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My wish list for next week's daytime AM DXing adventure at the Jersey shore

gar hi

gar hi

I'll be in New Jersey all of next week (near Philadelphia) visiting home and one of the things I've always wanted to do in recent years is see what AM stations I can get at the shore in the daytime now that I've realized how far some frequencies can travel on the saltwater path.


Yeah, I was aware of it when I was growing up seeing how some of the New York stations sounded like locals 80 miles away in Beach Haven and I could hear WBZ but I never tried for any more distant stations, assuming it was not possible.


So I will finally be getting to take my Sangean PR-D5 down to Long Beach Island and do some serious daytime AM DXing there after all these years!


Here's my wish list so far and I admit it may be a stretch to think I can hear most of them but it's worth a try..............


560 WQAM Miami - Depends how much I can null out WFIL and how much I may be able to hear WGAI if at all because I will be in the null of their signal.


610 WIOD Miami - Depends how much I can null out WIP. WIOD sends their daytime directional signal in a NE/SW direction.


790 WAXY South Miami - They throw all their 25kw signal to the NE. I will be in the null of WNIS too.


850 WFTL West Palm Beach - Don't have a lot of hope for that one because even though they are 50kw and send all their signal out to sea, it's mostly due east and only slightly north of east. But I will be in the null of WTAR


940 WINZ Miami - 50 kw non directional and I can't think of any other stations that may interfere. Sounds like the best possibility of all.


There is nothing but ocean between Miami and Long Beach Island, NJ.


There is probably too much land on the path of 690 WOKV Jacksonville but I will try it anyway.


And I looked at the path 530 Radio Enciclopedia has to take up there and the only real land it crosses is part of south Florida. Worth a try because of the low frequency but probably too far.

.................

So I'd appreciate anyone's input on the stations mentioned and if you have any other suggestions of other stations closer than Florida, I'd appreciate that too.
 
I've heard others say they got WCBS on Miami Beach daytime, so wouldn't that at least make WINZ Miami a possibility to hear up on LBI?

My experience of daytime AM DXing at the Gulf here in central Florida has shown I can receive stations that many would have thought impossible, such as KTRH Houston. And that was midday in summer.

And when you see their daytime signal pattern, it's concentrated to the SW and not in the direction of Florida.

Someone else here confirmed daytime reception of KTRH too on their visit to Treasure Island.
 
gar fla said:
Someone else here confirmed daytime reception of KTRH too on their visit to Treasure Island.
Click to expand...

That was me, and it was right on the beach, perhaps 100 yards or so from the Gulf in a good car radio. It was about 10:30 am and buried under the Orlando 740. I had been hearing it for nearly two weeks of my 16 day visit, but it was so weak I couldn't ID it. Finally, that one morning towards the end of my visit, the Orlando sports talkers shut up for a couple of seconds just when a mention of the KTRH call letters came through.

BTW, a few other stations also made the daytime hop across the Gulf to St. Pete Beach. Most notably WWL. KCTA also audible (barely...with WHBO nulled), along with WSHO (New Orleans), and X-bander WNRP (Pensacola....with Cuba nulled).

Good luck with the Jersey shore DX. I'll be interested to read whatever you have to report!
 
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Me being a good Oscar Madison-type New Yorker, Gar, I of course had never been to the Jersey Shore in my 40 years as a New York resident. It took until I moved to Philadelphia to get me there for the first time (doing research on something I was writing) and I wound up at Pelican Point.

But in 2001, now living in Coal Country PA, I took a casino bus to Altantic City with no intentions of gambling -- just DXing on the beach.

Present on the GE SR II were my 'back home' stations, too -- although they instead were from Long Island. WHLI 1100, WGBB 1240, WALK 1370, WLIX 540, and an especially loud WLIM 1580.
But that was daytime, and it was a short session.

If you're going to be doing some nighttime dial-twisting, though, it would be real cool if you also ran into some Auroral evening. The better DXers would know the 'odds' of that happening :- ) If those are the conditions, you might not even need a drop-dead null of WIP to hear WIOD.
On one Auroral night around 1968, on a car radio in the decidedly inland part of Queens NYC, we were hearing a weak but steady WTMA 1250 from Charleston SC. There was no WTAE Pittsburgh whatsoever ; the Aurora was that numbing.
Even from here in Coal Country, we had a visible, beautiful veil of the Northern Lights in October. So you can never tell.

(It isn't that necessary to go as far out as Montauk Point on Long Island to get that non-Auroral waterpath DX though, Nick. It used to be quite common to be traipsing around in the car in Nassau County -- the county just east of Queens -- and hearing the Islanders hockey games via the only receivable AM station to carry them.
Naturally, that station was WIOD. Honest Inj ........ uh, Honest Native-American.
In fact, even closer to downtown NYC than there, near Kennedy Airport in Queens, Atlantic City's WMID at times was louder than NYC's own WPOW 1330. Our crew was fortunate to have DXed from the very spot where water-path to the south opens).

Coastal NC will have some blocking effect on your direct water-sluice to Florida, Gar. But it also blocked a lot of Florida for us in Queens, too -- minimally.
And you'll be a bit closer to Florida than we were.

Give 1040 a try, the one out of Boynton Beach. They're Spanish now, but one dazzling Auroral night we got them here in NEPA when they were The Fox. And try for WSRF 1580 from Lauderdale.

Northern Lights or no Northern Lights, your DX-pedition to coastal NJ should be a lot of fun. Am looking forward to hearing what you were hearing!
 
Well, the direct line from there to Miami passes over the very eastern tip of North Carolina which is mostly all saltwater bays, so that would probably be insignificant in inhibiting any signal.

As far as 940 WINZ goes, I initially thought Smithfield, Va. may have been inland but it's nearer the coast than I thought and 10kw non directional so that may be an issue for trying to hear WINZ.
 
I live in NE Pa, and sometimes I take the casino buses to Atlantic City armed with a slightly heavy Sangean PR D5. I'm always amazed by the reception I get on the boardwalk. WBZ comes in, Long Island stations, especially WHLI boom in like locals and I've received stations from Norfolk,Va. I would imagine trying for WQAM is impossible with WFIL strong. I wonder if WOKV at 690 in Jacksonville would come in. I've gotten it as far North as Virginia Beach in the daytime.

DXers are a strange breed. I'm sitting on the boardwalk listening to every AM frequency, while everyone else is on the beach with an Ipod or some other non radio or in the casinos gambling.
 
I know the feeling exactly about being in a public place with a radio DXing while everyone else is doing 'regular' things. LOL

All the times I've been to the beach at the Gulf with my equipment set up, I get strange looks and sometimes I'm asked what I'm doing.

As far as WOKV goes, I'll try but I think there's too much land in between. However, I've noticed that if you are DXing from a barrier island, distant stations coming from inland are a lot stronger out there for some reason. I know it's the water but I can't figure out how it can give a boost to land path signals too.

That could be an issue trying to null out WFIL and WIP.

Another one I will try for is 1120 WSME from Camp Lejeune, NC. They are 6kw non directional daytime and play oldies, so they would be easy to spot. But WUST Washington may be an issue, however it should be in the null.

If anyone can think of any graveyarders off the top of their head I may try for, let me know.
 
Well, Charleston on 1340 and 1450 with 1kw is too much since there's several stations behind it (AC, Wilmington), but try for 790 and 850 out of Norfolk. I've also gotten WCBM 680 from Baltimore at Point Pleasant, very weak daytime during the middle of summer. I'm sure it would be stronger now.

WADS Ansonia, CT is the only station that could interfere with WOKV.
 
Well, I made it to Long Beach Island.

The cold and wind was a real test to seeing how much I really like DXing because it was brutal.

So on 560, no sign of WQAM but I got WGAI Elizabeth City in the null of WFIL. Not bad for a 1kw station.

Nothing was heard in the null of 610 WIP.

Got a fair signal on 630 of WPRO Providence.

Now 790 was interesting. Three stations. A fairly listenable one which was WPRV Providence. One behind that which I didn't get to ID but it was talk, and then a weaker one which was very hard to make out.

But at one point in the mix, I heard the words 'ESPN Radio'.

Is WAXY ESPN radio?

Of course, WFAN, WOR, WABC, and WCBS sounded exactly like locals with very loud IBOC hiss too.

The big disappointment was no trace of WBZ. There was hiss from an adjacent frequency blocking it out.

I swear, it was so damn cold with the wind that I don't know how I stayed out there. And it was not as long as I planned because at one point I had to quit. My hands were too cold.
 
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Yes!!! - WAXY is ESPN. And was this in the day? Great job, day or night!

-crainbebo
 
This was a little after 2pm.

It sounded a lot like there were only two stations on 790 but I spent most of the short time I was there listening to 790 to try to ID the second station (I assume it was Norfolk) and for brief times, I heard the other voice talking in the background during lulls on the other two and then at one point, I made out ESPN radio for sure.

WAXY does concentrate their signal in a NE/SW direction.
................
Edited to add, it's not NE/SW as I thought but it's a daytime pattern that would be even more favorable for hearing them.

http://transition.fcc.gov/ftp/Bureaus/MB/Databases/AM_DA_patterns/1425493-114724.pdf
 
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WAEB (Allentown) "should" have been one of the stronger signals on 790 at that location. WNIS could be in the mix, but a lot weaker. I tend to think WAXY simply wouldn't make it on groundwave, although it could happen on early skywave. From Nov - Jan up here it's possible to have some skywave all day long. WAXY should be quite common at sunset if WNIS doesn't dominate too much.

]
 
I'm thinking it may have been skywave enhanced by the saltwater skip. It's not common that far south but in Clearwater beach, I've gotten WWL quote strong once around 1pm on a winter day.

Also, I'm not sure what power WAXY is actually running. On Wiki, it mentions that they have been on 25kw for a long time because of the Cuban interference but they are officially listed as 5kw

Even though Radio Locator can be conservative on their estimates, the fringe signal of WAEB doesn't come anywhere near the shore. All the signals I got on 790 were strongest when the radio was in a NE/SW direction and almost nothing when I turned it to the NW.

Anyway, here's a video I got. After I heard 'ESPN Radio', I tried to hear some form of ID again but didn't get it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RR3qBetMPck

It was so friggin cold out there, I didn't get the chance to check out as many frequencies as I wished to but it was the only day in the week I could go.

Speaking of sunset skywave of WAXY, I heard the the old WFUN around sunset when my parents were driving up the Garden State Parkway near the shore back in 1975. After that, I tried so hard to hear it around sunset back in Cherry Hill but never did.
 
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