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AM Frequency of the Week: 620

cyberdad

cyberdad

Sorry I'm a little late with this. Web was down earlier today. Anyway....here at the ranch northwest of Chicago:

Days: All WTMJ with a good signal. I'm 36 miles from their 50kw transmitter site in a null. As good as the current day signal is, if anything it was slightly better when they were 5kw ND from their former site near I-94 between Milwaukee and Waukesha.

Nights: Power drops to 10kw and the null in my direction deepens. Signal is fair and usually listenable but sometime gets trashed. Usually by CKRM. Definitely not what it was when they were 5kw using two towers at the old site.

Retro: Before it flipped to country music and became CKRM, the 620 from Saskatchewan was CKCK and the format was oldies. Most nights you could null WTMJ and comfortably listen to CKCK with minimal fading. Turn the radio 90 degrees and it would be all WTMJ with no intruders.

It's been a LONG time, but I've also heard WDNC (Durham, NC) and WTMT (Louisville) on the channel. Then there was the time in the car about 20 or so years ago when WTMJ was off for a few seconds for a pattern change....just long enough for WJDX to come through with a legal ID,

Other Location: At our beach location near Pensacola, WDAE trips the scan button in the car. At least if you're within about a mile from the beach. At night it disappears completely. 130 miles to the west, you can comfortably listen to WDAE on a good car radio as you drive the 23 miles of the Lake Ponchartrain Causeway. After you exit the causeway and continue north on dry land, WJDX takes over in fairly short order.

Finally, speaking of Lake Ponchartrain, a couple of years ago I was in a hotel one night about five minutes away from the Causeway exit, when to my surprise I snagged XENK from Mexico City. Complete with a positive ID. On the SRF37 Walkman, no less!
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs days are all WTMJ with a very good signal. At night it's still WTMJ not as strong, but much better than it was from the old sight. The night signal from the old sight was much weaker and very difficult to listen to.

Retro: I did hear CKCK a few times, but the station I heard most under WTMJ was the one in Louisville. They are using the WAKY calls now. Also one time many many years ago when WTMJ was off I heard Tampa. At that time the calls were WSUN.
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL (near NW suburb of Chicago):

Daytime: WTMJ
Nightime: WTMJ

DX catches/retro: In the old days WTMJ was fairly easy to null at night producing some nice DX catches. in 1980's/1990's this frequency was the best bet to hear the state of Vermont on AM here in Chicago area. Heard WVMT (Burlington, VT) few times in those days. Other catches include WSUN, St. Petersburg, FL), WSKQ (Newark, NJ), WHEN (Syracuse, NY), WRJZ (Knoxville, TN), KWFT (Wichita Falls, TX), CFCL (Timmins, ON), CKRM (Regina, SK). The most common station in those days with WTMJ nulled used to be Radio Rebelde from Cuba. Once WTMJ increased their power and started using IBOC it was not possible to DX 620 anymore. They stopped using IBOC in late 2014, but it is still difficult to null WTMJ.
 
From 25 miles SW of downtown Kansas City:

This is very difficult frequency to DX because of heavy splatter from the close by transmitter site of 5 kW ND KCSP on 610 kHz. However, I have logged WTMJ through the splatter during both morning and evening critical hours when they are at 50 kW. Recently, KCSP was on the air for several hours with only their carrier and WTMJ was an easy log at 3:30pm before they switched to 10 kW and their nighttime pattern. When I have traveled north of the metro area on I-35 toward Des Moines I have logged KMNS in Sioux City, IA. They broadcast at 1 kW, directional both day and night. This signal was received at 80 miles north of Kansas City at 8:00am during the summer. I have yet to log this station at my home QSL.

Bob
 
Where I live it's WKHB from the Pittsburgh suburb of Irwin, PA.

One of the strongest stations on my dial during daylight hours.
After sundown it slowly ramps down in stages to an overnight low power of 55 watts.

That gets buffeted and abused by everything else on that frequency, but can
still be heard where I live.
 
From west Houston, days is splatter from KILT 610. I have sometimes heard XEGH "La Lupe" from down in the Rio Grande Valley during the day when conditions are good. At sunset, KTNO in DFW, Spanish religion as Radio Luz, starts coming in (KTNO was KEXB business talk until 2019). Nights are a mix of KTNO, XENK in Mexico City, and WJDX.

It would be great to catch WDAE, maybe after their sunrise. My schedule makes it tough to DX at sunrise at the moment.
 
East Tennessee: All WRJZ, all the time. I've heard WRJZ on the Lake Erie shoreline, on the SDRs in Farmington Hills MI and Edinburgh IN (I think I've heard all of my locals except for the graveyarders on it).

Retro/other: The last breath of WTMJ could still make it to Dayton, OH but I hadn't compared old power/site vs new.
 
West Central Georgia:

Days: WTRP La Grange GA 2500/127 Oldies - dominating local station by day, but disappears at night

Night: Battle between weak signals from WRJZ Knoxville TN 5000 religious and WDAE St. Petersburg 5600/5500 sports. Also catch WJDX Jackson MS 5000/1000 news/talks/sports.
 
Chicago by the lakeshore:

Daytime it's all WTMJ in Milwaukee. During the nighttime hours it's still usually WTMJ but there tends to be more interference. The only other station I've ever identified on 620 is WWNR in Beckley, WV, which I heard during evening critical hours, presumably while they were still broadcasting on their 5KW daytime power.
 
ftballfan said:
Manistee, MI:

A very strong WTMJ. Likely the strongest station on the AM dial 24/7
Click to expand...

AM Stations Covering Zip Code 49660 from V-Soft Zip Code.

Field (mV/m) Call Sign Principal City State Frequency (kHz) FCC Facility ID
1.07 WTCM TRAVERSE CITY MI 580 70524
0.86 WJNL KINGSLEY MI 1210 4599
0.78 WTMJ MILWAUKEE WI 620 74096
0.54 WTCM-N TRAVERSE CITY MI 580 70524


According to the WTCM 580 Application for 50 kW Daytime, the 0.5 mV/m contour barely reaches Manistee. And Lake Michigan is probably at least the 10 mS/m shown on the Canadian Side of the Great Lakes, so WTMJ probably exceeds 1 mV/m. WJNL would be similarly lower like WTCM.

https://licensing.fcc.gov/cdbs/CDBS...?appn=101027491&qnum=5130&copynum=1&exhcnum=3

Measured Conductivities for WTCM Application for 50 kW Daytime.

https://licensing.fcc.gov/cdbs/CDBS...?appn=101027491&qnum=5160&copynum=1&exhcnum=2
 
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From NW San Antonio:

Day: Heavy splatter from local 630 KSLR. I heard XEGH in Rio Bravo one afternoon five years ago while driving in SE San Antonio.

Sunset: Aiming N/NE, the splatter can be nulled out enough to hear KTNO in Plano. If I aim more N/NW, XEGH can be heard mixing in.

Night: KSLR splatter is reduced. KTNO is usually dominant with XENK in Mexico City underneath and sometimes coming to the fore. XEGH pops up occasionally, and on rare occasions I'll hear KTAR in Phoenix.

Sunrise: Similar to nighttime with a weak but steady KTAR audible until XEGH goes to day power.

DX/Retro: I've only heard WJDX on two brief occasions - once at sunrise and once at night. Also, I sometimes heard XEBU "La Norteñita" in Chihuahua before it went off air.
 
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Way way back 23 years ago when I first moved to here (roughly halfway between Scranton and Harriburg) 620 from Newark/NYC put in a weak daytime signal, usually nearing SSS.

The newer den here is maybe 2 1/2 inches off to the left of this map.
https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WSNR&service=AM&h=D

So WSNR *did* send a bit of juice at us for a good radio to pick up. But now, with the lower and of the dial sounding like a high-pitched bowling alley, there's no more 620.

620 at night has turned up the usual suspect from Syracuse, another exit off our mutual-share Interstate 81. Plus, I have logged everyone's favourite Cold War bouy, Radio Rebelde.
 
Warminster PA(Philly 'burbs):

Daytime: WSNR Newark NJ(brokered ethnic, weak).
Night: mess of stations, including WPRO Providence RI and
WTMJ Milwaukee.
 
From Los Angeles, CA:

Days: A weak XESS from Puerto Nuevo, Baja California, Mexico.

Nights: KTAR from Phoenix, AZ, duking it out with XESS, with KTAR usually on top.
 
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