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How far would it go??

Was just thinking how large the coverage area of a 50 KW AM station low on the band and located in the upper great plains would be. WNAX-570 in Yankton, SD runs only 5 KW, but has one of the larger coverage areas of any AM station in the country. Just something that someone who used to be in the business and still has an interest in it thinks about from time to time.
 
Here is a link to a short paper comparing the groundwave fields of non-directional stations using 1/2-wave vertical antennas with 1, 5, 10 and 50 kW transmitters, for three ground conductivities and frequencies from 600 kHz through 1600 kHz.

Many AM stations use shorter antennas (around 1/4-wave), which produce slightly lower fields -- but this paper compares them all on an equal basis to show how frequency and conductivity affects field intensity, for a given transmitter power.

http://www.radioworld.com/article/am-coverage-frequency-vs-conductivity/23739
 
I usually try to listen to Radio Australia programming on CBK during my early morning commutes in Salt Lake City. Sometimes it's great. sometimes all I get is a Mexican channel.
 
Take a look on Radio-Locator at the pattern of WCCO on 830 in Minneapolis or WBAP in Fort Worth on 820. I know Texas isn't the upper plains, but WBAP's signal is supposed to be the largest "footprint" of any AM in the U.S.
 
CBK takes the cake...no problem hearing them at Mt Rushmore during the day. How far east has anyone heard them at night? I have yet to log them in Indiana.
 
BobOnTheJob said:
CBK takes the cake...no problem hearing them at Mt Rushmore during the day. How far east has anyone heard them at night? I have yet to log them in Indiana.

In SE Iowa, they used to be reliable enough in the mid 70s that I'd listen to a Saturday night program, "Al Bonner's Hall of Fame" every week. Or I'd try to...some weeks CBK would have some pretty deep fades, other weeks quite good.

Today, KWMT in Fort Dodge IA on 540 runs about 170 watts at night, so CBK might still be ID-ed, but it's in the background.
 
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