AM reception that doesn't quite make sense

[jd]

This is a question with two parts; first, what stations do you try to hear but for some reason they're just not there? Secondly, which ones do you receive when it seems like you really shouldn't?

For me, here in East Texas, I really should be able to hear KYW from Philadelphia, even at around 1250 miles and despite co-channels WLNO and Mexico City's XEEP. But alas, I've only been able to confirm them once and that was back when the NOLA station was off the air one night (and the call letters were still WNOE).

One that I do hear that's pretty surprising comes from Great Bend KS on 1590. KVGB does run 5,000 watts at night, but only a minor lobe is heading my way and they're over 450 miles away.

Those are just a couple of examples at my location, but what do you not hear when you should, and what you get that's a real surprise to you? Oh, and it doesn't have to be just about nighttime reception, either.

 

[pianoplayer88key]

I remember one time I was listening on my Zenith Royal 705... oh, maybe at least 15-18 years ago now, near El Cajon, CA. I had been on KDXU (890 St George, UT, my first ever skywave DX, but not on that radio). Well it was getting toward sunrise (around 7am) and KDXU was fading.
I tuned around to try to find it (I was still yet young, then) and found something with a similar news/talk format. (It was light enough outside now to be able to drive without headlights.) I was quite surprised to hear them mention a frequency somewhere in the 1400s and Virginia (could have been WV as the signal was faint). It wasn't a talk show either - more like either a news cast or maybe a commercial. I never heard a call and I'm a bit fuzzy now (it has been over a decade!) as to the details. If it really did happen like I think I remember it, that would be, for me, a highly unusual catch for logging a VA station ~ 500+ kHz off-frequency... at sunrise on the west coast!

In the realm of a bit more believable, though... last month sometime I turned on my Sony SRF-59 maybe an hour or two before local sunrise (probably 4 or 5 am). Somehow I had bumped the tuning either in my sleep or upon waking up & grabbing the radio (I thought I had been on maybe 1070, 1090, 1110, or possibly 1580), as not 10 seconds after I turned it on, I got an ID from XEEX. Looked it up on the FCC, and it's a GY on 1230 about 795 miles SE of me! Except for a little chatter in the background, it pretty much had the channel all to itself.
Speaking of GY's... btw I happen to be within the local-grade coverage of 1240 KNSN (was KSON at the time of what I'm going to tell about) - they pretty much own the frequency day and night here. Several years ago I was tuning around on my Panasonic RQ-SW20 (or SW10 - same radio circuit, different "features") and found 1240 on with an unmodulated carrier and something underneath. I tuned up the Select-A-Tenna... and logged KALY (didn't hear the call but programming confirmed it) 1240 Albuquerque, NM, over 600 miles east of me, out from under my co-channel local just 11 miles west of me!

Ok here's one in which ground conductivity makes all the difference. On 1290, there's a 500-watt station 195 miles NW of me (KZSB) in Santa Barbara, CA, and a 5 kW (equivalent of about 6.5 kW toward me) 95 miles N of me (KKDD) in San Bernardino, CA. Normally you'd think the higher power closer station would own the frequency and there'd be no hope of getting the other station, right? Actually, due to the saltwater path between me and Santa Barbara (and the land between here & San Bernardino), the Santa Barbara station owns the frequency in the daytime! Except in winter, there's virtually no trace of the KKDD, unless that's what's causing the sub-audible heterodyne in the background of KZSB.

Ok I saved the best for last in this post. Last November in the wee hours of the morning, I was carefully tuning around with my Tecsun PL-380 and Select-A-Tenna.... and got rewarded with weak Japanese audio from 594 JOAK in Tokyo, Japan, around 5700 miles or so approximately west of me! To make it an even more incredible catch, I managed to dig it out from between a local 5kW on 600 (who's 7.7 miles west of me) and its lower IBOC sideband!

 

[jd]

That's fascinating, although the examples may be a little extreme. I realize now that although I didn't specifically mention it, I was looking for somewhat normal examples. Next time I'll make it a little clearer. In both situations, whether it involved stations you would fully expect to hear but don't or the ones that come in better than you'd expect, the intent was to discuss routine listening for the most part. It wasn't meant to be so much about dragging stations out from under QRM halfway around the world, but more of a domestic (US-centric) discussion of general reception on a routine basis, not once in a lifetime stuff.

 

[charlestondxman]

In my area, there's several examples of AM reception that doesn't make sense due to the saltwater path and because of ground conductivity.

1230 is an example of this. You'd expect to hear the 1kw out of Savannah, WSOK well most of the time, but instead it is mixed up with 1230 from New Smyrna Beach, WSBB. WSBB comes in most of the time, even though it is about 265 miles away compared to WSOK at about 90 miles.

1050 is like that too. You'd expect to get at least a weak signal from Conway, but instead it's Jacksonville, much farther away.

The Southern clear channels don't always come in clear at night, even this close to WSB and WBT. WBT is a below average daytime reception on a good radio, and barely listenable on any regular radio. At night it varies. Some nights there is so much interference it's unlistenable, some nights it's the strongest AM on the dial other than the locals.

WSB cannot be picked up except during very cold winter days. Their signal varies at night. A strange signal that usually comes in anywhere north of Raleigh at night is WRVA.

WRVA rarely comes in down here in SC anymore, even though it comes in very well in places like PA and in the Washington area.

 

[pianoplayer88key]

I just thought of a couple...
I'm 99 miles from 640 KFI and 111 miles from 1070 KNX, both 50kW ND stations, yet many places at my house KNX is at least equal to KFI, and often slightly stronger. Also, at night, even though both are fairly strong 24/7 (example of KNX midday), I can often hear Mexican stations under them, sometimes strong enough to be able to understand the audio (for someone who understands Spanish - I know enough to be able to ID a Spanish station).

I mentioned a 1290 saltwater vs land situation in my above post.
Is there a better thread to mention my JOAK reception so close to a local? Or should I maybe start one & ask who else has had comparable reception?
And yeah, I can understand how hearing a low 1400s station in Virginia while tuned to the upper 800s in southern California several minutes after CA sunrise would be relatively difficult to believe.

Also here's one about a TIS that gets out surprisingly well. I'm about 15 miles from 1620 WNSB415, but they have a stronger signal than I would expect, with the path entirely across land.

 

[quadraphonic]

WRVA rarely comes in down here in SC anymore, even though it comes in very well in places like PA and in the Washington area.

Could that be (partly) because WSTS 100.9 boosted their power and moved their tower a few years back?
Would that affect 100.7 to the South?
Just wonderin....

 

[pianoplayer88key]

I thought WRVA was on 1140 kHz AM?? ??? Or is the selectivity on someone's radio so bad it can't separate 1140 kHz from 100.9 MHz?

 

[gar hi]

1230 is an example of this. You'd expect to hear the 1kw out of Savannah, WSOK well most of the time, but instead it is mixed up with 1230 from New Smyrna Beach, WSBB. WSBB comes in most of the time, even though it is about 265 miles away compared to WSOK at about 90 miles.

But consider that the line between you and Savannah is almost a complete land path, albeit near the coast, but the ground conductivity is not good.



The one I don't get here in Tampa is that 660 WORL at about 80 miles away has a barely audible signal during the day and it's signal is directed to the south, SW and SE.

Yet, WGES 680 from St. Pete at .69 kw (non directional) has the same strength signal across the state at Daytona Beach and a stronger signal across the state at Ft. Pierce, both of which locations are about 145 miles away.

Also of note is that WORL, according to Radio Locator, strongly nulls it's signal to the north but has a strong signal in Daytona Beach some 40 miles away which really took me by surprise.

Then again, as I've often noted with reception at barrier islands on the beach is that, for some reason, signals that cross the land have a noticeable difference in strength right out at the beach than they do not far back inland.

 

[ddsparxx]

I thought WRVA was on 1140 kHz AM?? ???

There's WRVA 1140 in Richmond, VA and WRVA 100.7 in Wake Forest, NC; 2 completely different stations owned by the same company.

 

[jd]

Also of note is that WORL, according to Radio Locator, strongly nulls it's signal to the north but has a strong signal in Daytona Beach some 40 miles away which really took me by surprise.

Now that's interesting stuff! Curiosity promoted me to look over WORL's applications and I saw that they had some re-radiation issues with a nearby cell tower. Then this turned up: https://licensing.fcc.gov/cdbs/CDBS...?appn=101297192&qnum=5110&copynum=1&exhcnum=1 It's an application for changes in their pattern because they weren't able to completely de-tune the cell tower, which was directly in their main lobe. As a result they had a number of "augmentations" approved (translated as variations of what their licensed pattern was supposed to be versus what it really is), with the license to cover being granted about two years ago. One of those augmentations lies at about 31-degrees, or roughly in the direction of Daytona Beach.

 

[gar hi]

Thanks for finding that out.

I knew there had to be an explanation as Daytona beach seemed to be in a strong null according to the original pattern.

When I made my first trip to Daytona Beach to do some daytime saltwater AM DXing, I was certain that WORL would be so weak and wouldn't get in the way of my possibly hearing WFAN.

Instead, they sound just about like a local.