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Most exciting type of DXing .... AM or FM?

gar hi

gar hi

I was thinking how different DXing priorities are in the summer vs. winter and how this time of year, I'm so anxious to hear E Skip.

Even though nighttime AM DXing was what introduced me to the hobby and that I especially now like daytime AM DXing when there's saltwater involved, I think FM E Skip is more exciting, the best form of DXing.


Maybe it's because it's rare compared to AM signals being heard at the same distance but I'd say FM is more interesting than AM if I had to pick one.

Tropo also adds to FM DXing being more unpredictable than AM.

So which band would you say is better?
 
Each of these forms, offer their own brand of excitement. When I TADX, it's more like "gotcha!", because you can go after specific (usually) high powered transmitters. On the FM band, E-skips bring in much more random, so there you get the "Holy Crap-olla" events, like when Texas came in, walking all over my dial. :)

~BG
 
I like FM a lot better. Its a lot easier to log a station. AM DXing is tedious with the amount of stations on at night and trying to log an ID with 5 stations on the frequency at once.
 
I like FM DXing more than AM. When E-skip hits I get VERY excited. E-skip is NOT common in Washington and we DEFINITELY don't get the number of Es openings that the East Coast (and Europe) gets. Sometimes I just get relog after relog (think KUNM 89.9 and KJZZ 91.5) but it's still over 1000 mi from here which is great! I felt even more excited when I logged KDBN 101.1 Parachute, Colorado (relay of KKNN 95 Rock Grand Junction) with only 200 watts! E-skip can happen but it's not common at all.

AM is also fun, but hearing the same 300 stations gets tiring. Logging the same stuff every night on regional channels, and hearing KSTP every night in the winter is getting boring. Can we have some 61w flea power 1570 stuff from IL, KY, etc. come in now?

-crainbebo
 
I fell in love with DX on the AM band. I remember many a night of tuning for unusual stations with an old-fashioned transistor radio.

In this age of digital tuning it is a bit less of a challenge, as you can tune click-by-click-by-click, and frankly the programming is less of a fascination. One can only stand, for instance, so many simulcasts of Sean Hannity repeats (not even the live show, but where stations delay it into early evening).

Still, while I think FM can be more exciting, just for the programs that can pop up, I hardly expect to get stations from across the nation on the FM band.

What I do get there are stations that are just far enough away that they're a challenge. In the Pittsburgh area, that can include 102.1 and 107.3 from DuBois or occasional West Virginia or Ohio offerings beyond the large nearby cities in those states (Wheeling, Morgantown, Youngstown).

So, for the true distant pull, AM gets my vote, but in terms of attractive programs I'd have to concede that to FM.
 
I like both AM and FM, but different parts about it. I like FM because in our area with the frequent DX, I can often get Savannah, Myrtle Beach, Jacksonville and Columbia stations. I like trying for the Orlando, Charlotte, and South Florida stations.
 
In the past, I enjoyed FM Dxing a lot, with both tropo and E skip, logging in many stations. As many FM stations started using IBOC, the excitement of FM DX faded away a bit...I have turned a bit more toward AM DX. Listening to several AMs on a same frequency at night, is, I know, challenging and can be tedious, but when I hear an ID, it can be a great feeling. In VA, where I am, the FM tropo DX is usually confined to east and south of the Appalachians although, in SW VA, I once heard 2 DC area FM stations on a car radio.
 
I've had quite a bit more fun with AM DXing than with FM. :) For me, receiving 103.3 KVYB at 212 miles southeast of their tower is a regular occurence (and practically 24/7 stereo-tripping reception on a hilltop near my house), so I don't know that you'd call that DX.

Examples of my AM catches (all from my home between El Cajon & Rancho San Diego, CA, unless otherwise noted):

Fall 2010: 594 JOAK - heard on PL-380 + Select-A-Tenna - while dodging splatter+IBOC hash from 5kW 600 KOGO at 7.7 mi W/SW

several years ago: 1240 KALY Albuquerque (Disney at the time) - on Panasonic RQ-SW20 + SAT, behind unmodulated carrier from KNSN (then-KSON, iirc, post-Disney affiliation), 11.2 mi W/SW and normally dominating the channel at night

Spring 2011/12, ~5am: 1230 XEEX Culiacan - barefoot Sony SRF-59. had gone to sleep listening to another station, woke up and not 5 seconds later heard their TOH ID barely above the noise, alone on channel

Halloween or Thanksgiving timeframe 2011: 910 KWDZ Salt Lake City - on one of my Tecsuns. local 5kW KECR (9.3mi, almost same direction, ~10kW ERP toward me) was having automation problems, so I caught Disney in Camping's silence.

within past several months: 840 WHAS Louisville - Tecsun PL-398mp + SAT. was listening to Dave Ramsey on KXNT's local-grade blowtorch signal, and heard "Newsradio 84 WHAS" underneath.

last year or 2: 1575 VOA Ban Rassom, Thailand - PL-398mp + SAT (also heard on barefoot PL-606). dodging splatter from 1580 KBLA & KMIK, plus KMIK-HD (has since been shut off)

on 1290, daytime: 1290 KZSB Santa Barbara, 500 W ND, 195 mi, owns the frequency, with barely a carrier peeping from KKDD San Bernardino, 5 kW DA (ERP 6.5 kW), 95 mi, due to saltwater path for KZSB.

1070 KNX at 111 mi is a few dB stronger than 640 KFI at 99 mi, again due to saltwater. 1110 KDIS at 112 mi, 80 kW ERP toward me, is a good 20-24 dB weaker.

couple years or so ago: 1130 CKWX Vancouver - a Tecsun. local 10kW KSDO at 6.3 mi N was off the air (ok i realize that's cheating :p )

I'm sure there's more good ones, but those are a few I could remember. :)
 
FM for me. Some of the best catches I can remember are (all of these are tropo):
98.9 KZPK Paynesville, MN (Grundig S350DL)
100.3 KDRB Des Moines, IA (Grundig S350DL)
96.1 KGPZ Coleraine, MN (Grundig S350DL)
96.9 KMFY Grand Rapids, MN (Grundig S350DL)
94.9 WUPZ Chocolay Township, MI (Tecsun PL-390) - mixing with local WKZC!
95.9 CFPL London, ON (Car radio)
103.5 WKSC Chicago, IL (Car radio) - Local 100kW blowtorch WTCM was off for a few minutes once and there they were!
106.3 WMXG Stephenson, MI (Car radio) - Now-defunct station used to occasionally mix in with local WKLA
101.5 WJNR Iron Mountain, MI (Grundig S350DL and Tecsun PL-390) - Got this on the Grundig somewhat off-frequency a few years ago (local WMTE was running full power at the time). Now that WMTE is 250W, I once got a pretty much clear WJNR on my Tecsun, less than two miles from the WMTE STA site (yes, WMTE was on and they mixed in occasionally that night).
And some fun with the Tecsun PL-390:
Today, if my radio was standing, I would get a listenable WCUZ Bear Lake on 100.1. If I were to tilt my radio back a little bit, I would get a very weak WRHN Rhinelander, WI
One night, I remember getting WMUS Muskegon on 107.9 in one spot while a few feet away I was getting WCDY McBain
 
Like gar, I started out DXn AM...in my case, it was early 1974 when I started being serious about it. It was later that year when I "discovered" that DX was even possible on FM---I always thought it was the same stations over and over!

When I was stationed in Alaska, it was strictly AM (and SW if I could borrow a receiver)---no such thing as E-skip or tropo in Anchorage. I couldn't ever catch 103.5 in Homer w/ 100 kW on a rod antenna, at 200 miles. It sure was interesting hearing DX from Asia, Hawaii & the lower 48---however there were nights that you couldn't catch anything. I only logged 125 AM stations, including the locals, in 2 years of trying.

Back to FL though, my DX is pretty much FM/TV only. **Too** many AM stations now, and almost every frequency is like a graveyarder here, with the numerous Cuban AMs, PLUS former daytimers going nights PLUS electrical QRM! Even with I-BLOC, I'll take FM over AM.

As gar knows, I do like *daytime* AM DX from certain coastline spots though. I have to be in the right location though.

cd
 
Great topic, Gar.

DXing here started via the AM radio (the parents' Zenith AM-phono on the porch) and has continued as the main dial to this day.

Sort of counterpoint to KeyTimes : For me, someone who also began as a pop music lover even before DXing, the FM dial also has been less than fascinating in recent times. You have to wait through a fifteen-element set of commercials before a song starts so you know what kind of station it is.
And maybe not even then, lol! Everything on FM sounds alike.

Today, though, 2013, give me tropo FM DX as my favorite form, oddly enough. That can keep me captivated for as long as it lasts. ES can be really fleeting.
But I'm just a novice at FM DXing anyway. Any radio I've bought in the past ten years has been purchased for its AM performance.
 
You have to wait through a fifteen-element set of commercials before a song starts so you know what kind of station it is.
And maybe not even then, lol! Everything on FM sounds alike.
Click to expand...

Now that is a good thing to bring up.

There's been times where I get E Skip and then get frustrated because the stations have commercial after commercial and I panic because I'm afraid the Skip will go away by the time I finally can get an ID.

Yes, everything on FM sounds alike and most play the same songs all the time to the point where you don't want to hear them anymore, be it oldies or current songs.

When I'm listening to FM for non DXing purposes, I notice how most all the stations have their commercials at the same time so you can't simply flip the dial to find music to avoid commercials. :-\

But the purpose of DXing is not what you're listening to but the fact that you are able to listen to the station at all.
 
I prefer AM DX for a couple reasons. Mostly it's because I prefer the sound of it. After AM DX my favorite radio activity is to DX the shortwave broadcast bands and tune through the ham bands.

Aside from a couple years in the 1980's when I discovered certain local FM dead spots, which yielded CBUF from Vancouver, B.C., and a couple other non-local stations, I just haven't been able to get all that enthused about DXing FM.

The only FM skip I've heard was years ago, on my Superadio 1, a station in the Dalles, OR -- about 200 mi away as the crow flies. It was a bit of tropo. It was fun hearing it, but events like that are so rare that I don't personally see the point in it. Any time I tune the FM band I just get the locals and a gazillion translators. If E-skip happened more often, maybe I would find it more interesting.
 
I was the only hobby-DXer in a group of some six people, at the tail end of a card game (which had drinks), when I brought out the portable I traditionally carry everywhere, and started tuning around.

It was out on Long Island, around 11PM, about four miles inland from Great South Bay. The radio wasn't especially terrific (Radio Shack $24 AM-FM). But trope doesn't seem to discriminate.

Country was coming in, quite well, either from WCBS-FM or very near it ; the frequency determination of the RS portable was laughable. And I had to think fast when the DJ said WCMS. 'That's in Norfolk,' I told them.
That was the end of the card game. At one point, to compensate for the whip antenna pickup, the whole group (including two girls) was posed in all sorts of contortions, holding hands, frozen so as not to disturd the reception behavior until we heard an ID, lol. We heard IDs from WZAM 94.something from NC, WFOG Norfolk, and a few others.
I called a DXing friend living in NYC (woke him up) and darned if he didn't spend an hour or so with his radio from Manhattan, DXing. He said he was puzzled by the ID of one station called CIOO, near 100.0 on his dial, from Nova Scotia. He told me he didn't know that Canada had calls that started other than with CB-, CF-, CH-, CJ-, and CK-.

Several folks certainly didn't get their proper rest that night, lol. It was also great to see two gals be part of it all.

Witnessing a tropo session is like seeing an Aurora Borealis. I tend to stay until the last flicker. You enjoy the view, and want it to stay, but it slowly changes and keeps you captivated that way, too. I'm aware that E-skip is more amazing for many, if not most. But I've heard E-skip maybe only three times, since I don't like FM's programming in recent years.
 
I find FM DXing more exciting - when it happens, and, where I am, that is very rare indeed (I have a city-grade signal on nearly every channel). AM can also be exciting, and I can DX AM a LOT more often than FM.

Funny your poll did not offer as a choice my favorite form of broadcasting (my favorite hobby overall): TV DXing!
With channels 2, 3 and 4 (affected by sporadic-E skip more often than FM is) wide-open for DX since the analog shutoffs of 2009, I'm seeing stuff I could only dream of before.
 
Me?

I prefer LW/MW and Shortwave. But that's just because they are what I grew up with.

What little FM DX I've done has been very interesting.
 
Interesting topic. I started DXing on AM in the 60's, when most stations were off the air for at least a few hours each week, most commonly Sunday nights after midnight. I managed to log all 48 continental states from Connecticut, though that's not as hard as that might sound. I believe it took a specially arranged "DX Test" of a 1 kw daytimer to snag Oregon. Never could get KORL-650 Hawaii, although it seemed everyone else heard them. On AM, of course, you could also get lots of foreign countries... the Caribbean, Central America, South America, Europe, even Africa. Cuba was a real PITA!! I never got into ShortWave. I also started FM DXing too a couple years later, typically tropo more than E-skip.

Nowadays I've totally given up on AM... too many stations, always on the air, and too much noise. I like FM a lot, but in the past few years translators have taken over just about all of the previously open frequencies, and IBOC has gotten stronger from New York City stations making FMDXing more of a challenge. Fortunately, I don't have too many local IBOC stations, and local WAMK-90.9 has stopped IBOC, at least for now. When E-skip comes my way, I still get excited and hit the FM dials trying to catch something new. Several days ago I caught WMTX-HD 100.7 locking in over my local WHUD-1007.... making WHUD just vanish. That was cool.

My real passion these days though is Digital TV DX. This is always full of surprises, as I log stuff I'd never thought I'd get on DTV. When I first put up a UHF antenna in 2009 during the digital conversion, I wasn't even sure I'd get New York City (70 miles to my South). I was blown away during my first tropo event a couple weeks later when I got WUND DT-20 out of North Carolina (well over 400 miles). And I have more DTV stations logged from Ohio (7) than FM (4), and my FM log was started six years earlier. I would never have expected that. It's difficult getting anything new on DTV at this point, although I enjoy just seeing some of the distant stations again, such as last week when both WTKR and WTVZ from Norfolk, Virginia came in over my New York regulars. It is still a thrill for me to see my locals/regulars taken out by much more distant signals. I get excited with DTV E-skip too, although there are about 6 stations that are very common here on E-skip, and getting anything else takes patience. I enjoy DTV's crystal clear pictures along with great sound; as part of my hobby, I take photos of every DTV subchannel received.

Now if we could just get some E-skip, or at least a solid tropo opening.....
 
I also enjoyed AM DXing in the 60s. Started in 1961. Being located in the Chicago area I was easily able to catch both coasts regularly when clear channels really existed. Had the opportunity to DX the big east coasters a few times on west coast, but never was able to try for KNX or KFI on the east coast.
I never was very much into FM DX, but if it was there I enjoyed hearing it, but I never had the patience to wait for it to appear.
 
If only analog TV had never been replaced by digital, I would have said that was my favorite kind of DXing.

E Skip was far more frequent than on FM and it was always interesting to see the rolling bars and flashing out of sync images appear on the non local channels and even on the locals when it was strong enough.

The most common path in the northeast seemed to be to Florida and sometimes channel 2 from Miami would have local picture quality for brief times.

One time, channel 3 in Philadelphia was dominated by channel 3 from Tampa for a short time when I put the rabbit ears in the right position.
 
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