Speaking of saltwater paths... ;D Here's a few examples of how well a couple Santa Barbara area AM stations are heard using only the Tecsun PL-606's built-in 100mm ferrite bar antenna in the early afternoon in Ocean Beach (part of San Diego southwest of Sea World) less than 1/2 mile from the beach...
1290 KZSB Santa Barbara - 500 watts ND, 182 miles
1340 KCLU Santa Barbara - 650 watts ND, 182 miles
1490 KSPE Santa Barbara - 1kW ND, 182 miles
All 3 stations share the same tower less than half a mile from the beach.
For those of you in the northeast (CT, RI, MA, VT, NH) where the ground conductivity is poor compared to that, how strong are the various 50kW stations at a comparable distance?
Also, here's
1250 KZER Santa Barbara, CA, heard from the same location. Their 2.5kW directional site is near the beach so that one tower is closer to the beach than it is to another tower.
10kW DA 1520 KVTA Port Hueneme, CA also does quite well there in OB.
As for other stations around here...
In my back yard east of La Mesa / south of El Cajon (east of San Diego),
50kW ND 1070 KNX does quite well on the PL-606 from 111 miles away, especially with the help of the Select-A-Tenna and a chainlink fence. They can also [url=http://www.mediafire.com/?mc620812kslswer]be heard quite well using only the PL-380's built-in ferrite.
As for other stations...
(I don't have recordings of many more, and my Zoom H2 isn't correctly recognizing SD cards so I can't record any more right now.)
530 WNHV296 LAX Airport could be faintly heard, but gets comparable-strength competition from a co-channel Cal-Trans TIS somewhere in San Diego county.
Clip with SRF-59 + SAT
560 KBLU Yuma, AZ, is very faint, barely audible.
570 KLAC Los Angeles is a fair signal in my back yard.
590 KTIE, now that KOGO has shut off their HD, can be faintly heard if I null 600.
640 KFI (50kW) is fairly strong at 99 miles, but not quite as strong as 1070 KNX at 111 miles.
This is due to KFI coming in over an entirely land path, whereas KNX has some saltwater aid.
670 KIRN Simi Valley is somewhat weak but listenable.
710 KSPN Los Angeles is slightly better than KIRN.
730 XEEBC Ensenada is weak but listenable when I null 740 (now that KBRT seems to have their HD off). The PL-606 seems to have an internal het which covers it up, though.
740 KBRT Avalon (10 kW on Santa Catalina Island) does as good as if not slightly better than KNX.
Clip with PL-606 barefoot then with SAT
790 KABC Los Angeles is a fair signal, hampered a bit by splatter from a local on 800. With the
SRF-59 + SAT, XESU Mexicali can be heard underneath.
820 XEABCA (or is it XEVMS?) Mexicali is very weak but audible.
830 KLAA Orange is a fair signal, although its 50kW is considerably weaker than KNX due to a less efficient antenna and an all land path, even though it's somewhat closer.
Clip with PL-606 barefoot then with SAT
850 XEZF Mexicali is very faint, but can be heard if I null 860.
870 KRLA Glendale is very faint and has to fight off splatter from 860.
930 KHJ Los Angeles is fairly weak but listenable.
Clip with the PL-606 barefoot then with SAT
960 KIXW Apple Valley is a fringe signal - I have to go way out in the back yard to have a chance of hearing them at all. I'm about 33% past Radio-Locator's 0.15mV/m fringe contour for them. Based on calculations I've done with the M3 map and groundwave curves, I estimate their field at my location to be about 72.8 µV/m. Clips:
PL-606 barefoot then with SAT and
PL-380 barefoot
970 KNWZ Coachella is also very faint, but somewhat better than KIXW.
980 KFWB is slightly better, but hovers right at the soft mute threshold on my PL-606. (KHJ is slightly better).
990 XECL Mexicali fights a winning battle with KTMS Santa Barbara, and is somewhat stronger than 980.
Clip with SRF-59 barefoot then with SAT
1000 KCEO Vista is a fair signal here during the day.
1020 KTNQ Los Angeles is very weak, comparable to 970 or 980.
1050 XED Mexicali is weak but listenable.
1110 KDIS Pasadena is quite severely desensed on the PL-380 and PL-606 but can be faintly heard, whereas on the SRF-59 it is a slightly weak but definitely listenable signal, with a little splatter from 1130 KSDO.
1150 KTLK Los Angeles is extremely tough (nearly impossible barefoot) with local blowtorches 1130 and 1170 being the two strongest stations on the dial here. The SAT definitely helps.
Here's a sample.
1160 XEQIN San Quintin has been heard here when 1170 KCBQ was off the air, even though I'm at least twice as far as where Radio-Locator says their 0.15mV/m fringe contour is.
1180 KERN Wasco-Greenacres has also been heard when 1170 was off the air, and I'm about twice as far or so from their estimated 0.15 mV/m contour. I did some calculations with the M3 map and FCC groundwave propagation curves, and estimate that their groundwave field at my location is about 22.7 µV/m. 1170 KCBQ is about 130 mV/m, making reception of KERN impossible without serious help when 1170 is on the air.
1190 KGBN Anaheim can be faintly heard, especially if I null 1170, but has slight competition from a co-channel in Mexicali. Clips:
PL-606 barefoot then with SAT and
same on SRF-59
1250 KZER Santa Barbara is very weak but listenable.
1280 KFRN Long Beach is on the slightly weaker side of a fair signal, but definitely usable.
1290 KZSB Santa Barbara (500 watts ND at 195 miles) is faint with the built-in ferrite, but a fair signal with the Select-A-Tenna. A few examples:
Clip 1 (PL-380 with SAT then barefoot),
Clip 2 (SRF-59, then PL-606 in 4k then 1k BW settings),
Clip 3 (barefoot then SAT),
Clip 4,
Clip 5. Also, KKDD San Bernardino can sometimes be heard, but it's much weaker, even though it's 5 kW DA (10x the power, more with some of it directed almost toward me) and 95 miles away (2x closer). [url=http://www.mediafire.com/?7atz6zgqo19ltv7]Here's an example - barefoot, then with the SAT on the PL-606.
1320 KKSM Oceanside is very faint, but can be heard. (It's probably one of the weakest stations that's relatively close.
1330 KWKW Los Angeles is a fringe signal.
1340 KCLU Santa Barbara is comparable to KZSB.
Clip with SRF-59 barefoot then with SAT
1390 XEKT Tecate is a fair signal.
1450 KFSD Escondido is slightly toward the weaker side of fair.
Clip with PL-606 barefoot then with SAT
1490 is either KSPE Santa Barbara or KGBA Heber, I haven't yet identified which it is.
1520 KVTA Port Hueneme is fringe, barely audible.
Clip with PL-606 barefoot then with SAT
1580 KBLA Santa Monica is also a fringe signal.
1620 WNSB415 San Ysidro does surprisingly well for a TIS at 15 miles over a land path.
Clip 1 (PL-606 barefoot then with SAT),
Clip 2 (PL-380 with SAT on a 180-foot chainlink fence)
1650 KFOX Torrance is barely audible.
1670 KHPY Moreno Valley is comparable to 1650, if not slightly weaker.
I uploaded a folder of clips from a PL-606 + SAT bandscan one afternoon in May.
Here's the link.
As I mentioned earlier, one afternoon 1170 KCBQ was off the air for several minutes, as was 910 KECR. Here are
some clips I recorded during that time on 900 to 920 and 1160 to 1180.
I also have checked reception in Cameron Corners a few times, which is a little east of Campo, E/NE of Tecate.
Here are the clips from the session in June earlier this year. (I haven't finished with the SAT clips, so there's only a few there.) Also, here are clips from a recording session last August there with the PL-380 -
barefoot and
with the SAT.
I also did the same thing on Hwy 76 somewhere a little southeast of Pala in northern San Diego county. Here are
samples recorded from the barefoot PL-380. (In that folder is a text file explaining what was on the various frequencies - I recommend checking that before randomly clicking on the audio clips.)
The farthest station I've heard in the middle of the day is
50kW 700 KALL North Salt Lake City, UT, at a distance of 626 miles. That was pulled in with the PL-606 and Select-A-Tenna in my back yard, about 32 miles from 77kW 690 XEWW.
Somewhere I read a post that mentioned someone at Signal Hill in Newfoundland hearing 5kW 560 WQAM Miami, FL, during the day. Anyone have any other comparable (or farther!) saltwater DX?
Also speaking of variations in ground conductivity, I wonder what transmit power WCBS would need to use (obviously more than the maximum 50kW the FCC allows) to have their 0.15 mV/m signal go as far over land to the north along the eastern border of NY state as it now goes over saltwater to the east? (Or am I, as well as a few others, a bit spoiled by our proximity to saltwater?
)
