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AM Frequency of the Week: 730

cyberdad

cyberdad

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

Day: Splatter from WGN (720)

Nighr: Relatively open. Usually CKDM from Dauphin, Manitoba is in with a weak signal, But strong enough to "compete" with the WGN splatter and get on top of whatever weaker signal or signals might also be present. Second most likely to surface on 730 is CKAC, which so happened to be in and on top just the morning before last (4/9) about two hours before sunrise. Mixing with CKDM, but occasionally on top, XEX sometimes turns up once in a while, but I haven't heard them for quite a while. I'm wondering if perhaps they're operating at something less than authorized power. I've also heard KKDA from the Dallas area a couple of times. Only 500 watts, but aimed in this direction without much to block it.

Other Location: The two Canadian 730s metioned above get out quite well. CKAC daytime trips the scan button on a car radio in both Ottawa and Quebec City. 115 and 130 miles away respectively. CKDM does the same in Winnipeg from 155 miles with only 10kw
 
From south Overland Park, Kansas:

Day: Nothing

Night: No signals logged. Sounds much like a "graveyard" channel. I have tried for XEX with no luck, so far.

Bob
 
From the southwest suburbs of Chicago:

Day: zippo, aside from WGN hash.

Night: Unlike Cyberdad, XEX is something of a regular here, especially late night and overnight. It's easily IDed by matching its stream. And I've never heard CKDM.

Others I've picked up over the years: CHYR7 Leamington, Ont., with a big 500 watts at night; CKAC Montreal, and once, a real pull out of the mush, WLIL Lenoir City, Tenn., with 214 watts, again matched to its stream playing Elvis in the middle of the night.
 
Here in the Metro DC - Baltimore area every time I tune into WTNT AM 730 I notice a slight het. Is there some co-channel station off-frequency, perhaps in PA? Metro Radio's WTNT probably gets more listeners on their two translators....
 
There is a 730 in Pittsburgh, WPIT, but I can't hear it here in central Ohio so can't help you there unfortunately.
Here, it's a weak WJYM from Bowling Green daytime and nothing at night. They shoot most of their 1,000 watts right down 75 toward Lima and Dayton, to the point that the signal is much better in Lima than most anywhere within Toledo. Don't think I've ever heard WJYM at night, when it drops to 359 watts, just outside Lima while visiting family.
 
tvnut said:
Night: Unlike Cyberdad, XEX is something of a regular here, especially late night and overnight. It's easily IDed by matching its stream. And I've never heard CKDM.

Others I've picked up over the years: CHYR7 Leamington, Ont., with a big 500 watts at night; CKAC Montreal, and once, a real pull out of the mush, WLIL Lenoir City, Tenn., with 214 watts, again matched to its stream playing Elvis in the middle of the night.
Click to expand...
Shows what a difference a few dozen miles can make. If not different types of radios.

XEX used to be at least semi-regular at my location. And it was definitely a regular at my college QTH in Iowa. I still hear it most of the time when I'm in in the rocky mountains area or southern tier of states. As for CHYR out of Leamington, I don't think I've ever heard them on 730, but I did hear them a few times when they flipped to daytie 710.

Fun fact: Leamington, Ontario claims to be the tomato growing capital of the planet. Heinz has a big ketchup factory there. (I had a customer in Minnesota who was originall from there....it's about 40 miles east of Detroit).
 
Chicago near the lakeshore:

Daytime: Nothing
Nighttime: Usually it's CKAC Montreal. I have heard CKDM a few times, and XEX exactly once.

So this makes three Chicago area listeners with three different results.
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs daytime is all WGN hash. At night sometimes CFAC. Late at night I hear XEX once in awhile.
CKDM is fairly rare for me.
 
MichaelTheZ said:
So this makes three Chicago area listeners with three different result
Click to expand...
And readioman reports somethigng at least slightly different still, so let's count it as FOUR. Can CADXER make it five???

I can't believe you guys aren't hearing more of CKDM. It's not an automatic for me, but it's not exactly tough, either. Easy to ID with country music. Maybe the Chicago area represents some sort of "convergence zone" for these weak signals on 730, and I'm the farthest north and farthest west. So maybe that's why I wind up with CKDM more often than the others. Who knows!
 
East Tennessee: WLIL, Lenoir City, TN day and night. I've heard KQPN, West Memphis AR once from Sevierville.

Retro/other: 730 seems relatively quiet in the midwest at night. We've talked about WJYM, Bowling Green, Ohio's mammoth 1kW "bowling pin" signal. (My Dad used to listen to this as WMGS). It'll make it to the northern Cincinnati suburbs, southwest to where the Edinburgh IN SDR is and I've heard it in a car northwest of Indianapolis. The other day I heard it under Lansing on the Farmington MI SDR. On a trip to Canton, OH many years ago I picked up WPIT somewhere on US 30, which was, like WJYM, also fire and brimstone preaching.

Just now on the Edinburgh IN SDR, it was a mix of WJYM and (presumably) CKAC.

Super-retro: If you look at the thread about the early 60s DX tape, CMCA, Havana was broadcasting in English on 730 in 1962.
 
cyberdad said:
And readioman reports somethigng at least slightly different still, so let's count it as FOUR. Can CADXER make it five???

I can't believe you guys aren't hearing more of CKDM. It's not an automatic for me, but it's not exactly tough, either. Easy to ID with country music. Maybe the Chicago area represents some sort of "convergence zone" for these weak signals on 730, and I'm the farthest north and farthest west. So maybe that's why I wind up with CKDM more often than the others. Who knows!
Click to expand...

I do tend to pick up Montreal stations better than other Chicago-area people, perhaps due to my location near the lakeshore. A similar thing happens on 690... CKGM Montreal is the only station I've ever identified on 690, and it actually comes in pretty well for me.

I do occasionally get CKDM on 730 but it tends to be pretty faint and will normally get beaten out by CKAC.
 
San Jose, California

Days...Nothing

Nights...Heavy splatter from KCBS, but if conditions are just right, I can hear KDBI out of Boise Idaho.
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: WGN slop
Nighttime: XEX, CKDM, or CKAC in no particular order. Depends on propagation conditions at that time. For the past 3 or 4 months XEX has been the more common one.

DX/RETRO: other DX catches include KWRE (Warrentow, MO), WFMW (Madisonville, KY), WJTM (Merril, WI), WLIL (Lenoir City, TN), WDKT (Madison, AL), TIHB Radio Reloj (San Jose, Costa Rica) as well as the now silent CJNR (Blind River, ON). Most of these were heard in 1980's/1990's. The most recent new catch on this frequency is KWOA (Worthington, MN) in 2005.
 
I forgot about KWRE, I worked at its sister stations in Frankfort, IN and heard it there. It was daytime reception when I worked in Hannibal MO.
 
All CHMJ all the time. 50kW in Vancouver (about 35 miles away from me), but much or the signal is aimed at salt water. All traffic radio. Super low TSL, but they seem to make it work.
 
MichaelTheZ said:
I do tend to pick up Montreal stations better than other Chicago-area people, perhaps due to my location near the lakeshore. A similar thing happens on 690... CKGM Montreal is the only station I've ever identified on 690, and it actually comes in pretty well for me
Click to expand...
Both 690 and 940 were pretty much automatics for me when they were CBC outlets, CBF and CBM respectively. Now they're both at least somewhat problematic. At the moment, WQNO is the easiest catch for me on 690. On 940 "easiest catch" is now a groundwave signal from WFAW in Fort Atkinson, WI.....a former daytimer.
gr8oldies said:
I forgot about KWRE, I worked at its sister stations in Frankfort, IN and heard it there. It was daytime reception when I worked in Hannibal MO.
Click to expand...
KWRE is an example of what you can do with a non-directional 1kw on a low channel with relatively few big signals. It gets out better than the R-L maps. It was audible daily at my college location in Iowa.....a good 60 miles beyond Hannibal. To the west, it was good along I-70 most of the way to Kansas City.

KLOE in Goodland, Kansas and KWOA in Worthington, MN, eacjh with only 1kw non-directional get out even farther. KLOE makes it from about an hour east of Denver to just about an hour east of Topeka. (Again on I-70). If you're traveling from the Twin Cities to Omaha, set your car radio dial to 730 and you've got KWOA on almost the entire route.
CADXER said:
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: WGN slop
Nighttime: XEX, CKDM, or CKAC in no particular order. Depends on propagation conditions at that time. For the past 3 or 4 months XEX has been the more common one.
Click to expand...
So the bottom line conclusion to my earlier posts is 730 at night in the Chicago area is a "box of chocolates". You never know what you're going to get!
 
cyberdad said:
Both 690 and 940 were pretty much automatics for me when they were CBC outlets, CBF and CBM respectively. Now they're both at least somewhat problematic. At the moment, WQNO is the easiest catch for me on 690. On 940 "easiest catch" is now a groundwave signal from WFAW in Fort Atkinson, WI.....a former daytimer.

KWRE is an example of what you can do with a non-directional 1kw on a low channel with relatively few big signals. It gets out better than the R-L maps. It was audible daily at my college location in Iowa.....a good 60 miles beyond Hannibal. To the west, it was good along I-70 most of the way to Kansas City.

KLOE in Goodland, Kansas and KWOA in Worthington, MN, eacjh with only 1kw non-directional get out even farther. KLOE makes it from about an hour east of Denver to just about an hour east of Topeka. (Again on I-70). If you're traveling from the Twin Cities to Omaha, set your car radio dial to 730 and you've got KWOA on almost the entire route.

So the bottom line conclusion to my earlier posts is 730 at night in the Chicago area is a "box of chocolates". You never know what you're going to get!
Click to expand...
There is an SDR in Warrenton, where not only can one listen to KWRE "like a local", the receiver gets all 3 of the major Quincy/Hannibal AMs (WTAD, KHMO, WGEM).
 
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