Interesting daytime dxing right on the Gulf in Central Florida

[gar hi]

The last time I was there, I used the car radio but the problem was that I couldn't null out the local stations that spilled over into some of the distant ones I wanted to try for.

Our local 1040 made it impossible to hear much on 1030 and the local on 860 spilled alot into WWL.

I also forgot to check for signal of 1060 WLNO last time.

I took the portable this time and was able to pretty much null the local 1040 and you'll be interested to hear what can be heard on 1030.

On 740, I heard the Orlando station and a Cuban station but very faintly, there was a trace of some third station that could be heard when there was less talking on the other two stations. Could it have been KTRH?

Of course, WWL on 870 is old news but hear how strong WLNO 1060 is.

Now, on 1030 after nulling out local 1040, there was a Spanish station but listen very closely in the background! It's definitely a religious station with a preacher.

I attempted to hear 1530 from Harlington, Tx but there wasn't much to be heard on that frequency.


Here's the video.

Again, listen closely to 1030.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFkSEqPng08


Looking at the AM Log Book for 1030, KCTA from Corpus Christi is the only religious station I could have been hearing.

http://www.amlogbook.com/freq.htm#1030

Look how their signal shoots right out into the Gulf.


http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=KCTA&service=AM&status=L&hours=D


I really listened for a while to try to get a station ID from the religious station on 1030 but no luck as the other station was too loud most of the time.

Considering there's no other religious station it could have been, I'd say it had to be KCTA that I was hearing.

 

[LibertyNT]

You should try 1700 Brownsville. Straight water path.

 

[radioman148]

I'm guessing the 1030 you heard might be WONQ on the other Florida coast. It might be my ears, but I couldn't make out anything but spanish language when you tuned to 1030.

 

[gar hi]

The Spanish speaking station you hear is probably WONQ from Oviedo, Florida.

Here's another vid I took of just 1030.

I think you can hear the religious station in the background of the Spanish one better in this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsW21MVXM8Q

Going by the process of elimination with specific station formats and considering the other stations with similar formats would have to travel over too much land, I'm really thinking this is KCTA.

You should try 1700 Brownsville. Straight water path.

I did try for KVNS but there was nothing I could begin to make out on 1700.

 

[kilokat7]

Going by the process of elimination with specific station formats and considering the other stations with similar formats would have to travel over too much land, I'm really thinking this is KCTA.

Have you considered WDRU (NC)? Looks like they are beaming 50kw in your direction during the daylight hours, and they are listed as a religious format station. Nice catch either way.

http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WDRU&service=AM&status=L&hours=D

 

[radioman148]

The Spanish speaking station you hear is probably WONQ from Oviedo, Florida.

Here's another vid I took of just 1030.

I think you can hear the religious station in the background of the Spanish one better in this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsW21MVXM8Q

Going by the process of elimination with specific station formats and considering the other stations with similar formats would have to travel over too much land, I'm really thinking this is KCTA.

You should try 1700 Brownsville. Straight water path.

I did try for KVNS but there was nothing I could begin to make out on 1700.

I did hear it that time, but kilokat is right--it could be the North Carolina station.
Which way was your radio oriented?

 

[gar hi]

To best null out our local 1040, the radio was placed facing east/west.

I did consider WDRU from North Carolina and looked it up on the Radio Locator too but it's quite obvious there's WAY too much land it would have to travel over.

Even considering the fringe is sometimes a conservative estimate, you're still looking at hundreds of miles of land.

Look at the map for WDRU again. Even being able to hear it at all half way down through central South Carolina would be a good catch and even from there, it's still hundreds of miles the signal would have travel over land to make it to this area.

I'd say 900 miles over nothing but saltwater for a station of the same power would be far more possible.

 

[radioman148]

To best null out our local 1040, the radio was placed facing east/west.

I did consider WDRU from North Carolina and looked it up on the Radio Locator too but it's quite obvious there's WAY too much land it would have to travel over.

Even considering the fringe is sometimes a conservative estimate, you're still looking at hundreds of miles of land.

Look at the map for WDRU again. Even being able to hear it at all half way down through central South Carolina would be a good catch and even from there, it's still hundreds of miles the signal would have travel over land to make it to this area.

I'd say 900 miles over nothing but saltwater for a station of the same power would be far more possible.

I guess the only way we'll know for sure is if you can actually ID it.

 

[gar hi]

An official ID is always the best but it's safe to say it's virtually impossible to hear a station from more than 500 miles away over all land as opposed to one from 900 miles away over all saltwater.

 

[dlf]

What time of the day did you do your DXing? I could faintly hear the religious program on 1030. I live in the Texas Hill Country and can pull in KCTA quite well during the day. I would venture to say 1030 probably was KCTA; the poor ground conductivity in the SE between you and North Carolina would more than likely eliminate the North Carolina station by day.

Would the Montgomery station on 740 (WMSP) possibly have been the "other station" you heard? I'm with you in hoping that was KTRH.

WLNO put in quite a signal; I didn't realize the 1060 signal did so well past Pensacola (even with a straight salt water path). Did you try for KLVI out of Beaumont on 560? I was in Tampa last month and caught only Spanish on 560 at night and mainly spillover from 570 during the day. Not sure if going a little north might tilt in favor of KLVI.

dlf

 

[gar hi]

What time of the day did you do your DXing? I could faintly hear the religious program on 1030. I live in the Texas Hill Country and can pull in KCTA quite well during the day. I would venture to say 1030 probably was KCTA; the poor ground conductivity in the SE between you and North Carolina would more than likely eliminate the North Carolina station by day.

I was there between about 12:45 and 1:30 pm.

And I agree that North Carolina was an instant rule out considering all the distance over land.

Would the Montgomery station on 740 (WMSP) possibly have been the "other station" you heard? I'm with you in hoping that was KTRH.

I thought of that as a possibility. Here's their daytime coverage.

http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WMSP&service=AM&status=L&hours=D

The thing is, the way my radio was facing, that station would have been pretty much nulled out too.

WLNO put in quite a signal; I didn't realize the 1060 signal did so well past Pensacola (even with a straight salt water path). Did you try for KLVI out of Beaumont on 560? I was in Tampa last month and caught only Spanish on 560 at night and mainly spillover from 570 during the day. Not sure if going a little north might tilt in favor of KLVI.

dlf

The last time I was there, I looked for 560 from Beaumont but could only hear WQAM from Miami.

 

[radioman148]

What time of the day did you do your DXing? I could faintly hear the religious program on 1030. I live in the Texas Hill Country and can pull in KCTA quite well during the day. I would venture to say 1030 probably was KCTA; the poor ground conductivity in the SE between you and North Carolina would more than likely eliminate the North Carolina station by day.

Would the Montgomery station on 740 (WMSP) possibly have been the "other station" you heard? I'm with you in hoping that was KTRH.

WLNO put in quite a signal; I didn't realize the 1060 signal did so well past Pensacola (even with a straight salt water path). Did you try for KLVI out of Beaumont on 560? I was in Tampa last month and caught only Spanish on 560 at night and mainly spillover from 570 during the day. Not sure if going a little north might tilt in favor of KLVI.

dlf

I also was amazed at the strength of WLNO. I would've never guessed that it would put in that strong a daytime signal into Tampa.

 

[gar hi]

That signal of WLNO in the video was about 20 miles or so west of Tampa and right on the Gulf.

Where I am in Tampa, I can hear WLNO in the daytime but with just a very faint signal and nothing like that.

 

[radioman148]

That signal of WLNO in the video was about 20 miles or so west of Tampa and right on the Gulf.

Where I am in Tampa, I can hear WLNO in the daytime but with just a very faint signal and nothing like that.

Can you hear them at night when they drop power?

 

[gar hi]

WLNO actually comes in much better at night.

While WWL usually has a very good signal at night, there are some times where Radio Reloj can over power it temporarily.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

I would definitely say KCTA. Back in the early 80's when they had a better format, I listened to them in my car as I drove to Florida along I-10. They were almost as strong as a local to Lafayette, and listenable way past Baton Rouge. So a saltwater path to FL is definitely believable. They are a daytime monster, I've also heard them daytime in Midland and Lubbock, TX.

 

[radioman148]

WLNO actually comes in much better at night.

While WWL usually has a very good signal at night, there are some times where Radio Reloj can over power it temporarily.

I think WLNO sends a nighttime lobe your way.

 

[vibe]

In a location about 90 mi S of gar fla I've gotten the 1030 religious station out of NC on many occasions at Englewood Beach during the day. For some reason which I don't understand the high conductivity of the salt water beach sand boosts signals that are coming from primarily over land. Not as strong as a salt water bath however. Problem is one has to listen to a lot of #$%^ before the religious station gives an ID. OTOH I've only gotten the 1030 out of CC (TX) very early in the AM and just around sunset. Again very few calls provided by either.
I've gotten the Disney 1650 from the Norfolk area 2+ hrs before local sunset (700 mi) and the Texas-Okie X banders from 800-1000 mi.
But the AM band has been "Hot" up this way lately so getting 1030 Corpus at midday (from SW Floriduh) is not out of the possibility. And it can be, as the posts on the board have shown, to be very inconsistent (in a good way for DXers). For example I ID'd 1040 WHO despite local (30 mi) WBZ's corn beef hash.
I still think the Cedar Key-Steinhatchee area is a real interesting area to DX from if one can stand the skeeters and love bugs.

 

[radioman148]

In a location about 90 mi S of gar fla I've gotten the 1030 religious station out of NC on many occasions at Englewood Beach during the day. For some reason which I don't understand the high conductivity of the salt water beach sand boosts signals that are coming from primarily over land. Not as strong as a salt water bath however. Problem is one has to listen to a lot of #$%^ before the religious station gives an ID. OTOH I've only gotten the 1030 out of CC (TX) very early in the AM and just around sunset. Again very few calls provided by either.
I've gotten the Disney 1650 from the Norfolk area 2+ hrs before local sunset (700 mi) and the Texas-Okie X banders from 800-1000 mi.
But the AM band has been "Hot" up this way lately so getting 1030 Corpus at midday (from SW Floriduh) is not out of the possibility. And it can be, as the posts on the board have shown, to be very inconsistent (in a good way for DXers). For example I ID'd 1040 WHO despite local (30 mi) WBZ's corn beef hash.
I still think the Cedar Key-Steinhatchee area is a real interesting area to DX from if one can stand the skeeters and love bugs.

Well now the evidence seems to be pointing back toward the NC station that Gar may have heard on 1030.

 

[gar hi]

In a location about 90 mi S of gar fla I've gotten the 1030 religious station out of NC on many occasions at Englewood Beach during the day.

But what time of day and time of year?

In winter, the skywaves can start hours before sunset.

I remember listening to the old WNBC in south Jersey back in the 80s on my Am Stereo walkman laying on my bed at 2:30 in the afternoon when I started to hear that familiar sound of scrambling from the sky wave competing with the ground wave.

On the higher frequencies, I'd expect it would be more so.

Problem is one has to listen to a lot of #$%^ before the religious station gives an ID.

You ain't kiddin!

It's the opposite of most news/talk stations that give the ID many times in one half hour.

OTOH I've only gotten the 1030 out of CC (TX) very early in the AM and just around sunset. Again very few calls provided by either.
I've gotten the Disney 1650 from the Norfolk area 2+ hrs before local sunset (700 mi) and the Texas-Okie X banders from 800-1000 mi.
But the AM band has been "Hot" up this way lately so getting 1030 Corpus at midday (from SW Floriduh) is not out of the possibility. And it can be, as the posts on the board have shown, to be very inconsistent (in a good way for DXers).

Another thing to note. I tuned the radio to 1030 here in Tampa around 11:30 this morning and couldn't hear any stations at all, not even that Spanish one heard over at the beach.

I'm thinking that one may not have ben the one from near Orlando as I had originally thought but maybe from outside the country?