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Good places to live to pull in a ton of stations

schmave said:
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.
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Was it a UHF-only antenna? You shouldn't have had any trouble at all with 5, 9 or 12 that close in.

When I was in Cincinnati over the summer, a pretty basic indoor antenna gave me no trouble with all the locals plus a few of the Dayton signals (2 and 26 especially well) from one of the downtown hotels.
 
Where I am located currently, there is only one VHF High channel that is easily receivable, WXYZ 7. In the analog days, CBET 9, WTOL 11, WJRT 12, and WTVG 13 were receivable with a good outside antenna. Because there are so many losses with an outdoor antenna between cable length and splitters, an unamplified Philips with VHF High Rabbit Ears on top of the TV Entertainment Center works well for WXYZ 7 15 Miles away. Not all the nearby Full Power and LP UHF channels are always available, but a Four Bay KW4S on a rotator on the floor of the attic brings in the LPs and the weaker Full Power UHF's better.
 
Schroedingers Cat said:
Where I am located currently, there is only one VHF High channel that is easily receivable, WXYZ 7. In the analog days, CBET 9, WTOL 11, WJRT 12, and WTVG 13 were receivable with a good outside antenna. Because there are so many losses with an outdoor antenna between cable length and splitters, an unamplified Philips with VHF High Rabbit Ears on top of the TV Entertainment Center works well for WXYZ 7 15 Miles away. Not all the nearby Full Power and LP UHF channels are always available, but a Four Bay KW4S on a rotator on the floor of the attic brings in the LPs and the weaker Full Power UHF's better.
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You do realize WXYZ hasn't been on VHF since 2009, right?

What you're tuning in as "7.1" is actually on RF channel 25 and is best received with a UHF antenna, not VHF rabbit ears.
 
fybush said:
Was it a UHF-only antenna? You shouldn't have had any trouble at all with 5, 9 or 12 that close in.

When I was in Cincinnati over the summer, a pretty basic indoor antenna gave me no trouble with all the locals plus a few of the Dayton signals (2 and 26 especially well) from one of the downtown hotels.
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Nope, it gets all stations typically. Our lowest stations in Columbus are 4, 6 and 10 and I typically get them just as well as 53, our highest local.
I was really surprised as well in that Cincinnati instance.
 
For me it is Okeechobee FL. It doesn't take much to get FM stations from Miami, Tampa, Orlando and the Cape, moderate DX will bring in stations from Jacksonville, Ocala and Key west as well.
 
billy2047 said:
For me it is Okeechobee FL. It doesn't take much to get FM stations from Miami, Tampa, Orlando and the Cape, moderate DX will bring in stations from Jacksonville, Ocala and Key west as well.
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do you get WRMI in your fillings? lol
 
In an area kind of in the middle of nowhere, which has its pros and cons with reception, my home area of southeastern Kansas.

Joplin/Pittsburg was best in most of the area. Tulsa 2nd, but at any moment you really could hear anything from Northwest Arkansas, Kansas City, Wichita and Springfield (in that order for my particular hometown, for the big FM's, anyway). I had fun times as a kid spending summer nights listening to stations most folks in my area didn't even know of.
 
rparky54 said:
When I lived in Riverside, CA in the 60's we got KMEN & KFXM out of San Bernardino, two exceptionally good stations for a small market. We also received KHJ, KRLA, and KEZY from the LA/OC area and KCBQ and XERB from the south. Other AM stations were DXed at night from elsewhere.
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Sorry, I just discovered this thread. Since you listened to a lot of Top 40 stations way back when. At night I assume you also listened to KFRC from the Bay Area, But what I was curious about is if you ever tried to hear KDON 1460 from Salinas or KENO 1460 from Vegas. those two stations were about 90 degrees apart from my location in the SFV. Simply by turning your radio or your antenna 90 degrees one way or the other you could sometimes hear each one perfectly without interference. Back in the day LA's KTYM was only a daytimer and wasn't a factor. Just wondering if you had the same experience?
 
TomásEstefan said:
Sorry, I just discovered this thread. Since you listened to a lot of Top 40 stations way back when. At night I assume you also listened to KFRC from the Bay Area, But what I was curious about is if you ever tried to hear KDON 1460 from Salinas or KENO 1460 from Vegas. those two stations were about 90 degrees apart from my location in the SFV. Simply by turning your radio or your antenna 90 degrees one way or the other you could sometimes hear each one perfectly without interference. Back in the day LA's KTYM was only a daytimer and wasn't a factor. Just wondering if you had the same experience?
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When I lived in Carlsbad sometimes KDON came in clear as a bell at night while the signal of KCBQ in nearby San Diego was garbage.
 
TomásEstefan said:
Sorry, I just discovered this thread. Since you listened to a lot of Top 40 stations way back when. At night I assume you also listened to KFRC from the Bay Area, But what I was curious about is if you ever tried to hear KDON 1460 from Salinas or KENO 1460 from Vegas. those two stations were about 90 degrees apart from my location in the SFV. Simply by turning your radio or your antenna 90 degrees one way or the other you could sometimes hear each one perfectly without interference. Back in the day LA's KTYM was only a daytimer and wasn't a factor. Just wondering if you had the same experience?
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I have a Sony Supersenstive TRF stage AM Portable from the late 1960s. In the Daytime, in Genesee County, MI, I could get WAIT 820 Chicago and WOSU 820 Columbus, WGR 550 Buffalo and WKRC 550 Cincinnati, and WSAM 1400 Saginaw and WJLB 1400 Detroit just by nulling out the other station.
 
I recently did some MW listening by way of an SDR located in the Azores. On a good night you can hear stations from both sides of the Atlantic.... TalkSport in the UK, Spain and Romania, as well as a few North Africans. From the American side, St. John's in Newfoundland, and I even heard WBZ 1030 and WKOX 1200 from Boston. I bet it was a great place for DXing back when Europe still had an MW band.
 
billy2047 said:
For me it is Okeechobee FL. It doesn't take much to get FM stations from Miami, Tampa, Orlando and the Cape, moderate DX will bring in stations from Jacksonville, Ocala and Key west as well.
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When I lived in Tampa, many Orlando FMs were regulars 24/7 but when I lived in south Jersey the same distance from New York, none of the New York FMs could be heard unless it was nighttime Tropo or if you used a TV antenna on the roof.

The very flat terrain of Florida works wonders for FM reception and of course many of the stations have towers over 1,000 feet.

93.3 WFLZ Tampa could be heard on I-4 all the way up to where it meets I-95, though it started to get weaker after Orlando.

Their tower is 1,532 feet according to Radio Locator.
 
AM-FM-DXer said:
I was always amazed that WFLZ came in like a local at the Disney parks.
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Not the only Tampa-area station to be local-like at the Disney parks. 94.1, 94.9, 100.7, 101.5, and 103.5 (all on the tall Riverview towers) are very strong in that area as well, not to mention 97.5 in Winter Haven, whose stick is only about 10-15 miles south of Disney and is closer to downtown Orlando than 94.5's stick.
 
RMarino said:
Many years ago they ran a sweeper that said “from the gulf coast to the space coast”. They weren’t kidding either. It really did reach across the state.
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My brief time in Sarasota was back in 1980, with a lot fewer stations on the dial, but I had reception of Orlando, at least one Miami (I think 93.9). Also east to Orlando, and Fort Pierce. I got the Panhandle and even one FM from New Orleans.
 
@grOldies
Vacationed often by my Folks in Florida. They were in the Viilages; north-central state; a huge, very pretty 50+ retirement community between Ocala and Leesburg. Brief 4:30 thunderstorm every day. Being just about equidistant between the two coasts, one can imagine the Class C FMers from all over a lot of the state -- Tampa, Daytona, Orlando. I s'spose helping conditions is that most of the peninsula is 4 feet above sea level (the highest peak is 6 feet)
But FM DX, regretfully, has never been my bag. It's been the AM dial since I was maybe 11. I built (and kept in the small attic) a 4-foot loop, and made faces of displeasure at how bad the AM stations came in.
More recently there, with a barefoot GE SR2 I managed to hear (and tape) audio from stations on every frequency. That was at night, though. Lol -- my Long Island pal Ed Newlands worked at the local on 640 -- WVLG. I could walk there in ten minutes. He feigned insult when I told him I nulled WVLG (and him) totally enough to hear what I presume to've been Cuba. Additonal chuckle: I was outside in a lawn chair with the GE and a drink one night getting KYW 1060. Philly-born Linda comes outside, then, hands on hips, scolds me with 'You brought that nice radio all the way down here to hear THEM??'
Most girls don't really understand about DX.

Years before I stayed with cousins near New Port Richey and Dunedin, and drove around one day with the rented car radio blasting. I don't know if it was trope or not -- every day in June it's 84 degrees -- but some CHR station from Louisiana was coming in well. 'Power 96.5', IIrc. Maybe someone here knows.
 
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