other Texans.

Back in Tulsa in the 1970's, KXEL was one of the stronger nighttime signals on the dial.
 
I should have mentioned CHIN in my OP. For a long time, I never heard them. Not that I tried very hard.

But in the last few years they've become more common. And as CADXER said, they sometimes even rise on top of KXEL. In my excperience that's most likely to happen around sunrise. To be clear, at my location during nightime, KXEL is really strong and blows out CHIN even when CHIN happens to sneak in during a KXEL fade.
 
@ Michael the Z : Do you detect any water-path reception via Lake Michigan?
I had once asked if, during a hypothetical huge nor'easter, if the ground -- covered with snow from the salt-water Atlantic -- would provide a salt-water path of AM DX to people inland who were 26 inches buried in the stuff. I was told, politely, things like 'No.', and 'Don't ask this question ever again'.

Daytimes used to be Ryan Howard's WNWR. Now there's nothing of note to put a dot on the log.
The old 'WPTR' and the omnivorous KXEL are nighttime entries.

(@ Ryan : Was it WNWR / WPGR 1540 who had three towers alongside I-95, sothwest of Philly?)
 
From 25 miles SW of downtown Kansas City:

Day: Nothing but fading

Critical Hours: Usually KXEL when they are on daytime pattern. Once they switch to nighttime pattern, they totally disappear. Occasionally, KZMP - University Park,TX. 32 kW directional day.

Night: I have yet to log a station. However, weak signals are present.

Bob
 
From NW San Antonio:

Daytime: Local KEDA

Sunset: In the NE/SW partial null of KEDA, I can hear KZMP in University Park and a weaker XESTN in Monterrey with Spanish-language news talk.

Night: KEDA drops from 5 kW to 1 kW directional and is subject to some skywave cancellation. The null is stronger, and usually only XESTN is heard there since KZMP drops from 32 kW to 750 w. On rare occasions I've heard a weak KGBC in Galveston.

Sunrise: Very similar to sunset once KZMP goes to day power.

DX/Retro: I've heard KXEL just twice - once when KEDA was off the air in 2015 and later briefly that November just prior to sunrise one morning.
 
jim-satx said:
From NW San Antonio:

Daytime: Local KEDA

Sunset: In the NE/SW partial null of KEDA, I can hear KZMP in University Park and a weaker XESTN in Monterrey with Spanish-language news talk.
Click to expand...

Interesting...I need to check this again, one of the SS stations I'm hearing at night might be XESTN. It will take patience, with multiple SS stations in the mix.
 
Is anyone else hearing an awful whine on 1540 kHz at night in the Northeast? Somebody is way off frequency -- it sounds like around 300 Hz to my ears. It overpowers any chance of hearing the audio from the offending station.
 
After dark: KREA 1540 Honolulu sometimes, occasionally KMPC Los Angeles in the morning before sunrise..... and once the 1539 super power in the UAE

McGrath, Alaska
 
The whine on 1540 seems to be coming from a gospel music station. Maybe WSIV in East Syracuse, NY?

Despite the whine, I can still pick up KXEL on a cheap Walkman, about 930 miles away here in NJ.
 
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