Farthest FM regular?

[Buckeyes2001]

With all of these new translators signing on cluttering up the FM band, what is your farthest FM station you can regularly receive, in dead-band conditions?

Here in Vermilion, OH, it would have to be CIDR 93.9 from Windsor. Their signal is solid here and I can even drive to downtown Cleveland (110+ miles from their transmitter site) and still get them with a decent signal. There are no co-channel stations or even first adjacents unless you go towards Akron and Canton and you run into WHBC 94.1/Canton, OH or WQIO 93.7/Mt. Vernon if you go towards Ashland and Mansfield areas. CIMX 88.7 would be a close second but it often gets interfered with by co-channel WJCU/University Heights, OH especially going east of here.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

It would be WSGS 101.1 Hazard,KY at just over 200 miles, but it's had an STA to be on low power for a couple of years. I can top those with WBUZ 102.9 near Nashville and 100.3 from Oak Ridge,TN if I turn off a couple of local transmitters...silly thing is I like my job

 

[crainbebo]

In Bothell it was KXLE 95.3 Ellensburg [100 mi] and KPQ 102.1 Wenatchee [90 mi]. Now here in Bellevue I am lucky to pull out a threshold of 93.7 CJJR Vancouver, BC [120 mi+] with good sound-blocking headphones, and with the right radio in the right spot.

In Auburn, WA, since my relative's house is close to the Auburn Municipal Airport, KPQ 102.1 fades in and out via aircraft scatter [80 mi] and KAFE 104.1 Bellingham comes in good [95-100 mi] as well as sometimes a few Vancouver stations, KINK 101.9 Portland [120 mi+] and once got KUJJ [now KZIU] 101.9 Weston, OR [well over 160 mi SE].

In Pacific Beach, WA I get KCRF 96.7 Lincoln City, OR, 100.7 KPPT Depoe Bay and 102.7 KYTE Newport sounding like locals at times [150 mi].

In Portland, OR the farthest was likely KXXO 96.1 or KOMO 97.7.

In Yakima, the farthest regular was a weak KCMB 104.7 La Grande, OR [150 mi], and once heard KXIX Power 94 from Bend, OR [180 mi away, but extremely weak].

-crainbebo

 

[Tincap]

Regular, as in frequent? CJRT 91.1 Toronto ON [316 km/196 miles], though usually in the mornings. In the other direction, it's WVPS 107.9 Burlington VT [233 km/145 miles].

~BG

 

[ddsparxx]

Here in northern VA, if any farthest FM regular, it would be Richmond's Lite 98.1 with a very weak signal here. I'm in the area where FM stations can't be class C, so they're smaller here.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

In the mid to late 70's, I had regular reception of Dallas FM stations from Midland, TX and Lubbock, TX. Turning the antenna towards San Antonio and Austin from Midland, I could also easily get stations from those cities.

Since then, I have had regular 300 mile DX from multiple stations depending on the location. It happens when the transmitting station has high ERP off of a tall tower over relatively flat terrain. I suspect it is small nodes of signal that are created by the transmitter bay arrangement - creating little pockets of signal even hundreds of miles away. There was a Mississippi station that came in with a dipole in Altanta. Atlanta's 97.1 has a little node right at a gas station off of I-10 in Lake City. Absolutely reliable any time of the day, night, or year. I had some South Carolina stations coming in the car when I drove from Deland, FL to Daytona. Same station, completely reliable. Close to 300 miles. When I lived in the Dallas suburb of Plano, I could swing my antenna South and get 92.9 out of Houston - close to 300 miles given my location and that of the towers in Houston. I could swing the antenna around and get absolutely reliable reception on 92.9 out of Tulsa. And so it goes - little situations where DX from 300 or more miles was not only possible but reliable enough for regular listening. But because I could do similar ranges in the car, I really think it has more to do with the antenna bays and the moire patterns of coverage they create than anything else.

One reason I think this is that I did a show on a small low power station in Daytona Beach that had a very eccentric owner. It had a very conventional arrangement with a 900W transmitter, 350 feet of transmission lines, and about 4 bays creating an ERP of about 1800W. And in the fringes of its coverage - picket fencing as it got more distant. One day, the owner had a bright idea. He had bought a 6kW transmitter and absolutely insisted on using it, running it through a single bay. With transmission line losses and the efficiency of the single bay - about 2200W ERP, which was his licensed limit. Of course his electric bill shot way up and he abandoned the idea after a few weeks - but for that period the fringe reception was fascinating. When you reached the fringes, it was like the station dropped off a cliff. No picket fencing effect at all - just "there" or "gone". And it definitely went farther - a lot farther than the small difference in ERP would account for. So he was right - but for the wrong reasons. I don't think this would work for full class C, because the base transmitter power would be so high with corresponding high power bill, and running that much power up a 2000 foot transmission line would be problematic, as would finding a single bay that could handle 200kW+

 

[w9wi]

I do better on FM than I do on AM...

If I sit my radio on 94.9, within a half-hour I *will* hear:

94.9 Tom FM from Little Rock (about 300 miles)
Muscle Shoals (110mi.)
94.9 Wyng FM in southeast Illinois (120mi.?)
94-9 The Bull from Atlanta (240mi.)

While it doesn't happen *every* day, during the summer with surprising frequency I hear:

Electric 94-9 from East Tennessee (about 220mi.)
KCMO-FM Kansas City (400+/-)
KGGO Des Moines (450?)
WOLX Baraboo/Madison (~500)

 

[charlestondxman]

FM here is very good. During the winter, about the extent of what I get regularly is 104.3 and 105.7 from Augusta, about 125 miles. 105.7 is usually better because there's a weaker co-channel. WCOS is in probably 75% of the time at 97.5 in Charleston, 117 miles. Savannah also is in most of the time, but that's a little bit closer.

WCOS's frequency is so wide open, so that's why I get them so often. There's no other 97.5 in SC, and none within 200 miles except for Raleigh and a country in South Georgia. WEGX 92.9 is also in frequently most of the year.

Summer is a different story. I get reliable reception nighttime of almost all of Savannah's stations, and usually Jacksonville, especially 99.1 and 102.9. Any skip event brings in most of the rest of their FMs. The FMs from Orange City (105.1, 105.9, 107.7) are very frequent (at least three times a week), usually pretty clear with the straight shot over the Atlantic. Other Florida FMs come in frequently, but not as much as those stations.

To the north, 101.3 Sumter is overpowered by Wilmington in the summer a lot, and before our 102.5 turned on IBOC, WGNI came in all the time.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

FM here is very good. During the winter, about the extent of what I get regularly is 104.3 from Augusta, about 125 miles.

WBBQ (same calls for eons) was the best predictable catch 30 years ago before the dial got cluttered with Class A's on the Class B/C channels. From either Cincinnati (420 miles) or Columbus,IN (450 miles), if I aimed the Stereo Probe 9 at WBBQ, it would rise above the noise floor at least once every 10 minutes year round. That was back in the day when many channels had nothing but hiss in several directions. In that case, Chicago and Detriot were weak enough off the back of the antenna that there was nothing but a virgin channel to the south. The new DXer of today missed that treat...and that's a shame.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

I do better on FM than I do on AM...

If I sit my radio on 94.9, within a half-hour I *will* hear:

94.9 Tom FM from Little Rock (about 300 miles)
Muscle Shoals (110mi.)
94.9 Wyng FM in southeast Illinois (120mi.?)
94-9 The Bull from Atlanta (240mi.)

While it doesn't happen *every* day, during the summer with surprising frequency I hear:

Electric 94-9 from East Tennessee (about 220mi.)
KCMO-FM Kansas City (400+/-)
KGGO Des Moines (450?)
WOLX Baraboo/Madison (~500)

Wow...I hope that no one has 94.9 eyed for LPFM or a translator. Sounds like a sweet channel in your area. Here, the first order of business is to deal with WFBQ 94.7's formidable IBOC hiss in order to hear anything on 94.9.

 

[w9wi]

Wow...I hope that no one has 94.9 eyed for LPFM or a translator. Sounds like a sweet channel in your area. Here, the first order of business is to deal with WFBQ 94.7's formidable IBOC hiss in order to hear anything on 94.9.

Yeah, I do like having that channel around! 98.5 isn't half-bad either, except that Tupelo (at 200 miles!) tends to block anything further afield.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

Wow...I hope that no one has 94.9 eyed for LPFM or a translator. Sounds like a sweet channel in your area. Here, the first order of business is to deal with WFBQ 94.7's formidable IBOC hiss in order to hear anything on 94.9.

Yeah, I do like having that channel around! 98.5 isn't half-bad either, except that Tupelo (at 200 miles!) tends to block anything further afield.

You need a Bolin phase box if you don't have one!

 

[Lawppy]

Still several open channels, but getting cluttered fast in Coldwater, MI. My farthest regulars on the home setup (Insignia HD Radio and Winegard 6055P antenna @ 32 feet) are.

103.7- WFIU- Bloomington, IN- Public Radio- 210 miles
97.9- WNCI- Columbus, OH- CHR- 170 miles
99.5- WZPL- Greenfield, IN- Hot AC- 160 miles

Not every single day, but once or twice a week I will hear
98.9- CHCD- Simcoe, ON- AC- 245 miles (I think their path right down the barrel of Lake Erie helps out here)
88.7- WPCD- Champaign, IL- College- 210 miles

Spring and summer months usually bring in stations from much farther on a regular basis. I can get 93.1 WIMK and 101.5 WJNR Iron Mountain at over 300 miles. I get one or two good Midwest openings a year which tend to bring Saint Louis and Des Moines and sometimes Minneapolis, Kansas City and in the case of last year Omaha, Lincoln, Mitchell (South Dakota) and a 770 mile Tr reception of 104.5 KCVN from Cozad, Nebraska!

 

[OKCRadioGuy]

I pretty much grew up in JH and HS listening to Dallas radio, specifically 97.1 KEGL. The signal was acceptable enough most days that when I "lost it" due to conditions it annoyed me like no other. With the stuff I have today including DSP tuners and BP-BR filtering, I would have had a lot less of even those days where reception was hampered from adjacent channel interference.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

I pretty much grew up in JH and HS listening to Dallas radio, specifically 97.1 KEGL. The signal was acceptable enough most days that when I "lost it" due to conditions it annoyed me like no other. With the stuff I have today including DSP tuners and BP-BR filtering, I would have had a lot less of even those days where reception was hampered from adjacent channel interference.

KEGL was a strong regular in Houston at the time.

 

[charlestondxman]

WRVA at 100.7 from Rocky Mount (serving Raleigh) is a regular on almost the entire 182 mile stretch of I-95 in NC. It is clear from about MM 50 thru the VA line and well into VA.

It comes in down almost to the SC line most of the time.

 

[FreddyE1977]

from Pittsburgh suburbs, WDJQ 92.5 Akron/Canton, OH is the furthest at just over 100 miles.

I will qualify that by saying that CIMX 88.7 from Windsor, ON is a very frequent if not a
daily catch. You also have to be sitting in a very precise position on a hilltop.

 

[w9wi]

from Pittsburgh suburbs, WDJQ 92.5 Akron/Canton, OH is the furthest at just over 100 miles.

I will qualify that by saying that CIMX 88.7 from Windsor, ON is a very frequent if not a
daily catch. You also have to be sitting in a very precise position on a hilltop.

When I was in Pittsburgh a few years ago (near the airport, in early fall) if you sat your car radio on 88.7 you would indeed be able to ID CIMX within 10-15 minutes or so.

 

[charlestondxman]

Charleston FMs are regulars deep into SC. The Charleston Class Cs, 92.5, 96.9, 103.5, 101.7 and 95.1 (and a couple others) are always there in Orangeburg, 75-80 miles from the transmitters. Any skip brings them into the Columbia metro.

They are usually in till at least Florence on I-95. I've heard several of them as far N as Lumberton, NC on 95, even in the fall and winter. To the south, they are in usually in Hilton Head and Bluffton, 80 miles away, and you can hear them a long way up the Grand Strand.

96.9 and 95.1 are usually good all the way to North Myrtle Beach because of their transmitter location.

 

[Tincap]

I will qualify that by saying that CIMX 88.7 from Windsor, ON is a very frequent if not a
daily catch.

I used to get that one (rather it's predecessor) quite often, probably during tropo conditions, before the frequency filled up (first with myFM Napanee ON and then the much closer WREM Canton NY). The transmitter is listed as being 625 km/390 miles from my location.

~BG