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KVNS Booming in Tonight

A

asugeorge1

KVNS is coming in pretty good tonight completing owning the 1700 dial here in Phoenix, AZ. At first, I thought XEPE was down as it wasn't present at all, but it appears to be there, but just weak in the background. There also appears to be an unidentified talk station underneath as well, which I assume is the 1700 out of Dallas, TX.

I'm always surprised how strong this little 880 watt station out of Brownsville, TX can be sometimes. KVNS is coming in fairly clear tonight here in Phoenix and I'm pretty sure it is one of the few stations that can be heard coast to coast. If you're on the west coast, see if you can pick it up tonight!
 
No luck here. Being in a spot where XEPE's groundwave field is of comparable strength to a typical class A skywave within 500 miles, if not stronger, makes it a bit tough.
 
asugeorge1 said:
There also appears to be an unidentified talk station underneath as well, which I assume is the 1700 out of Dallas, TX.
Click to expand...

Note that KKLF is now Funny 1700, all comedy. The switch happened on Valentine's, almost two weeks after the originally announced start day.
 
Usually in northern VA, I get WEUP at night, and I once heard KVNS over WEUP for a short period of time. That was last year.
 
ddsparxx said:
Usually in northern VA, I get WEUP at night, and I once heard KVNS over WEUP for a short period of time. That was last year.
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I too have picked up KVNS, here in eastern Ontario, on at least one occasion. After getting an ID on KVNS, I remembered being floored, when I checked out the power rating of this station. I thought it was a misprint. That's the cool thing about this little hobby of ours...those surprises that come our way! :D

~BG
 
I don't check 1700 all that frequently, but I've heard KVNS here in Cincinnati a couple of times. Last time was in January @5:30 AM EST on my drive to work.
 
I've never heard it here in Columbus, but part of me thinks I'm trying too early in the evenings. Maybe 1 or 2 a.m. would be better just before bed.
 
Overall, I think KVNS is the most impressive station coverage-wise in the country considering it's small amount of night-time power. Within the last year, I've heard KVNS from as far east as Orlando, FL and as far west as Santa Ana, CA. Can't get much better than that! Also, I know there are reports of KVNS being heard in the UK (I think there's a youtube video of it somewhere).

To me, what KVNS shows is what overcrowding of frequencies has done to the AM broadcast band. I believe 1700 has the least amount of legal stations on the frequency in the country and around North America. With KVNS broadcasting at 880 watts, can you imagine what their coverage would be like if they were a 50,000 watt non-directional station? They could easily be heard around the country and even across the Atlantic with the limited use of the frequency around the world. Now I know what radio must have been like in the 1940's and 50's when New York stations could be heard on the West Coast in LA and vice versa.

KVNS: The little station that could! ;D
 
Exactly, 1700 is empty. I usually get WEUP but have IDed KVNS by verifying music playing with their web stream. I've also got KVNS on the online Global Tuner in Ireland.
 
I didn't get to listen last night but I checked tonight on the car radio while waiting in a parking lot and not the slightest trace of KVNS.

Just a fairly strong WJCC fading in and out with the Alabama gospel station fluttering in the background.

On a typical night, KVNS can always be heard to some extent but this is one of those unusual nights.

When I first heard about KVNS, an oldies station on 1700 here in this forum, I didn't know what what people were talking about because the times I briefly checked out 1700, it was not there but once I heard it for the first time, I listened quite often for it and discovered it's pretty much a regular here in Tampa at night.

When I was in Santa Cruz last September, I listened to 1700 each night and could never hear even a trace of it behind the strong XEPE.
 
In East Texas a little west of Tyler, KVNS is always there at night. Signal strength varies a little but in general it's very solid. There's a hint of XEPE after sunset but that's about it; ordinarily nothing else is really identifiable. In Dallas KVNS is strong as well and it often totally wipes out the semi-local KKLF, whose nighttime site is 25 miles NNE of downtown.
 
I remember when I lived in Iowa, I never heard KVNS even though it was on the air. It was always KKLF with a signal so strong it always pegged the meter. Even knocking off KBGG Des Moines which was 2 hours away. KBGG was a solid day time signal but it couldn't compete at night with "The Ticket" as it was known then. In Ottawa, I get KVNS almost every night faintly, fighting with KBGG.

I've heard WEUP in Iowa as well but it was really hard to pull it out from Dennison-Sherman Texas.

1700 is not really all that empty I've heard Hialeah Florida there as well. 1610 is the empty frequency with only 2 Canadians and I think one Mexican.
 
I plan to try for KVNS again within an hour or so. The noise level in the village where I live usually is negligible so hoping I have a good shot.
JD's post got me thinking ... how does KVNS sound within its local area? Funny we hear it so far away (when I lived in Houston I listened regularly at night), but I imagine KKLF might give that weak groundwave up at 1700 some problems down near Brownsville. Do we have any south Texas posters?
 
You bring up a good question. I'd like to be able to give you an answer, but it's been several years since I've been all the way down to the Rio Grande Valley and that was before 1700 came on the air. (I can tell you, however, that the ground conductivity there is quite similar to that in North Texas.) There are a few people from the RGV who post on the Texas Board, so you might want to ask about it over there.
 
I just picked up WEUP from Huntsville, Alabama on 1700 here in Thornville, Ohio. Pretty clear but obviously there are other stations on the frequency. They're just too weak for me to ID them. I am sure KVNS is causing problems through it's inaudible.
 
schmave said:
I plan to try for KVNS again within an hour or so. The noise level in the village where I live usually is negligible so hoping I have a good shot.
JD's post got me thinking ... how does KVNS sound within its local area? Funny we hear it so far away (when I lived in Houston I listened regularly at night), but I imagine KKLF might give that weak groundwave up at 1700 some problems down near Brownsville. Do we have any south Texas posters?
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KVNS is a regular daytime (although weak) and nighttime catch from Houston. Because it is only one of two oldies stations receivable in the area, it is something I'm really familiar with. KKLF interference is the main problem - I really wish there weren't two 1700's about the same distance, especially with the oldies format hole in Houston. KVNS is strong enough it is on my car radio presets, although admittedly I've switched to satellite most of the time to get the formats I want.
 
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