Has anyone heard CKGM 690?

[Icangelp]

WLW IBOC has been off for a while, so 690 and 710 have opened up for DX here in SW Ohio.

Saturday morning @4AM, I heard 690/CKGM in Montreal, with an I.D. stating they are running in parallel with 990 KHZ. All sports with local and TSN/ESPN programming.

The Wikipedia info for CKGM states they have been on since 9/4/2012.

The signal was weak, which surprised me. Back in the day, they had a strong signal. Are they running full power and non directional?

 

[fybush]

50 kW, yes. Non-directional, no. The last non-directional 690 in Montreal was CBF, which used a fairly tall, very efficient tower east of Montreal in Brossard. When CBF moved to FM and the 690 frequency opened to new applicants, it became CINF, operating with 50 kW directional from the former CFCF/CIQC site in Kahnawahke, south of Montreal with a pattern aimed north. That license was surrendered and 690 once again opened to new applicants. The current CKGM incarnation uses the CKGM-990 site in Mercier, also south of Montreal, and evidently with a somewhat tighter pattern aimed north. I can hear CKGM 690 here in western NY just fine at night, but it's nowhere near as strong a signal as CBF was, and it seems even a bit weaker than CINF was.

 

[spunker88]

Last night I was checking out the signal strength that registered on my Tecsun PL-390 for the station. I was getting around the same signal strength on CKGM that I was getting on CKAC 730. Surprisingly 990 was actually around 5-10dbu stronger than 690. Back in the day 690 was pretty strong and was listenable here during the day. I checked their signal during the day and it was about the same strength as 730 during the day which is pretty weak. It barely gets above the noise floor on my Tecsun and on my XDR-F1HD with a tunable AM loop its barely getting 1 bar.

 

[Icangelp]

Thanks to both of you for the info.

 

[mimo]

I'm getting a very strong CKGM in downtown Ottawa. My house has a noise flo0r that is so high, even the locals have some static (except for CIWW 1310). CKGM is very clear and (without any external antenna) has a 33 dbu signal, where CJAD has a 29. CKAC is only a in winter and a 15 summer. These were what my G8 has said for the past week. Those number will be higher in December and should easily break 40 for CKGM and CJAD and the low 30's for CKAC. For the daytime I get only a very weak whisper at 990 now if I'm outside with no power lines over head. At night, 990 can be hit or miss now but when it's in, it's still weaker than 690. They are directional but there is definitely a lot of signal going west, especially if they are hitting Ottawa with a signal that cuts through the noise flo0r in the house and can be heard sounding better than some of the locals.

 

[spunker88]

Its possible their directional signal favors Ottawa, with Canadian sports programming they would appeal to listeners in the area. Also 690 will do better with daytime groundwave since its a lower frequency than 690.

 

[mimo]

Its possible their directional signal favors Ottawa, with Canadian sports programming they would appeal to listeners in the area. Also 690 will do better with daytime groundwave since its a lower frequency than 690.

That's probably true. One of the reasons they said they wanted 690 was to better serve the English speaking population which is on the west island plus they wanted to reach western Quebec, which would include Gatineau, just across the river from me. I also heard that it was only slightly directional like CINW was supposed to be slightly directional. Both reached Ottawa very well.

The only thing I don't understand about Montreal AM's is why CKAC goes from 15-17 dbu in the summer to about 30 to 32 in the Winter. No other station goes through that much signal change in a 6 month period.

 

[Tincap]

The 690 signal was coming in stronger than the 990, into Ottawa today. It's been the same story, here at home, 80 km (50 mi) south of town. Definitely a better signal.

~BG