DX Tip: 1110 Disney blasting Ontario to San Diego on I-15, to east of S.D. & beyond

[pianoplayer88key]

DX Tip: 1110 Disney blasting Ontario to San Diego on I-15, to east of S.D. & beyond

Hi all...

Several nights this past week I've noticed the L.A. Disney station on 1110 is really strong to the east. Sunday night for example on my way home from Ontario, CA, they were essentially local grade down the I-15, and tonight they're blasting into the Mt Helix / Rancho San Diego area east of San Diego.
How many of you might be able to hear them now? And I wonder if Bruce Carter could hear any trace of them in Houston...especially maybe in the morning around sunrise after KFAB changes patterns and has faded somewhat.

73. Stephen

 

[Icangelp]

Thanks.

I do not hold out much hope, but I do live in a signal "hole". At night WBT sends things East, and KFAB directs West.

I'll check things out early Saturday morning.

 

[cyberdad]

Thanks.

I do not hold out much hope, but I do live in a signal "hole". At night WBT sends things East, and KFAB directs West.

I'll check things out early Saturday morning.

Same here. I'll take a shot at it, but I'm not optimistic. The glimmer of hope is that KFAB and WBT do a great job of protecting each other, so the result is that 1110 is more empty here at night that either 640 or 1070.

 

[Icangelp]

I tried around 11 PM Eastern and didn't hear Disney, but forgot to set alarm for early wake up.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

KDIS 1110 may be operating on Day pattern or Non-DA at night. It had an STA a few years ago for 12.5/5 U1 while the transmission lines were replaced. It is built on a methane generating trash dump, and maintenance on the dump requires relocating the transmission lines to the five towers, 2 Day/4 Night/5 Total/1 In Common, from time to time. This is paraphrased from applications. You can find this online on CDBS.

 

[radioman148]

Y

KDIS 1110 may be operating on Day pattern or Non-DA at night. It had an STA a few years ago for 12.5/5 U1 while the transmission lines were replaced. It is built on a methane generating trash dump, and maintenance on the dump requires relocating the transmission lines to the five towers, 2 Day/4 Night/5 Total/1 In Common, from time to time. This is paraphrased from applications. You can find this online on CDBS.

1110 in Pasadena used to be the original KRLA. If they had their 60s top 40 format with Dick Biondi, Casey Kasem, Bob Eubanks, etc, I'd stay up all night trying to listen. (LOL)

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

Wow, all of those DJs you mentioned are either from Michigan or could/can be heard in Michigan to this day. To my knowledge, Bob Eubanks, though born in Michigan, was never on local radio in Michigan. The late Casey Kasem was born in Michigan, and began his DJ career in Flint at WAMM 1420, in the town where Eubanks was born. Dick Biondi could be heard on WCFL and WLS, and was popular in West Michigan even in the daytime before FM took off, and all of Michigan at night, especially towns with Top 40 Daytimers or weak or High NIF Class III and Class IV night facilities. He continues to be heard into Southwest Michigan on WLS-FM, where Chicago bigwigs go on weekends.

Interesting question. Did you Chicago area DXers ever log WAMM 1420, now WFLT? I suspect I had it once or twice near Sunset on a visit, but didn't believe it because it is 500 watts. It radiates in excess of a Class B 1 kW Inverse Directional Field equivalent lobe toward North Suburban Chicago. If you can null out WIMS, you might still be able to hear WFLT near Sunset on Day facilities. I know it has been logged near Milwaukee recently.

Eubanks' star dimmed after being tricked into telling an off color ethnic joke in the movie "Roger and Me".

 

[cyberdad]

Interesting question. Did you Chicago area DXers ever log WAMM 1420, now WFLT? .

Never heard it, here, but drove by the place once! . I also didn't hear anything out of the ordinary on 1110 last night, either. I'll try again tonight if I get the chance.

 

[radioman148]

I never heard it, just WIMS at my location.

 

[pianoplayer88key]

Their daytime pattern favors the southern parts of the USA more than the north, I think. Speaking of which, they're blasting into my house right now and it's past pattern change time. Normally at night they'd be very weak, with KFAB often breaking through.

Also I think they're on day pattern rather than operating ND STA, because of 1 - their potent signal, and 2 - if they were ND, I wouldn't have been able to hear hardly any trace of them at all midday on the CC Pocket I'm using.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

It was confusing also because WIMS had an R & B leaning early evening daypart in the 1960s as I recall, about the time the Jackson 5 took off, and I heard WIMS, probably on day pattern, in the 15 minutes between the WAMM and WIMS Sunset times in the 1960s. I remember a "guest DJ" announcing a song on WIMS because the regular DJ was "out in the bushes", implying that the studio did not have "relief facilities". Anyone know if the studio was at the TL at the time, where that was common?

 

[Big 121]

They are putting a stout signal into San Diego's east county. Has to be the day pattern.... and NO IBOC? Has great sidebands....

 

[pianoplayer88key]

Big 121, their IBOC has been off for at least several months now, I believe. At least I noticed it off several months ago when I visited my grandma in the L.A. area, also again a little more recently. Also when I was there, I noticed their pattern change behaved a bit differently than I normally am accustomed to. Normally I hear a station's carrier cut off then a second or so later come back on with the other pattern. But, the last couple times I was there and listening to KDIS around sunset or sunrise, I saw the signal strength ramp over a few seconds from one level to the other on my Tecsun PL-606 (and on my PL-398bt which has a broken internal ferrite bar, heard it too), without the station dropping out.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Big 121, their IBOC has been off for at least several months now, I believe. At least I noticed it off several months ago when I visited my grandma in the L.A. area, also again a little more recently. Also when I was there, I noticed their pattern change behaved a bit differently than I normally am accustomed to. Normally I hear a station's carrier cut off then a second or so later come back on with the other pattern. But, the last couple times I was there and listening to KDIS around sunset or sunrise, I saw the signal strength ramp over a few seconds from one level to the other on my Tecsun PL-606 (and on my PL-398bt which has a broken internal ferrite bar, heard it too), without the station dropping out.

Yet another example of the coverage boost with HD turned off. Boy- I get slammed on here whenever I suggest that! But if KDIS is booming in now, and it wasn't before - it raises an interesting dilemma. MY theory about the range boost had to do with the presence of HD sidebands confusing the radio receiver's AGC circuity, lower the gain and therefore making the station less receivable. But - you have strong adjacents, which would have the same effect. On radios with poorly designed AGC, the presence of a strong local does close down the AGC for weak stations nearby. A good example is the Radio Shack Optimus 12-603. It can be adapted into a fairly decent performer, but nothing will change the fact it only has two IF filters. So while I was able to get WBBM daytime 1000 miles away with a large loop from Lubbock on a GE Superadio, it was not present on the Radio Shack due entirely to a local 790. Gosh I wish Youtube had been available at the time - videos of all that would be very useful now! Funny how something we take for granted now didn't even exist 10 to 12 years ago.

Which brings me back to your KDIS scenario. In the presence of a strong local near in frequency, you are actually noticing a considerable change in receivability - due ONLY to their dropping HD. That implies to me there is something inherent in HD AM itself that decreases range and power - independent of the receiver. That is BAD NEWS for stations broadcasting AM HD!!!!

No - I haven't had a chance to try for KDIS. I have been mired in GE P780 restoration hell - finally got it going yesterday but not fully aligned yet. And still one or two pesky intermittents. I am also preparing a new format - most of which is on rare vinyl which takes a long time to convert to digital.

 

[pianoplayer88key]

Yet another example of the coverage boost with HD turned off. Boy- I get slammed on here whenever I suggest that! But if KDIS is booming in now, and it wasn't before - it raises an interesting dilemma.

Actually, Bruce, they are the same strength here at my house at midday without HD as they were with it. Their potent night signal now is because of running day pattern overnight. They've recently been comparable in strength to what they normally are immediately on the daytime side of pattern change.

MY theory about the range boost had to do with the presence of HD sidebands confusing the radio receiver's AGC circuity, lower the gain and therefore making the station less receivable. But - you have strong adjacents, which would have the same effect.

I was listening to KFI though yesterday afternoon, and noticed their HD was off. Yet they were the same strength as with HD. The local on 620 is actually weaker than KFI. The next stronger-than-KFI signals on both sides are 600 KOGO (with HD) and 690 XEWW. Also while I was testing my new Pioneer in the car at home in the early afternoon, I had some intermittent HD lock on KNX, which is 111 miles away.

On radios with poorly designed AGC, the presence of a strong local does close down the AGC for weak stations nearby. A good example is the Radio Shack Optimus 12-603. It can be adapted into a fairly decent performer, but nothing will change the fact it only has two IF filters. So while I was able to get WBBM daytime 1000 miles away with a large loop from Lubbock on a GE Superadio, it was not present on the Radio Shack due entirely to a local 790. Gosh I wish Youtube had been available at the time - videos of all that would be very useful now! Funny how something we take for granted now didn't even exist 10 to 12 years ago.

While testing my Pioneer, I noticed I was getting a bit of scratchiness in the upper end of the band. On some frequencies its pattern matched what I was hearing on 1130 KSDO, on others it was different but I couldn't possibly identify it. (I suspect possibly 1170 KCBQ which is slightly stronger than 1130. Neither run HD.) Also there were some frequencies on which I was hoping for DX, but all I got was very loud splatters from adjacent locals. These included 680 (local=690) 700, (1130) 1140, 1160 (1170) 1180, just to name a few. So far though I'm liking it, just wish it was better in those situations. Would a better antenna help? All those have been heard here or near here when the pests weren't a problem, with 680 being the rarest.

Bruce, I would LOVE to see some videos of your DX reception, if you ever have an opportunity to record some.

Which brings me back to your KDIS scenario. In the presence of a strong local near in frequency, you are actually noticing a considerable change in receivability - due ONLY to their dropping HD. That implies to me there is something inherent in HD AM itself that decreases range and power - independent of the receiver. That is BAD NEWS for stations broadcasting AM HD!!!!

No - I haven't had a chance to try for KDIS. I have been mired in GE P780 restoration hell - finally got it going yesterday but not fully aligned yet. And still one or two pesky intermittents. I am also preparing a new format - most of which is on rare vinyl which takes a long time to convert to digital.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

Let me say that while I don't like the adjacent channel interference from IBOC, and am not impressed with the sound quality, there have apparently been some improvements in the receivers. On a GM radio with Sirius/XM Radio and equipped with HD on AM and FM, I was able to hear both WWJ 950 and WFDF 910 in HD all the way up to Pinconning, and intermittently beyond Pinconning. Word Networks has turned the HD back on after acquiring WFDF from Radio Disney. There has apparently been extensive work done on both the WFDF and WWJ transmitting facilities. Both have been on STA with reduced power. WWJ does the heavy duty work in the middle of the night. WFDF was working on it during the transition from Radio Disney to Word Networks.

WWJ kicked in near the Straits in HD for a few seconds at night. WFDF is apparently still on significantly reduced power at night on STA. The receiver would occasionally say "Acquiring HD Signal" on WFDF at night, but never kicked in.

I've met two people who have worked on the GM receiving antennas and receivers and I'll ask if they know anything that they could tell me about the receiver improvements.

It still seems like a whole lot of expense for minimal gains of audio quality, and a lot of interference though. But I never heard any HD signals on Detroit Area FM stations north of Grand Blanc in the car. It never even said "Acquiring HD Signal" on ANY Detroit Area FM station beyond that. That includes 1000 foot HAAT WCSX and 190,000 watt WOMC, who actually have HD-2 formats worth listening to after many years of having no compelling HD-2 formats.

I still say they should have used another band for HD though. You have to have new radios anyway, and there still aren't that many. They didn't think twice about obsoleting those 42-50 MHz FM Radios, did they?

 

[cyberdad]

I spent about a half hour hanging out on 1110 this morning with the radio (SRF37) aimed SW-NE. Nothing there but some splatter from KMOX. Nulling KMOX would have meant also nulling KDIS, but it did bring in a few whiffs of WBT, which typically isn't common around here. I'll try again with a better radio if I get a chance. Aside from that, conditions seemed to be about average for summer....or perhaps a litle bit below.

 

[Icangelp]

Nothing on my second late night attempt at receiving the former KRLA.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Actually, Bruce, they are the same strength here at my house at midday without HD as they were with it. Their potent night signal now is because of running day pattern overnight. They've recently been comparable in strength to what they normally are immediately on the daytime side of pattern change.



I was listening to KFI though yesterday afternoon, and noticed their HD was off. Yet they were the same strength as with HD. The local on 620 is actually weaker than KFI. The next stronger-than-KFI signals on both sides are 600 KOGO (with HD) and 690 XEWW. Also while I was testing my new Pioneer in the car at home in the early afternoon, I had some intermittent HD lock on KNX, which is 111 miles away.



While testing my Pioneer, I noticed I was getting a bit of scratchiness in the upper end of the band. On some frequencies its pattern matched what I was hearing on 1130 KSDO, on others it was different but I couldn't possibly identify it. (I suspect possibly 1170 KCBQ which is slightly stronger than 1130. Neither run HD.) Also there were some frequencies on which I was hoping for DX, but all I got was very loud splatters from adjacent locals. These included 680 (local=690) 700, (1130) 1140, 1160 (1170) 1180, just to name a few. So far though I'm liking it, just wish it was better in those situations. Would a better antenna help? All those have been heard here or near here when the pests weren't a problem, with 680 being the rarest.

Bruce, I would LOVE to see some videos of your DX reception, if you ever have an opportunity to record some.

I appreciate you observations - you are a good observer, and this is interesting. Several observers have noticed range decrease with HD on AM - myself included. Now I am wondering if maybe some stations do an incorrect installation when implementing the system. If the LA area has an engineer who knows his stuff when he installs, maybe he should publish a tutorial for other HD AM operators telling them how to do it right! I've heard second hand that the range decrease is why it is off WBAP, and WOAI. Maybe it is more difficult to implement correctly and those stations could have utilized the system if it could be done without decreasing range.