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DXing the West
- Thread starter cyberdad
- Start date
A few posts up I thought you mentioned you would be in the so-cal high desert. Do you recall what you heard from there?
pianoplayer88key said:
Yup! I'm back home now in Northern Illinois. My wife's brother and his wife live in the Victorville area. We spent Wednesday night there. I posted, but that was the beginning of of my rash of computer issues. Anyway, the high desert is relatively noise free and is a pretty good place to DX. I didn't snag anything particularly unusual. but here are a few highlights from approximately 75 miles east-northeast of dowtown L.A.....
570: KLAC: fair but steady. One of only three listenable LA signals
590: KFXM (or whatever it is from San Bernadino) on top....barely
610: Lancaster, CA fairly good, but KEAR clearly audible underneath
620: KTAR on top...Spanish underneath
640: KFI...fair. Not as good as KNX, but better than KLAC
660: KTNN good
680: KNBR good
700: KALL good
710: Something of a mess....KSPN on top....barely
720: KDWN very good
740: KCBS very good
760: KFMB fair
780: KKOH good
810: KGO best skywave signal
820: WBAP weak
840: Las Vegas fair-good
850: KOA fair
870: KRLA usually on top but weak
880: KRVN good
890: KDXU good
1000: KOMO very good
1030: Something very strong and very overmodulated. Spanish. Pirate?
1070: KNX fair-good. Best Los Angeles Signal
1090: XEPRS good
1110: KFAB fair-weak....on top of KMKY (or whatever it is)
1120: KPNW fair
1160: KSL good
1500: Unknown Spanish with a fairly good signal. My second "mystery station" on 1500 of the trip.
1530: KFBK good
1700: XEPN fair-good. No trace of KVNS
The next morning....Thursday....I was tracking LA signals in the car to see how many made it into Nevada during daylight. The "winner" was KFI. Still audible in Vegas. "Runner up" was KLAC....which made it almost to the Nevada state line.
I'll update the final nights of the trip tomorrow (Monday).
I have also heard WKY in the Southern California desert about 100 miles east of LA.
Like Cyberdad I have also heard KFI during the day in Vegas away from the strip.
Like Cyberdad I have also heard KFI during the day in Vegas away from the strip.
crainbebo said:
Thanks for the info.
Actually, I did stop by 930. But I confess the earlier posts about WKY had slipped my mind. Basically, I was getting an unintelligible mess....but I did hear Spanish popping in and out, which I assumed was Los Angeles. Everything else was unintelligible.
I don't think I was hearing XESDD in the high desert, although I always stand to be corrected. Perhaps they weren't bothering with their night pattern and/or were running more than 5kw. The signal sounded too strong for being over 100 miles from the stick. And it sounded like a one-man rant of some sort in Spanish, along with being really grossly overmodulated. Horrid! I had heard Spanish on 1030 earlier in the week farther up the coast. Don't know if it was XESDD, but the audio sounded fine.
My brother in law and his wife have lived in the high desert for over 25 years (they love it!). Anyway, during the years of my So-Cal business trips, from time to time I'd drive up there and have dinner with them....then drive back to L.A. or Orange county where I'd be working. In the daytime, my experience is most of the LA signals do reasonably well up there.
At night, it's a different story. The LA signals are pretty much as I described. My observation is that most of them have a tough time getting past the Cajon pass on the 15 freeway. Heading south/west going down the hill, most (but not all)of the LA signals have "recovered" by the time you get to the bottom in the inland empire.
As promised I'll wrap this up with a quickie overview of my last two nights, which were Denver and Kansas City.
Denver was a downtown highrise (Marriott City Center). I was on an upper floor, so at least some stuff was getting in. Friday night highlights ...
680: KNBR weak with local 670 nulled
820: WBAP fair
890: WLS weak
1040: WHO weak
1070: KNX fair
1110: KFAB good
1120: KMOX weak
1500: KSTP fair
On Saturday morning, heading east on I-70, I decided to track the Denver stations into Kansas....about 200 miles away. Most of the big signals made it. 560 and 950 just barely. 710 not at all.
630, 670, and 850 were all good for at least 125 additional miles into Kansas (KHOW, KLTT, and KOA respectively).
Saturday night in Kansas City (actually Overland Park), I was in another Marriott high rise, but conditions there were a little better. Highlights...
540: CBK weak
560: KWTO fair
650: WSM weak
670: WSCR fair
680: KFEQ fair...something underneath, could've been KNBR, but not really intelligible.
720: WGN fair with KCMO nulled
740: CFZM weak with stuff underneath (KRMG)
780: WBBM fair
820: WBAP good with WHB nulled
830: WCCO good. Of course! I was in room 830! ;D
840: WHAS weak
850: KOA good
860: CJBC fair. What was surprising about this is that CFZM (on the same stick) was barely present.
870: WWL fair
890: WLS good
1070: mess, I think I had KNX for a while, but couldn't ID it.
1100: WTAM fair
1120: KMOX good
1160: KSL fair
1500: KSTP good....which was something of a surprise.
1510: WLAC weak. This was pretty much absent for the bulk of my trip.
1660: The local here had flipped to talk. So much for classical music on the X band.
Although it was a great road trip. Loads of fun and great visits with friends and family, it was disappointing in that hotels are becoming more and more problematic for DXing. This has long big the case for big city high rises, but it's now becoming more and more common in smaller cities and towns.
I'm probably looking at anywhere from 2-5 more road trips between now and the end of the year in conjunction with Mrs. Cyberdad's business. They'll all be a week or less, and I probably won't discuss them much...if at all...in advance. I'm always eager to hear suggestions and take requests, but on my last two big road trips (Key West and this latest one), I didn't get to do nearly as much nighttime DXing as I wanted to. This usually had more to do with noise conditions than anything else. I also feel a little bad about simply not having the time to hang out on the (former) regional channels. These require more patience to wait for something to pop through and then hope you can snag an ID or something else to identify it.
So next time out....which will likely be late this month (or early next) to Ohio, upstate NY, and/or Ontario....I'll just "wing it", and hope I run into some interesting stuff which I can report to you guys.
Denver was a downtown highrise (Marriott City Center). I was on an upper floor, so at least some stuff was getting in. Friday night highlights ...
680: KNBR weak with local 670 nulled
820: WBAP fair
890: WLS weak
1040: WHO weak
1070: KNX fair
1110: KFAB good
1120: KMOX weak
1500: KSTP fair
On Saturday morning, heading east on I-70, I decided to track the Denver stations into Kansas....about 200 miles away. Most of the big signals made it. 560 and 950 just barely. 710 not at all.
630, 670, and 850 were all good for at least 125 additional miles into Kansas (KHOW, KLTT, and KOA respectively).
Saturday night in Kansas City (actually Overland Park), I was in another Marriott high rise, but conditions there were a little better. Highlights...
540: CBK weak
560: KWTO fair
650: WSM weak
670: WSCR fair
680: KFEQ fair...something underneath, could've been KNBR, but not really intelligible.
720: WGN fair with KCMO nulled
740: CFZM weak with stuff underneath (KRMG)
780: WBBM fair
820: WBAP good with WHB nulled
830: WCCO good. Of course! I was in room 830! ;D
840: WHAS weak
850: KOA good
860: CJBC fair. What was surprising about this is that CFZM (on the same stick) was barely present.
870: WWL fair
890: WLS good
1070: mess, I think I had KNX for a while, but couldn't ID it.
1100: WTAM fair
1120: KMOX good
1160: KSL fair
1500: KSTP good....which was something of a surprise.
1510: WLAC weak. This was pretty much absent for the bulk of my trip.
1660: The local here had flipped to talk. So much for classical music on the X band.
Although it was a great road trip. Loads of fun and great visits with friends and family, it was disappointing in that hotels are becoming more and more problematic for DXing. This has long big the case for big city high rises, but it's now becoming more and more common in smaller cities and towns.
I'm probably looking at anywhere from 2-5 more road trips between now and the end of the year in conjunction with Mrs. Cyberdad's business. They'll all be a week or less, and I probably won't discuss them much...if at all...in advance. I'm always eager to hear suggestions and take requests, but on my last two big road trips (Key West and this latest one), I didn't get to do nearly as much nighttime DXing as I wanted to. This usually had more to do with noise conditions than anything else. I also feel a little bad about simply not having the time to hang out on the (former) regional channels. These require more patience to wait for something to pop through and then hope you can snag an ID or something else to identify it.
So next time out....which will likely be late this month (or early next) to Ohio, upstate NY, and/or Ontario....I'll just "wing it", and hope I run into some interesting stuff which I can report to you guys.
And don't forget falling asleep in Portland after turning the radio on! I, the crainbebo, did all the DX "for you". And once our situation gets better, I would like to go on more regional road trips. I never got to go to the Pacific Ocean, or Eastern Washington, both interesting spots, especially the latter. I remember getting a TOH ID for KVNS/1700 in Yakima, WA Oct 2010, as well as WBBM, WGN, WWL, KSTP, WHO and KXEL.
-crainbebo
-crainbebo
Thanks for the reports Cyberdad. Always appreciated.
crainbebo said:
Yes, thanks, crainbebo for covering me and my "social blunder" in Portland. If you knew my niece in Portland, you might understand why I crashed. My wife and I both love her dearly, but she's a very intense person to be with. We were both drained by the time we got back to the hotel....and it was only a little after 9pm! Anyway I owe you! And, thanks also, Radioman for the kind words.
I think eastern Washington would be an interesting DX spot. I've never been there. My college roomate lives in Bend, Oregon....which I think might be similar. Never been there, either, but I have a standing invitation from him.
I'm fortunate in my three decades of business traveler to have been able to DX many different venues. But now that I'm semi-retired, there's still more that I want to see/do/DX....and I now have more time to do it! I've got 48 states down and most of the Canadian provinces. I'd like to pick up Idaho and Alaska to round out my U.S. travels, and the Maritimes to round out Canada.
The regional channels seem to be more of a jumble in Eastern WA than out here. 1600, in Yakima, I could only ID one stn at night and that was KVRI. Tentative KUBA with "Classic Countdown Show" and a jumble of UNIDs took over the freq. Also heard SS on 710-which was NOT Cuba, I checked 5025 and no //. 890 and 900 were SS at times as well (890 maybe Cuba? and 900 XEW?), and an UNID on 1060 with ABC News under CKMX one morning around 4am, maybe KGFX in SD?
-crainbebo
-crainbebo
C
cd637299
Guest
crainbebo said:
So then, concerning 1600 & 890, you may have heard both KUBA *and* Cuba!
cd
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