Using the scanner on my FM car radio, I was surprised to see it lock on 90.9 FM today and display "XHAHC." The signal was clear and strong in Vallejo, California, and I listened for about 10 minutes. It was shortly before 1 PM, and I heard commercials and then music in Spanish, even though the signal carrier displayed the format as Country. When I made it to a computer, I looked up XHAHC and discovered I was listening to La Caliente 90.9 FM from Chihuahua City, Mexico, about 1,400 miles away! The station has a 100,000 Watt transmitter, according to Radio-Locator, but its coverage area appears local to Chihuahua. Occasionally I can pick up KXJZ Sacramento on this frequency, but today it was all La Caliente. I don't consider myself a DX'er, don't have any special equipment, but I believe this was an amazing grab!
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Car radio picks up FM station over 1,400 miles away!
- Thread starter SwapMeetLouie
- Start date
Nice Catch, I lived in Vallejo since 1997
Now I'm in Citrus Heights, Moved in Dec 2016, Before that was in West Sacramento in 2014
DXing sucks here
Now I'm in Citrus Heights, Moved in Dec 2016, Before that was in West Sacramento in 2014
DXing sucks here
The last IFT tables to list ERPs show XHAHC at 50,000 watts. Multimedios has three other FM stations there (this is one of their more important radio markets) but was shut out in its bid to acquire a TV station in Chihuahua Capital in the IFT television station auction last year.
Additionally, I would put the distance to Vallejo at about 1,150 air miles. You're helped by the fact that XHAHC's stick is slightly east of the city. 1400 miles from Chihuahua Capital would be somewhere like Roseburg, OR.
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Merely a question here ; I don't mean to swerve the topic all that much.
Is FM reception enhanced by water-path conditions the way AM is?
Reason I ask is that several years back, with a stock Plymouth Acclaim radio, while I was on vacation and motoring up and down my favorite road of all time (Alt 19 between Clearwater and Tarpon Springs FL along the Gulf) I was getting this station called something like Power 96. Turns out they were out of Louisiana. The station most likely was a 50,000 or 100,000 watter. I didn't have a reference book with me.
As you can determine, I'm not much the FM DXer, hi. Years before that reception -- the Navy years, near Tampa -- I recall hearing WJOE 1080 from Port St. Joe FL every day -- on a cheesy Philco transistor radio. They were a 1000-watt station from across the Gulf -- obvious water-path.
So do FM signals act the same way ?
Is FM reception enhanced by water-path conditions the way AM is?
Reason I ask is that several years back, with a stock Plymouth Acclaim radio, while I was on vacation and motoring up and down my favorite road of all time (Alt 19 between Clearwater and Tarpon Springs FL along the Gulf) I was getting this station called something like Power 96. Turns out they were out of Louisiana. The station most likely was a 50,000 or 100,000 watter. I didn't have a reference book with me.
As you can determine, I'm not much the FM DXer, hi. Years before that reception -- the Navy years, near Tampa -- I recall hearing WJOE 1080 from Port St. Joe FL every day -- on a cheesy Philco transistor radio. They were a 1000-watt station from across the Gulf -- obvious water-path.
So do FM signals act the same way ?
K
kf4rca
Guest
Tropo-ducting. According to wikipedia tropo-ducting exists at all frequencies to some extent.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropospheric_propagation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropospheric_propagation
Back in 1990 I picked up KJ-97 from San Antonio, Texas on a JVC boombox, fifteen miles east of Flint, Michigan.
A distance of nearly 1250 miles.
A distance of nearly 1250 miles.
@ kf4rca:
I guess that (as usual, hi) I wasn't too clear in my inquiry. I meant to ask if salt-water-path reception on FM, under non-trope conditions, is normal. Or to put it another way, does salt-water-path also benefit FM signals the way it does AM signals?
I guess that (as usual, hi) I wasn't too clear in my inquiry. I meant to ask if salt-water-path reception on FM, under non-trope conditions, is normal. Or to put it another way, does salt-water-path also benefit FM signals the way it does AM signals?
K
kf4rca
Guest
The lack of terrestrial clutter helps both AM & FM signals whether its over water or dry land. Have you ever gone to the mountains and experienced phenomenal reception on a mountaintop? Many of those signals will be line of sight to the transmitting antenna.
I'm not a DXer but work in radio. Something I have always wondered about is if there are certain fixed locations where this tends to happen?
For example, when I'd drive the highway between Rocksprings and Sonora, Texas I'd catch some faraway station every time during the afternoon (Way FM in Florida was the first one).
Then on annual treks to North Dakota I'd be just north of Dodge City, Kansas, either side of Jetmore, when I'd catch all kinds of stations over several years (always in June). It would always be around 4 to 6 in the late afternoon. Once it was a 3kw FM in Key West. Once it was 93Q Country in Houston, Texas. It was every time I was in that area each year.
While I get the tropo thing, I'm curious if localized areas are a factor.In each instance these were FM stations.
What got me about the Key West station being heard in Kansas was it was with the stereo light lit.
In each instance it was the factory installed car radio that picked these up, nothing added on to improve reception.
For example, when I'd drive the highway between Rocksprings and Sonora, Texas I'd catch some faraway station every time during the afternoon (Way FM in Florida was the first one).
Then on annual treks to North Dakota I'd be just north of Dodge City, Kansas, either side of Jetmore, when I'd catch all kinds of stations over several years (always in June). It would always be around 4 to 6 in the late afternoon. Once it was a 3kw FM in Key West. Once it was 93Q Country in Houston, Texas. It was every time I was in that area each year.
While I get the tropo thing, I'm curious if localized areas are a factor.In each instance these were FM stations.
What got me about the Key West station being heard in Kansas was it was with the stereo light lit.
In each instance it was the factory installed car radio that picked these up, nothing added on to improve reception.
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