Daily Long-Distance FM Reception

[eyg2181]

Reception at these distances is characterized by deep fades lasting minutes, but is possible and reliable enough to enjoy the stations.

That pretty much describes how I used to listen every day to WHTQ 96.5 Orlando, FL in the early 1990s when I lived in Bradenton, FL (about 120 miles away). Reception was dependable, but could fade for several minutes. These days, listening from that location would be impossible since a local religious pest (translator) has popped up on 96.5 FM. Orlando DXing was very easy back then. Now the frequencies are covered up by new translators and new full power stations on adjacent frequencies.

thats funny, i listened to WHTQ all the time when i lived in vero beach. it was much better the WKGR out of West Palm Beach.

but that wasnt really DX, providing it came in crystal clear 24/7/365. its only about 70 miles away.

 

[tomservo]

I'm about halfway between Jackson and Memphis along I-55 in Mississippi. Aside from three locals and a translator, everything comes from 40-60 miles away.

Surpringly, the FM band here is pretty crowded already, so catches are actually more rare for me than when I lived in the Birmingham metro.

Going with the car radio as the tuner of choice, it's not usual to hear one of the 99.7's from either Memphis (WMC-FM, 200kW+ horizontal) or Jackson (WJMI, 100 kW but from a much taller tower). Jackson usually wins that race. Each is about 110 miles out.

WQJQ out of the Jackson market is a regular here as well, but it's only about 80 miles south.

Many mornings WZRR from Birmingham makes it here from 167 miles out, but it isn't regular enough to be daily.

Strangely the most regular radio service from a distance is WCRV 640 AM from Memphis, which in this area is the only AM strong enough to actually stop a seek.

TV-wise I'm HOA restricted as well but with an indoor antenna Memphis' WKNO-10, WPTY-24, WBUY-40 and WPXX-50 are almost nightly watchable here, sometimes in digital as well as analog. There's only three local channels I can even barely see so I don't do much local-TV watching. Two of those channels are MPB (PBS) on UHF, one is NBC from Tupelo on channel 9.

 

[LibertyNT]

In Charleston, just using a car radio and my Grundig S350, we can get many long-distance FM radio stations from several different markets every day.

Yay Another Grundig S350 User [mine Kicked the Bucket but i have the Deluxe now]

With my ETON S350DL I usually get 92.9 KNIN Wichita falls, TX Quite Regularly
along with WACO 99.9 in Waco,Tx Both Probably 100 mi away or more.
101.5 KNUE from Tyler Comes in Often. Probably about 100 Mi or more.
But The Dallas Band is Quite Crowded so thats all i really get from far away.

This is all with the Stock Dipole Antenna probably about 3 or 4 Feet Tall

 

[OKCRadioGuy]

From a full-C in places like Oklahoma, Texas, etc. expect 300 miles maximum for FM. 200ish for fairly reliable reception. Conditions will screw with reception from time to time for that 200 mile signal but for the most part it is pretty consistant. Been there, done that.. I grew up listening to Dallas radio here in OKC. After a while a guy gets used to the the rolling fades that occur from time to time. Back then Dallas radio was so good compared to the crap we had around OKC it was well worth any signal blemish to listen to it anyway.

 

[kc0ltv]

Pretty amazing the distances you can get down south. I'm sure if I had an APS-13 instead of an APS-9 I could do better...

My experience in Minnesota, driving around using a (surprisingly good) Delco tuner and stock whip on a '00 Chevy Malibu is that in the absence of strong local stations and/or local congestion, which indeed is the case in much of the northern part of the state (away from Duluth), is that class-C stations can usually be heard out to 60 - 80 miles with a good "entertainment" quality signal (at least when not in valleys), and that stations well beyond that can be heard with weak signals. At least two of the maybe three times I've done bandscans Hawk Ridge, a ridge (what else?) overlooking East Duluth and higher than the shoreline a few miles away by about 450 feet, but lower than farther-inland areas, I could pick up KTTB, Glencoe, MN, a good 160 miles to the south, not to mention WCQM about 100 miles. Likewise, from one of the higher points in Chisholm, Minnesota (the Iron Range area) I could pick up KTIS, Minneapolis at 168 miles and WAXX Eau Claire, at 216 miles - and this was on a 39° F early November day! Likewise, from southern MN (late October) I looked only through 92 - 94 MHz to find two stations from Des Moines. OTOH, doing a scan from a motel in Roseville, MN, I only managed to identify stations as far as St. Cloud, barely out of the market...and in Duluth, "under" the hill, you can hardly hear WKLK 96.5, Cloquet, only about 15-20 miles away! Man...I love talking about bandscans.

 

[charlestondxman]

I also forgot about the Big DM from Sumter/Columbia, which comes in every night from 100 miles away, and the varied amount of stations that come in during the summer, like many of the Orlando FM's that I mentioned, and at least a couple of times a week in the summer, I can get WLRQ 99.3 from Cocoa Beach, and sometimes even A1A, which are both over 300 miles away.

Sometimes, under 98.7 from Beaufort, I can pick up the Spanish station out of Jacksonville, NC, which is about 200 miles away.

With those antennas, I could probably pick up Raleigh almost every day, Charlotte, Greensboro, and maybe even Tampa or the Outer Banks on a good night.

IBOC really did mess up my long-distance FM reception in Charleston. Before 100.5 added IBOC, we could get the station out of Brunswick, GA on 100.7 very well during the summer, and often, it was mixed with Rocky Mount, NC (which still comes in often around the Columbia area).

103.5's IBOC stopped reception of Waycross, GA, and what was the most frequent Charlotte station, WSOC-FM, which came in even during the wintertime a bit.

104.5 also added it, and before that, I could pick up Augusta well on 104.3, and Columbia well on 104.7 most of the time.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

The opening from 97.1 Gainesville, GA to Lake City, FL, is still there, solid as a rock. Just East of town on I-10. I just verified it again on a vacation down there. So is the opening from 101.9 Orlando to an area of I-10 about 50 miles East of Tallahassee. There were some other amazing openings in the 150 to 200 mile range. 107.1 from Melbourne in Ft. Lauderdale. 102.9 from Jacksonville way South of Orlando. Things like that were commonplace.

I guess my 330 mile dependable reception from Dallas to Midland is about the longest reliable reception reported yet!

 

[DeadElvis]

When I as still in High School, back in the early 80s, I lived in Gautier, near beautiful (?!) Pascagoula, MS -- about 2 miles from the Gulf. With a 6-element yagi @ ~30', I could hear WRBQ/Tampa just about all the time, if I turned the antenna at it. I still find that amazing.

That's just about 400 miles. Warm, squishy air makes a big difference.

TV, however, was common, but required some tropo assistance.

DE

 

[vibe]

From 75-80 miS of tampa,sometime the panhandle stations come in but not regularly. I thought getting Orlando and the Ft. Lauderdale-WPB FM's 9probably 130 air miles on a fairly regular basis was good but 400 mi is pretty impressive.
I distinctly remember driving around Kansas the early 70's with my VW van that had a nice whip antenna for FM and gettng consistent solid reception in the 100-125 mi range;

 

[kc0ltv]

When I as still in High School, back in the early 80s, I lived in Gautier, near beautiful (?!) Pascagoula, MS -- about 2 miles from the Gulf. With a 6-element yagi @ ~30', I could hear WRBQ/Tampa just about all the time, if I turned the antenna at it. I still find that amazing.

That's just about 400 miles. Warm, squishy air makes a big difference.

TV, however, was common, but required some tropo assistance.

DE

Wow, that's the best I've heard about yet for "daily" reception. Water paths certainly help, even if they're not warm. Up in far northeastern MN (coastal Cook County), not only do stations regularly come in 100+ mi across the lake (and farther via land that perhaps has lake-like propagation properties) with strong, dependable signals, but some count on an audience in that region, and for a long time, the ONLY FM signals there were from across the lake. WIMI, Ironwood, for example, may be 90+ mi away from Grand Marais, but they still give "North Shore of Minnesota" weather, and on August 1st they're going to take the "Storm Van" up there to do a live remote - and Ironwood is a good four hour or so drive from Grand Marais! Likewise, WGLI Hancock, MI makes a mention of their Thunder Bay listeners a good 100 miles away on their website:

http://www.keepitintheup.com/wgli_fm/coverage.htm

 

[TheDingo]

I can get WBPT 106.9 Birmingham AL (around 100 miles to the south), as well as WNRQ 105.9, WSM-FM, and 97.9 WSIX from Nashville (90 miles north) almost 24/7. I can also often see WBRC 6 Birmingham, among all the FM interference, and WSMV 4, WTVF 5 and WNPT 8 from Nashville.

 

[vibe]

Re: kc0l's post of over the lake fm reception: we went to Nova Scotia (Yarmouth) several years ago and were surprised to get a lot of stations from Maine including Bangor and Portland, well over 100 mi away in stereo. Reception was intermittent if you drove but clear in many spots. Also remember getting 94.9 Mt. Wash; that had to be at least 250 mi.
By contrast when we camped at Arcadia NP (Maine) we were able to get the Canadian FM's from over 100 mi at night and 100+ mi reception of several Canadian VHF stations on the HH TV at nite Everyone talks about the salt water path for AM but I think there is at least a 20% enhancement of signal over fresh or salt water. Is it due to the flat surface/no obstructions between transmitter/receiver or does the water itself have an effect on the signal enhancement? Maybe the there were a lot of open FM frequencies on the radio band in Nova.

 

[BRNout]

Re: kc0l's post of over the lake fm reception: we went to Nova Scotia (Yarmouth) several years ago and were surprised to get a lot of stations from Maine including Bangor and Portland, well over 100 mi away in stereo. Reception was intermittent if you drove but clear in many spots. Also remember getting 94.9 Mt. Wash; that had to be at least 250 mi.
By contrast when we camped at Arcadia NP (Maine) we were able to get the Canadian FM's from over 100 mi at night and 100+ mi reception of several Canadian VHF stations on the HH TV at nite Everyone talks about the salt water path for AM but I think there is at least a 20% enhancement of signal over fresh or salt water. Is it due to the flat surface/no obstructions between transmitter/receiver or does the water itself have an effect on the signal enhancement? Maybe the there were a lot of open FM frequencies on the radio band in Nova.

The coastline in both areas is a bit elevated above the water, which provides no terrain to block signals. So, you get ideal best-case scenario reception in such locations.

It's not that the salt water path performs any magic in itself, it's just that you're able to pick up the bottom portions of those signals that are mainly beaming over your head. Also, a little tropo enhancement from moist air layers over the salt water helps to angle some FM signals downward at times - also helping with reception.

Remember, radio waves at FM frequencies are straight. Once you're over the horizon, you are out of range (unless there's a mechanism to bounce the signal downward). In the examples you cited, the elevated coastline of a place like Acadia or western NS (between 50 and 300 feet above the shore) allow you to get into the bottom end of those signals which haven't yet been weakened by terrain or buildings. Same thing would happen if you can get into an elevated spot on the Great Plains. Except there are no stations in the water, so less interference too. There's your 20%.

It's AM where groundwave signals can be bent a little bit by the conductivity of salt water.

 

[vibe]

thanks for the explanation; was always curious about why the satations from the "Maineland" propogated so far over water to Nova.

 

[charlestondxman]

It's amazing how much the difference is in FM between the North and the South, and how far you can pick up certain stations.

Most of New York's FM's are lost by Exit 82 or 83 on the Garden State Parkway, only 55 miles or so from the Empire State Building, with a couple getting interference as close in as 23-25 miles, on the Driscoll Bridge going over the Raritan River.

Charleston's FM's, however, can be picked up as far as Savannah weakly, and one time, I picked up WEZL (103.5) in Brunswick, GA, over 150 miles from the transmitter.

The best FM signals in the South can be heard 120-130 miles away from the transmitter, like WSPA in Spartanburg, SC. I have heard them in Gatlinburg, TN, the northeast Atlanta suburbs, and all the way out to Orangeburg, SC with a weak signal.

 

[tomservo]

A lot of that re: north/south differences is because you generally don't see tall towers up north. The stations are pretty close together, with lower power and lower antenna height. A lot of southern cities have several full class C outlets each with 100 KW and over 1000' HAAT.

WHOM atop Mt Washington in New Hampshire is the only "big signal" north of the Mason-Dixon line I can think of, and it's probably still the biggest coverage of any FM in the US.

 

[vibe]

Re: some of these really powerful stations like WHOM: they lost a chunk of their peripheral/fringe coverage area when a 94.9 translator went on the air in Worcester, MA. probably has happened elsewhere too..

 

[tomservo]

That doesn't surprise me. It's my understanding that all the grandfathered stations are only afforded the protection of whatever class they should be, B or C or what have you.

Dunno if WHOM is one of those grandfathered allocations, but even if it isn't I'm sure the signal does well beyond whatever arbitrary line the FCC has drawn for them.

 

[vibe]

WHOM is an unusual station because of it's transmitter location atop Mt. Washington. I think one of thir sloggans is something like "heard in 7 states and 2 canadian provinces. The translator in question is well beyond the protected contours of WHOM.
If the format was rock/classic rock/oldies/country I would have been upset but I'll leave it to the Celine Dion fan out there.

 

[ScottBurns]

In which 7 states would that refer? Maine, NH, Vermont, Massachusetts are only 4. I know that I have never picked up WHOM in Connecticut or Rhode Island. Perhaps reception can be heard in extreme eastern upstate New York.