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Class C AM's

P

PaulBWalkerJr

Guest
You know em, 1230...1240...1340..1400..1405 and 1490. The "GraveYard" Channels.

What station on the Class C CHannel has the biggest coverage area?

I'll make my voite for KDIX 1230 in Dickinson, ND.
 
PaulBWalkerJr said:
You know em, 1230...1240...1340..1400..1405 and 1490. The "GraveYard" Channels.

What station on the Class C CHannel has the biggest coverage area?

I'll make my voite for KDIX 1230 in Dickinson, ND.
Click to expand...

I've heard 1240 Radio Disney from Albuquerque here in San Diego, CA

And I'm close enough to be within the local 1240's usable nighttime service area.

AND, that was while local 1240 was ON THE AIR!! It just was carrier only, unmodulated - no audio.
 
What piqued my interest in this stuff was a recent trip to Western kansas- I remember receiving a Garden City AM KIUL 1240 for more than 100 mi N of Garden City. I thought it was because of the relatively flat land and lack of trees but found out, through this board and a link to the fcc map that it's all about the soil.
 
CHUC on 1450 from Cobourg Ontario frequnetly overrides the mess to dominate the channel in Northern Illinois, but this probably shouldn't count because they run more than 1kw (albeit with a DA).

For daytime, KAYS in Hays Kansas on 1400 gets out over 100 miles....as does KTRF on 1230 from Thief River Falls, MN (audible in Winnepeg....120 miles away).
 
Because of the salt water effect, I have DX'd WSBB 1230 in New Smyrna Beach, FL while traveling on I-95 up the coast in the daytime near Brunswick, GA. That's about 175 miles. WROD 1340 in Daytona Beach can be heard in that same area, which is about 150 miles. Also WBZT 1230 in West Palm Beach can be heard as far north as Titusville FL, or about 150 miles, under WSBB's signal.

On another note, in the daytime I can sometimes hear WQSC 1340 in Charleston, SC under WROD's signal near my location south of New Smyrna Beach also due to salt water path. That station is over 300 miles away from my home. So much for these stations being "graveyard" especially their daytime coverage...


Bill in FL
 
Paul, when trying to DX across the Gulf next month (to TX) from Englewood FL I'll take a shot at those graveyard frequencies mentioned in this post and report back. I guess some of those locals do get out depending on the right conditions (soil, salt) etc.
 
Let me see if I get this straight. Because of the salt water content of the GSL, would one living on its west banks sould have enhanced AM?(from the NE-E)
 
vibe said:
Let me see if I get this straight. Because of the salt water content of the GSL, would one living on its west banks sould have enhanced AM?(from the NE-E)
Click to expand...

I'd expect this to be the case. Given that the salinity of the GSL is greater than seawater, conductivity should be greater as well. Those coverage maps bear this out....pretty impressive stuff for "graveyard channels".
 
It's hard to fathom a salt water path in the middle of a desert. Thanks for the reponse- learned something new today which is a +.
 
When I lived in Utah and took a trip to the west side of the GSL, my radio was overloaded by KSL about 50 miles from their tower!
 
The combination of amazing ground conductivity and a relatively unpopulated area (fewer stations on the dial) makes the "farm belt" an unbeatable area for daytime graveyard DX'ing. Anywhere from southern Manitoba down to the Texas Panhandle is quite good.

Someone mentioned KIUL in Garden City, KS. I worked for their FM (KWKR) in the mid-80s. KIUL could easily be received on a car radio in Burlington, CO. That was about 125 miles as the crow flies. KAYS/1400/Hays has similar coverage.

In North Dakota, KDLR/1240/Devils Lake can be heard in Fargo. That's also about 125 miles direct shot. KXPO/1340/Grafton is equal in coverage to the west. However, they suffer to the south because of co-channel KDLM/Detroit Lakes, MN. Driving I-29 between Fargo and Grand Forks gives you a nasty mess of KXPO and KDLM fighting for 1340.
 
Class C AMs (the old Class IV)

tfcwings said:
I've heard 1240 Radio Disney from Albuquerque here in San Diego, CA
Click to expand...

AM 1240 in San Diego used to be Radio Disney but that station went ethnic about 2 years ago.

As for CHUC? Enjoy it on AM 1450 while you can -- it's moving to FM.
 
Re: Class C AMs (the old Class IV)

chuckydoll said:
tfcwings said:
As for CHUC? Enjoy it on AM 1450 while you can -- it's moving to FM.
Click to expand...



What's to enjoy? I drive through there a couple of times a year when I make the Toronto-Montreal run. Sounds awful....both the format and the audio (on 1450).
Click to expand...
 
Here in Texas some of the best coverage for a Class C can be found on 1230kHz, specifically KWTX in Waco. It's audible in both the Dallas-Fort Worth area and in Austin. That's around 90 miles in both cases. In fact KWTX can be heard in the Dallas suburb of Plano, which is about 105 miles away.
www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=KWTX&service=AM&status=L&hours=U

Pretty impressive on the map, but unfortunately KWTX isn't really listenable in much of the Dallas area because of another station on 1230 with great coverage, KSST in Sulphur Springs. Were it not for KWTX, KSST could be heard westward beyond Fort Worth, a distance of about 140 miles.
http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=KSST&service=AM&status=L&hours=U
 
I've done the old KLBK 1340 Lubbock 115 miles away in Midland - strong enough to hear well, but with interference from other 1340's. It was very listenable.
 
Speaking of the 1230 frequency, KSIX-Corpus Christi can be heard in El Campo (130 mi NE), Pleasanton (105 mi N) and Port Isabel (140 mi S)
 
Smittian said:
Speaking of the 1230 frequency, KSIX-Corpus Christi can be heard in El Campo (130 mi NE), Pleasanton (105 mi N) and Port Isabel (140 mi S)
Click to expand...

Right. Their signal makes it way up the coast, as does Corpus' KUNO 1400. That's until it runs into the coverage area of KHCB 1400 in Galveston. BTW they recently got approval to move to League City and go directional with a NNW-SSE pattern. Very unusual for the FCC to okay this, but it makes sense for KHCB and also reduces some adjacent channel overlap with KULP 1390 El Campo.
 
I remember back in the 1970's when I was working at WXCL-AM1350 in Peoria, IL the engineer and part owner, Mel Feldman, showed me a DX'ers card from Switzerland. Someone had picked up the 1kw directional station and had all the necessary info to confirm it. Great skywave that night.

Last year, I got a call from a station owner in Beaumont, TX that he was sitting at his xmtr and my station, 1380 in North Little Rock, AR was coming in loud and strong over his 1380, which reduced power at night as does ours. Nothing different at our xmtr, so it had to be a good skywave. The conductivity is crap here, but our site is in an area that becomes swampy when we get a lot of rain, so that tends to help.
 
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