• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Lowest power FM Station from the greatest distance away?

S

stormy01

Now tell us what is the Lowest power FM Station from the greatest distance away you have received.
This includes skip, tropo or non-skip/non-tropo reception.

For me it would probably be those Class D non-commercial (mostly High School) stations back in the day, like hearing WDGC Downers Grove, WHPK from the south side of Chicago or WLTL La Grange when they were 10 watts (not counting their upgraded powers)... this was from the Evanston/Niles areas.
 
As an LT student who worked at WLTL 1969--73 (news director, program director, & general manager), we always wondered how far we got out!

When we signed on-the-air early in the morning on holidays - when many high-school stations in those days weren't on-the-air at all -- I always added extra I.D.'s with the hope someone somewhat distant was listening.

...which prompted Phil Hejtmanek, the chief engineer at the time, to say to me sarcastically, that someone has phoned in to say he was listening in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan! Of course, that was total bunk. I would have been absolutely amazed had we made it into even northwestern Indiana or southeastern Wisconsin!

Anyway, if you had sent a report, I would've QSL'ed! Now how many high school stations QSL?

Maybe because some students who had started a pirate station - then got busted - and some radio amateurs worked to get WLTL on-the-air... some of us were very aware of DX!
 
A few here...

WCHG 107.1 160 watts at 130 miles
W208AP 89.5 10 w at 95 m
WNRS 89.9 30 w at 90 m
WVBU 90.5 235 w at 235 m

The second one is probably the hardest.
 
I heard WMTH Main Township High School on the south side once back in the 60s. Not sure how much power they were running, but it couldn't have been much.
 
I believe Maine Township's station operated at ten watts with an ERP probably under twenty watts!
 
The longest distance I heard was about 150 mile not from an FM station but from a translator about 100w or so, (I didn't remember what power rating was) The FM translator was at 106.1 in Norfolk, VA before it was converted into an FM station several years ago. I was in Fauquier Co., Va., 45 miles SW of DC, at that time.
 
My best low power FM DX is WTQT-LP 94.9 from Baton Rouge, LA. They are 71 watts, and 1248 miles from my DX shack in Poughkeepsie, NY. The signal was pretty good too.... I was surprised when I learned they were only 71 watts. If you told me they were a 3000 watt class A I would have believed you. Heard one time in June 2007.
 
dx1ng said:
My best low power FM DX is WTQT-LP 94.9 from Baton Rouge, LA. They are 71 watts, and 1248 miles from my DX shack in Poughkeepsie, NY. The signal was pretty good too.... I was surprised when I learned they were only 71 watts. If you told me they were a 3000 watt class A I would have believed you. Heard one time in June 2007.
Click to expand...

Great catch.
 
WBWC 88.3 Elyria,OH from Cincinnati in 1971. 10 watts @ roughly 240 miles...back in the day when just about everyone signed off by midnight. This was around 1 or 2 AM IIRC.
 
BobOnTheJob said:
WBWC 88.3 Elyria,OH from Cincinnati in 1971. 10 watts @ roughly 240 miles...back in the day when just about everyone signed off by midnight. This was around 1 or 2 AM IIRC.
Click to expand...

Do you think there might have been some tropo that night?
 
radioman148 said:
I heard WMTH Main Township High School on the south side once back in the 60s. Not sure how much power they were running, but it couldn't have been much.
Click to expand...

I remember that when WMTH was at 88.5 their sign on/off announcements back in the 60's and 70's stated that their ERP as 16 watts, now at 90.5, after having changed frequencies to allow the former WMWA in Glenview [now WGBK] to use 88.5, WMTH is at 8 watts ERP (why less, I have no idea)
 
radioman148 said:
BobOnTheJob said:
WBWC 88.3 Elyria,OH from Cincinnati in 1971. 10 watts @ roughly 240 miles...back in the day when just about everyone signed off by midnight. This was around 1 or 2 AM IIRC.
Click to expand...

Do you think there might have been some tropo that night?
Click to expand...
Absolutely! Only heard it once...
 
From Coldwater, MI:

94.5- K233AA- Davenport, IA- 170w 93m- 289 miles
106.7- WRHC-LP- Three Oaks, MI- 53w 41m- 84 miles
93.1- WDLP-LP- Fenwick, MI- 100w 29m- 83 miles
96.3- W243AJ- Mishawaka, IN- 250w 61m- 62 miles
88.7- W204BF- Fort Wayne, IN- 10w 174m- 59 miles
98.7- WLFQ-LP- Elkhart, IN- 100w 29m- 57 miles
105.3- W287BL- Elkhart, IN- 165w 123m- 54 miles
89.3- W207BF- Goshen, IN- 22w 79m- 51 miles

And the regulars..
95.1- W236AV- Kalamazoo, MI- 36w 41m- 40 miles
89.7- W209BA- Kendallville, IN- 10w 114m- 40 miles
103.7- W279BP- Jackson, MI- 250w 21m- 38 miles
And several other translators and LPFM's in the 25-30 mile range.
 
My former high school station, WWPH 107.9 FM, running 10 watts from the second story roof of the school. I can hear it 20 miles away on the top of a parking garage when parked in the right spot.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom