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AM frequency of the week - 600khz

cyberdad

cyberdad

Lets move it down the dial this week. What do you guys find when you land on 600khz?

Here in the far northwest suburbs of Chicago days it's a weak, but still reliable WMT from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. 165 miles to my west. As I posted in another thread a couple of years back, WMT is the only station that's audible on a good car radio for the entire 400 mile drive from Chicago to Minneapolis. Although these days it can get clipped slightly from iboc splash from WTMJ (620, Milwaukee).

At night, WMT still throws almost as much juice in my direction as daytime, but it usually gets swallowed up into the mess. Yet it still turns up on top from time to time. I've heard CFCH (North Bay, ON) a few times with a surprisingly good signal. I presume they were on day pattern. And "way back when," it wasn't unusual to hear Cuba....including when the channel was used to relay R. Moscow.
 
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600 - nothing days.
Nights I get a weak CJWW Saskatoon, SK mainly. Sometimes KGEZ Kalispell, rarely KOGO San Diego. Also heard: Radio Rebelde Cuba, KCOL Wellington, CO and KSJB Jamestown, ND.

-crainbebo
 
Days
Nothing.

Sunrise & Sunset (daytime power/patterns)
Winston Salem, NC 5 KW non directional
Paintsville, KY 5 KW non directional
Memphis, TN 5 KW directional
Salem OH 1 KW directional

Nights
Cedar Rapids
Cuba - Like cyberdad, I remember a strong Cuban presence back when this station carried Radio Moscow, and was reputed to be 150 KW.
 
Nothing here around Columbus, Ohio, day or night (that I have heard). WTVN slop covers up 600 for me daytime, and while that remains the case at night for most parts of the metro, I am just north of a deep ENE null at night. I will have to check tonight to see if anything comes through.
When I lived in Houston, WREC was a reliable catch at night. Like Columbus, they have a local station on 610 (KILT). Unlike my current location, I was in the heart of that 610's nighttime lobe out toward the Gulf and still caught Memphis many times.
Even though Columbus is basically the same distance from Memphis as Houston, WREC throws a deep nighttime null almost directly toward Columbus (unsure which station is/are being protected). Coincidentally, the very reason I apparently can't WREC here now is the null that provides the generous lobe that reaches all the way to Houston.
 
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It has always been WTAC/WSNL 600 Flint here in Southeastern Michigan in the daytime. In deep nulls, WSOM Salem, OH could be heard. When you got to Northern Michigan, increasing interference from WLST...WCHT Escanaba. At night, WMT and CKAT have become increasingly annoying pests. WCAO Baltimore has always been another frequently heard station at night. Once, when I went to Ohio, between Toledo and Cleveland near Lake Erie, you could hear WTAC/WSNL, at least in the daytime. Not sure about the new pattern. By the time you get to Cleveland, WSOM takes over, at least today.
 
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Near north Chicago burbs it's WMT during the day & in slop & weaker at night. I also remember the station in Cuba broadcasting Radio Moscow many years ago at night.
 
Nothing here at high noon. Real estate-wise its somewhat equidistant from 590 Scranton and 610 Philadelphia. Plus, on too many days the low end of the radio dials are noisy in these parts anyway.

I haven't DXed in earnest for a while (you know, nightly monitorings) , so the nighttime stuff is from a while ago.
WCAO Baltimore (5-23-94). They were quite the Top 40 back in the day, I understand.
WICC Bridgeport (6-9-94). They were a nice surprise considering their 500-watt night wattage.
R. Rebelde (12-13-94).
 
Icangelp said:
Days

Cuba - Like cyberdad, I remember a strong Cuban presence back when this station carried Radio Moscow, and was reputed to be 150 KW.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah. It was regularly audible here, not quite a monster, but still on top of everything. You could even hear it on cheap radios.
 
Schmave: Interesting to me you picked up Memphis so well down here. I've never logged WREC from the north side of Houston. During the day, of course, it's empty with just the side splatter of 610. I have logged a fair KTBB Tyler towards sunset, which also sends a little something our way, but never WREC. You've got my curiosity piqued, I'm heading up to Bellville this weekend and I'm going to give 600 a whirl to see if I can ID any sign of WREC.

Thanks for the tip!
 
I was quite surprised myself. Just happened to flip to 600 one night after an event on the north side of Houston, and there was a Memphis Tigers basketball game. It wasn't particularly loud, but it was there. I also felt like that was a testament to 610's directional signal, since I was only three or four miles east of their tower farm (I was at the Campbell Center, right off the Beltway). I am not sure I'd have logged it even a few miles away, because that KILT signal strength varies considerably depending on which side of the towers you find yourself.
Reception was pretty much the same in League City, where I lived.
ADD: All that said, the times I got WREC were in the winter. I don't remember ever trying during the summer, if that makes any difference.
 
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WREC has been a relatively easy nighttime catch for me lately on my visits to the Gulf Coast in the Pensacola area. Basically since the Cubans have toned down their activity on the channel. If indeed the Chinese are still repairing some of those Czech-built transmitters, perhaps the Cubans will become pests again on 600...and elsewhere.
 
600 here is Jacksonville's WBOB, with a decent signal daytime. At night it is a mix of stations. 600 has come in well for decades, starting with WPDQ, then the sports format of the Ball, the oldies format it had briefly, Radio Disney, and the talk format it has now.
 
I did get a chance to listen to AM 600 from Pickerington, Ohio last night, shortly after 11 p.m. ET. A station was present with some talk, but it only stuck around for a minute under light slop from WTVN on 610 (as I said in a previous thread, I am out of their main northbound nighttime lobe but only a mile or so north of a very deep ENE null). After that, whatever signal was on 600 went into a deep fade and never came back in the several minutes I waited.
 
Caught the Houston discussion just before noon - all Tyler from my far West Houston location. Very weak. Very hard to null KILT - and KLBJ also hammers 600. No trace of anything under Tyler. But that is at noon in the middle of summer.
 
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