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Graveyard Frequencies

gar hi

gar hi

I think that I will probably do something different this fall/winter AM DXing season and concentrate mostly on the graveyard frequencies.

In all these years of DXing, I haven't been paying hardly any attention to 1230, 1240, 1340, 1400, 1450, and 1490 kHz.

(won't be able to listen to 1240 because it's next to the local 1250 WHNZ Tampa)

So I decided to listen to 1230 tonight and it was the usual roar of what sounds like many stations but no one in particular dominating enough to hear.

Then I heard one rise above the mess for a little while and I knew it was a sports station. It was easy to hear what they were saying and then the guy said ... "This is CBS sports radio".

Then I Googled '1230 AM CBS sports radio' and this was the first thing that came up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WFOM

If that's true and it was the station I heard, that's a 433 mile catch!

I would expect to hear the Gainesville station but I looked that up and it's an NBC sports affiliate.
 
Another thing I've noticed is how there are near by graveyard stations running the same non directional power day and night (according to Radio Locator) but the difference in signal is literally like day and night.

1340 WTAN Clearwater at around 12 miles from where I am in Tampa has a strong local sounding signal daytime but at night, the signal seems a lot weaker. To the point where I can null them out completely and hear the roar of a lot of other stations.

1450 WSDV Sarasota at around 42 miles has a strong signal daytime because most of the path between it and where I am in Tampa crosses the bay but at night, it barely dominates above the roar of other stations and is very weak.

It reminds me of back in the 70s when I remember seeing in the North American Radio Handbook that graveyard stations dropped their power to 250 watts at night.

The huge difference in apparent signal strength day vs. night is interesting if these stations are supposed to be running the same 1000 watts non directional all the time.
 
I have noticed the same kind of thing with WLEC 1450 here in Vermilion, OH. It comes in like a local during the day but at night it almost gets lost in the slop, sounding like it's much weaker but it's just from so much co-channel interference that it makes it sound like a weaker signal though it's the same power day and night.
 
I didn't think the co-channel interference was significant enough to make them seem weaker but I guess when you consider the old analog TV days where strong E Skip or tropo would make the picture quality of the locals look weaker, it makes sense.
 
There's lots of co-channel interference on the graveyards because nobody protects anybody, and mostly they're all running 1000 watts. Almost all stations out to 600 - 800 miles or maybe more are adding to the interference. This may be less so in Florida since in many directions that 800 mile "circle" is over ocean/gulf where of course there are no stations.

What's interesting farther north is on"auroral nights", where AM skip is strongly attenuated, the graveyarders that usually disappear at night are loud and clear because of the greatly reduced clear-channel interference.
 
Also, during those auroral nights I've noticed, stations from the south come in on graveyard frequencies. For me, KNRY 1240 Monterey, CA (which is 760 miles) is a huge Au beacon for me. Usually when that comes in, Aurora is out big time. Also KHIT 1450 Reno NV with ESPN Deportes is another beacon for me. My farthest graveyard log came from a night like this - 3/12/12 I logged KSMX 1240 Santa Maria, CA at 878 miles.

My farthest non-Au graveyard log is KACH 1340, Preston ID. Probably about 630 miles.

-crainbebo
 
I've been listening on 1230 for the past half hour and unlike last night, that sports station is nowhere to be heard.

Now, there's been a station playing old country and western that's gotten pretty good for almost a minute and then vanished only to come back again. Hope to get an ID. (Country music isn't my cup of tea but if it's part of a DXing experience, I can put up with it.)

I'm thinking it's either the one from Madison, Florida @ 183 miles or Dublin, Georgia @ 318 miles.

Where are the commercials when you need them? LOL
 
All this business about hearing a station clearly farther out during the day, but having a more limited listening area at night is just part of the AM band. The signal may still be getting to your location at night, but it is just covered up by all the competing signals "bouncing" in from every direction. Overall distant listening to AM is limited both day and night by all the "RF polution" in the air. All kinds of non-broadcasting sources of RF noise from factories, the big 'high tension' electric transport lines that dot our neighborhoods because of increased population. The Electrical equipment in factories and ready-mix concrete plants, etc. put down this little 'wet blanket" but that can be worse in the daytime when more businesses are open... or it used to be that way before so many places went to 24 hour operation.

The 'RF pollution" is somewhat new, but as a kid who grew up out among the coyotes, cactus and tumbleweeds of rural Texas a long, long time ago, trust me, Not being able to hear stations at night that came in well during the day is NOT some new process of the current era. It is more severe today.
 
From Dx1ng : >> 'What's interesting farther north is on"auroral nights", where AM skip is strongly attenuated, the graveyarders that usually disappear at night are loud and clear because of the greatly reduced clear-channel interference.' <<

True as the Sunrise Highway and Sunset Boulevard, hi. It was one auroral overnight in 1982, and locals WFAS 1230 and WGBB were a ton of bricks. Usually both dutifully get gnawed at by the usual regional suspects.
Had nearby WSTC 1400 from CT been on, I'm sure the effect would have been the same -- clear and unfading. But they were off overnights, at least on MMs. As a result, my best-catch-ever popped up there -- HJAS from Colombia. It was atop the channel, too, despite several others with them. The WRTH listed them as 3000 watts, which technically isn't a GY power. But I'll take it, lol.
At least one other DXer in the northeast heard them that night, too. I speak about as much Spanish as I speak Gaelic, so a fellow at work at the station across the hall, Reyes Burgos, cleared it up. I'd thought they were saying 'Roddio Leebertol', but he said no, they were saying Radio Universal. Then, of course, there were the calls.
There were also Spanish stations on 1450 and 1490 that went unID that night.

In this newer locale, there used to be two proximate GYers : WPAM 1450 and WAZL 1490. Normally, of course, both stations are unfit for sustained listening enjoyment at night. But at 10PM, when each sounded as though they were broadcasting from the siren-tower of the firehouse around the corner, the great Lights are lurking.
WPAM went dark, though. So the next time I hear WAZL behaving like that, there are five GY frequencies ripe for the picking. And the new neighbors on the corner speak Spanish, so Juan there might be able to pluck out an ID or two if I tape some of it.

Q : Are there any GY stations left in Mexico for Crain and/or Gar to hear on such nights?
 
First of all, thanks Gar for your radio dx'ing logs from the Jersey Shore area.

You and I have one of the same radios (Sangean PR-D5) but you find so many stations than I do, due to your patience and perserverance; I get impatient if I don't get either an ID or some local advertiser or a local phone number (vs a 1-800 #) within 5 or 10 minutes.

A few weeks ago, in eastern Hernando county (in the area between Ridge Manor and Webster) I also received the 1230 from Madison, Florida.... since by day WONN 1230 puts in a listenable signal during the day I was expecting to find it or the 1230 in New Syrmanina (sp?) Beach in the mix but the Madison, FL station was dominant and listenable for almost 10 minutes.

Here in St. Pete, I can often pull out WONN at night, of course, their "Music of Your Life" format makes them easy to identify.

At night 1450 it's Sarasota's WSDV day, very clear and at night if I have the radio turned just right, WSVD is listenable and dominant, but if I turn the radio the wrong way, it's WSDV mixed with hash; during the day, it doesn't matter which direction I turn the radio it's WSDV.

1490 is WWPR day and night, listenable and dominant; when they had their tower on the city pier in downtown Bradenton on the Manatee River (and ran the full 1,000 watts allowed), they were like a local, strong and dominant day and night.
It was hard to believe their antenna wasn't in St. Pete, it was that good of a signal.

drt
 
I had said that 1450 WSDV Sarasota has a 'strong' signal daytime here in Tampa but after listening a bit today, I would say a better way to describe it is even stronger, a local sounding signal.

If I were the same 42 miles away and the signal path was all land, I would probably be saying very weak or maybe not there at all.

I like a lot of the music they play and hearing it on AM makes it sound even more nostalgic.
 
gar fla said:
I had said that 1450 WSDV Sarasota has a 'strong' signal daytime here in Tampa but after listening a bit today, I would say a better way to describe it is even stronger, a local sounding signal.

If I were the same 42 miles away and the signal path was all land, I would probably be saying very weak or maybe not there at all.

I like a lot of the music they play and hearing it on AM makes it sound even more nostalgic.
Click to expand...

Interesting thread....at least to me...from the standpoint of having run into much of the same of what you guys are talking about during my 2+ weeks at Treasure Island this past January. WSDV "semi-local" by day. On top, but weaker sounding at night. Somewhat similar also for WTAN and the 1490. (WTAN...1340...makes the daytime hop across the gulf to Pensacola, btw.)

I've got three weeks booked for this coming January. Same place right on the beach....Land's End, a mile or so south of Cadillac's, if that tells you gentlemen anything. Checking out the GYs in a little more detail is among the things on my to-do list. Of course, I'll report anything of interest I come up with.

I'm also one of these guys who hasn't spent a huge amount of time hanging out on the GY channels. Too much noise, not enough patience. So I'm impressed with Crainbebo for his tenacity and all the impressive catches he's been able to ID on these channels.
My longest-distance catch has been then-WLAY out of Muscle Shoals, Alabama. About 600 miles on 1450 with 250 watts at the time.
This doesn't count CHUC from Cobourg, ON. Also 1450 and also about 600 miles, but they were running 10kw directional. They were almost a semi-regular here in the Chicago area, but I'm almost certain they've shut down 1450 and moved to FM.
 
We have two graveyarders here at 1340 and 1450 and they get out pretty well. 1450 at 848 watts in my former Pontiac car radio could be heard nearly 60 miles out in Kingstree daytime. 1340 gets out too daytime, but at night is limited to about 15 miles.

1400 is almost unavailable here because of a local 5kw on 1390, but I've heard local WGTN numerous times at about 45 miles or so around Isle of Palms. That is with almost no water path.

1240 can be WFOY from St. Augustine (almost all water path) but you have to have a good radio and null WTMA. 1230 is WSOK Savannah or New Smyrna Beach. Both can be heard around the area. 1490 is Brunswick, Georgia or Beaufort. So I have a station to listen to on most of the graveyard frequencies.
 
Thanks for the compliments! However, the thing is that I get sick and tired of the same regional stations every night. 1270 KXQZ, 1280 KIT, 1290 KGVO etc. way too many times!! So I move to 1340 and 1240 and try to ID Oregon stations, Idaho or maybe Montana stuff! Just a couple of weeks ago I had KBLL 1240 Helena MT for a new log.

-crainbebo
 
One must keep in mind that the Nighttime Interference Free Contour of a Class C/Class IV is around 25 mV/m usually. Although you should be able to hear it somewhat outside that contour, even a solid 5 or 10 mV/m predicted day signal could be buried in interference from multiple cochannel stations at night. There is a fairly simple method of determining NIF shown in the 1960 NAB Engineering Handbook, by counting the number of stations in several distance annuli, but you would have to double them and multiply by 20 to get the NIF. There would also be adjacents that are now counted in the NIF but not in that model. The model was based on 250 watts, and I don't know if a modified model exists in current rules.
 
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gar fla said:
I had said that 1450 WSDV Sarasota has a 'strong' signal daytime here in Tampa but after listening a bit today, I would say a better way to describe it is even stronger, a local sounding signal.

If I were the same 42 miles away and the signal path was all land, I would probably be saying very weak or maybe not there at all.

I like a lot of the music they play and hearing it on AM makes it sound even more nostalgic.
Click to expand...

Back in October I picked up WSDV on the beach in Cancun. Not super strong but listenable. Enjoyed the oldies format.
 
In Allendale, there are three graveyards that usually show up. 1230 WTKG, 1340 WJRW, and 1450 WHTC are in almost all the time at varying strengths.

In Manistee, 1240 WOMT is the most consistent graveyard at about 65 miles, despite the presence of WATT 50 miles away. There used to be a 1340 in Manistee (WMTE) and 1450 WKLA in Ludington is very weak despite being 25 miles away
 
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