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AM Frequency of the Week - 870 kHz

Schroedingers Cat said:
gar fla said:
Here's WWL's coverage map for both night and day.
http://www.thetalkofneworleans.com/coveragemap.html

Is that the 0.5 mV/m groundwave and 50% skywave? I thought even with the new skywave computation it got out further than that.

I think the map is definitely conservative....both day and night. Last month I had WWL during and early afternoon drive from Naples to St. Pete. WWL is also one of the stronger nighttime signals in the Chicago area, which is outside the depicted nighttime coverage area. And in 1965, I heard it on a car radio in Hawaii.
 
MarioMania said:
From Vallejo, CA

Day: Nothing

Hour before Dark: KRLA Glendale, CA

Night: Weak KRLA Glendale, CA

In the late 70s not far from you in Vacaville, I was able to hear WWL at night.

The added frequencies since then make it almost impossible now.
 
cyberdad said:
Schroedingers Cat said:
gar fla said:
Here's WWL's coverage map for both night and day.
http://www.thetalkofneworleans.com/coveragemap.html

Is that the 0.5 mV/m groundwave and 50% skywave? I thought even with the new skywave computation it got out further than that.

I think the map is definitely conservative....both day and night. Last month I had WWL during and early afternoon drive from Naples to St. Pete. WWL is also one of the stronger nighttime signals in the Chicago area, which is outside the depicted nighttime coverage area. And in 1965, I heard it on a car radio in Hawaii.

I agree. I think the map is a bit on the conservative side. WWL is a regular catch both day and night here in SW Fla. It's weak at times but always listenable, even inland a ways.
 
Before the AM band got cluttered up with new stations, WWL was an "every night regular" in Southern California in the early 60's. This was when KIEV-870 was only a 250 or 500 watt daytimer from Glendale, CA. WLS on 890 was also a nightly regular there, too.
 
I also heard WWL up & down the west coast in the 60s & 70s before Glendale stayed on at night. I also heard it in Hawaii in 1978 along with WLS & WBBM, and as Cyberdad can attest WWL can be heard on the Northern Ireland receiver on Global Tuners.
 
KR4BD said:
WQRX Valley Head, AL

Do you happen to know what kind of a format they had when you last heard them? I've been trying to get an update on them for years; no one in north Alabama ever seems to catch the station on the air. Last I heard it was Spanish language Christian. They were also one of the last Alabama holdouts still running C-QUAM stereo back in the 90s.

I'm about 14 miles north of the Gulf of Mexico in Alabama, not far from where cyberdad is staying, and WWL is indeed local here both day and night. At the beach it's easily the strongest AM signal on the dial and where I live it's in the top five strongest after some of the Mobile stations and WHEP in Foley.

The coverage map seems optimistic for the northerly daytime coverage; I don't recall ever really hearing it north of Jackson or Vicksburg, but once you got south of Jackson on I-55 it quickly rose to local-strength.
 
Zach said:
KR4BD said:
WQRX Valley Head, AL

Do you happen to know what kind of a format they had when you last heard them? I've been trying to get an update on them for years; no one in north Alabama ever seems to catch the station on the air. Last I heard it was Spanish language Christian. They were also one of the last Alabama holdouts still running C-QUAM stereo back in the 90s.

I'm about 14 miles north of the Gulf of Mexico in Alabama, not far from where cyberdad is staying, and WWL is indeed local here both day and night. At the beach it's easily the strongest AM signal on the dial and where I live it's in the top five strongest after some of the Mobile stations and WHEP in Foley.

The coverage map seems optimistic for the northerly daytime coverage; I don't recall ever really hearing it north of Jackson or Vicksburg, but once you got south of Jackson on I-55 it quickly rose to local-strength.

I used to do New Orleans-Jackson-Briminham-and sometimes Memphis in the car quite a bit on business trips in the 90s. Signal was good in the car to Jackson....then would fade rather rapidly on I-55 going north. Less rapidly on I-20 heading east/northeast towards Meridian/Birmingham. (WTIX was the other New Orleans daytime signal listenable all the way to Jackson...but not as strong as WWL).

As for the Valley Head 870, I used to run into that on my Huntsville-Atlanta run....which I did 3-4 times a year (also in the 90s). They had a good signal, considering the lousy ground conductivity in the Sand Mountain area of northeast Alabama. But good signal notwithstanding....WWL used to completely trash them within about two hours of sunrise/sunset.

IIRC the format in those days was something of a country-gospel hybrid. I definitely stand to be corrected on that, however.
 
Zach said:
KR4BD said:
WQRX Valley Head, AL

Do you happen to know what kind of a format they had when you last heard them? I've been trying to get an update on them for years; no one in north Alabama ever seems to catch the station on the air. Last I heard it was Spanish language Christian. They were also one of the last Alabama holdouts still running C-QUAM stereo back in the 90s.

I'm about 14 miles north of the Gulf of Mexico in Alabama, not far from where cyberdad is staying, and WWL is indeed local here both day and night. At the beach it's easily the strongest AM signal on the dial and where I live it's in the top five strongest after some of the Mobile stations and WHEP in Foley.

The coverage map seems optimistic for the northerly daytime coverage; I don't recall ever really hearing it north of Jackson or Vicksburg, but once you got south of Jackson on I-55 it quickly rose to local-strength.

When I've heard them, they were Spanish language. I have not listened for them in a few years, however, so don't know current information.
 
Just looked at Radio Locator. It's the 0.1 mV/m groundwave, the normally protected contour for a Class A (formerly I-A) station. It goes beyond the outer contour on R-L, which is 0.15 mV/m. As I recall, the 0.5 mV/m 50% skywave on the map I saw extended to the southernmost parts of Michigan, less than the lower tier of counties. WKAR, being slightly outside this contour, has a letter showing an authorization for 6 and 7 watts during most months of the year up to two hours past sunset. WHFB 1060 Benton Harbor, MI, on 1060, has a 1 watt licensed power at night just outside KYW's 0.5 mV/m 50% skywave contour.
 
All I receive on 870 here at night is WHCU... (aka, "All PSA's, All The Time").
 
Day/night: Sideband of KPAM. Depending on how close I am to the stick, that station can jam out pretty much everything within a ~30 kHz radius.* And no, they're not running Ibiquity....

[size=8pt]______________________________________
* About four air miles north of the flat, and Mum's house is on a hill about halfway between the transmitter site and the complex. Like the complex, the transmitter is also situated at the bottom of a hill. Because this part of town is so close to the Cascades, we have really weird terrain around here.
 
One thing I forgot to mention in my last March post was that I have heard WKAR East Lansing, MI early morning before dawn (isn't this a daytimer?) and WHCU Ithaca, NY before sunrise.
 
ddsparxx said:
One thing I forgot to mention in my last March post was that I have heard WKAR East Lansing, MI early morning before dawn (isn't this a daytimer?) and WHCU Ithaca, NY before sunrise.

WKAR is licensed as a daytimer.
 
Tim from Springfield said:
Springfield, IL:

Daytime: WINU Shelbyville, IL

This station has a really impressive signal for 500 watts. Its audible for at least 150 miles along I-57...which is at it's closest point at least 30 miles from its stick.
 
gar fla said:
MarioMania said:
From Vallejo, CA

Day: Nothing

Hour before Dark: KRLA Glendale, CA

Night: Weak KRLA Glendale, CA

In the late 70s not far from you in Vacaville, I was able to hear WWL at night.

The added frequencies since then make it almost impossible now.

Agreed (I'm in Livermore), though I have caught WWL a couple times here in the last couple years. It's a very rare catch here, and when it does come in it's very weak. Otherwise, my experience is the same as Mario's.

I've had pretty good luck catching WWL from the high desert in Southern California (Mojave), but never heard the Cuban.
 
The Cuban, R. Reloj, is a relatively tough catch here in the Midwest. But what helps is that the Morse code audio pips running in the background of the 24/7 "newscasts" are unmistakable. The tones also break through when the rest of the audio is missing. Bottom line is even though R. Reloj is tough....especially with WWL on the channel....it's still been heard over a broad area.
 
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