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AM Frequency of the week: 1610

cyberdad

cyberdad

On to the X band!

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

Days: 1610 is isually empty. Sometimes a weak signal from Chicago or one of the suburbs.

Nights: CHHA (Toronto) all alone. Usually with a fair signal. I've tried for CHHA on both the Arctic and Masset SDRs, but so far without succcess.
 
Because it is TIS only in the US, CHHA is like a de facto Class I/Class A with 6.3 kW and a 2 tower cardioid pattern beamed West.

am_pattern.php


The signal is comparable to CBE/CBEF 1550 and CKDO 1580.
 
Chicago by the lakeshore:

At night it's CHHA Toronto.

During the daytime, if there's any skywave activity, often CHHA will be a good indicator. It's not uncommon to be able to hear it in the middle of the afternoon on Lake Shore Drive, during the winter.

Other than the above I've never heard anything. There are several of those traffic stations on 1610 in Chicago but I've never been listening when I was in range.
 
From the southwest suburbs of Chicago:

It seems to me there were more TIS outlets in the Chicago area on 1610 in the 1990s than now. I recall having no trouble picking them up at home during the day, but now get nothing. The closest to me on 1610 is on the Stevenson Expressway just southwest of downtown.

At night, it's CHHA Toronto.
 
East Tennessee Days: Unless a TIS drifts in, nothing\
Nights (also sunset) CHHA.

Retro/other: Edinburgh IN SDR, some winter days CHHA can hang in all day.
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs I used to get some TIS stations during the day. Now I don't hear much of anything. At night only CHHA.
 
radioman148 said:
In the near north Chicago suburbs I used to get some TIS stations during the day. Now I don't hear much of anything. At night only CHHA.
Click to expand...

1610 used to have a TIS that did a continuous update of Chicago freeway traffic. This was in the 1990s when I worked out of an office near O'Hare airport. But I spent most of my time either on the road or working from home. However, when I did get into the office,and needed to go from there to ad agency appointments downtown. it was a great source of info (computer generated). I haven't heard it for years, and none of you other guys in the area seem to be hearing it, so I assume it must be long gone.
 
That's the one (or ones) I remember. I have it listed as TIS Synchros in my list. Several transmitters with the same computer-voiced traffic info feed. Often you'd hear one under another. The same info was fed to the traffic radio services.
 
From west Houston, I've heard XEUACH (before its move to 1130 in 2019) and CHHA.

Retro, I seem to recall having heard the Caribbean Beacon when I was in south Florida in the late 80's/early 90's.
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: used to get a solid KNIG426 TIS from Addison, IL (only 1.5 miles from me located at Bloomingdale Rd and I290). They used to get out quite well, but lately their signal strength dropped drastically. I can only hear it on the car radio when I drive on Bloomingdale Road and get within a half a mile of the transmitter.
Nightime: CHHA Toronto usually alone with fair signal, but sometimes CHRN (Radio Humsafar) from Montreal can be heard.

DX/RETRO: Carribbean Beacon from Anguilla used to be a common station heard on 1610 the past. They are no longer on the air. Another station that I heard as recently as 2018 was XEUACH from Mexico City, but they must have left 1610 as well. Back in 2000 when the expanded band was just starting to open up, KALT from Atlanta, TX operated briefly on 1610 kHz and used to be easily heard in Chicago, but their license was cancelled by FCC in January 2001. However if I remember right they remained on the air until sometimes in 2003, when they went silent.
 
Day and night here, 1610khz is KNEF687 Ellensburg, a WSDOT TIS with Snoqualmie Pass weather and travel information, and road construction information when needed. Currently (at 10:50PM PT), a very weak CHHA Toronto is underneath. They have become quite common at night.

Down in Yakima the TIS is WQBV569, based at the Union Gap WSDOT office. This one gets out really, really well at night. Very commonly heard in western WA + BC. I have several other TIS stations in the logs - including the now-silent WPKV296 Toppenish (w/ tourism info), KHA519 Naches (w/ White Pass info), Naval Kitsap, and WQHE837 Stevenson (WSDOT) among others.
 
From NW San Antonio:

Day: Nothing

Night: Aiming to the NE, I can hear CHHA when propagation is good. Aiming to the SE, I often hear a weak TIS station in Indianola, TX, near the gulf coast. It's run by the Texas Sea Grant Extension (at Texas A&M) and broadcasts info about wildlife, fishing, and the history of Indianola. The station's web page lists its call letters as K-YAK, and I've never been able to match it with any TIS station in the FCC list.

Sunrise: K-YAK is sometimes still audible.

DX/RETRO: Occasionally I used to hear XEUACH before it moved and the Caribbean Beacon before it went off air. Also, I sometimes used to hear TIS station WPEZ840, which relayed an Austin NOAA weather station; it appears to have gone silent.
 
Impressive daytime skywave event on the upper end of the AM band here today. As of 10:30am CST (1630 UYC), CHHA strong enough to trip the scan button on my car radio.

KSTP, WLAC, WCKY, KXEL, and KCJJ also in. Along with two stations mixing on 1660, as well as other unfamiliar stuff (and not enough time to identify). KSTP was especially strong.
 
Just a rapidly-fluttering carrier that might be CHHA beating with one or two distant TIS, which might be WQCA312 or the NOAA rebroadcast in Pendleton (if either are still on the air), but too weak to copy any audio from. I just hear that "fuhfuhfuhfuhfuhfuhfuhfuhfuhfuhfuhfuhfuh" thing with a little heterodyne noise.
 
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