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FM Stations Picked up WAY out of their Fringe

L

LibertyNT

Here is a List of FM Stations i have Picked up here in Mckinney. As i found out Im WAy out of THeir Fringe...
I mainly pick them up at night. Sometimes During the day. Any Ideas why they come in LOud n' Clear?

95.7 KKAJ Ardmore, OK
99.9 WACO Waco, TX
99.9 KLUR Texoma [fights with WACO]
92.9 Simply Id as Kick-FM Out of Sherman
93.5 T-93 Near Sulphur Springs [im at the line of their fringe]
93.3 KBDN Dallas/FtWorth [I should be on their Fringe. Even in Wylie they Sound like crap]
91.5 [Cant get ID Doesnt COme in good enough but its there. Sounds like a Church Chan.]
104.1 The Ranch out Of Tyler [Very Rare]
93.3 Q93 Out OF Louisiana [low clouds that day. Oddly enough Overpowered KDBN]
 
Too late to modify it but.. ::)
The Reason for these stations too come in out of their Fringes and Being on FM is
Completely Baffling me. The only reasons i can think of are Low clouds [there usually arent]
Or if its raining. ITs Not.
Any one have any ideas?
 
If it happens a lot, it's probably just luck. If it is sporadic, then it's probably either E-skip or Tropo Ducting.

R
 
Robert Bass said:
If it happens a lot, it's probably just luck. If it is sporadic, then it's probably either E-skip or Tropo Ducting.

R
Click to expand...


What he said
 
When I was in college, my college's LOW POWER (2.8kw) station got a reception report from PA once.

You can try for a QSL card see if they have any they'll send. Not many broadcast stations do that anymore.
 
I can hear 95.7, WACO 100 and 99.9 in Texoma all the time. They visit the metroplex almost everyday.

Other stations that I can hear in the metroplex all year long is KNIN out of Wichita falls and Sunny 106.5 KOOI in Jacksonville (usually listenable at night and early in the morning. a little bit more spotty during the day.).

Can't wait for the spring till everything starts to pick up. Unfortunately DXing in the metroplex can be quite a pain because of the hiss generated by HD Radio...but frequencies i'm able to DX off of the best is 92.9, 95.5, 95.7, 99.9, 101.5, 102.5, and a few others. I heard 95.5 out of Jackson, MS one time in the metroplex a couple summers ago.

I live in Lubbock now and my furthest catch from there is 104.5 out of Jacksonville, Florida. All I used was my regular car radio. No special equipment. Keep checking out the frequencies and you never know what you might hear!!! Especially when Spring and Summer comes around.

Happy DX'ing!
 
LibertyNT said:
Here is a List of FM Stations i have Picked up here in Mckinney. As i found out Im WAy out of THeir Fringe...
I mainly pick them up at night. Sometimes During the day. Any Ideas why they come in LOud n' Clear?
...
92.9 Simply Id as Kick-FM Out of Sherman
Click to expand...

Sure this isn't KNIN Wichita Falls?

91.5 [Cant get ID Doesnt COme in good enough but its there. Sounds like a Church Chan.]
Click to expand...

Probably KYFB Denison, Bible Broadcasting Network.

93.3 Q93 Out OF Louisiana [low clouds that day. Oddly enough Overpowered KDBN]
Click to expand...

Only one day, I presume? The only 93.3 in Louisiana is in New Orleans, obviously much further from your location than any of the rest of these stations! It could certainly come in, by tropospheric propagation, but I can't see that being a routine thing.

The rest of these, if they come in regularly, are just regular tropospheric reception. The atmosphere *always* bends radio signals to some degree - that's why you can get stations beyond line-of-sight. Sometimes it bends more than normal, and that allows "DX", abnormal reception beyond a station's normal range. (for example, if you're hearing New Orleans in the DFW area)

Sporadic-E, quoted by someone else, is a different phenomonon. It has a minimum distance. If you hear a station less than 600 miles away, it almost certainly is not sporadic-E. (on the other hand, if you hear a station more than 600 miles away, it almost certainly is E. The Jacksonville, Florida reception quoted by Eggs was sporadic-E.)
 
I picked up Kiss FM out of Dallas in Eureka Springs Arkansas once.
 
I've heard KEOM visits Ontario, quite a bit... There was also a report one time from Tennessee.

R
 
Q93 is not a regular....
92.9 i get 2 stations on that freq. one is Kick-FM. The other is Prolly KNIN
When KXEZ 92.1 out of Farmersville Went off I got a Country Station from OK. And 92.1 Out Of Tyler.
 
KLUR is Wichita Falls.

I can't find a KICK-FM on 92.9 anywhere, except Winnipeg, Manitoba. I'm pretty familiar with the Sherman-Denison market. There's KMKT Katy Country on 93.1 in Bells (15 miles east of Sherman), making a 92.9 out of Sherman pretty unlikely. It's a mystery to me and I'm really curious.

I had a pretty cool one last week. I was driving and doing a sweep through the FM dial. I got to 91.3 KDKR when I went under an awning. My signal immediately switched to KUAF from Fayettville, Arkansas. When I came out from under the awning, it switched back to KDKR.
 
(disregard)

R
 
As for why you can pick up so many signals outside of their fringe contours, remember that radio signals, especially analog ones, aren't an exact science. How far away you can get them can depend on almost anything, including power, tower height, other stations around, antenna, receivers, atmosphere and plenty of other factors.

When I lived in Ft. Worth, I could get every FM out of Waco except KWBU (I don't think KBCT 94.5 was on-the-air at the time, but I wouldn't have been able to get it if it was) as well as 96.7 and 101.7 from Sherman/Denison and most of the stronger Tyler stations. However, I couldn't consistently get anything out of Wichita Falls.

Several Dallas/Ft. Worth stations (94.1, 94.5 and 107.5) could pretty much always be heard on a good radio in Tulsa until about 1989. A few stations either signed on or upgraded onto those frequencies and blocked them. Several Wichita stations used to show up frequently in the Tulsa Arbitrons, and, even today, you can hear most Tulsa stations in Ottawa, KS, which is about an hour southwest of Kansas City. Also, a few years ago, most Denver stations could be heard as far away as Goodland, KS, and I could count on getting KFDI and KYQQ out of Wichita in Burlington, CO when travelling between Kansas City and Denver.

Some of the variables include very little (both in topography and stations) between Ft. Worth and Waco, Tulsa and Ottawa, and Wichita and Burlington. Every station that got a really good distance regularly was also a class C except for the old KMEZ 107.5.
 
Does anyone know the top most powerful FM stations? I have heard several times Magic 107.9 KEZA is one of them, but I was curious who the others were.
 
dallasrockradio said:
Does anyone know the top most powerful FM stations? I have heard several times Magic 107.9 KEZA is one of them, but I was curious who the others were.
Click to expand...

Oh, there are plenty of stations with bigger signals than KEZA. (indeed, there are plenty *in the DFW market* with bigger signals than KEZA)

I would suggest the five biggest signals are 103.3 Santa Barbara, California and the four Los Angeles signals on 90.7, 104.3, 95.5, and 101.1 respectively. They aren't the most powerful stations in the country but they're pretty potent and have their antennas on a mountaintop. The antenna heights of these stations range between 860 and 960 meters - about 3,000 feet.

Literally the three most powerful stations are WBCT 93.7, CJKR 97.5, and WOOD 105.7. 320kw, 310kw, and 265kw respectively. The two U.S. stations are in Grand Rapids and CJKR is in Winnipeg. However, their antennas are relatively low - 238m and 247m for the Michigan stations, only 70m for CJKR! The California stations "get out" better, depending on direction. (the opposite side being that Michigan and Manitoba are a lot flatter, no mountains to block the signals!)

Also, when a station's power is "grandfathered" into a figure greater than the current rules allow, its coverage is protected on the assumption it's using the current maximum. For example, the current maximum in Grand Rapids is 50kw/150m - so WBCT is protected assuming it's running only 50 kilowatts. The additional coverage they get from the extra 270 kilowatts is subject to interference from other stations. This applies in California as well but since there aren't as many other cities closely surrounding LA the interference problem isn't as bad.
 
The biggest signal in terms of land area covered is WHOM 94.9 in, I believe, Mt. Washington, NH. KRUZ 103.3 and KBIG 104.3 cover the most total area, but about half of that is over the Pacific Ocean.

WMC-FM 99.7 in Memphis is actually more powerful than WOOD-FM 105.7. It has 290,000 watts of power. However, it doesn't cover quite the area of WHOM or the California stations. You can hear it better further out than the other Memphis stations on a poorer radio, but you really can't tell much of a difference on good car radios.
 
LibertyNT said:
95.7 KKAJ Ardmore, OK
99.9 WACO Waco, TX
99.9 KLUR Texoma [fights with WACO]
92.9 Simply Id as Kick-FM Out of Sherman
93.5 T-93 Near Sulphur Springs [im at the line of their fringe]
93.3 KBDN Dallas/FtWorth [I should be on their Fringe. Even in Wylie they Sound like crap]
91.5 [Cant get ID Doesnt COme in good enough but its there. Sounds like a Church Chan.]
104.1 The Ranch out Of Tyler [Very Rare]
93.3 Q93 Out OF Louisiana [low clouds that day. Oddly enough Overpowered KDBN]
Click to expand...

A lot of these are regulars. Down the road in Plano - some of the regular fringes are:

88.3 KCJR
88.7 KTCU (or a K-LOVE affiliate from Tyler when they are off the air
88.9 KETR
92.9 KNIN or one from Waco or one from Texarkana
93.1 KNKT
93.3 is a local
93.5 country from somewhere
93.7 local spanish
93.9 country from somewhere
95.5 country from somewhere
95.7 country - I thought it was Greenville not Ardmore
95.9 country from somewhere
99.1 Spanish
99.9 WACO
101.7 Spanish
106.5 KOOI
106.9 translator from Greenville.

These are just some of them that show up regularly on my car radio. I got three of them on my presets they are so dependable (KTCU, KNIN, KOOI)

There's a lot of other stuff I can get on the noncomm band I haven't explored much, a lot more if I am at home hooked up to an antenna.
106.9
 
rbrucecarter5 said:
95.7 country - I thought it was Greenville not Ardmore
Click to expand...

95.7 is KKAJ Ardmore. They also do a pretty good job with severe weather coverage.

There's a 95.9 in Sulphur Springs, so a 95.7 in Greenville sounds unlikely.
 
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