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AM Frequency of the Week: 680

cyberdad

cyberdad

Let's go down the dial this week for a channel with a number of big signals. But which ones do you hear when your radio is set to 680?

Here in the far northwest suburbs of Chicago during the daytime, I can't hear any of them. It's all splatter from WSCR and their evil ol' IBOC machine.

At night, nulling WSCR and their noisemaker is tough, but it can be done. Despite all those big signals, for me personally, my most common catch on 680 at night has been a little one. WCTT from Corbin, KY. Or "the little blowtorch" as I've called it in the past. It's weak, but on top more often than not....while all those "big boys" are protecting each other. I have, however, on very rare occasions, heard a couple of others. Most notably WPTF and CJOB, probably on day pattern. The prize catch here is KNBR. I have heard them here, but not since the '70s IIRC.
 
In eastern Iowa: KFEQ St. Joseph, MO usually at night. In daytime, it's probably there very faintly but not quite listenable. WSCR from Chicago on 670 often carries over a little bit. It can be a factor at night, too.

I regularly hear WPTF in the early morning, pre-dawn hours. Sometimes, at that hour, it's roaring in. My prize catch is also KNBR.

I don't think I have ever heard CJOB or CFTR, either of which I would think would show up sometime or other.
 
24 hours a day it's KKYX, a classic country station 14 miles away that's sending 50 kW my way by day and 10 kW at night.

On a few rare nights, I've heard a very weak KFEQ in KKYX's (very) partial null when music wasn't playing.
 
In the near north Chicago burbs it's all WSCR splatter during the day. At night it's very hard at my location to hear anything under WSCR's noisemaker. In the past the station I heard the most was WPTF. Over the years I've heard WCTT, KFEQ, Memphis, and CFTR on a rare occasion or two. KNBR was a fairly regular catch here in the 70s. The last time I heard it was right before sunrise 3 or 4 years ago.
 
Daytime - nothing but some splatter from local KPUA.

Nighttime - KNBR with a good listenable signal most of the time.
 
Daytime Houston - KKYX with a very listenable signal. Night - usual mush of stations mostly foreign.
 
If anything here in Columbus, Ohio, it's nothing daytime and at night, either WPTF from Raleigh or WCTT from Corbin, Ky. Both are quite weak if they make it here but WPTF pops up more often than not.
Depending on the night, 680 can be a lot of IBOC hash from WSCR.
 
icybluelake said:
In eastern Iowa:

I don't think I have ever heard CJOB or CFTR, either of which I would think would show up sometime or other.
Click to expand...

I agree. Neither would be easy, but each should at least be doable on day pattern around sunrise or sunset. Eastern Iowa would be in a daytime null for each station, but not all that severe. I'm a little surprised that CFTR is so tough here where I am, but WSCR is a formidable pest. As for CJOB, I haven't heard it since the early 1980s when it was in on an icy winter night with now-defunct CKRC (630).
 
icybluelake said:
In eastern Iowa: KFEQ St. Joseph, MO usually at night. In daytime, it's probably there very faintly but not quite listenable.
Click to expand...
What a difference it makes being about 70 miles closer to St. Joseph, and about a 10° change in azimuth. The east-west oriented egg shaped day pattern puts a fairly listenable signal for car radios in Ottumwa. But at night, I rarely had more than a whisper, sitting in one of the major nulls of the north -south oriented figure 8 night pattern.

Once on a Labor Day road trip in far NW Iowa between Sioux Falls and Sioux City, I caught a surprisingly strong CJOB in the first hour or so after sunrise. But that far west, you're out of CJOB's null to the SE.
 
joebtsflk1 said:
What a difference it makes being about 70 miles closer to St. Joseph, and about a 10° change in azimuth. The east-west oriented egg shaped day pattern puts a fairly listenable signal for car radios in Ottumwa. But at night, I rarely had more than a whisper, sitting in one of the major nulls of the north -south oriented figure 8 night pattern.

Once on a Labor Day road trip in far NW Iowa between Sioux Falls and Sioux City, I caught a surprisingly strong CJOB in the first hour or so after sunrise. But that far west, you're out of CJOB's null to the SE.
Click to expand...

Last winter (2015), I was driving just east of Sioux City during the middle of the day. I tried to catch a number of stations from up north -- I think I had a trace of CJOB. I know I had the station on 690 from Gravelbourg, Saskatchewan, which was actually listenable. I imagine the conditions were unusual that day. I'm pretty sure I had at least traces of KFYR (audible despite KWMT on 540) and some of the Fargo stations as well. I don't think I caught anything else from Winnipeg that day, although that's what I was after. KFYR isn't much of a surprise in NW Iowa, I am told.
 
Here in Charleston it is usually splatter from WOKV during the daytime, and a strong WPTF at night. Usually one of the strongest clear channels. WCNN comes in during critical hours, usually for a short period. I've also heard it at night, but rarely.
 
Another frequency to catch on.

Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: nothing
Nightime: with WSCR 5 miles away and the IBOC in full force impossible to hear anything.

DX/RETRO: in the past when I lived farther away (north side of Chicago) from the WMAQ/WSCR blowtorch and IBOC was not yet implemented some DX was possible, including KKYX (San Antonio, TX), WPTF (Raleigh, NC), WCNN (> Atlanta, GA), WCTT (Corbin, KY), WKDJ (Memphis, TN), WOGO (Hallie, WI), WDBC (Escanaba, MI), CFTR (Toronto, ON), WJOB (Winnipeg, ON). All these were back in the 1980/90's and were not easy catches due to WMAQ splatter. The most recent catch at my current location was WJIE (Newburg, KY) was in 2000. Never was able to hear KNBR. Few times I thought I had them, but could never get a positive ID.
 
@CADXER...

Nice list! As has been posted previously, KNBR used to be do-able on rare basis here in the Chicago area. Even with then-WMAQ as the pest on 670. But it's been at least 25 years since I've heard them here. Probably longer.

CJOB is still on my wish list. I've never heard them here, but I have heard them as close as Wisconsin. Again, long ago and pre-dawn on a Monday morning. They have a fantastic day groundwave signal, but beam most of their juice away from the U.S. at night.
 
I used to get KNBR in the Chicago area way back when WMAQ signed off on Monday mornings. That was a long time ago. I probably haven't heard them in at least 30 years.
 
It used to be CHLO Days, until they moved to 1570. While CHFI/CFTR was still at lower power, you could easily null it out and get WDBC. CHLO and CHFI were both on 680 for a while, until CHFI/CFTR began gradually upgrading to 50000 watts.
 
East Tennessee-A weak WCTT, Corbin KY. Around sunset and some nights, WPTF. I've gotten CFTR exactly once and I'm thinking they were on day pattern at night.
 
When I used to do the Chicago-Detroit-Toronto run on my business trips, I used to start picking up CFTR's day signal around Ann Arbor on I-94. Further down the road, I'd be able to keep CFTR's "next door neighbor" on 670 (WMAQ/WSCR) for about an hour, or about 20 miles into Canada on the 401 freeway.
 
There is an interesting site that shows the history of Canadian stations. CHFI/CFTR and the CHLO history is complicated. Bill Dulmage is the editor of the site. I wondered about the 680 pattern for CHLO. Bill had a coverage map but only so much was shown and little of the US coverage. I wonder if Scott Fybush has any details. It was a parallelogram and was 1000 watts DA-1, but had a fairly large lobe to the West, which puzzled me because it had to protect KNBR under treaty skywave curves.
 
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