A DX opportunity alert from the Chicago board...WSCR, WGN and WBBM will be off the air: http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=208092.msg1861368#msg1861368
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Downtime for three Chicago clears early Saturday morning
- Thread starter jd
- Start date
Even though they haven't gone off the air yet, I was getting nothing but the Cuban station on 670, WGN on 720 weaker than normal for nighttime and Spanish music on 780 clobbering WBBM. Have the Chicago stations reduced power before shutting off later? WLS and WMVP were coming in like normal.
BTW, I am in Vermilion, OH where I had this reception of 670, 720, and 780
Heard the KBOI DX test with relative clarity down here in Phoenix, AZ. The actual Morse Code test didn't start until 2:09 A.M., but was interesting to listen to. Right after it was over, I could notice the power drop as KBOI disappeared on the dial. While my location is not all that enticing for picking up KBOI since WSCR is a rare visitor down here, it was interesting to listen to KBOI's DX test. Not many stations do these anymore!
Here in the Chicago area I had no luck with KBOI. All I had was the Cuban on 670. I heard a Spanish language station on 720 but could not identify. The strange thing about the one on 720 is that it's signal seemed to be coming from the southwest. Anyone have any idea what that might have been?
Also, heard a weak station on 780 but could not pull it in well enough to get a clue as to what it was.
The solar flare is wrecking my propagation from the east as I couldn't hear WABC. WCBS which is always the strongest NYC for me was barely heard. I could not hear WFAN either.
From the west propagation was there as I heard KOA very well which I thought would be a good sign for me capturing KBOI, but it didn't work out.
Also, heard a weak station on 780 but could not pull it in well enough to get a clue as to what it was.
The solar flare is wrecking my propagation from the east as I couldn't hear WABC. WCBS which is always the strongest NYC for me was barely heard. I could not hear WFAN either.
From the west propagation was there as I heard KOA very well which I thought would be a good sign for me capturing KBOI, but it didn't work out.
My observations from Coldwater, MI-
670- Nothing but two Cuban signals. Listened for morse code from KBOI and heard nothing.
720- Only the same Spanish language station radioman spoke of. I also heard this with the radio bearing SW. Texas perhaps?
780- Only a very weak, indecipherable signal with radio bearing W. Could have been KKOH, but signal was so weak I couldn't tell what program was on, let alone the language.
670- Nothing but two Cuban signals. Listened for morse code from KBOI and heard nothing.
720- Only the same Spanish language station radioman spoke of. I also heard this with the radio bearing SW. Texas perhaps?
780- Only a very weak, indecipherable signal with radio bearing W. Could have been KKOH, but signal was so weak I couldn't tell what program was on, let alone the language.
Similar observations to Lawppy - 670 was a mix of 2 Cubans (or perhaps a Cuban and a Mexican station) 720 had a weak Spanish station and 780 had Spanish music playing.
BTW Did anyone try DXing the adjacent frequencies to see if there was improved reception? I had trouble pulling in WFAN 660 and WCBS 880 was barely noticable. I could hear WOR 710 much clearer than normal while WGN was off but then again WLW didn't seem to be as strong as usual either. WABC 770 seemed weaker than normal though it's usually slopped on by WJR here.
There is KSAH 720 near San Antonio with regional Mexican that runs 890W at night but nulled towards the NE. Possible with nothing else on 720 in the absence of WGN that could make it into the great lakes area at night?
BTW Did anyone try DXing the adjacent frequencies to see if there was improved reception? I had trouble pulling in WFAN 660 and WCBS 880 was barely noticable. I could hear WOR 710 much clearer than normal while WGN was off but then again WLW didn't seem to be as strong as usual either. WABC 770 seemed weaker than normal though it's usually slopped on by WJR here.
There is KSAH 720 near San Antonio with regional Mexican that runs 890W at night but nulled towards the NE. Possible with nothing else on 720 in the absence of WGN that could make it into the great lakes area at night?
Another possibility for Spanish 720 is XEJCC/Ciudad Juárez with 25 kW non-directional 24/7 which is right across the border from El Paso, TX
From West Michigan, I put my SDR to work and recorded the Chicago blackout, capturing all frequencies between 620 and 830 khz during the two hour span of the outage. It was a neat thing watching the Chicago signals drop off the air one by one. WSCR was the first to leave followed by WBBM and lastly WGN. It will take some time to fully analyze this recording for new stations, but here's what I was able to ID while listening live:
670: Had Radio Rebelde (Cuba) in strong.
671: Another Rebelde 1khz high, with audio. This is the "tone" or het that many people have reported when listening to 670. It's been on 671 for a long time, but this is the first I've been able to hear audio from it.
720: XEDE-AM "La Kaliente" was the dominant Mexican that I heard with Banda music.
720: XEAVR Radio Fórmula was heard during the last hour of the outage, weak under XEDE and parallel to 780.
780: XEMTS Radio Fórmula was the dominant Mexican on 780 here.
780: XEWGR was also doing well with high energy dance music and re-mixes of various English and Spanish pop tunes.
Also noted in passing: 700 XEDKR "Radio Red" completely over WLW at one point all the way from Guadalajara and my furthest Mexican. Not new, but always nice to hear this one! KSAH was also heard over WLW briefly with Asian programming.
No sign of the Boise DX test during live listening but I'll revisit this on the recording as Idaho is still needed here.
670: Had Radio Rebelde (Cuba) in strong.
671: Another Rebelde 1khz high, with audio. This is the "tone" or het that many people have reported when listening to 670. It's been on 671 for a long time, but this is the first I've been able to hear audio from it.
720: XEDE-AM "La Kaliente" was the dominant Mexican that I heard with Banda music.
720: XEAVR Radio Fórmula was heard during the last hour of the outage, weak under XEDE and parallel to 780.
780: XEMTS Radio Fórmula was the dominant Mexican on 780 here.
780: XEWGR was also doing well with high energy dance music and re-mixes of various English and Spanish pop tunes.
Also noted in passing: 700 XEDKR "Radio Red" completely over WLW at one point all the way from Guadalajara and my furthest Mexican. Not new, but always nice to hear this one! KSAH was also heard over WLW briefly with Asian programming.
No sign of the Boise DX test during live listening but I'll revisit this on the recording as Idaho is still needed here.
No luck in hearing KKOH or KBOI here in VA early this morning. I did hear the faint Spanish language signals on 720 and 780, though I haven't ID them. I am thinking the Mexican 780 (Formula) but without the dance music mentioned and the Mexican 720 were the ones I heard. On 670 it was both Cubans.
Buckeyes2001 said:
I couldn't get any of the adjacent NYC stations in the Chicago area apparently due to the solar flare. I was expecting to hear WABC which I cannot get anymore because of WBBM's IBLOCK. Even usually very reliable WCBS was barely heard. Propagation to the east was way down for me.
ddsparxx said:
If it helps ID, or not, Radio Fórmula is 100% talk. 720 could be KSAH, San Antonio, on its rather directional night operation, with a regional Mexican format; KSAH leans towards a lot of accordeon based Norteña, while the dominant Mexican on the channel is more banda (lots of brass and tubas) focused.
What I was hearing on 720 was mainly music with lots of brass and tubas. In fact, the tubas really punched through on my Superadio, which has excellent audio as you probably know if you have one. So it must have been the "banda" format-- thanks to David for identifying.
I did tune around to the adjacents and NY was not coming in very well; way down in the mix along with a lot of other stuff. That's unusual because I do often hear 660 now that 670 has their IBLOCK turned off. Over in SW Michigan, as others from over there probably notice, the NY clears "kill" the Chicago adjacents at night, they are so strong. Typically the IBLOCK wipes out reception of WGN at night in particular. Very annoying.
I thought I heard religious programming on 800 which is normally unlistenable due to WBBM's IBLOCK. I also heard Radio Reloj; I think that was on 790. And a ton of other stuff that I was too sleepy to write down. Definitely the GE has plenty of sensitivity; no need to drag out the loop!
What are people using to do signal captures? That sounds like a really cool way to go back in and dig through everything afterwards. (Is that "cheating"?) <g>
I did tune around to the adjacents and NY was not coming in very well; way down in the mix along with a lot of other stuff. That's unusual because I do often hear 660 now that 670 has their IBLOCK turned off. Over in SW Michigan, as others from over there probably notice, the NY clears "kill" the Chicago adjacents at night, they are so strong. Typically the IBLOCK wipes out reception of WGN at night in particular. Very annoying.
I thought I heard religious programming on 800 which is normally unlistenable due to WBBM's IBLOCK. I also heard Radio Reloj; I think that was on 790. And a ton of other stuff that I was too sleepy to write down. Definitely the GE has plenty of sensitivity; no need to drag out the loop!
What are people using to do signal captures? That sounds like a really cool way to go back in and dig through everything afterwards. (Is that "cheating"?) <g>
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