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Farthest non saltwater daytime reach

And yet there are at least two AMs that beat it, if only slightly: KFYR 550 in Bismarck, ND and, across the border, the North American champion, CBK 540 Watrous/Regina, SK.
 
I know that it's much higher up the dial, but I thought I read that WBAP packs a wallop, due to terrain.

cd
 
KXSP 590 Omaha has a huge reach as well...

-crainbebo
 
When I lived in Nebraska some years back, you could drive just about anywhere in the eastern half of the state, set your AM radio on scan, and it would reliably stop on 540 (KWMT Fort Dodge), 570 WNAX (monster signal), and 590 (WOW at the time). Sometimes if you were far enough south it would stop on 580 (WIBW Topeka). Not sure but 550 KFYR might have been a scan stopper too sometimes.
 
My best so far is 626 miles, receiving 700 KALL North Salt Lake City, UT, which is NNE of me here in El Cajon / La Mesa, CA (east of San Diego). I recorded this using my Tecsun PL-606 and Select-A-Tenna at about 1pm on Feb 17 earlier this year. There is some splatter from 690 XEWW about 32 miles SSW of here, but you should be able to hear KALL's TOH ID somewhere in there.

I haven't seen him post here in several years (but do see him occasionally at the yahoo abdx group), but I seem to recall someone who, using a GE Superradio III and a 5-foot tuned loop, was able to hear several Chicago 50kW stations about 950 miles away in Lubbock, TX.

I'd actually like to know how far various stations would go (until it's barely readable) under various conditions (choose among frequency 540, 1120 or 1700 kHz; power 0.25, 1, 5, 50 kW (and optionally 2 MW or whatever is the highest power transmitter that can be manufactured); short antenna, quarter-wave, half-wave or Franklin; 0.5, 2, 8, 30 mS/m conductivity) with a high-end communications receiver (NOT one that attenuates AM!!) and a combination of a beverage antenna, several-meter-diameter tuned loop and a ferrite sleeve loop using at least 7" ferrite bars, assuming a receiving location that's as far away from manmade noise as possible and not within 10,000 km or so of an active thunderstorm. :)
 
The situation has changed since my most distant daytime reception, none other than the aforementioned KWMT Ft. Dodge IA. It was sometime in January around noon and I was listening on a Delco car radio. This was back when KWMT was still running 1,000 watts and a few years before a local 540, KDFT, had signed on from Ferris TX. My location at the time was in Irving, just west of Dallas and approximately 678 miles from Ft. Dodge.
 
Those who have traveled in the Dakotas will not dispute Scott's tagging of CBK as the groundwave coverage champion. It's a dramatic reminder of how important ground conductivity really is.

I know I've heard more distant daytime signals, but they were intermittent & unusual skywave. (WBBM in central Kansas at midday, etc.) The massive coverage of CBK -- as well as KFYR, WNAX, KWMT, WIBW, WOW/whatever-Omaha-590-is-these-days -- is groundwave; you'll experience the same superb coverage every time you're in the area.
 
I can attest to the great coverage of WNAX and KWMT. Every summer, I drive from Lexington, KY to Colorado Springs. AT MID-DAY! BOTH of these stations can be heard along I-70 right up to the Colorado/Kansas border on a good car radio. I have a GM/Bose system in my 2006 Silverado which is an outstanding AM DX machine.
 
Scott Fybush said:
And yet there are at least two AMs that beat it, if only slightly: KFYR 550 in Bismarck, ND and, across the border, the North American champion, CBK 540 Watrous/Regina, SK.
Click to expand...

These two both get my vote.  As posted in another thread, for the second time this year (and at least a dozen times previously), last week I did the run from Minneapolis to Winnipeg.  7 hour drive.  CBK and KFYR both tripped the scan button in the car radio in Winnipeg, Grand Forks, and Fargo....all hundreds of miles away from the respective sticks.  CBK is clearly audible for about 150 miles into Minnesota....KFYR a little farther than that.  Almost to the Twin Cities suburbs. 

WNAX also makes it to Fargo and Grand Forks (barely), but not Winnipeg.  Winnipeg of course is the longtime home of the former "Prairie Powerhouse" CKY, which had a monster 50kw signal on 580.  Back to WNAX, they're clearly audible (24/7) in the Twin Cities and on into Wisconsin.

Okay....now here's a question.  There's one station that's clearly audible daytime in both the Twin Cities and Chicago....and all points in between.  Can anyone name it? 
 
^ Just a guess....WMT 600? (I have an alternate answer if this is wrong)

cd
 
I'd agree with WMT. WHO probably would with a very narrowband receiver (1030 stations in both markets and a 1050 in Eau Claire).
 
I heard WMT pretty decently with a Walkman in the Chicago suburbs about 5 years ago in a high-rise where I could see the lake. Great signal.

The best on the East Coast is probably WFAN, but that has some salt-water path allowing it to go into NC.

WLW and WSM are great signals too. I've heard WLW as far S as Knoxville daytime.

820 in Tampa is a huge signal too. It's weak, but it is there in Charleston on my good car radio daytime.
 
It's definitely WMT. I've heard them in both cities every time, no matter what radio I was using. Even a $5.00 pocket radio was able to hear it in both cities.
 
charlestondxman said:
I heard WMT pretty decently with a Walkman in the Chicago suburbs about 5 years ago in a high-rise where I could see the lake. Great signal.
...
WLW and WSM are great signals too. I've heard WLW as far S as Knoxville daytime.
Click to expand...

WMT does cover very well, but I can assure you KFYR and CBK do better.

WLW isn't half-bad; at a quiet location they can be heard in Madison, Wis. at noon in summer.

I'd suggest WSM is fairly puny for the 50,000 watts & well-engineered antenna. The ground conductivity is simply way too poor around here. When I head towards Chicago, WSM is essentially gone by Marion, Illinois. That's well shy of halfway, but the Chicago Class A's are quite listenable by then.
 
CBK is the best I've ever seen as far as non-saltwater groundwave is concerned. 50 kw at the bottom end of the band in a region with excellent ground conductivity. It comes in as a local as far away as Calgary and Edmonton. That's somewhat like WLS or WBBM coming in like a local in eastern Ohio or western PA. All day, every day. Comes in all day from the eastern slope of the Rockies to the western edge of Ontario. Essentially the same distance as central Iowa to Utah.

Yes, the other nominees here in this thread are formidable, but CBK is most certainly the North American champ as far as this category is concerned.
 
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