Anyone been hearing WZFG 1100 from the Fargo area the last couple of nights?

[stormy01]

Thought I'd bring it up since no one else has. WZFG "The Flag" has apparently been operating at night (due to the flooding emergency) with a just a bit more power than their authorized night power of 440 watts. (perhaps their "critical hours" power of 22kW?) Have no idea how long this will be going on, so here's a chance to log the Fargo area since I haven't heard WDAY, KVOX (now KVXR) or KFGO in a long time. WZFG is really rockin' WTAM's signal at times, so it's definitely higher power. This is happening not too late in the evening, say between 9pm - midnight, Central Time at least.

 

[radioman148]

Thought I'd bring it up since no one else has. WZFG "The Flag" has apparently been operating at night (due to the flooding emergency) with a just a bit more power than their authorized night power of 440 watts. (perhaps their "critical hours" power of 22kW?) Have no idea how long this will be going on, so here's a chance to log the Fargo area since I haven't heard WDAY, KVOX (now KVXR) or KFGO in a long time. WZFG is really rockin' WTAM's signal at times, so it's definitely higher power. This is happening not too late in the evening, say between 9pm - midnight, Central Time at least.

I've been getting "The Flag" and they are definitely giving WTAM a run for the money in the Chicago area.

 

[jd]

Supposedly they haven't been using critical hours power; according to DX-pert Glenn Hauser in his log dated Sunday the 29th: "No doubt the 50 kW-at-night from WZFG will continue for the duration of the emergency the next few days." Also KFGO 790 reportedly is or has been running non-directional with their 5kW at night.

 

[gr8oldies]

I'll check for it tonight

 

[gar hi]

I looked at their three directional patterns and none of them seem to be aimed in a way really favoring my direction but I'll give it a try. KYW, for example, doesn't really seem to be concentrated this way either but I can still get it now and then. Even if WZFG was going right this way, there's still going to be competition with WTAM from Cleveland. Maybe conditions will favor WZFG. Come to think about it, I don't think I've ever DXed for that general region of the country.

 

[radioman148]

WZFG and WTAM were battling at it about evenly here in the Chicago area.
I don't think I'll have any luck with the 790 because of WBBM's IBOC.

 

[gr8oldies]

Dayton OH area WZFG under, sometimes even with and occasionally over WTAM around 9:15pm edt

 

[dx1ng]

Around 11:15pm Monday evening, I'm hearing something in English u/ WTAM here in Poughkeepsie, NY, which is probably WZFG. WTAM is just too strong to really make out what's being said on the second station. Interestingly, around 11:05, WTAM mentioned that WZFG was on the air for the flood emergency in excess of FCC "standards", and could be interfering with WTAM.

 

[cyberdad]

"Excess of FCC standards" would seem to be entirely justified in this case....assuming they're broadcasting relevant information. WTAM engineers should go back to complaining about CKTY (if they're even still on).

Anyway, KFGO...and for that matter WDAY...would also be justified in dispensing with the night pattern. Haven't caught the new 1100 blowtorch yet, but both KFGO AND WDAY both have monster daytime signals.

I'm in Phoenix tonight, and I'll give all three of 'em a try.

 

[radioman148]

Around 11:15pm Monday evening, I'm hearing something in English u/ WTAM here in Poughkeepsie, NY, which is probably WZFG. WTAM is just too strong to really make out what's being said on the second station. Interestingly, around 11:05, WTAM mentioned that WZFG was on the air for the flood emergency in excess of FCC "standards", and could be interfering with WTAM.

It's interesting that WTAM would mention this.

 

[formerjock]

around midnight eastern time, WZFG mixing with and overpowering WTAM in east Tennessee. I also heard the announcement on WTAM about the interference.

 

[radioman148]

"Excess of FCC standards" would seem to be entirely justified in this case....assuming they're broadcasting relevant information. WTAM engineers should go back to complaining about CKTY (if they're even still on).

Anyway, KFGO...and for that matter WDAY...would also be justified in dispensing with the night pattern. Haven't caught the new 1100 blowtorch yet, but both KFGO AND WDAY both have monster daytime signals.

I'm in Phoenix tonight, and I'll give all three of 'em a try.

Can you hear anything from Chicago in Phoenix? Maybe WBBM under KKOH?

 

[gar hi]

Here in Tampa, I listened a few times through this evening and what I hear is WTAM as the main signal but there's another station in the background that's much weaker, too weak to hear what they were saying.

 

[radioman148]

Here in Chicago it's a battle royal between Cleveland & Fargo.
Don't give up on Fargo That would be some catch in Florida & you only have a limited time to try it.

 

[jd]

Don't give up, indeed, gar fla. With WFZG using their daytime facilities at night it really is non-directional (where skywave is concerned), despite the way it looks on Radio-Locator. I heard them very early this morning at my location in Texas (about 75 miles SE of Dallas) and although the signal wasn't great there was no sign of WTAM. The distance of my catch was just over 1,000 miles, but I had to quickly remind myself that WZFG wasn't a new logging for North Dakota since their antenna site is in Minnesota, just southeast of Fargo.

 

[mimo]

I heard it very clearly at times in Ottawa, "up to date weather on the flag". Not strong enough to blow out WTAM (that would almost take an act of god here) but strong enough to be noticed.

 

[swfl]

I was reading on the Cleveland board that KFGO is even creating havoc in the Cleveland area. While I fully understand why KFGO is operating at full power nighttime right now this situation points out the problem of having two 50,000 watt stations on the same frequency even with one of them powering down at night. The FCC has made a mess of the AM band by allowing so many stations on the same frequencies in my opinion.

I will have to try to see if I can pick KFGO up tonight down here in Florida. It might be a hard catch though with all the Cuban interference. WTAM can be a very hard catch here anymore. It tends to get run over by Cuba and 1110 out of Charlotte, NC.

 

[radioman148]

According to the Cleveland board KFGO is causing problems at night within 25 miles of WTAM.

 

[fybush]

I was reading on the Cleveland board that KFGO is even creating havoc in the Cleveland area. While I fully understand why KFGO is operating at full power nighttime right now this situation points out the problem of having two 50,000 watt stations on the same frequency even with one of them powering down at night. The FCC has made a mess of the AM band by allowing so many stations on the same frequencies in my opinion.

KFGO is on 790. The station that's causing interference to WTAM is WZFG, 1100 in Dilworth MN (just east of Fargo, across the river.)

A little bit of AM history here: there is a long history, going back all the way to the 1920s (and predating the FCC itself!), of stations being allocated daytime facilities that would cause intolerable interference if operated at night. It makes perfect allocations sense - WTAM's signal simply does not exist in North Dakota and Minnesota by day, so why not allow another broadcaster to provide useful service to the population up there on a frequency that's otherwise wide open?

Back in the day, a station like WZFG would have been licensed as a strict daytimer, with no night operation allowed.

But here's the thing: even back in the 1920s or 1930s, a station like WZFG, had it existed, would have been permitted (encouraged, even) to stay on the air with its day facilities after dark if public safety was at stake.

The additional interference generated is a small, and temporary, price to pay for the provision of important public service to a region that's still in the grips of a devastating weather emergency.

Now here's the other interesting aspect of this: what's happening between WZFG and WTAM should be a lesson to anyone still chasing the chimera of a workable nighttime AM IBOC system. (You listening over there on the HD Radio board?)

There's no value to WZFG's programming being available to listeners in Ohio, where it's interfering with WTAM - but there's also no way to stop it, because the laws of physics dictate that medium-wave signals carry by skywave at night. And just as WZFG creates unintentional interference to WTAM within its primary listening area, the adjacent-channel digital carriers of WTAM create noise within the primary listening area of other stations on 1090 and 1110. It may not be as easily identifiable as WZFG's noise against WTAM, but it's there.

The only difference is that WZFG's interference to WTAM is only temporary, and in the service of a greater good. The IBOC interference...maybe not so much.

 

[gar hi]

Too much lightning to be able to do any decent DXing. From what I can hear on 1100, it's the basketball game on WTAM and some Spanish station in the background. It looks like there will be lightning in the southeast through thursday night.

Can any of you up north hear the lightning too?