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AM Frequency of the Week: 530

cyberdad

cyberdad

My apologies for being late with this post....

Today begins a revisit of the former "clear channels", beginning with 530, which is not used for commercial broadcasts in the U.S. As in the past, we'll treat it as a "clear".

Days: At my location northwest of Chicago, 530 is mostly blank during daytime. Occasionally I'll hear a TIS signal. Usually a temporary setup from a road construction site.

Nights: Usually CHLO (250 watts) from the Tpromto area, sometimes mixing with R. Enciclopedia from Cuba.

Retro/Other location: Until fairly recently, R. Enciclopedia dominated the channel here, Sometimes with CHLO's predecessor, CIAO, in the background. I've seen reports that R. Enciclopedia was running anywhere from 10 to 30kw. With Cuba, who knows? Whatever it was, the Cubans may have reduced it.

It's been two years since I've been able to visit our usual beach location on the Gulf near Pensacola. First, due to recovering from surgery, then due to the Covid pandemic. There, "before we were so rudely interrupted", R. Enciclopedia is (or was) audible there 24/7. Very weak daytime, but a fair-good signal at night. In recent years, at the beach and elsewhere in the south and southeast, a R. Rebelde relay on 530 also can be heard. Usually under R. Enciclopedia, but sometimes getting on top.

(BTW on a personal note, it was supposed to be back to the beach for us next month, but due to ongoing Covid restrictions, and ongoing hurricane repairs, we've rescheduled for late June. There should be lots of DX to catch up on....and report on....then!)
 
East Tennessee: Daytime, nothing unless a stray TIS finds its way here. Night, generally the R.Enciclopedia/Rebelde combo.
Retro/other: I've spent some time on the Edinburgh, IN SDR. On a good winter skip day, I snagged CHLO at 2:30pm. Night reception has CHLO dominating, followed by Radio Enciclopedia and sometimes Rebelde. t
Key West SDR. Enciclopedia with Rebelde underneath day and night. Bonaire SDR: the Rebelde is the one that dominates, but there is often a het from 531.
Real retro: I remember the Carribean (St. Kitts?) religious station with the New York address.
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs I hear nothing during the day. At night I usually hear CHLO Toronto. Occasionally I hear Radio Enciclopedia. Most of the time Cuba is not as strong at my location as it used to be.
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: usually empty, but sometimes a TIS will pop up
Nightime: normally CHLO (ex CIAO), but the Cubans (Radio Enciclopedia and Radio Rebelde) are frequent visitors

DX/RETRO: before CHLO (CIAO) back in 1980's there used to be another Canadian on this frequency CJFT Ft. Erie, ON. Also back in 2006 there used to be a Radio Cadena Habana outlet audible on this frequency, but then Radio Enciclopedia took over. Not sure if it is the same transmitter. Two other stations heard in the past on 530 here in the Chicago area started as split frequency stations. TICAL, Radio Rumbo, Costa Rica used to be and easy catch on their original frequency of 525 kHz, but sometimes in 1982 they moved to 530 kHz. Eventually they signed off for good. The other one was Radio Vision Cristiana with a reported 100 kW transmitter from Turks & Caicos. They started on 535 kHz, but moved to 530 kHz in 1997. Their facility was destroyed by a hurricane in 2004, but apparently they plan on rebuilding the station according to a report in 2020.

Speaking of split frequencies, another station on 535 kHz that used to be a common catch in Chicago was Radio Free Grenada with their 20 kW transmitter.

Finally, in 2005 I was able to log Algeria on 531 kHz. They are listed as 600 kW and are an easy catch on the various European SDR's, but hearing them back then on my Drake R8 receiver in the Chicago area was a thrill for me.
 
Picayune, MS:
Daytime: nothing, Radio Enciclopedia can be heard near the coast in daytime
Night: Radio Enciclopedia is not that strong, and Rebelde is also present.
 
Ah, one of the traveler's information channels. Daytime and nighttime here is a local TIS operated by WSDOT, WPVW567. Xmitter is on I-82 at MP 1, just south of I-90. Currently runs a loop consisting of COVID-19 mitigation reminders and a reminder that trucks must carry chains from Nov 1 to Apr 1. This is unrelated to KNEF687, the 1610 TIS that has a transmitter near I-90 and during the winter season, runs pass weather and info.
Sometimes I will hear WPVW565 in Selah, about 28 miles south of here and also WSDOT. Or WPUL478, which is yet another WSDOT TIS at the Lauderdale Jct (Hwy 970/97 near Teanaway).

From Yakima, the mix on 530 was WPVW565 and WQMZ999 down in Parker, around MP40 on I-82. WPVW567 would make it if the Selah one was off. Plus there was another one in there that I did not confirm, always mentioning weather conditions of some kind (it wasn't a NOAA station). I think this one may have been a TIS at the Hanford site.
Other DX on this channel includes both Radio Rebelde from Guantanamo and Radio Enciclopedia from Havana, both logged on a spectacular night. I see on MWList that RVC in Turks & Caicos is planning on a return to air, hopefully they will so I can log a new Caribbean country. I have not heard CHLO in Ontario (the ex-CIAO).

From the westside, it depended on when road construction happened. WSDOT ran a bunch of TIS stations with the calls 'KNEZ390'. One at Swamp Creek (Lynnwood), one at NE 45th and I-5 in Seattle, and one in Bellevue. There was also WPVW628 in Bothell at the 522 and 405 intersection that only fired up for road construction info.
If all of these were off the air, two 530s would weakly mix. To the southwest, KNCL518 Tukwila, operated by WSDOT with Sea-Tac Airport information, ran 24/7. And to the west, WPTR238 at the Hood Canal Bridge would make its way weakly to my old home in Bothell. The occasional third TIS would pop in and out at sunset, but I would never get an ID.
 
CHLO uses a 740 foot radiator, based on my calculations. Since it would be unusual for an AM station to have a tower that high except if it is diplexed with a Class A, or uses some kind of insulated wire that goes up the side of a FM or TV tower. I'll have to look that up.
 
Schroedingers Cat said:
CHLO uses a 740 foot radiator, based on my calculations. Since it would be unusual for an AM station to have a tower that high except if it is diplexed with a Class A, or uses some kind of insulated wire that goes up the side of a FM or TV tower. I'll have to look that up.
Click to expand...
5 kw KNAX used a full half wave for daytime (and as one of the night towers) going back to its beginnings as a 5 kw station on 570. It may, in fact, still have that tower. Does anyone know?
 
Did CHLO 680 come in well in Cleveland, David? I don't imagine you heard it much back in Cleveland. When CHLO moved to 1570, it could be heard a lot at Night, despite its extremely directional antenna, because NO US stations operated on 1570 at Night due to it being a Mexican I-A frequency occupied by XERF. I could never figure out why CHLO 680 had such a good signal to the West, since it was restricted by Class I-B KNBR, and it was 1 kW DA-1. Bill Dulmage had a coverage map of the old CHLO 4 tower parallelogram, but it appears to be gone now.
 
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In west Houston, days are a weak rumble from a couple of TIS stations across town from me. At sunset, Enciclopedia starts to come in, often Rebelde as well. Usually Enciclopedia is the stronger of the two. It does seem that they are somewhat weaker than they were in the past.
 
DavidEduardo said:
5 kw KNAX used a full half wave for daytime (and as one of the night towers) going back to its beginnings as a 5 kw station on 570. It may, in fact, still have that tower. Does anyone know?
Click to expand...
I presume you meant WNAX in Yankton, SD, which is on 570. I don't know the answer to your question, but IIRC, WNAX's site was damaged in a flood a few years ago.....I'm going to say 3-5 years ago. I also seem to recall, that after that event happened, they were on 1,25kw STA. Maybe someone here can fill in the blanks and/or correct me, if I'm misremembering.

I've driven by the WNAX studios a few times. The tower site is only 2-3 miles away to the northeast. But the view from the main road (state highway 50) isn't the greatest, and from too far away to determine whether the sticks are full wave.. They are, however, definitely tall. The town of Yankton sits directly on the Missouri River, Which is notoriously flood-prone, and would seemingly explain flood damage. If indeed I'm remembering the issue correctly.
 
First, down at 520: not a voice station, but a navigational air beacon, F9, with NB in morse code, running 125 watts in Mirimichi, New Brunswick. Caught it for the first time one winter on my Akai AT-VO4, which has a tremendous AM section along with a sensitive FM section. I really should bring it out of mothballs for grins.

Now, 530, and no surprises: Radio Enciclopedia from Cuba, and CIAO Brampton, Ont., both picked up in 2018, the latter I gather just before the call switch to CHLO.

I thought I had Radio Vision Cristiana on 535 way back but never IDed it so it's not in the log. Thanks to CADXER for remembering it.
 
Enter YKN for the Yankton Airport. A 929 foot tower is about 4 miles NE of Yankton. Keeping mind that the direction toward Yankton is barely in the major lobe at Night, but because of the good conductivity, it probably is not much of a problem.

VFRMAP - Digital Aeronautical Charts

Online VFR and IFR aeronautical charts, Digital Airport / Facility Directory (AFD)
vfrmap.com

The tallest monopole in the US is for WRDT 560 for its 13.9 watt nondirectional PSSA, and is 992 feet high according to my calculations.
 
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radioman148 said:
Those towers and the soil in that area really help WNAX. About 20 years ago I was in Galena, Il and had a nice steady daytime signal from WNAX all day.
Click to expand...
At my college location in southeast Iowa, our campus carrier current station was on 570. During the daytime, if we were off, WNAX was always clearly listenable on a good radio. Distance was well over 300 miles,
 
From NW San Antonio:

Like tvnut, I have a navigational beacon at the bottom of the band that I can sometimes hear at night on my sensitive radios - Hardin County "HRD" NDB in Kountze, TX, 266 miles N/NE on 524 kHz.

530 is blank during the day here. R. Enciclopedia comes up at sunset. At night it usually has a pretty good signal with R. Rebelde mixing in at times. Like others have noted, Enciclopedia is not quite as strong as it used to be. Previously I wouldn't hear Rebelde very often, and now it mixes in fairly regularly.
 
cyberdad said:
At my college location in southeast Iowa, our campus carrier current station was on 570. During the daytime, if we were off, WNAX was always clearly listenable on a good radio. Distance was well over 300 miles,
Click to expand...
Do you remember when WSUI 910 was 5 kW directional Day and Night? They then went nondirectional Day. They later moved further South, and had to decrease 20% the Night power from 5 kW to 4 kW to reduce the field toward KCJB 910 by 10%.

Did you ever see the "American Gothic' house in Eldon, IA? It was once owned by early AM DA developer and CIE Founder and Owner Carl E. Smith. He inherited it from relatives by paying the taxes as I recall. He owned it for a number of years and then donated it. Smith was from the Eldon area.
 
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