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how many of you have heard the following Orlando area AMS

A

austingrace

Hey guys. Everyone is talking about how far away they can hear certain stations so i was wondering how many of you hear decently powered stations from my area?
the stations i question are as follows:

540 WFLF. i know their grounding sucks but i really wonder how well their 50 kw signal really does? i get some static of them here in altamonte springs witch is just north of orlando.

580 WDBO. I know this one is only 5 KW but still curious

WQTM 740 another 50 KW. this is a station that plays spanish balids from my understanding.
WEUS 810. a 10 kw christian teaching station/ brokered programming. i have always wondered how this signal does. this station has only existed for two years.

990 WDYZ, our radio dizny affiliot. this station has a 50 kw signal. i have heard that people in miami have heard it but i can't varify that one.
1030 am. not sure of call letters on this but it is a spanish radio station. not sure of the format but hear they have a decent signal. that is it really. all the rest are 1000 watts or 2000 watts or less or the signals suck soooo bad i don't think people that are out of the area would have a chance in hell of hearing them. let me know if you have heard a station from my area that has not been mentioned here as well.

Thanks.

Austin
 
Well, Im in Indiana, and although I have Dxed almost every state west of the rockies, I have never DXed an AM in Florida,, although once during an FM opening I was alble to pick up XL 106.7 and 93.3 FLZ, as well as Island 106 and a1a 107.1 in the south and also the old Party 93.1 and Y-100 both in Miami... I think most Florida AMs are direction.

On am 540 I usually get a mix of signals at least 5 to 10 stations unlegible coming in, the only 540 I have Ided was a CBC relay in Saskatoon Canada which is much much farther than Orlando.. I wish I could DX some Florida AMs but it hasnt happened yet. I di hear Spanish a few nights ago on 890 overpowering WLS only 150 miles away, but I think that station was in Cuba or Mexico.
 
In the 70s I could pull WLCY on 1380 mixing with several others. I heard then WPDQ on 690 on 50kW at night during Hurricane Hugo
 
In the early days on the expanded band, there was a traffic station in/near Orlando I heard every night in south-central Indiana. Haven't heard it again since the expanded band has gotten cluttered.
 
From 20 miles north of Chicago:

The only Florida AMs I've ever received are 1700 from Miami and 820AM from Tampa St. Pete very early in the morning.
 
yes, i believe most of our ams are directional. the station you probably heard was 1680 wtir witch is now wokb a christian station.
 
austingrace said:
yes, i believe most of our ams are directional. the station you probably heard was 1680 wtir witch is now wokb a christian station.
Click to expand...
1680 was the frequency. I recently heard something from the panhandle of FL...I think it was on 1620. And once, 820 from Tampa forgot to switch to night pattern & it was very strong here for about an hour. Also, 690 from Jacksonville was on either 10 or 12.5KW non-directional at night several years ago & that was here every night during that time. So I guess I've heard several, but I still view Florida as a tough AM state for how close it is. Of course, numerous Cuban clock stations make it up here often enough. Now, if WWL were a few hundred miles east, FL would be a nightly catch here :)
 
my son had 540 Orlando as a preset; when he moved to Mass (from Central Florida) about 3 yrs ago right about this date (mid Dec) he told me he got the station with calls in Southern VA on I 95 right about sunrise. Of course I've gotten the NYC and Boston stations from about 500-600 mi N in the same approx location on other trips.
But thats a haul anyway.
By contrast I've gotten 580 740 and 1030 in Englewood FL. Probably others. 1030 is one of my presets when visiting Englewood as I "go fishing" fo KCRA Corpus Christi TX (daytimer) and WBZ 1030 Boston but the Spanish 1030 is predominant. I'm assuming I'm getting the 1030 Orlando do my lack of Spanish comprehension.
 
austingrace said:
Hey guys. Everyone is talking about how far away they can hear certain stations so i was wondering how many of you hear decently powered stations from my area?
the stations i question are as follows:

540 WFLF. i
580 WDBO. I know this one is only 5 KW but still curious

WQTM 740
WEUS 810.
990 WDYZ,
1030 am.
Click to expand...

From NE Ohio in the early 60's:

Easy: WDBO 580 at night. 540 WGTO Cypress Gardens, around sunset, fairly normal to hear.
Moderate: 990 WHOO and 950 WLOF
Little harder: WKIS 740 which was 5 kw then. Occasionally heard in Latin American openings as a fringe benefit.
Only once or few times: WABR 1440 winter park. WMDF 1580 Mt Dora on sign on.

1270, which was a daytimer then, was never heard by me.
 
BRENT said:
In Atlanta I have heard 820 Tampa, 690 Jax--only at sundown for a few minutes. FL Is not a state to DX from
Click to expand...
To the best of my knowledge, every station in Florida that's 5,000 watts or more at night runs a directional pattern and nearly all of those have their major nulls to the north. (since most of the stations they have to protect would be to the north).

Florida is not a good state to dx in either; at least the southern part of the peninsular; too much interference from the Cuban stations; they completely override WCBS 880 for the most part (from my s.e. St. Pete location) as well as WABC and I haven't been able to pick up WLS here in years. (but 73 miles e.n.e. of here, I can pick up WLS occasionally.)

Also since WGTO is moving their towers to the same location as 740 and also modifying their nighttime pattern, I can no longer even get a hint of 540 WFLF at night in s.e. St. Pete. I'm not sure if they are operating full time with the new pattern/location yet, since sometimes, I can pick them up faintly at night, but up until about a year or so ago, I could always pick up 540 at night, although not that well.

drt
 
hey guys. thanks for all your input. this is helping me understand a lot of things :). this explains why a lot of people have not heard too many stations from around here. trust me, at night, i heard a lot of spanish stations. ti is crazy.
 
I think dx ing is a challenge and FLA is a GREAT state to dx from. Where would YOU rather DX from?
a) in some room of your house/apt etc in Bismarck ND where the temp has been hoverning on -15 to -25?
b) sitting in a lawn chair after dark playing with the radio with a cold or other beverage with the thought "I gotta go get a sweatshirt, the temp has dropped to 65." Location: 1 hr S of St. Pete. 2 mi from Gulf.
But what makes FLA a real cool DX ing location is the occasional catches.
a) KLVI Beaumont overrriding 560 Miami.
b) KCRA 1030 Corpus Christi (a daytimer albeit a pray per view).
c) X banders from 1K miles (plus) during the day. Gotta go to the Gulf for the best catches).
d) 1160 Dallas area AM station about 1 hr before sunset.
e) at night have gotten KOA Denver and KSL (SLCity) among others.
f) Chi, Minn, St. Louis, Little Rock Hamilton Ont, Boston AM's among others.)
And sometimes listening to a Spurs game on 1200 San Antonio (very clear signal) while sitting outside sure beats watching the tube inside.
And thses catches are on stock AM radios with just average to good tuners.
 
I live in southwestern Ohio, I've DXed since 1961, with huge gaps where I did no DXing whatsoever.
These days I do most of my listening in the car driving to and from work, about a 45 minute trip.

A couple of weeks ago I picked up WFLF 640 and WDYZ 990 during sunset skip. Have never heard WQTM as we have a local on 740 and when it fades, it is always Toronto that overides our local.

While not in Orlando, two nights ago the 50KW station on 820 was booming in at sunset. Had never heard that one before. Have they recently changed formats? Seemed like they were doing news pretty heavily.

Edit: One thing I have noticed after 20 years of being away from the DX scene is how many stations which should have very weak signals in Southwest Ohio actually come in with relatively strong signals. WINS, WBBR and CFRB come to mind.
 
Florida is a cool state to DX from, despite the Cubans. I was a student at REI (The First Class License 6-week wonder school) and loved sitting on the beach at Sarasota, pulling Mexico City, theh Carribean, WLS blasting in at sunset, hearing Grenada on shortwave with a maudlin obituary report in a thick Carribean accent complete with sappy organ music.
 
From Coldwater, MI. All sunset skywave unless otherwise stated.

690- WOKV- Jacksonville- Heard a couple of times. Has the same imaging as closeby WHIO. Kind of a trip!
710- WAQI- Miami- I'm pretty sure it was them and not Cuba. I heard what sounded like W-A-Q-I in the TOH.
760- WLCC- Brandon - Barely underneath WJR. Confirmed via webstream.
820- WMGG- Largo - Probably the strongest and most frequent FL visitor. Now a N/T station.
1080- WHOO- Kissimmee- Heard one late night in '06 with ESPN radio. Not heard since.
1680- WLAA- Winter Park- Heard as a Spanish station. Had no idea they were religious now.

I have better luck with Florida FM.
 
Icangelp said:
I live in southwestern Ohio, I've DXed since 1961, with huge gaps where I did no DXing whatsoever.
These days I do most of my listening in the car driving to and from work, about a 45 minute trip.

A couple of weeks ago I picked up WFLF 640 and WDYZ 990 during sunset skip. Have never heard WQTM as we have a local on 740 and when it fades, it is always Toronto that overides our local.

While not in Orlando, two nights ago the 50KW station on 820 was booming in at sunset. Had never heard that one before. Have they recently changed formats? Seemed like they were doing news pretty heavily.

Edit: One thing I have noticed after 20 years of being away from the DX scene is how many stations which should have very weak signals in Southwest Ohio actually come in with relatively strong signals. WINS, WBBR and CFRB come to mind.
Click to expand...
As for the 820 AM, they are licensed to Largo, Fl (just south of Clearwater,Fl) and their towers are also in Largo; their new format is News/Talk (new call letters for 820 are WHBO), this month of December their daytime hours @ 50,000 watts are from 7:15am to 5:45 pm, in January those daytime hours will be 7:30 - 6pm.

Most of the area stations in the Tampa/St. Petersburg/Clearwater/Bradenton/Sarasota area power down at 5:30 in December, but Largo is far enough west, where (according to the Naval Observatory sunrise/sunset tables) Largo's sunset is 5:38 on the 15th of December, so 5:45 is the December power down time and they do power down...... from 50,000 watts to 1,000!

drt
st petersburg,fl
 
I'll have to try for the 820. I have recieved WAYR out of Orange Park, for awhile they were coming in consistently under WKRC with soft religious music in the wee hours, obviously on day power/pattern. i pulled WNWS on 790 during a deep aurora and I seem to remember pulling in WQBA once from Ohio, again very auroral conditions.
 
Here in Tampa, 540 comes in but it's rather weak. It's actually a little better in the day. I remember getting 740 pretty good years ago but can't get it at all now. I used to hear 990 when I first came down here in the 80s.
 
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