This thread just makes me sad. It makes me long for the days of full service areas. The areas many of you describe are barely outside predicted service contours. I can remember when a Class B Or Class C would get out 100 to 200 miles most or all the time with a good tuner and antenna, 75-90 miles even on a decent portable. 200 miles wasn't unusual with a good set up. And it didn't matter if it was 50 kW or 100 kW. Even 3 kW Class As could regularly be heard 50 miles away, because there weren't any cochannel stations more than 3 kW.
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How far do your local FM stations go?
- Thread starter Signal
- Start date
While that may be true in many areas, here in "The Wild West," many FM stations are still
listenable at the 100 to 150 mile range. See my original post from 6/21/16 below.
KGCB at 90.9 and KAHM at 102.1 atop Mingus Mtn, both Class C at 58 kw, with HAAT's of
about 770 meters have impressive reach. Both can be heard as far East as Sanders, AZ,
Northeast to Shonto, AZ, The Grand Canyon to the North, Seligman to the Northwest, Indio,
California to the West and Dome, AZ to the Southwest. KFMA at 102.1 Tucson, now interferes
with KAHM much beyond metro Phoenix. KAHM used to reach right to downtown Tucson
before KFMA went on the air. KGCB can reach almost to Marana, just Northwest of Tucson.
listenable at the 100 to 150 mile range. See my original post from 6/21/16 below.
KGCB at 90.9 and KAHM at 102.1 atop Mingus Mtn, both Class C at 58 kw, with HAAT's of
about 770 meters have impressive reach. Both can be heard as far East as Sanders, AZ,
Northeast to Shonto, AZ, The Grand Canyon to the North, Seligman to the Northwest, Indio,
California to the West and Dome, AZ to the Southwest. KFMA at 102.1 Tucson, now interferes
with KAHM much beyond metro Phoenix. KAHM used to reach right to downtown Tucson
before KFMA went on the air. KGCB can reach almost to Marana, just Northwest of Tucson.
Charlotte stations (about 180-200 miles depending on where the transmitter is) used to be very frequent into Charleston even as recently as 5 years ago. WSOC-FM on 103.7 used to be a very frequent catch here before IBOC. 101.9 still comes in sometimes, but much less frequently than they used to.
I remember one of my first DX catches was WFMX (the 100kw from Statesville on 105.7) on a WALKMAN. That was probably 220 miles or so. I was too young to DX (only like 7-8 doing it from my parent's car), but we'd listen to Charleston signals in NC.
96.9 was probably the best. You'd hear it from 5-10 miles before South of the Border (the NC/SC line) all the way into town. WTRG 100.7 or WNCT 107.9 with oldies would take us almost the entire length of NC and into VA before WTRG stopped almost to Petersburg.
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The last time I drove to Florida (in 2013), I was able to pick up 97.1 Atlanta as far south as where I-75 and I-475 merge together on the south end of Macon. The last two times I drove in Indiana, I was able to pick up 106.9 Marion from the northern suburbs of Indianapolis to around Plymouth (on US-31) and around Auburn (on I-69).
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rbrucecarter5
Guest
That station used to be a monster. I could hear it in portions of North Carolina, and spotty reception all the way to I-10 in Florida. Amazing signal!
I may be driving out that way again - I will try for it. Lake City is about the peak for it along I-10.
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rbrucecarter5
Guest
Since KUHA went off the air, it is an excellent time for Houston listeners to hear KKXT. They were pretty solid in Conroe, spotty further South.
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Interesting thread. The Dallas-Fort Worth stations go quite a ways depending on which direction you're heading. When I worked in Waco, most of the major full-power FM stations came in just fine in the area. I believe K104 was actually one of the most popular stations in the Waco market. It wasn't until you got down toward Temple that you lost them. I've heard most of them a good way toward Tyler, but they drop off a lot faster that direction. There is a spot out near Wichita Falls where some DFW stations with transmitters at Cedar Hill come in quite well due to the elevation of the area. It seems that in general going North, West and South the stations here travel quite well, but East - not so much.
Interesting thread!
Fairbanks, AK stations...good question. It depends. Most of our FMs are 28Kw here, though KIAK/102.5 is 92Kw and reportedly gets out as far as places like Delta Junction, Paxson, Glenallen, and the like. I think KWLF/98.1 might as well. Delta is about 100 miles south of Fairbanks, for reference. Nothing impressive by many standards but not bad, either.
Fairbanks, AK stations...good question. It depends. Most of our FMs are 28Kw here, though KIAK/102.5 is 92Kw and reportedly gets out as far as places like Delta Junction, Paxson, Glenallen, and the like. I think KWLF/98.1 might as well. Delta is about 100 miles south of Fairbanks, for reference. Nothing impressive by many standards but not bad, either.
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rbrucecarter5
Guest
98.3 (now WGCO from Savannah was NOT a DX event along highway 92 from Deland to Daytona. It was absolutely dependable any time of day, night, or year.
Can't speak for today but there was a time back in the 80's when Richmond, Virginia's Q-94 would cover a good chunk of Virginia. One could get them in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads ( Virginia Beach/Norfolk area ) too. Don't know about Roanoke but I am pretty sure Q-94 could make it to Lynchburg and Charlottesville as well. Today with so many translators on the air I doubt Q-94's coverage is as strong as it once were. I think the "winner" of this today may be Winchester, Virginia's WINC-FM. They can make it as far south as the northern suburbs of Richmond and well into Pennsylvania.
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When I lived in Gainesville, Florida in the early-middle 1970's, I had an FM Yagi with a rotator on my roof and regularly listened to stations in Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, and Miami.
I could add stations in Georgia and Alabama, except all the stations north and northwest of me were in small redneck towns and had unapealing formats.
WVTF 89.1 has to be one of the biggest now. Have heard them 4-5 times in Charleston, SC (about 300 miles out), and I heard them in Smithfield, NC on Sunday morning. That wide open frequency helps them a lot. They don't have but a couple of tiny class As in NC to interfere, with the closest Class B/C all the way in Aiken, SC.
Charleston's FMs also carry a big punch. I heard WEZL 103.5 over the Fayetteville signal in Smithfield on Sunday, and less than 5 miles south of South of the Border, their 102.5 was so strong it was on the auto preset.
Charleston's FMs also carry a big punch. I heard WEZL 103.5 over the Fayetteville signal in Smithfield on Sunday, and less than 5 miles south of South of the Border, their 102.5 was so strong it was on the auto preset.
Even with a whip, I can still get tropo scatter all day long from Seattle, Portland, Spokane, even Vancouver BC from my spot in Yakima. CFMI-101.1 is one of the most common Vancouver's, and can be heard quite clearly for 1-2 minutes at a time, several times a day at 220 miles. I sure wish I could set up a yagi, but I'm afraid of the intermod I could get from local stations!
Yagis are very directional and have far less gain on the sides and in the back than an omni-directional turnstyle or S-type antenna. Get the Yagi, put it up high atop a rotor, and listen, listen, listen.
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rbrucecarter5
Guest
I can attest to this. I put up a yagi even on local stations - it really helps with reception, gives a good strong signal in just one direction, reflections off nearby buildings are attenuated and just the primary signal comes through. This also helps with HD, because the reflections won't give false triggers to the HD detection algorithm. In some cases, I've had better reception off stations 100 -200 miles away than on local, because there are no reflections off buildings. One time - a large high rise apartment building in Lubbock was useful for receiving Dallas, I got more signal off Dallas stations 300 miles distant pointing the antenna at the high rise than directly at Dallas!
A high rise went up in the opposite direction from some analogue UHF TV stations. Aiming at the building brought those stations in but with heavy pre-ghosting on the LEFT side of the images.
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rbrucecarter5
Guest
Yeah, the high rise in Lubbock was about 20 degrees off axis. Park Tower just South of 27th on Ave. Q, reception at 1912 27th Street. Line of sight to Dallas stations would be South of the tower. If I aimed direct at Dallas I didn't get as much signal as I did bouncing off Park Tower. And at 300 miles, you need every bit of signal you can get!
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