AM Frequency of the Week: 620:

[schmave]

In Pickerington, Ohio, nothing but slop from WTVN daytime. At night, I've heard a very weak WRJZ in the many parts of the metro that fall outside WTVN's primary lobe, i.e. where the slop is either nonexistent or too weak to overpower whatever is left of WRJZ this far north.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

The reason that WTCM 580 was able to squeeze in with 50000 watts Day is by using extensive measured conductivities from Proof of Performance and special WKZO 590 and WMAM 570 measurements. Conductivities in the Lower Peninsula are often far below M-3. The existing 4 tower parallelogram is in the wrong direction from Traverse City to have much power at Night, so it reduces to 1100 watts Night. Vacant Canadian allotments such as CKPR 580 are also complicating pattern factors for many low frequency AM stations.

 

[X-Broadcaster]

Any of the 41 Regional Channels are now allowed 50000 watts, Day and Night. However, the lower the frequency, the less likely it is to fit in with 50000 watts, unless they can send the signal into the Oceans, Seas, and Gulfs, or Canada into thinly populated areas.

Only FOUR stations were able to get to 50000 watts Day and Night on Regional Channels. KMJ 580 goes into the Pacific Ocean, KJR 950 into the Pacific and Central Canada, WWJ 950 into Canada, and WXYT 1270 into Canada.

KKOL 1300 was 50/47, but is now down to 50/3.2 due to radiation and interference concerns and lawsuits as I recall. KEIB 1150 is 50/44. The last I recall, it then dropped down to a couple in Michigan, WFDF 910 50/25 into Canada, and WOOD 1300 20/20 into Canada, Due to the upgrade of WYLL 1160, WHBY 1150 was able to go 20/25. WPEN/WKDN 950 is or was 43/21. Many 50000 watt Day stations in general are downgrading now to a few tens of watts nondirectional Night, Class D.

The early upgraded ones, WTMJ 620 50/10, WRC/WTEM 980 50/5, and WADO 1280 50/7.2, and a few others, used traditional in line and parallelogram type arrays. The late Glen Clark later devised a multinodal supercomputer to design some of the higher power "near parallelograms" with a couple towers slightly out of place, "dogleg" 3 towers such as WCFL/WMVP 1000, and "constellation" arrays, and it looks like DLR has used his methods on a few.

It's amazing how much more power could be designed with dogleg type designs. WLCM 1390 went from an inline 1 kW Night design to a 4.5 kW Night design with a dogleg/near inline 4 tower array, and WJMK 1250 was able to use the three 1/2 wave old WKNX 1210 towers, and a 4th 1/4 wave dogleg to get 1.1 kW Night, with 3 of the four being existing towers. They probably could have done more power starting from scratch, but with much greater expense. Plus the 1/2 wave towers give them much more gain in the horizontal than shorter towers. In Canada, CFCO 630 was able to use 5 existing towers to get very different patterns with 10 kW Day and 6 kW Night, increasing from 1 kW to 6 kW Night with those towers.

WJDX, 620 In Jxn Miss, news talk & sports

 

[jim-satx]

From NW San Antonio:

Day: Massive splatter from local 630 KSLR.

Sunset: KTNO comes up amidst the slop.

Night: With KSLR's splatter reduced, KTNO usually has a decent signal. XENK "Radio 6.20" in Mexico City mixes with it and sometimes takes over briefly. XEGH "La Lupe" in Rio Bravo will pop up on rare occasions.

Sunrise: XEGH regularly mixes with KTNO for a while after it goes to day power. KTNO hangs in there when the heavy KSLR splatter returns but eventually fades.

DX/Retro: I've logged WJDX in Jackson just once; it was at sunrise a few years back. I've heard KTAR in Phoenix twice, once at night and once at sunrise.

 

[rjoc]

Here in Maine it's WZON-620 Bangor...one of Stephen King's 3 radio stations...He also owns WKIT 100.3 FM Brewer/Bangor and WZLO 103.1 FM Dover-Foxcroft. Good 5kw signal can be heard throughout central and Eastern Maine. Carries an Oldies 70s/80s format, and "AmericanTop40 - The seventies" with Casey Casem weekends. It is also on WKIT-HD3.

 

[bob_international]

From Yuma Arizona

KTAR day/night

 

[TomásEstefan]

At night, of course it's all KTAR. But during the daytime here in SoCal's SFV on a sensitive receiver, you can consistently hear a very weak XESS Puerto Nuevo, BCN beating against an even weaker KIGS Hanford. I would say the signal strength is barely .15 mv/m.

 

[CentralFL]

Kissimmee, FL
Days: WDAE from Tampa Bay fairly weak.
Night: Mostly WDAE, but weaker than during daytime.

 

[drt]

Kissimmee, FL
Days: WDAE from Tampa Bay fairly weak.
Night: Mostly WDAE, but weaker than during daytime.

Two reporting locations; just south of downtown St. Petersburg,FL. WDAE 620 is by far the strongest AM signal; very strong and nearly impossible to null. Their tower location on the Saint Petersburg side of the Candy Bridge helps; their towers are just a few yards away from being in Tampa Bay. They are also under temporary authority to double their power due to Cuban interference (this "temporary" authority has been in place at least the last five years that I know of. One interesting note about the Cuban interference; on a foggy February morning several years ago, I was in Manatee county and as I headed toward the beaches, the Cuban station would overtake WDAE 620 from time to time.

Also from my location about 3/4 miles south of the heart of downtown SP; their 250 watts translator on 95.3 was virtually useless; I'm thinking that some of the 32 story plus buildings in downtown, blocked or interfered with that signal.t. Pete

2nd location, approx 60 miles n.n.e. (as the crow flies) of downtown SP; 620 is fair during the day, listenable outside or inside near a window. At night 620AM is the only Tampa/St. Pete station to come in at all, and it is just barely listenable, with a lot of interference.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

@ drt :
Way way back in Queens NYC, way back in the Sixties, 620 from St. Pete was an overnight regular after local WVNJ signed off. I recall them being weak and far, but seemingly they were always there.
Of course, the crew of four up this way DXed primarily on Monday Mornings during many silemt periods of stations. But 'WSUN' was almost a pest then, hi.
That was back when they were 5000 watts at night, and with a quite similar directional pattern to the one Radio-Locator posts now.
I'm @$$-um-ing that in 2022 they still utilize those two towers at night on thge Causeway ?
But the catch was not a water-path nab. Between where we lived and where the Tampa Bay area is about 75% over land.

The 'new' WDAE is one of the loudest daytime stations on the dial by my Folks' place. They're between Ocala and Leesburg on this WDAE map from R-L.

Radio-Locator.com

Radio Station Search Engine

radio-locator.com

 

[drt]

@ drt :
Way way back in Queens NYC, way back in the Sixties, 620 from St. Pete was an overnight regular after local WVNJ signed off. I recall them being weak and far, but seemingly they were always there.
Of course, the crew of four up this way DXed primarily on Monday Mornings during many silemt periods of stations. But 'WSUN' was almost a pest then, hi.
That was back when they were 5000 watts at night, and with a quite similar directional pattern to the one Radio-Locator posts now.
I'm @$$-um-ing that in 2022 they still utilize those two towers at night on thge Causeway ?
But the catch was not a water-path nab. Between where we lived and where the Tampa Bay area is about 75% over land.

The 'new' WDAE is one of the loudest daytime stations on the dial by my Folks' place. They're between Ocala and Leesburg on this WDAE map from R-L.

Radio-Locator.com

Radio Station Search Engine

radio-locator.com

Yes, the 620 WDAE (mistakenly think of 620 as WSUN, as they were most of my life!) are still in the same place on the causeway connecting Gandy Blvd in St Pete to Gandy Blvd in Tampa. (Also the site of the areas first TV station - WSUN channel 38-ABC in the day).

Sounds as though you family in Florida lives either in the Villages, Lady Lake or Summerfield! - a very busy traffic area.