Key West SDR

[davideduardo]

It's the same with WCBS.

I would have expected it to be barely audible because of the 880 from Cuba but whenever I visit this Key West receiver, it's easily the dominating station on the frequency and an even better signal than I got in Tampa at night most of the time.

Is it because Key West is so close to Cuba that it's in that zone where both the sky waves and ground waves are strong so they can cancel the signal out, whereas once you get beyond that 100 to 200 mile mark, you get a stronger more steady signal at night?

Key West is very close to some parts of Cuba, but can be hundreds of miles away from others; Cuba is about 450 miles long, east to west.

There certainly could be cancellation of stations from areas along the nearest parts of the northern coast at night, given the salt water cancellation. But many cities in central zones or to the far east or west should not cancel.

As to the Bonaire SDR, we are now hundreds of miles away and the ground wave is not going to be any too strong. Can the Bonaire SDR hear many Cuban AMs in the daytime?

As to the Dominican SDR, I've always noted, over the last 50 years, that east-west paths in the Greater Antilles are poor... for whatever reason. Cuba was a hard medium wave catch in Puerto Rico, whether at home in San Juan or at my weekend location near Guánica on the SW coast. On the other hand, Argentian, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela were easy catches, much easier than most mainland US stations which were to the west or NW for me.

 

[Groove1670]

When I was in Sarasota at First Phone Wonder School in 1980 I could always pull in WKWF-1600 during the day.

I was programming WKWF in the late 80's (The FM got more attention). The GM who had stations in Melboure called me to let me know the local insertion system had missed a break. At that time the 1600 frequency was open, and we also had a ground system that was in the wet marsh. After the crack monsters stole the ground system twice. They went with a different antenna configuation, and the signal didn't go as far.

The other AM WKIZ had a 3 tower setup which was complex for a 250 Watt station.

 

[Ai4i]

This receiver might be near EYW airport in Key West.
The strongest and most quieting station seems to be the aerobeacon, FIS on 332 KHz.
dit-dit-dah-dit---dit-dit---dit-dit-dit
The receiver might be off by a ten hertz because when I switch from LSB to USB,
the sound matches most closely at 331.99, at least for tonight.

 

[gr8oldies]

Last time I tuned Bonaire during the day, I heard no Cubans. Venezuelans are on a lot of those frequencies so I may not be able to tell.