AM Frequency of the Week - 800 kHz

[Buckeyes2001]

What can you get on 800 AM?

Here in Vermilion, OH, it is a solid CKLW day and night. I have yet to hear anything else on this frequency here.

 

[fybush]

It's a fun channel here in Rochester NY. CJBQ 800 Belleville, just across the lake to the north, was my very first "DX" as a kid, and turned me on to the whole idea of hearing distant stations. It's one of the very rare Canadian directional AMs that aims most of its signal south instead of north (it's tightly wedged between CJAD and CKLW, so there's not much choice!)

During the day, it's all CJBQ here; at night, it's a CJBQ/CKLW mix with occasional pops of CJAD when conditions are right. Bonaire used to be somewhat regular here, too, but they're not running 500 kW anymore, sadly.

 

[radioman148]

Near north Chicago suburbs it used to be CKLW varying degrees at night & sometimes during the day too. Bonaire was on top during it's high power days and I even heard XEROK during the 70s. Now it's messy at night with CKLW in a mix.

 

[tomservo]

You know, I don't think I've ever ID'd anything on this freq at night since I moved to coastal AL.

During the day is WSHO New Orleans, with 1,000 watts but a mostly saltwater path. Very faint with religious if anything at all, 14 miles inland.

 

[schmave]

Total mish-mash here around Columbus, Ohio. If CKLW gets here day or night, it is extremely weak, a testament to their directional pattern. Where I am, it's mostly slop from Newark's WHTH on 790 daytime and very little discernable at night.
When I lived in Toledo for college, CKLW dominated the frequency, of course. It's right there with WSPD and WJR for the strongest AM signal in town, or at least was barring any real pattern changes since the early 2000s. It definitely was weaker at night, but not much.
When I lived in Houston from 2007-09, 800 was either slop from the local 790 or a very weak XEROK, which hardly ever got to Houston the times I checked.

 

[Icangelp]

SW Ohio

Days
CKLW Windsor - Slightly weaker than. WJR (Edit) WJR is weak.

Sunrise/Sunset
WHVU Huntington WV
WSVS Crew VA
WJAT Swainsboro GA

Night
CKLW - Most frequent visitor.
PJB Bonaire - Infrequent.
WPJM Greer SC - Once

Prehistoric Times Receptions (late '70s & '80s)
XEROK El Paso - Usually under Bonaire and CKLW.
WSHO New Orleans - Sunset around sign-off time.
Just to name a couple...

 

[ddsparxx]

Northern VA,

On days, both weak WCHA Chambersburg, PA and WSVS Crewe, VA at the same time.

Nights it's CKLW.

 

[foreverchanges1975]

In Memphis it's slop from local WMC 790, but at night I've occasionally heard CKLW and something in spanish I assume to be XEROK poke through.

 

[RyanHoward]

Warminster PA(Philly 'burbs):

Daytime: WTMR Camden NJ(very strong)
Night: Used to get CKLW and Trans World Bonaire regualrly,
then WTMR went 24 hours in the '90's.

 

[Kansas Guy]

In eastern Kansas:

Daytime - slop from 50KW local 810 WHB

Nightime - generally a mess, with KQCV from Oklahoma city religious programming occasionally breaking through
occasionally hear XEROK from Ciudad Juarez MX or CKLW (very rare)

 

[cyberdad]

Near north Chicago suburbs it used to be CKLW varying degrees at night & sometimes during the day too. Bonaire was on top during it's high power days and I even heard XEROK during the 70s. Now it's messy at night with CKLW in a mix.

Somewhat similar for me.

As posted before, I'm probably about 30 miles west (or west-northwest) of Radioman in the far northwest suburbs of Chicago. I've only heard CKLW here daytime a couple of times...during winter. Usually, here during the daytime it's a very weak KXIC (Iowa City) day and night. Not bad for 1kw directional!

At night it used to be either CKLW, Bonaire, or XEROK. Sometimes they'd "fight it out", but usually it would just be one of those on top. CKLW most frequently, but not by much. Now at night the channel is pretty messy. I'm more likely to hear CKLW on top (barely) than anything else, but I haven't heard XEROK or Bonaire for years.

 

[pianoplayer88key]

At night it used to be either CKLW, Bonaire, or XEROK.  Sometimes they'd "fight it out", but usually it would just be one of those on top.  CKLW most frequently, but not by much.  Now at night the channel is pretty messy.  I'm more likely to hear CKLW on top (barely) than anything else, but I haven't heard XEROK or Bonaire for years.

Speaking of CKLW and XEROK fighting it out, I've been thinking ...  considering the good ground conductivity over much of the central USA, and considering the 1000+ mile daytime DX that Bruce Carter has been able to achieve with his loop antennas ...  I wonder if it might be possible in some places to have XEROK and CKLW fighting it out, around noon in June during solar maximum with auroral conditions and a X20+ solar flare / CME directed at Earth, with signals comparable to 1390 XEKT and KLTX near San Diego, CA?  Bonus points for doing it in/near KC about this close to an active WHB tower, without having any splatter at all from WHB (not even the occasional brief bursts of szzt ......  szzt... on WHB modulation peaks) or blocking/desense, having the loop oriented the same way relative to the tower as in my photo taken near 590 KTIE (the loopstick in the PL-606 spans the width of the cabinet along the top), and having frequency response rivaling the SRF-42.

Oh, btw ... as for my local reception on 800, it has been XESPN Tijuana until a few days ago (per the San Diego board, they've been off the air due to a union dispute) day and night, with XEROK often poking through underneath.  Several years ago (back in the mid 90s / early 2000s or so) at night, then-XEMMM and XEROK were usually the same strength, depending on where I pointed my radio (south for XEMMM, east for XEROK).  On a few occasions with considerable patience and a good loop antenna, a trace of 810 KGO has occasionally been audible through the slop around noon here within 1/2 mile of 32°45'40"N 116°56'50"W; also 790 KABC is a regular doing a fair job of pushing some of XESPN's slop aside, with XESU occasionally audible underneath with a good radio in the daytime.

Speaking of solar flares (I mentioned a large one in an earlier paragraph), I understand they can disrupt radio communications - is that usually by messing with the ionosphere so the D-layer completely absorbs signals, or the E and F layers don't refract them?  Is it possible that a sufficiently large solar flare could actually take transmitters themselves off the air (even ones that have a local self-contained backup power source) so they wouldn't be receivable anywhere regardless of the ionospheric conditions?

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

CKLW was 5000 watts nondirectional before it was 50000 watts directional. The nulls aren't deep, barely below 5000 watts in a few directions. The day has three big lobes, the night has two. The one toward New York City is the equivalent of about an omni Class A at night. Many a young person in the 1960s detuned off WABC and heard CKLW at night. Then they wanted WABC to play what CKLW was playing! Then they ruined CKLW's format with CanCon rules.

 

[radioman148]

CKLW was 5000 watts nondirectional before it was 50000 watts directional. The nulls aren't deep, barely below 5000 watts in a few directions. The day has three big lobes, the night has two. The one toward New York City is the equivalent of about an omni Class A at night. Many a young person in the 1960s detuned off WABC and heard CKLW at night. Then they wanted WABC to play what CKLW was playing! Then they ruined CKLW's format with CanCon rules.

I remember being in New York several times in the 70s and hearing CKLW very well there at night. Much better than I heard it in Chicago.

 

[vibe]

In central mass-it's mostly mush at night. 800 used to be a strong freq in Central CT. Great out of market signal CKLW in the 60's. I remember getting XEROK from 200 mi+ during the day when living in NM in the late 70's.

 

[WGU20]

In Kandahar, Afghanistan

Daytime
Nothing

Evening
No dominant station
Lower sideband of 801 KHz-V.O.Russia Tajikistan-In a deep null of 1,000 KW DA @444 miles-in the mix
Lower sideband of 801 KHz-AIR West India-200 kW @1,045 miles-in the mix
Lower sideband of 801KHz-Radio Bahrain-100 kW DA in their lobe @990 miles-in the mix
Lower sideband of 801 KHz-IRIB-Iran-10 KW @487 miles-in the mix

 

[N4GBK]

From NE NC car radio. 800 WSVS Crewe, VA days. Nights is CKLW.

 

[crainbebo]

Love your DX reports WGU! Keep those Afghanistan reports coming!

On 800 daytime it's usually nothing. CKOR Penticton, BC [Soft Rock] sometimes is in and out in the winter.

Nights it's CKOR, CHAB Moose Jaw, SK [Classic Hits] and KPDQ Portland, OR [Religion]. I once got KBRV Soda Springs, ID [AC] on this frequency at sunset. It used to be 790 with 5kw D/29w N, but now is on 800 with 10kw D/150w N.
XEROK has also been tentatively logged on those "southern nights".

-crainbebo

 

[cyberdad]

Love your DX reports WGU! Keep those Afghanistan reports coming!

+1

 

[WGU20]

Love your DX reports WGU! Keep those Afghanistan reports coming!


I will but the frequency of the week (MW) has to be +/- 1 KHz of the 9 KHz spacing allocations. The dial is 531,540, 549,558,567,576,585 and so on. 540,630, 720, 810,900,990,1080,1170,1260,1350, 1440,1530 are used around the world.