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AM Frequency of the Week: 900

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cyberdad

cyberdad

40 miles NW of downtown Chicago:

Day: Splatter from 890 WLS.

Night: Normally a mess. CHML (Hamilton, ON)) most likely to rise to the top. WDLS, (Wisconsin Dells, WI) sometimes also surfaces.

Fast forward to this past Thursday morning at 4:15 am (10/26). New catch! WKDA, Lebanon. TN. Heritage calls now on 900. In for about 10 minutes with positive ID and adult standards. Presumably 5kw day power.

Retro: XEW used to be fairly common (as was CHML). I haven't heard XEW for quite some time. They seem to have moved out of Mexico City (or their call letters moved) to the Pacific coast and are now listed at 5kw day/ 500 watts night. Hmmm...
 
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DFW, Texas

Daytime: Mostly splatter from local 910-KATH Frisco, TX 1kw at 17 miles to my east.

Nights: XEW Mexico DF, is in most nights with a strong signal dominating the channel. I used to hear KHOZ Harrison, AR 1kw/62w with Country music fairly regularly, perhaps on day power, not heard in a long while. KCLW Hamilton, TX 250w at 110 miles SW heard once at night and occasionally weakly daytime on the car radio with Country music.

Sunrise: I have heard KPYN Atlanta, TX 1kw at 170 miles east with Christian talk. Also heard WKDA Lebanon, TN 5kw at 652 miles.
 
Denver, CO - AM HD hash from 910 KPOF ("Pillar of Fire" a/k/a "Pillar of Noise")

Last week in Pleasant Hill, CA - Daytime has a little bit of spillover from 890 KVMX Olivehurst (Sacramento). Nighttime - Two signals trading places and mixing it up. I believe one was KBIF Fresno, CA, broadcasting in a language I've never heard before. I'm thinking it might have been in Hmong. KBIF's website also says it has programming in Japanese, but I know what Japanese sounds like and that wasn't it. It wasn't a Chinese language or Vietnamese, either. There were occasional segments in English but mostly it was in the other language. KBIF's nighttime DA aims northwest, so Pleasant Hill would have a good shot at getting it, even if it's just at 500 watts. The other signal: XEW from Mexico City, rebroadcasting its FM station.

At my old Oakland location - Too close to 910 KKSF to get anything, day or night.
 
Daytimes it's a faint yet steady The WURD out of Philly.
Nights, it's CHML. The FCC info site I use has them listed either as -- flip a Canadian penny if you can find one -- their laser 50,000 8-tower directional or what looks to be their old 5000 watt from at least as far back as the late 60's.
Seems to be a good SSS channel.
* * * * *
Back at a sunrise on April 6 1994 I somehow -- in one take -- managed to do an untelescoped air check of '900' for some DXing pals back in Queens -- what 900 sounds like here in NE PA. It featured dial tunings and calls from WLS and CHML, plus the end of a Star Spangled Banner.
The SSB was the sign-on of our wee LPAM back in Queens. Morning man "Hugh Heavy' bellowed 'Good morning !!' to sound more like '(flip) you !!', said that the station was 'owned and operated', and went into his playlist of 1970 heavy metal tunes to wake up 'Mom' and her coffeepot.
Naturally, the station conveniently faded up for every snarling, desk-pounding break, and ending on top of a staticky 900 with the news girl (big name from NYC) yawning and telling the audience to stay awake, because 'I'm not doing this for my health'.
 
East Tennessee: Only local WKXV, Knoxville. I've heard some things underneath but nothing identified.

Retro/other: Dayton/West Central Ohio. Really nothing, However, when the late WFRO, Fremont, OH was on the air, it was one of those small stations with a big signal. I could get it just north of Dayton, and it was consistent during the day. Of course WFRO was silenced to make room for WFDF, Flint MI to be moved in to Detroit.
Night was normally the previously mentioned CHML, but I can remember XEW being a powerhouse.
 
Melbourne FL

Daytime: 900 - WSWN - Belle Glade FL ---- Kreyol programs....

Nights: CMBC - San German Cuba - Radio Progreso "La Onda de la Alegria"

kw
 
Wilmington Delaware

Days - Local WURD Philadelphia with Urban programming. If you travel S of Wilmington you start to hear something in the backround which is WJWL in Georgetown DE with Hispanic programming. It comes in strong south of Dover.

Nights - Mainly CHML but WURD is still hanging around despite its' reduced power. When there is solar activity WURD is on top otherwise it is in the backround.

Retro - WURD used to be WFLN the home of Classical Music in Philadelphia along with 95.7 FM. Sadly both are now gone and only WRTI in Philadelphia has Classical Music for 12 hours/day with Jazz for the other 12.
 
Tyler TX:

Days yield a rather weak KPYN Atlanta (not THAT ATL) with Christian programming. 1kW at a little over 80 miles to my northeast. This station is rather interesting as it once had a sister expanded band station assigned to it. The only one, at 10kW no less, to operate on 1610 kHz. When it came time to choose which license they would turn in, the long standing KALT calls were moved to 1610, KPYN moved in reverse to 900, and 1610 was surrendered. Freed could've had the only full power expanded band station on 1610, but decided the lower dial position of the original facility was the one to keep and KALT and the 1610 facility are now relegated to a distant memory.

Nights are XEW Mexico City and nothing but.
 
Steve Green NEPA said:
Daytimes it's a faint yet steady The WURD out of Philly.
Nights, it's CHML. The FCC info site I use has them listed either as -- flip a Canadian penny if you can find one -- their laser 50,000 8-tower directional or what looks to be their old 5000 watt from at least as far back as the late 60's.
Seems to be a good SSS channel.
Click to expand...
You can't find a Canadian penny. Canada did away with them! Your change gets rounded up or down to the nearest nickel or dime.
 
From the southwest suburbs of Chicago ...

Two catches over all the years, both first way back in the days of my trusty Radio Shack multibanders: CHML Hamilton, then with 5 kW night (and more recently relogged with 50 kW on the ICF-2010) and XEW Mexico City, with 250 kW back in the day and relogged with 100 kW more recently.
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: nothing
Nighttime: CHML

DX/Retro: others heard in the past include KFAl (Fulton, MO), KHOZ (Harrison, AR), WFRO (Freemont, OH), WDLS (Wisconsin Dells, WI), WFIA (Louisville, KY), WKDA (Lebanon, TN), XEW (Mexico City) and the now defunct CKTS (Sherbrooke, PQ). Most recent new logs on this frequency are WATK (Antigo, WI) and WOZK (Ozark, AL). Both in 2022.
 
In west Houston TX, daytime is local KREH w/Vietnamese programming from 35 miles to my west. They supposedly stay on at night at 10w, but I've never heard them after sunset.

Around sunset, after KREH powers down, XEW comes in with a strong signal. Sometimes I can hear Radio Progreso in Cuba in XEW's null. I've also heard KCLW Hamilton TX w/country music.

At night, it's all XEW and sometimes Progreso.

Around sunrise I've also heard WKDF Lebanon TN and KPYN Atlanta TX.
 
Central Kentucky:

Days: WFIA Louisville-Word Broadcasting with "preaching and teaching". It's 930 watts puts a decent signal into my location, 50 miles out.
Transmitter is at I-71 near Zorn Ave. If you are near that area, WFIA will bleed over on just about anything you are listening to.

Nights: A jumble with nothing really outstanding
 
Apologies from this non-tech DXer for being partly at fault. Since age 11 it's all been AM DX here, with S/W a way distant 2nd and FM-TV last in priorities. I gather that most of the four-or-so terms this DXer uses have roots in Ham Radio, so not versed in that hobby I don't know if the abbreviations originate there.
I believe I even misuse the terms 'SRS' (Sunrise skip conditions) as meaning just plain 'sunrise', and 'SSS' as merely 'around sunset'.
I'm led to believe that terms like 'wx' (for weather), and 'cx' (for conditions) 'tx' (for time) were and are convenient Morse Code terms.
Dunno about 'SSB" being proper for 'The Star-Spangled Banner' ; all I know is that it's easier to type.
Doubtless, many here will be able to fill in far more.
 
From NW San Antonio:

Day: Away from RFI with a sensitive radio, I can hear a weak KREH in Pecan Grove, TX.

Sunset: KREH comes up with a listenable signal but is eventually taken over by XEW in Mexico City.

Night: XEW is very strong, but I can often get a partial null of it by aiming E/W, in which Radio Progreso sometimes comes up weakly.

Sunrise: KPYN in Atlanta, TX, appears in the partial null when it goes to day power, and it sometimes has a decent signal. Later on, KREH mixes in at day power/pattern. XEW still overwhelms them at times and always hangs on until skywave is gone.

DX/Retro: In the nighttime partial null of XEW, I've heard WOZK (adult standards) in Ozark, AL, and WATV "V94.9" (urban contemporary) in Birmingham, AL, just a few times - both being new loggings from this past week. Also, I've heard country station KCLW in Hamilton, TX, briefly on rare occasions at night and once at sunrise.

One-time loggings include XEOK "La O" in Monterrey (sunrise) and XEDT "Hits FM 98.3" in Ciudad Cuauhtemóc (night) - both now retired - as well as KFLP in Floydada (sunrise), which is in the Texas panhandle.
 
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Clifton, New Jersey

Days: Nothing

Nights: At night, it's CHML Hamilton, ON. Sometimes, it comes in like a local. That's how good the signal can get.

DX/Flashback: On 4/26/2022, I received WJWL "La Raza" Georgetown, DE. CHML was incredibly weak to the point that I was able to block it out for this first time catch.
 
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