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AM Frequency of the Week: 540

cyberdad

cyberdad

40 miles northwest of downtown Chicago......

Days: Basically WAUK from suburban Milwaukee, Only 400 watts, but with a favorable pattern and gppd ground conductivity, the result is a fair signal. On a good eadio, KWMT (5kw-Fort Dodge, IA) is usually audible underneath,

Night: WAUK and CBK duke it out. For the past year or two WAUK has been getting the better of it, Prior to that, CBK would usually be the one on top. In the past, but not recently, I've also heard (then-) KNOE from Monroe, LA and WDAK from Columbus, GA.

Other Location: A few years ago, on a cross country drive on the Trans-Canada Highway. I had CBK (daytime) from West of Kenora, Ontario to just inside British Columbia beyond the BC-Alberta border. In all probability the biggest land path signal in North America, CBK tripped the scan button in both Winnipeg and Lethbridge, in south central Alberta. Impressive.
 
Here in the Detroit area ( 20 miles north), I had received CBK on Friday evening (1-29-2021) around 11pm EST with a station from Clarksville,Tennessee WKFN faintly in the background. And you’re probably correct about CBK being the largest land path signal in North America. Could you imagine if there was a non-directional 50kW on AM 530 or AM 540 located in the middle of The United States, that station would cover the entire country coast to coast in the nighttime hours. There is a station in Budapest, Hungary that is on AM 540 with 2000kW of power, that is probably one hell of a signal. I would love to see that station‘s coverage area.
 
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Chicago by the lakeshore:

WAUK Milwaukee predominates both day and night. Occasionally I'll hear KWMT in Fort Dodge IA. As for CBK, I've heard it a couple of times recently but it's pretty rare where I live. A lot of it might be the interference from my building and nearby ones, because I've heard it on the car radio near me and I haven't really even tried too hard.
 
In the southwest suburbs of Chicago, I go back far enough to have heard WAUK when it was WYLO with only 250 watts. Got out decently from Jackson, Wis., then as well. CBK, from beautiful downtown Watrous (really, on the edge of town) dominated most nights for a long time, but WAUK's boost to 400 watts changed the equation here.

I've also heard KNOE, Monroe, La., with 1 kw and at least once, XEWA, San Luis Potosi, Mex., with 150 kw. So station calls starting with W, C, K and X on the same frequency. That's hitting for the kilocycle. I'll see myself out.
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs during the day it's WAUK with a good signal. If I turn my radio I can barely make out KWMT.
At night mostly WAUK and CBK. WAUK is usually on top, but not always. I have also heard XEWA in Mexico a few times.

Retro: Many years ago before WAUK came on the air KWMT could be heard all day on a good radio. About 300 miles.
 
East Tennessee: Days-WRGC, Sylva NC coming in weak. I honestly don't remember what, if anything was there before WRGC re-started on that frequency. Nights, nothing dominant comes to mind.
Sunrise/sunset. Generally WDOK, Columbus GA or WKFN, Clarksville, TN. I have tried for WFLF but no luck, even with WOKV on 690 being a regular sunrise/sunset catch.

Retro/other: The Edinburgh IN SDR nets WKFN, Clarksville TN and underneath, echoing with the same ESPN programming, WAUK. That pretty much blocks any chance of KWMT making it in. KWMT has been on day power at night now and then and made for easy reception on the SDR a few times, though it wasn't audible here in Knoxville.

I remember getting CBEF where I grew up in Western Ohio around sunset. I believe I had it in Waverly, Ohio during broad daylight in the summer. The only other possibility was Chambersburg PA which was doing ethnic programming at the time. I don't remember what CBEF's pattern was. I don't even remember why CBEF abandoned 540, except that the English service moved to FM.

No discussion of 540 "back in the day" would be complete without WGTO. I struck out in my attempts to receive it around sunset (usually I got WDOK) in West Central Ohio. I looked forward to hearing it once I got closer to Florida in 1980, and was able to hear it in Macon, GA. We know that daytime signal was legendary.
 
Here in Overland Park, Kansas, KWMT is quite listenable during the day with a very good signal considering the distance. I logged WAUK once during evening critical hours. I recently logged CBK after a long absence. XEWA comes in on rare occasion. Ay night, there are other signals buried in the typical mess with none strong enough to identify.

Bob
 
Add me to the Chicago area chapter of the "I've heard XEWA" club....but it's been quite a few years. I thought I heard or read somewhere (perhaps from one of David's posts) that XEWA is or was running on reduced power.

Going back to CBK, I don't know for sure, but I assume the idea was to place the 50kw blowtorch in a location that would provide a city grade city in Saskatchewan's two largest metro areas....Regina and Saskatoon. I've driven through Regina (or more correctty around it on the bypass). CBK definitely has a city grade signal there.
 
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Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: WAUK with good signal. KWMT also heard in the past.
Nightime: normally WAUK but in recent days CBK has been heard fairly well.

DX/RETRO: others heard in the past include KNOE (W. Monroe, LA), WEIZ (Columbus, GA), KNMX (Las Vegas, NM), WGTO (Cypress Garden, FL). As for other Canadians besides CBK, CBEF (Windsor, ON) and CJSB (Ottawa, ON) were commonly heard heard back in 1980's, but they are no longer on the air. Also heard CBT (Grand Falls, Newfoundland) twice. Not an easy catch in Chicago area, but possible. XEWA used to be quite common back in the old days thanks to their 150 kW transmitter, but it's been a while since I heard them. I pretty sure they are no longer using the 150 kW blow torch. Another foreign one heard is Radio Corporacion, Managua, Nicaragua back in 1983.
 
Never realized there was so much prohibited overlap between CBK 540 and KFYR 550. Not sure if interference ratios were used to justify this. Under The Agreement with Canada, the 0.5 mV/m contours are ordinarily not allowed to overlap for first adjacent channels. In this case, it looks like the 5 mV/m contours would overlap. I can't think of another situation like this. The inner contour shown is 2.5 mV/m, and CBK's gets all the way to Bismarck.

CBK_AM_FDo.gif

KFYR_AM_LDi.gif
 
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Schroedingers Cat said:
Never realized there was so much prohibited overlap between CBK 540 and KFYR 550. Not sure if interference ratios were used to justify this. Under The Agreement with Canada, the 0.5 mV/m contours are ordinarily not allowed to overlap for first adjacent channels. In this case, it looks like the 5 mV/m contours would overlap. I can't think of another situation like this. The inner contour shown is 2.5 mV/m, and CBK's gets all the way to Bismarck.

CBK_AM_FDo.gif

KFYR_AM_LDi.gif
Click to expand...
That overlap is interesting. So if you’re in Bismarck you could actually receive CBK with very little problem, if you go 80 miles or so north you would get 540 and 550 free of interference from one another. If I’m thinking correctly.
 
Just a foot note on the AM 540 in Budapest, it’s the National station for Hungary and is indeed 2 million watts and is the most powerful AM/MW station in the world. I just wanted to pass that along to all of you. That would be a great catch here in the U.S., perhaps it would be possible on the east coast.
 
cyberdad said:
Add me to the Chicago area chapter of the "I've heard XEWA" club....but it's been quite a few years. I thought I heard or read somewhere (perhaps from one of David's posts) that XEWA is or was running on reduced power.

Going back to CBK, I don't know for sure, but I assume the idea was to place the 50kw blowtorch in a location that would provide a city grade city in Saskatchewan's two largest metro areas....Regina and Saskatoon. I've driven through Regina (or more correctty around it on the bypass). CBK definitely has a city grade signal there.
Click to expand...
That was exactly the idea behind CBK. Main studio is in Regina. There are now FM repeaters in both Regina (CBKR) and Saskatoon (CBK-1, which has a local morning drive show), but unlike the east, there are no plans to shut down 540 or the other prairie clear-channel stations. They serve too many people.
 
WWVB 60 kHz 50 kW in excess of 100 uV/m at two hour intervals.

www.nist.gov

WWVB coverage maps

Computer-generated estimates of WWVB signal strength under typical conditions show coverage at two-hour intervals over the course of a day with WWVB operating at 50 kW radiated power. Red indicates areas where signal levels are 100 microvolts per meter or greater. Conversion: U.S. Eastern Daylight T
www.nist.gov www.nist.gov
 
San Jose California

Daytime...KRXA out of the Carmel valley ( serving the Central coast of California ), very weak and bouncy signal

Nighttime..Its a back and forth of either ( guessing ) XESURF out of Tijuana or XEWA-AM, and 50KW CBK out of Watrous, Saskatchewan ( distance of 1280 miles )
 
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From NW San Antonio:

Day: Just heavy splatter from local 550 KTSA.

Sunset: Aiming NW, which minimizes KTSA splatter a bit, I can hear XEWA in San Luis Potosi. XEWF "La Bestia Grupera" in Tlalmanalco can be heard underneath/mixing in until it drops to 2.5 kW for the night. On rare occasions I've heard a weak KMLB in Monroe, LA.

Night: The splatter is reduced, and XEWA puts in a moderately strong signal here. Aiming SE I often hear XEHS "La Mejor" in Los Mochis with XETX in Nuevos Casas Grandes mixing in occasionally. Sometimes XEWA takes over in that direction as well.

Sunrise: XEWA and XEHS are still there, albeit weaker, until KTSA goes back to day pattern. Then it's just XEWA until skywave is gone.

DX/RETRO: I've heard KWMT and CBK just once each, both brief receptions. Also, before the second XEWA transmitter in Monterrey was shut down last year, I could hear it weakly under the splatter in the daytime. On the night of Sept. 10, 2017, I logged both WFLF in Pine Hills, FL, and WASG in Daphne, AL, when they stayed on day power during Hurricane Irma.
 
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