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Best LPFM catches?
- Thread starter 97chris
- Start date
LPFMs are by definition not "putting out power."
They are limited to 100 watts ERP and many are limited to less if they have too much HAAT (elevation.) I don't believe they have enough "oomph" to get into an e-skip situation as there's not enough there to skip. I could be wrong. Generally I have found my longest distances for LPFM would be where 1) there isn't any co-channel interference, and 2) both the antenna and you are at a higher elevation with not much in the way between you. An associate of mine could get a steady stereo signal of 34 miles (as the crow files) between Ocean Shores, WA and Amanda Park, WA. Noy many signals on the west side of the Olympic mountains.
They are limited to 100 watts ERP and many are limited to less if they have too much HAAT (elevation.) I don't believe they have enough "oomph" to get into an e-skip situation as there's not enough there to skip. I could be wrong. Generally I have found my longest distances for LPFM would be where 1) there isn't any co-channel interference, and 2) both the antenna and you are at a higher elevation with not much in the way between you. An associate of mine could get a steady stereo signal of 34 miles (as the crow files) between Ocean Shores, WA and Amanda Park, WA. Noy many signals on the west side of the Olympic mountains.
LPFMs are by definition not "putting out power."
They are limited to 100 watts ERP and many are limited to less if they have too much HAAT (elevation.) I don't believe they have enough "oomph" to get into an e-skip situation as there's not enough there to skip. I could be wrong. Generally I have found my longest distances for LPFM would be where 1) there isn't any co-channel interference, and 2) both the antenna and you are at a higher elevation with not much in the way between you. An associate of mine could get a steady stereo signal of 34 miles (as the crow files) between Ocean Shores, WA and Amanda Park, WA. Noy many signals on the west side of the Olympic mountains.
When i said Putting out Power i meant they must really be getting their signal out. LPTV DX is possible and that is all Digital. Most if not all LPFM'S broadcast in Analog only and Analog can go much further than Digital or HD Radio.
I've gotten the 101.3 LPFM (which is only 36 watts!) out of Milwaukee, WI on more than one occasion in Manistee, MI. I've also received the 93.7, 97.9, and 98.7 translators from Milwaukee as well as the 99.9 from Racine.
However, my tropo record for translators has to be the 101.3 from Wausau, WI. When I had that big tropo opening into IA, MN, and NE a few weeks ago, that translator was in for hours straight
However, my tropo record for translators has to be the 101.3 from Wausau, WI. When I had that big tropo opening into IA, MN, and NE a few weeks ago, that translator was in for hours straight
Nice thing about being on a Great Lake is that there aren't going to be any stations getting in the way!! That is a good pickup. Also, fortunate that your local 101.5 doesn't have HD, or both of those pickups I suspect would be toast.
No offense, 97! We have a wide variety of knowledge bases on this board, and I never want to make assumptions about what a person does or doesn't know. I am low intermediate I think on that knowledge spectrum (knows just enough to be dangerous.)
There are a few LPFMs that run HD, but you are right it's just a few.
The "analog going much further than digital" I am not sure I understand. HD radio specs that the HD signal is only like 6% of the analog signal in strength so that the two signals have roughly the same contour. If the digital side channels were run out at the same power, the digital would go a lot further than the analog. And as far as TV goes, digital is TONS more efficient. Our analog channel 22 locally had an ERP of 5 million watts. Now they get the same coverage digitally with 30,000 watts.
There are really LPFM's that broadcast in HD? I have never seen a HD LPFM.
My personal best is an occasional peep from KVSH on Vashon Island up here in Lynnwood/Edmonds, WA — as the crow flies, a 27 mile trip, though it helps that my listening location is shielded from the much closer 101.9 LPFM in South Everett.
And to answer 97chris’s post, I am only aware of two non “full service” FM’s that broadcast in HD. There’s an LPFM in Vacaville, CA that I do believe started HD, and a public radio translator on the southern end of the Salt Lake City market that last time I heard, has been running HD for nearly 10 years with its parent station’s subchannels.
This is Utah we’re talking about though, which has bizarre liquor laws, bizarrely beautiful women, and dozens of equally bizarre translators/boosters that have incredible range
And to answer 97chris’s post, I am only aware of two non “full service” FM’s that broadcast in HD. There’s an LPFM in Vacaville, CA that I do believe started HD, and a public radio translator on the southern end of the Salt Lake City market that last time I heard, has been running HD for nearly 10 years with its parent station’s subchannels.
This is Utah we’re talking about though, which has bizarre liquor laws, bizarrely beautiful women, and dozens of equally bizarre translators/boosters that have incredible range
@ Chico -- ditto about the terrain, beyond a doubt.
a) Some friends up this way (hilly NE Pennsylvania) were fooling around with a CP for an LPFM ....
b) A buddy of mine once visited us for a week and brought along a Sparta FM xmtr he'd wired. (Actually, he came up to meet a girl who we were helping at her tech school. His Sparta xmtr was merely like a gift bottle of wine for his hosts)
c) The tech schoolgirl's project we suggested was an FM Ramsey-10, or whatever the Part-15 thing was called. She was expected to wire it herself on a homemade patchboard OTHER than what was supplied in the kit. We all chipped in, my wife and all, and etched one for her plus drilled the wee holes in it for the chip and the other components.
Bottom lines:
a) the LPFM worked wonderfully, albeit in in a highly directional manner. On 60 of the licensed 100 watts, we heard it seven miles away in a courteous valley pretty much line-of-sight
b) the Sparta was crystal zero-quiet in the whole town here, even at .8 watts. True ; my buddy had it set to the vacant 87.9. But he also used some mismatched 2-meter antenna we put on the roof, with no processing -- just a cassette deck of music
c) as a test, I connected the wee Ramsey wired by the girl, to a pair of gosh darned rabbit ears that sat indoors in the living room. I was able to pick up the broadcast a mile away, in the mall on the next hill. In between here and the mall, the signal became non-existent after a block from the rabbit-ears. But there it was in the mall parking lot -- line of sight all the way.
If this Ramsey unit the size of about the Joker in a card deck can be heard a mile away ..... and if a .8-watt Sparta can blanket an entire town of about a mile square with a jerry-rigged and mismatched aerial ..... well, some of these LPFM's using terrain-beneficial enhancement should make for some neat DX. I wouldn't know about E-Skip or trope, but on a guess I'd say distant reception would be possible for a 100-watt LPFM.
Cool topic, 97Chris!
a) Some friends up this way (hilly NE Pennsylvania) were fooling around with a CP for an LPFM ....
b) A buddy of mine once visited us for a week and brought along a Sparta FM xmtr he'd wired. (Actually, he came up to meet a girl who we were helping at her tech school. His Sparta xmtr was merely like a gift bottle of wine for his hosts)
c) The tech schoolgirl's project we suggested was an FM Ramsey-10, or whatever the Part-15 thing was called. She was expected to wire it herself on a homemade patchboard OTHER than what was supplied in the kit. We all chipped in, my wife and all, and etched one for her plus drilled the wee holes in it for the chip and the other components.
Bottom lines:
a) the LPFM worked wonderfully, albeit in in a highly directional manner. On 60 of the licensed 100 watts, we heard it seven miles away in a courteous valley pretty much line-of-sight
b) the Sparta was crystal zero-quiet in the whole town here, even at .8 watts. True ; my buddy had it set to the vacant 87.9. But he also used some mismatched 2-meter antenna we put on the roof, with no processing -- just a cassette deck of music
c) as a test, I connected the wee Ramsey wired by the girl, to a pair of gosh darned rabbit ears that sat indoors in the living room. I was able to pick up the broadcast a mile away, in the mall on the next hill. In between here and the mall, the signal became non-existent after a block from the rabbit-ears. But there it was in the mall parking lot -- line of sight all the way.
If this Ramsey unit the size of about the Joker in a card deck can be heard a mile away ..... and if a .8-watt Sparta can blanket an entire town of about a mile square with a jerry-rigged and mismatched aerial ..... well, some of these LPFM's using terrain-beneficial enhancement should make for some neat DX. I wouldn't know about E-Skip or trope, but on a guess I'd say distant reception would be possible for a 100-watt LPFM.
Cool topic, 97Chris!
Easy. KOLS-LP 98.5 Oakhurst CA (100w) and KWMV-LP 95.9 Westcliffe CO (94w) both via Es. KOLS logged in 2017 w/ EWTN, and KWMV logged in 2015 w/ top-of-hour ID during an awesome CO opening. I've also heard a few translators via Es. Lowest powered one was 150w (K242BV St George UT on 96.3...96X, an HD-2 of KCLS).
Turns out I was wrong. You go Crainbebo!
On higher hills in Bremerton, WA, KQES-LP 101.9 from Bellevue comes in faintly as long as you're in the right area. Otherwise KINK from Portland, OR takes it over.
When I walk to Walmart
Sometime I get 96.5 KUBU-LP at 45 watts Sacramento in Citrus Heights
Sometime I get 96.5 KUBU-LP at 45 watts Sacramento in Citrus Heights
I am in Clovis CA and I can hear KOLS fairly regularly. Im guessing 40 miles.
But likely indoor work and home listening was impossible everywhere. That's the issue with low power at extreme height: you have a bad signal everywhere.
It also helps that there are zero full-power stations on 101.3 in Wisconsin (103.5 also doesn't have a full power station on it in WI, but I have a very strong local on that frequency that likely carries well into WI)
And even some full power or close to full power stations can barley reach that far!
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