Houston DXing

[sdh483]

Moving to League City next week. Wanted to know of any common DXing that occurs in the area and some uncommon ones.

 

[purpledevil]

Common:
KLBJ- Austin 590 N/T
KLIF- Dallas 570 N/T
KSKY-Dallas 660 Salem N/T
KYKX -San Antonio 680 Classic Country
WOAI-San Antonio 1200 N/T
WLAC- Memphis, Tn. 1510 N/T
Being in League City, check 700. Local KSEV/Tomball gets mauled by WLW/Cincinnati in southern and eastern parts of the city.
XERF - Coahuila, Mexico 1570 at 250,000 watts.
WBAP- Dallas 820 N/T
WLS - Chicago 890 N/T

Not so common:

KOA- Denver 850 N/T (KEYH/Houston stops it during the day, but the nighttime signal of KOA is clearly audible under KEYH in town and the farther you get away from DT Houston, KOA will come in better.)
KSAH- Universal City (San Antonio) 720 (day or night can be heard in some parts of the city)
KTSA- San Antonio 550 N/T (The more west you go, of course, the better the signal is)
KULP- El Campo 1390 Americana (Be prepared for some polka and small town flavor) Hard to get, especially with KHCB 1400 right in your back door)

On the FM side, look for KNGT 99.5 Lake Charles, La. KUT 90.5 Austin (KJIC/Santa Fe may cause you problems as far south as you'll be), 94.1 KQXY/Beaumont, 95.1 KYKR/Beaumont (Country) or 95.1 KNDE/College Station (Top 40) and of course KIOC/Orange at 106.1 is a regular.

 

[jd]

Go to 61st Street in Galveston, turn right and go to the Seawall. Scan the AM band during the day and you'll be amazed, with signals from San Antonio, the Rio Grande Valley (both sides of the border), Corpus Christi, and stations in Louisiana. That includes amazingly strong reception from WWL 870, at a distance of about 300 miles. Fact is, providing adjacent channels don't block it out, you should be able to get something on almost every available frequency.

So much for common AM stuff that takes advantage of being along the coast, but on FM what's unusual is that tropo DXing isn't really that unusual in the Houston area. At certain times of the year it can go on for a couple of weeks at a time.

 

[brian6969]

I had one for the really random about a couple of weeks before Christmas, I was driving up 45 north and when I got into LaMarque at about 4:30 PM. I was scanning the dial, it stopped on 95.3. I figured it might have been the country station in San Antonio, but then I heard a commercial for your southwest Florida Ford Dealers. Turns out it was WOLZ Ft. Myers, FL. I have no Idea what would have caused that one especially being so far away.

 

[DJboutit3]

Last weekend here I on the south west side I was able to pick up z953 I made a thread about it

 

[oldjohnny]

You want to hear really random? About 4 years ago, I was in Mexico, Queretaro to be exact, and I was bored that time and I don't know what made me turn on the hand held radio, but I turned it on expecting to hear english programming, and I surprisingly did, and the first thing I thought was I hate commercials. Then it hit me. WTF! I soon found out that all over the dial (on my hand held radio) there was Radio Stations from the state of Florida booming in and WOLZ was one of them. All the way to Mexico. This was on for the next two days and all over the dial, I kept hearing stations from Florida.

Pretty Impressive since they had to cross the Gulf and then some Mountains to get to my little handheld radio.

 

[thathoustonradiogeek]

You should also get WGN 720 Chicago. News/Talk.

Also from Chicago is sports WSCR, (aka the former WMAQ) on 670, and if you hear spanish on that same frequency, it's not from Mexico. It's Radio Rebelde all the way from Cuba.

 

[brian6969]

another one that I get at night most of the time is KMOX St Louis. I was listening to that when the Astros won the Pennant in 2005. Talk about total dejection.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Moving to League City next week. Wanted to know of any common DXing that occurs in the area and some uncommon ones.

All of the Chicago regulars at night, I've done KFI before the tower was destroyed, KNX, WABC, KNBR.

Tropo FM from Florida is an almost daily occurrence in the summer. AM is amazing the closer you get to the beach. Nothing like I experienced on the East coast, but pretty impressive. I have a feeling if I knew Spanish there is a lot of stuff over the gulf from Mexico. There was an awful lot of Spanish, that's for sure.

 

[ilistentotheradio]

Perhaps you can DX 103.7 Jack FM? ;D

 

[stevenNOLA]

Perhaps you can DX 103.7 Jack FM? ;D

DX'ing no longer needed...it's on KRBE-HD2.

 

[ilistentotheradio]

Perhaps you can DX 103.7 Jack FM? ;D

DX'ing no longer needed...it's on KRBE-HD2.

Niiiiice! Thanks for the update!

 

[rbrucecarter5]

DX'ing no longer needed...it's on KRBE-HD2.

From what I can tell - North of 610 / 290, you need to DX just to hear KRBE HD-2!!!! Or any other HD signal coming off the MO City towers.

A little arrogant, isn't it, to assume that one HD-2 channel would serve the format needs of all listeners? It sounds almost as arrogant as KSBJ's "God Listens (to OUR station)" ad campaign.

 

[stevenNOLA]

DX'ing no longer needed...it's on KRBE-HD2.

From what I can tell - North of 610 / 290, you need to DX just to hear KRBE HD-2!!!! Or any other HD signal coming off the MO City towers.

A little arrogant, isn't it, to assume that one HD-2 channel would serve the format needs of all listeners? It sounds almost as arrogant as KSBJ's "God Listens (to OUR station)" ad campaign.

Sir, what you can tell is incorrect. HD from Senior Road goes out to Navasota in the northwest quadrant, Winnie to the east, Columbus to the west, Huntsville to the north, and Goodrich to the northeast.

 

[oldjohnny]

DX'ing no longer needed...it's on KRBE-HD2.

From what I can tell - North of 610 / 290, you need to DX just to hear KRBE HD-2!!!!  Or any other HD signal coming off the MO City towers.

A little arrogant, isn't it, to assume that one HD-2 channel would serve the format needs of all listeners?  It sounds almost as arrogant as KSBJ's "God Listens (to OUR station)" ad campaign.

Wrong, You start hearing HD Drop outs on 290 just around Hempstead (A mile before Hwy 6 @ the 290 split off). It is still listenable in Navasota (With drop- outs of course)

HD from Senior Road goes into Conroe and more out.

You must be thinking of KAMA-FM in Downtown Houston.

 

[stevenNOLA]

DX'ing no longer needed...it's on KRBE-HD2.

From what I can tell - North of 610 / 290, you need to DX just to hear KRBE HD-2!!!! Or any other HD signal coming off the MO City towers.

A little arrogant, isn't it, to assume that one HD-2 channel would serve the format needs of all listeners? It sounds almost as arrogant as KSBJ's "God Listens (to OUR station)" ad campaign.

Wrong, You start hearing HD Drop outs on 290 just around Hempstead (A mile before Hwy 6 @ the 290 split off). It is still listenable in Navasota (With drop- outs of course)

HD from Senior Road goes into Conroe and more out.

You must be thinking of KAMA-FM in Downtown Houston.

Similar to my observations...KAMA-FM's HD is short-lived. Drop-outs even on Grand Parkway between I-10 & FM 1093.

 

[oldjohnny]

Try going north, For some odd reason KAMA-FM seems to have trouble going out of the Beltway at all. While Driving, It is always dropping out just before the Beltway. I guess we can factor in their power (@ 2700 watts). I think they are transmitting at 27 watts in HD. Am I wrong?

 

[stevenNOLA]

Try going north, For some odd reason KAMA-FM seems to have trouble going out of the Beltway at all. While Driving, It is always dropping out just before the Beltway. I guess we can factor in their power (@ 2700 watts). I think they are transmitting at 27 watts in HD. Am I wrong?

1% of analog power is the magic number if I remember correctly.

 

[purpledevil]

DX'ing no longer needed...it's on KRBE-HD2.

A little arrogant, isn't it, to assume that one HD-2 channel would serve the format needs of all listeners? It sounds almost as arrogant as KSBJ's "God Listens (to OUR station)" ad campaign.

I believe you are missing the point of the slogan. Arrogancy is not a word most people would tend to associate with KSBJ.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

I believe you are missing the point of the slogan. Arrogancy is not a word most people would tend to associate with KSBJ.

God Listens - to prayer. They should print that on every bumper sticker. Period. I don't find it amusing, or clever, or cute. Neither do a lot of people I talk to. How many years have they insisted on that campaign? Who knows. But the KSBJ I financially supported even before they got on the air, the KSBJ of Buddy Holiday, the KSBJ that had "the Rock of Love" - it doesn't exist any more. I don't know what happened, but they lost their vision and their relevancy to the people that believed in them. Kids, young professionals - we poured money into what was KSBJ. Not what it has become. At the very least, they ought to do what my friend Jim Hoge does in Orlando - go HD and use HD-2 and HD-3 to reach out to more people.