I bet the top of Mount Washington is also very good.
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Good places to live to pull in a ton of stations
- Thread starter RockTheRadio
- Start date
As long as you don't blow off!
There are two FMs broadcasting from Mt. Washington - 94.9 WHOM and 103.7 WPKQ
Any TVs up there?
WHOM used to have those call letters, too, with an "-FM," of course. I used to pick it up in suburban Boston when it carried Mets games in the '60s and early '70s. IIRC, it was on the Mets' network because Virginia Payson, who owned the team, had a summer home in Maine.
WHOM was once 1480 in New York City. It is now WZRC, beginning with the Z-Rock Format around 1990.
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I will add that Mason, about halfway between Cincinnati and Dayton, is pretty ideal for hearing both of those markets at local strength. I had a work trip down there Thursday and Friday and was reminded that, outside commercial breaks that always seem to overlap, there are plenty of quality choices on very listenable signals.
I was amused that the Bengals game was on four powerful signals in that area in WLW, WEBN and WCKY from Cincinnati and WTUE from Dayton. WCKY was the weakest of the four signals and even it was very listenable at all hours, more than I expected given that I've heard cancellation on 1530 that close in.
An aside, Dayton AMs pretty much disappear in Mason at night, only 25 miles or so south of their towers. Even as early as 7:15 when I was driving back from dinner, WHIO and WING were gone. WONE was there but really weak.
Former Class I-A and I-B stations at the higher end of the dial have lost the most service, due to the electrical interference, because they always were weaker due to ground wave. There is a WCKY DA Proof of Performance in another 1530 application online that shows conductivity is also less than M-3. WCKY is still listenable due to it's Class I/Class A NIF protection.
Definitely still listenable, but it wasn't putting much slop onto 1520 or 1540, a telltale sign to me that that groundwave loses a lot of oomph by the time it hits the north side of Cincinnati and Warren and Butler counties. I wish I'd have gone out to my car and done a little late night DX'ing, but that stressful Bengals game wore me out 
1530 might have sounded different by midnight or so than it did at 7.
I did make sure to drive by WLW's tower after work; my hotel was about three miles away. I hadn't seen the property since the nearby work was completed. I can't speak to anything that was done to their ground system as a result, but to my ear their groundwave sounds every bit as good as it did before that construction.
1530 might have sounded different by midnight or so than it did at 7.I did make sure to drive by WLW's tower after work; my hotel was about three miles away. I hadn't seen the property since the nearby work was completed. I can't speak to anything that was done to their ground system as a result, but to my ear their groundwave sounds every bit as good as it did before that construction.
Actually No; there are two FM transmitters up there, so the overland and interference would ruin much DX, unless you have a VERY selective receiver. Although TV DX would be interesting!
I posted earlier in this thread but the white dot is where I lived in NW PA over a decade ago, up at an elevation of 2000 feet, the highest point for 150 miles or so. I had a Sony XDR F1JHD and a 5 element yagi on my porch.
Thar red circle was my every day reception... sometimes the stations across the river werent very strong at all, but often they were listenable and regularly showed up with RDS, namely London/Woodstock/Kitchener. I even had one host at a Toronto rimshot joke "You hear it better than I do in my car at home in my garage"
I didn't hear much to my NE and hardly anything to my SE or far SW.. no WV/VA
My distance record form here was 1500 miles one December day, beat that by 50 miles that next summer.
My power record there was a 250 watt translator 1200 miles away, 20 miles away from the 100kw mothership it simulcasted which I didnt hear.
Thar red circle was my every day reception... sometimes the stations across the river werent very strong at all, but often they were listenable and regularly showed up with RDS, namely London/Woodstock/Kitchener. I even had one host at a Toronto rimshot joke "You hear it better than I do in my car at home in my garage"
I didn't hear much to my NE and hardly anything to my SE or far SW.. no WV/VA
My distance record form here was 1500 miles one December day, beat that by 50 miles that next summer.
My power record there was a 250 watt translator 1200 miles away, 20 miles away from the 100kw mothership it simulcasted which I didnt hear.
I posted earlier in this thread but the white dot is where I lived in NW PA over a decade ago, up at an elevation of 2000 feet, the highest point for 150 miles or so. I had a Sony XDR F1JHD and a 5 element yagi on my porch.
Thar red circle was my every day reception... sometimes the stations across the river werent very strong at all, but often they were listenable and regularly showed up with RDS, namely London/Woodstock/Kitchener. I even had one host at a Toronto rimshot joke "You hear it better than I do in my car at home in my garage"
I didn't hear much to my NE and hardly anything to my SE or far SW.. no WV/VA
My distance record form here was 1500 miles one December day, beat that by 50 miles that next summer.
My power record there was a 250 watt translator 1200 miles away, 20 miles away from the 100kw mothership it simulcasted which I didnt hear.
View attachment 10725
Thar red circle was my every day reception... sometimes the stations across the river werent very strong at all, but often they were listenable and regularly showed up with RDS, namely London/Woodstock/Kitchener. I even had one host at a Toronto rimshot joke "You hear it better than I do in my car at home in my garage"
I didn't hear much to my NE and hardly anything to my SE or far SW.. no WV/VA
My distance record form here was 1500 miles one December day, beat that by 50 miles that next summer.
My power record there was a 250 watt translator 1200 miles away, 20 miles away from the 100kw mothership it simulcasted which I didnt hear.
View attachment 10725
A lot like the area between Washington and Baltimore. Pretty much anywhere between the beltways (495 on the north side of DC in Maryland and 695 on the south side of Baltimore). Only a couple frequencies on the dial that are not taken up.
So much short-spacing as you have 105.7 in Baltimore, 105.7 in York PA, 105.9 Woodbridge/DC; then 106.5 Baltimore/106.7 Manassas. Then you have Frederick and Hagerstown stations in a lot of places. West Virginia stations the further west you get.
They moved off the mountain back about 2002, and unfortunately their site up there burned down in 2003, after they had moved their transmitter closer to Portland.
One of my best friends used to live in Gaithersburg and a lot of those stations were/are listenable in his neighborhood. Unfortunately some of them tended to interfere with each other by that point.
A couple of years ago, I took my portable digital TV down to Mason while visiting Kings Island. I was able to get the full set of Cincinnati and Dayton TV stations just with the included antenna on the portable!
Funny you mention that because I brought a digital antenna with me on my work assignment just in case I had trouble getting traditional TV in the hotel, as opposed to a bunch of streaming options or whatnot. I did not, and was able to watch the Bengals game that night (it was the Amazon Prime game and WCPO picked up the simulcast), but had I hooked up the antenna I have no doubt I'd have easily caught all the Dayton and Cincinnati stations on the fourth floor of my hotel.
In any case, I couldn't get to the settings on the TV that would have let me autoscan the channels in.
In any case, I couldn't get to the settings on the TV that would have let me autoscan the channels in.
I once brought an antenna to Cincinnati with me when I had to work an event at Princeton H.S. and the Bengals were playing at the time. As I remember, 9 did not come in at all, 12 was much more hit and miss than I expected (that being the channel carrying the game), and I remember getting 19, 25, 48 and 64 anyway. Don't think I ever checked 5.
None of the Dayton stations were present at all. So maybe my expectations of getting all of them in Mason with my antenna are optimistic. I only live about 15 miles from downtown Columbus and have the most basic of digital antennas because that is all I need at this distance.
None of the Dayton stations were present at all. So maybe my expectations of getting all of them in Mason with my antenna are optimistic. I only live about 15 miles from downtown Columbus and have the most basic of digital antennas because that is all I need at this distance.