Best overall location for AM and FM reception over land

[Len14043]

There are many areas that favor excellent AM or FM reception, but I am curious where the best location is for both bands. In all of my travels, I would have to nominate Utah. For AM, I believe radio locator underestimates the ground conductivity. I compared the daytime reception for KSL and WHAM with the same pocket radio, which are close in frequency, and KSL always was stronger than WHAM at their respective contours on radio locator. I originally thought KSL seemed stronger because there are less natural and man made sources on noise in the west, i.e. power lines and thunderstorms. However, I listened to KSL in Fillmore, Utah at their 0.5 mv/m contour and they came in fairly strong. I listened to WHAM in Syracuse, i.e. at their 0.5 mv/m contour, and the signal was barely audible. The radio locator maps for Utah stations appear to underestimate the ground conductivity by 1 standard deviation in that the purple line actually represents the 2.5 mv/m contour and not the 0.5 mv/m contour. There AM and FM stations are receivable well beyond the blue contour. KSL has a range similar to the low-on-the-dial Midwest giants such as WLW, WJR, and the Chicago clears. As good as KSL is, KNRS at 570 Khz is better with 5000 watts. They will have a killer daytime signal when they start broadcasting with 50000 watts later this year. I wouldn't be surprised if KNRS had the biggest daytime AM signal in the nation when go go to 50000 watts. For FM, their stations are in the 50-100 kw range and their towers are located on 9000 foot peaks overlooking the valleys at about 4500 feet. In Wendover Nevada, about 150 miles from Salt Lake City, both bands are teeming with stations from the SLC area.

 

[radioman148]

There are many areas that favor excellent AM or FM reception, but I am curious where the best location is for both bands. In all of my travels, I would have to nominate Utah. For AM, I believe radio locator underestimates the ground conductivity. I compared the daytime reception for KSL and WHAM with the same pocket radio, which are close in frequency, and KSL always was stronger than WHAM at their respective contours on radio locator. I originally thought KSL seemed stronger because there are less natural and man made sources on noise in the west, i.e. power lines and thunderstorms. However, I listened to KSL in Fillmore, Utah at their 0.5 mv/m contour and they came in fairly strong. I listened to WHAM in Syracuse, i.e. at their 0.5 mv/m contour, and the signal was barely audible. The radio locator maps for Utah stations appear to underestimate the ground conductivity by 1 standard deviation in that the purple line actually represents the 2.5 mv/m contour and not the 0.5 mv/m contour. There AM and FM stations are receivable well beyond the blue contour. KSL has a range similar to the low-on-the-dial Midwest giants such as WLW, WJR, and the Chicago clears. As good as KSL is, KNRS at 570 Khz is better with 5000 watts. They will have a killer daytime signal when they start broadcasting with 50000 watts later this year. I wouldn't be surprised if KNRS had the biggest daytime AM signal in the nation when go go to 50000 watts. For FM, their stations are in the 50-100 kw range and their towers are located on 9000 foot peaks overlooking the valleys at about 4500 feet. In Wendover Nevada, about 150 miles from Salt Lake City, both bands are teeming with stations from the SLC area.

Regarding KSL I have been told that the Great Salt Lake really enhances their groundwave.
As far as skywave is concerned the best place I've been in recent years is Hawaii. At night you can pick up DX from so many different places such as North America, Asia, the Pacific & even Australia. And you don't have the crowded AM frequencies there to deal with.

 

[fybush]

I'm not sure WHAM is the best comparison. It has long had the reputation in the market of having a lousy ground system, whereas KSL is right on a salt flat at the edge of the Great Salt Lake. And KSL benefits from being in a relatively isolated part of the west, with nothing for hundreds of miles on even its second-adjacent, never mind first-adjacent or co-channel, frequencies.

If KSL doesn't get out much better than WHAM, something's wrong indeed!

(The VERY best spot in the continental US, in my travels, is eastern South Dakota and western Iowa. I vividly remember waking up in a hotel room in Vermilion, South Dakota one morning and listening to the 1-kw station on 1230 from Sioux Falls, 65 miles away, sounding as clear as a local.)

 

[radioman148]

I'm not sure WHAM is the best comparison. It has long had the reputation in the market of having a lousy ground system, whereas KSL is right on a salt flat at the edge of the Great Salt Lake. And KSL benefits from being in a relatively isolated part of the west, with nothing for hundreds of miles on even its second-adjacent, never mind first-adjacent or co-channel, frequencies.

If KSL doesn't get out much better than WHAM, something's wrong indeed!

(The VERY best spot in the continental US, in my travels, is eastern South Dakota and western Iowa. I vividly remember waking up in a hotel room in Vermilion, South Dakota one morning and listening to the 1-kw station on 1230 from Sioux Falls, 65 miles away, sounding as clear as a local.)

Yes South Dakota & Iowa are great spots. WNAX Yankton, SD has one of the best ground wave signals in the US.

 

[vibe]

I would like to nominate western Kansas. Great soil conductivity for AM in general-the tiny stations get out real well and the big uns are something else. Because the state slopes significiently downhill from west to east, (prob 1000ft/125 mi) and because the state has a lot of their major cities in the central and eastern parts of the state, it is routine to receive FM signals from 100-120 mi away on a car radio or boombox. Provided of course that the stations are to the east of the listener which most of them are.
But I like the state, nice people, lots of small town museums and hist. stuff, cheap golf, and good albeit basic food.
And GREAT radio reception.

 

[FreddyE1977]

Michigan was great for AM DX. Very strong ground conductivity, and once you got away from Metro Detroit you did not have much of an issue with overpowering locals. I could pull in the blowtorches from Pittsburgh to Toronto to Chicago at any time of day or night. Could also get 250 watt stations up to 150 mi. away. You could also get some interesting FM skips coming off the Great Lakes at times. Caught low VHF TV and FM radio stations from Texas on multiple occasions.
An engineer from one of those stations told me that he thought it was a double e-skip coming off the ionosphere and again off a calm Lake Michigan.

 

[charlestondxman]

IMO, the Jacksonville area is a pretty good area for AM reception, one of the best on the East Coast. Savannah's WBMQ comes in well throughout the area, along with some of Orlando's AMs. Their AMs are built to cover Duval County, and most of them cover that area very well, and the counties around it during the day.

Most of the state of Delaware S of the Chesapeake Canal is very good, too. All of Philadelphia's stations come in, even the smaller ones, and New Yorkers like 660, 710, 770, 880, and even 1130 come in well, even down to Rehoboth Beach (with only 30 miles water path at most from Delaware Bay). Baltimore and Washington stations also come in well, as I've heard WTOP and WBAL way down in southern DE.

FM is much different. Charleston is a good area to get stations, but it has gotten worse since they have shoehorned so many translators in (covering up some of the distants that we could get).

However, the best area, I believe, is around the Daytona Beach area in FL. I have been there many times, and there's only like 12 FMs in the area, and signals come in from Orlando (of course), all of Jacksonville's FMs coming in, Savannah (during the summer), and even Hilton Head and Charleston.

 

[cyberdad]

I would like to nominate western Kansas. Great soil conductivity for AM in general-the tiny stations get out real well and the big uns are something else. Because the state slopes significiently downhill from west to east, (prob 1000ft/125 mi) and because the state has a lot of their major cities in the central and eastern parts of the state, it is routine to receive FM signals from 100-120 mi away on a car radio or boombox. Provided of course that the stations are to the east of the listener which most of them are.

+1. I'd also include a good chunk of the Dakotas extending into the prairie provinces of Canada. I'm speaking from experience. Oklahoma and most of eastern Texas as well. Most of Nebraska would also be included, but there's a large area in the north central part of the state called the sand hills, where (as the name implies) the ground conductivity isn't very good. Sparsely populated, so not many stations.

Other posters mentioned Michigan and Northern Florida, but I respectfully disagree. What the poster said about the Jacksonville area was salt water path a.m. reception. Groundwave enhanced greatly by salt water. Nothing to do with ground conductivity or land path in any way. As for Michigan, some areas in the south central and east have pretty good ground conductivity, but most of the state ranges from fair to poor. An example of this is how the Chicago a.m. blowtorches lose much of their punch after they hit the southwest Michigan sand dunes. Look at the radio-locator maps and you'll see what I mean.

Subsqu

 

[ddsparxx]

For the East Coast, I would think the Delmarva Peninsula would be good for both AM and FM reception. The flat terrain would help FM signals go out further and the Chesapeake Bay would help the groundwave AMs to go out a little bit further with the lousy ground conductivity in land. I've heard DC just west of Salisbury, MD and south of Salisbury the Hampton Roads FMs come in. The northern neck region of Virginia (just south of MD and west of the bay) is also good as i've heard FM from Baltimore to Norfolk once.

In the Pacific Northwest I think that Oregon's Willamette Valley is also good as FMs from both Portland and Eugene travel well through the wide, open valley while the AM on the lower side of the dial travel through inland due to the reasonally good ground conductivity...in Roseburg, OR I've heard Portland's KPOJ 620 pretty well; KUGN 590 Eugene and KXOR 660 Juction City (just N of Eugene) are fairly strong in Roseburg, and those 2 stations are about 80 miles N of Roseburg. I've heard KTTH 770 from Seattle, though barely, even from this southwest central section of Oregon during the daytime. BTW the valley ends at Eugene; Roseburg is surrounded by many large hills and smallish mountains and this made FM reception pretty bad.

This is all based on limited traveling for the last several years.

 

[schmave]

I would like to nominate western Kansas. Great soil conductivity for AM in general-the tiny stations get out real well and the big uns are something else. Because the state slopes significiently downhill from west to east, (prob 1000ft/125 mi) and because the state has a lot of their major cities in the central and eastern parts of the state, it is routine to receive FM signals from 100-120 mi away on a car radio or boombox. Provided of course that the stations are to the east of the listener which most of them are.

+1. I'd also include a good chunk of the Dakotas extending into the prairie provinces of Canada. I'm speaking from experience. Oklahoma and most of eastern Texas as well. Most of Nebraska would also be included, but there's a large area in the north central part of the state called the sand hills, where (as the name implies) the ground conductivity isn't very good. Sparsely populated, so not many stations.

Other posters mentioned Michigan and Northern Florida, but I respectfully disagree. What the poster said about the Jacksonville area was salt water path a.m. reception. Groundwave enhanced greatly by salt water. Nothing to do with ground conductivity or land path in any way. As for Michigan, some areas in the south central and east have pretty good ground conductivity, but most of the state ranges from fair to poor. An example of this is how the Chicago a.m. blowtorches lose much of their punch after they hit the southwest Michigan sand dunes. Look at the radio-locator maps and you'll see what I mean.

Subsqu

I always wondered why the Chicago AM stations didn't come as well in Toledo as in down toward Lima or Findlay. That would explain it.
Did you want to say something else there at the end?!

 

[radioman148]

Southern Manitoba had good groundwave coverage. I used to get great day time reception up there & through northern Minnesota.

 

[kc0ltv]

I'm not sure WHAM is the best comparison. It has long had the reputation in the market of having a lousy ground system, whereas KSL is right on a salt flat at the edge of the Great Salt Lake. And KSL benefits from being in a relatively isolated part of the west, with nothing for hundreds of miles on even its second-adjacent, never mind first-adjacent or co-channel, frequencies.

If KSL doesn't get out much better than WHAM, something's wrong indeed!

(The VERY best spot in the continental US, in my travels, is eastern South Dakota and western Iowa. I vividly remember waking up in a hotel room in Vermilion, South Dakota one morning and listening to the 1-kw station on 1230 from Sioux Falls, 65 miles away, sounding as clear as a local.)

Stations in that region (eastern South Dakota, southwestern Minnesota) get out very well in my experience too. Stations 50 - 100 miles away with unimpressive power indeed come in very well, even local-like.

For FM, I've received stations from the Minneapolis area over 200 miles away on the North Shore almost every time I've been there, if not every time, though weakly in most areas. But it's still impressive when you're in Grand Marais, some 230 - 240 miles from the Shoreview (Minneapolis) transmitter site, right next to the lake (and hence low elevation - about 600 feet), picking up faint Minneapolis stations over a land path with very little in the way of tropo enhancement. Or when you ascend the hills nearby and can hear Minneapolis and Green Bay quite well, both about 240 miles away, and Duluth 100 miles away like a local (I even remember 250 watt station K231BI coming in very strong there).

 

[cyberdad]

Did you want to say something else there at the end?!

Started to say "subsequent", then reworked the point it into my last paragraph.  Apologies for the confusion.  My bad.  The particular computer I used has a "funky" keyboard, which didn't help matters any.

As for Southern Manatoba.... Let me put it this way, they didn't call the old CKY the prairie powerhouse for nothing! (50kw at 580). But that said, by the time you got to the Ontario border....less than a two hour drive from Winnipeg, you were out of the prairies, and into the woods, and also into the Canadian shield. Conductivity there was pretty lousy. The first town of consequence you come to in Ontario is Kenora....on the northern edge of Lake of the Woods. Beautiful setting, but CJRL there doesn't get out particularly well during the day with 5kw non-directional on 1220. (Although it's a fairly do-able skywave catch at night around the midwest at 1kw non-directional).

 

[BRNout]

This is a tough question to answer in a way, because there are many different ways of defining the "best" location. With respect to AM, it could be an area from which you can pick up lots of stations from nearby markets - or an area that's far from any market but which provides a good variety of distant signals. I concur with many of the previous posters about lower Michigan - great area for AM dx.

From this second group, I'd also like to add southern and central Alberta to the list. Excellent groundwave conductivity there. Last December, I had the opportunity to drive between Calgary and Edmonton and to do a lot of AM dxing at the time. Came up with some amazing stuff! Even during midday, I was picking up skywave from KEX Portland and KSL Salt Lake, as well as from several Vancouver stations.

Groundwave signals included a very strong CBK 540 from Watrous/Regina, SK - which pounded in everywhere - Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer- with an almost local grade signal! Amazing signal from them. Other long-distance midday/early afternoon catches included KOFI 1180 Kalispell, MT and WZFG 1100 Dilworth, MN/Fargo, ND (from between Edmonton and Red Deer). I actually listened to Hannity quite clearly on WZFG that day. However, for FM, that's NOT an area that I'd nominate as a 'best' location.

FM is a tougher call. My guess for an excellent FM spot would be a high elevation location with good line of sight to more than one big market. Central MA, NE CT and those higher elevation areas northeast of Atlanta (like the uplands of SC) come to mind. Higher plateaus out west can have some amazing reception; parts of central and eastern Utah have reception of signals from Kanab, UT (200 miles S), Grand Junction, CO (150 mi E) and Salt Lake (180 mi NW). And that's normal in these locations! Of course almost no one lives there.....

 

[radioman148]

Did you want to say something else there at the end?!

Started to say "subsequent", then reworked the point it into my last paragraph. Apologies for the confusion. My bad. The particular computer I used has a "funky" keyboard, which didn't help matters any.

As for Southern Manatoba.... Let me put it this way, they didn't call the old CKY the prairie powerhouse for nothing! (50kw at 580). But that said, by the time you got to the Ontario border....less than a two hour drive from Winnipeg, you were out of the prairies, and into the woods, and also into the Canadian shield. Conductivity there was pretty lousy. The first town of consequence you come to in Ontario is Kenora....on the northern edge of Lake of the Woods. Beautiful setting, but CJRL there doesn't get out particularly well during the day with 5kw non-directional on 1220. (Although it's a fairly do-able skywave catch at night around the midwest at 1kw non-directional).

I could hear CKY well in Bemidji, Mn very well during mid day in the late 80s & early 90s.

 

[Dondd]

I would like to nominate western Kansas. Great soil conductivity for AM in general-the tiny stations get out real well and the big uns are something else. Because the state slopes significiently downhill from west to east, (prob 1000ft/125 mi) and because the state has a lot of their major cities in the central and eastern parts of the state, it is routine to receive FM signals from 100-120 mi away on a car radio or boombox. Provided of course that the stations are to the east of the listener which most of them are.
But I like the state, nice people, lots of small town museums and hist. stuff, cheap golf, and good albeit basic food.
And GREAT radio reception.

I once kept hearing KEYN-FM, Wichita, 103.7, in the late 70s through western Kansas, from a drive beginning in Great Bend, on the outside of the 100kw station's contour, all the way to Scott City, about 2 hours west, through the afternoon.
A buddy's dad from Wichita reported hearing the station on his car radio all the way to Garden City, in western KS, similar distance to Scott City.

There are other stories of FM signals traveling more than 100 miles.

 

[DXBob]

Years ago in the car on I-70, I listened to Top 40 KOMA on 1520 kHz all the way from Denver to Junction City, Kansas, a driving distance of 477 miles, before they faded out. I left Denver at 2:30am MDT. This was in late June.

Bob

 

[ZantennaG1]

Since this thread randomly opened back up after eleven years:

On the Ground
FM: The higher up you go, the better the distances you can receive, thus you should check out your local mountain pass to see what conditions are like. Folks go up to Pikes Peak, Colorado to easily cross the 150-200 mile marker, and some parts of Oregon can push 300 miles on a regular basis. Just maker sure you are not being blocked by other mountains.

On the other hand, flat-land is golden for TROPO, and Arkansas is known for regular ducts to Texas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Tennessee. Here in Wyoming, tropo is rarer and shorter, but can impress, such as the 400+ mi duct to Amarillo on June 9th of this year. Hills will block tropo, hence I get all my tropo to the east and the south because of the mountain range to my west.

AM: The key you are looking for is "ground conductivity". I agree with other posters on this site that the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Kansas are awesome for this. Example: KFYR (165 miles) and WNAX (307 miles) are reliable and strong in Rapid City, SD. I could even, with a sensitive portable, pick up 740 KNFL during the daytime (approaching the 400 mile mark) while in RCSD.
Cold locations can help, too. There is also the salt oceans which are monsters for conductivity (5000 in the Atlantic vs 30 in the Dakotas), but that isn't really land.

In the Sky
FM: Be on the look-out for E-skip, which runs in the Summer for most of the US, but can be heard any-time of year if the conditions are right. Some research shows it is correlated with the sunspot cycle/the intensity of the sun. This might help explain why there are more openings in the SE United States than the Pacific Northwest. But, the true winner has to be the Pennsylvania to Tennessee region, and the Nebraska to Texas region, respectively for most-common pathway. Everyone's experience with skip is different, though, and one location does not necessarily have a higher chance than one a hundred miles away. Although, again, being in a warmer location can help, location is not what will increase your skip, it is equipment. Get an SDR and have it recording. Sign up for e-mail alerts, monitor the online skip-log, and whenever you feel there's a chance, check your radios!

I should add, there is Meteor Scatter, which can happen anywhere, but not necessarily anytime, but most Dxers grab a dozen or so every morning. (I however, haven't been so lucky). The best time would be around the Perseids. Plus, you have Auoural Skip, Equatorial Skip (a slightly different animal than regular skip), and other flavors to try.

AM: On land specifically, conditions are helped by a low-noise environment, and where the skywave signal can be enhanced by ground conductivity, hence the plains win, again. But, for best actual skywave, polar regions are good, and apparently areas with lots of oceans are even better. As @gar hi can tell you, being in Hawaii with water on all sides allows for some unique catches of American clear-channels, and probably even some Australians, etc. He has nailed WABC before at 4,700+ miles (How in the world, gar?) And as @SomeRadioGuy will tell you, his post in McGrath is huge for trans-continental DX with big distances and strength, such as Radio Iran at over 7,000+ miles away. In addition, there are Polar SDR's set up in Iceland for a reason, and the story goes that 500 watt KGAB (Cheyenne, WY) was picked up in the polar region that is Finland (I don't even want to imagine the distance here).

Added bonus: For shortwave, if you are into that sort of thing, the Eastern US near Indiana seems to be prime for US based and Cuban stations, but even here in Wyoming, you can snag Radio New Zealand (7,000+ miles) with ease, and of course, the mighty KBC (Germany, 5,000 miles) at times. And again, the coasts win big.

Best of luck to you!

 

[ZantennaG1]

I should add to the FM section, that KOGA on 99.7 weirdly pops in around Hillsdale, WY (15 miles east of me, and 175 miles away from the transmitter), will be strong, and then disappear, only to reappear, and then finally disappear for a while until I hit Scottsbluff, where 106.5 (also out of Ogallala) is readable, but weak. And here, at an elevation of 6,000 feet as opposed to Denver's 5280, I get most of the Denver stations, even on somewhat weaker radios, and Denver is 105 miles away.
Compare this to the normal contour of 60-70 miles on flat land.