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I would normally think this was an eskip reception due to sunspots, but the time of day would seem to make that less likely. Maybe someone here can clarify what would allow that kind of skip. (maybe atmospheric ducting of some kind?)
E-skip can absolutely happen at 8pm, and generally, there is lingering ionization in the atmosphere that allows evening Sparodic Es to be quite common.
 
Nice Es opening earlier today (8/13) on the Milford PA Global Tuners...MUF 105.1 + to OK, AR, MO. Logged...

KZBB 97.9 Poteau OK
KWEN 95.5 Tulsa OK
KOMG 105.1 Willard MO
WWLS 98.1 The Village OK
KOMA 92.5 Oklahoma City OK
KMGL 104.1 Oklahoma City OK
KLMK 90.7 Malvern AR (K-LOVE)
KQSM 92.1 Fayetteville AR
KFXI 92.1 Marlow OK
KISR 93.7 Fort Smith AR
KTTG 96.3 Mena AR
KQOB 96.9 Enid OK
KATT 100.5 Oklahoma City OK
Plus tons of UNIDs, of course. Including a sports talk station on 95.3, likely one of two translators in Arkansas.

This occurred around 11:30AM-12:30PM ET (8:30-9:30 PT).
 
Unusual Stuff this morning on the upper end of the AM dial. Around 4am CDT. No new catches, but multiple strong, alone, and fade free signals from stations that normally are sharing their channel with other signals, if not missing entirely. A quick summary....

1290: WIRL I think they may have tweaked their signal back to its former self when they changed format.
1300: WOOD Usually have to wait until sunrise to hear this one.
1330: WTRX This one has been missing for quite a while. This morning it owned the channel.
1370: KDTH Usually second fiddle to WSPD
1420: WFLT: Normally rare. This morning dominant
1440:: WNFL Normally absent. This morning dominant with all 580 watts...or was it 5kw day power?
I
I also heard a news talk station on top of 1270, but didn'tt catch an ID. 1270 here at night is usually a jumble of weak signals. And finally, on 800, after a couple of weeks of "teassing me", WVAL showed up with a fairly good signal and positive ID.
 
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Unusual Stuff this morning on the upper end of the AM dial. Around 4am CDT. No new catches, but multiple strong, alone, and fade free signals from stations that normally are sharing their channel with other signals, if not missing entirely. A quick summary....

1290: WIRL I think they may have tweaked their signal back to its former self when they changed format.
1300: WOOD Usually have to wait until sunrise to hear this one.
1330: WTRX This one has been missing for quite a while. This morning it owned the channel.
1370: KDTH Usually second fiddle to WSPD
1420: WFLT: Normally rare. This morning dominant
1440:: WNFL Normally absent. This morning dominant with all 580 watts...or was it 5kw day power?
I
I also heard a news talk station on top of 1270, but didn'tt catch an ID. 1270 here at night is usually a jumble of weak signals. And finally, on 800, after a couple of weeks of "teassing me", WVAL showed up with a fairly good signal and positive ID.
First I knew that WIRL changed formats. WXYT a possibility for your news-talk on 1270?
 
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First I knew that WIRL changed formats.
Yep. For those unaware, WIRL flipped to canned political talk several weeks back. The (mostly) 60s-70s based oldies format remains more or less intact on an HD subchannel as well as a translator on 102.7. It's also streaming (it's on Tunein. as well as on its own app, and a few other places). Still a good listen.
WXYT a possibility for your news-talk on 1270?
Last time i heard WXYT during pre-dawn hours it was Amy Lawrence's CBS sports program. So I think what I was hearing as per my post yesterday had been something else..

Speaking of my post yesterday.... Conditions this morning were quite a bit different. Much closer to "normal" (whatever that is). Exception was WIRL, which was still strong. As I said yesterday, I think WIRL tweaked their signal when they did their format flip. At the other extreme, CKLW, which was entirely missing Sunday morning, was strong and alone today (8/15) before dawn.
 
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Visiting Rochester NY, I was surprised to hear the traveler's station WQFG689 in Hudson County NJ on 1710. Based on the other threads maybe this shouldn't be too surprising though. But it is over 300 miles away.
 
Rolling across northern Ohio this morning, I monitored three of the Chicago clears (forgetting about WLS until it was too late) on my stock (but excellent) Hyundai radio. WBBM 780 faded to near hash 95 miles into Ohio. WGN 720, 115 miles in. WSCR 670, 122 miles in. By Google Earth measurement, that's almost exactly 278 miles from the WSCR transmitter. Make of that what you will.

Meanwhile, in my NJ hotel room with a northeastern exposure, WSB 750 is coming in nicely on my Sony SRF-A100. Next door, CFZM 740 Toronto is in a fight with around-the-corner WJFP Chester, Pa., 50 kW vs. 6 kW, respectively. WJFP carries the Yankees, even though it's in the Philadelphia market and 660 WFAN bombs in.
 
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Rolling across northern Ohio this morning, I monitored three of the Chicago clears (forgetting about WLS until it was too late) on my stock (but excellent) Hyundai radio. WBBM 780 faded to near hash 95 miles into Ohio. WGN 720, 115 miles in. WSCR 670, 122 miles in. By Google Earth measurement, that's almost exactly 278 miles from the WSCR transmitter. Make of that what you will.

Meanwhile, in my NJ hotel room with a northeastern exposure, WSB 750 is coming in nicely on my Sony SRF-A100. Next door, CFZM 740 Toronto is in a fight with around-the-corner WJFP Chester, Pa., 50 kW vs. 6 kW, respectively. WJFP carries the Yankees, even though it's in the Philadelphia market and 660 WFAN bombs in.
CFZM seems to have a big signal even for a 50 KW. In Rochester NY where I am now, I'm 100 miles or so from Toronto but they come in essentially like a local station even during the daytime. The other "usual suspects" 1540, 1610, and 1650 came in a little bit, especially 1540, but clearly there is no comparison to CFZM.

I'm debating trying to DX on an airplane tomorrow but I probably won't since their rules forbid it.
 
Rolling across northern Ohio this morning, I monitored three of the Chicago clears (forgetting about WLS until it was too late) on my stock (but excellent) Hyundai radio. WBBM 780 faded to near hash 95 miles into Ohio. WGN 720, 115 miles in. WSCR 670, 122 miles in. By Google Earth measurement, that's almost exactly 278 miles from the WSCR transmitter. Make of that what you will.
This pretty much was my experience during the years that Cleveland was a regular business destination for me. All three of those behemoths made it into Ohio. IIRC there was a 730 in Toledo that trashed WGN. I could be thinking of something else, however.

CFZM seems to have a big signal even for a 50 KW. In Rochester NY where I am now, I'm 100 miles or so from Toronto but they come in essentially like a local station even during the daytime. The other "usual suspects" 1540, 1610, and 1650 came in a little bit, especially 1540, but clearly there is no comparison to CFZM.

I'm debating trying to DX on an airplane tomorrow but I probably won't since their rules forbid it.
IME, CFZM was usually good from Toledo to beyond Rochester. And at least audible south to Columbus. CJBC could be heard almost....but not quite....as well as CFZM. Yes, CFZM and CJBC are diplexed on the same tower (owned by the CBC), about 15 miles west-northwest of downtown Toronto. As posted previously, I've driven by the tower dozens of times on the 401 freeway. No shortage of urban sprawl in the vicinity, but the immediate area adjoining the CFZM/CJBC tower is open. I don't know the height of the tower, but I presume that it was built for 740.

As for DXing on a plane, I'll stop just short of encouraging you, but I've done it a bunch of times. We have quite a few airline pilots here in Crystal Lake, and I'm friends with several of them. The consensus opinion seems to be if you have a small handheld radio set back far enough from the cockpit, you should be fine. So I've always limited my DXing to my Sony SRF-37 Walkman....and only when I've been ten or more rows back from the cockpit. AM DX only works if you're sitting in a window seat and able to put your radio right up to the window.
 
This pretty much was my experience during the years that Cleveland was a regular business destination for me. All three of those behemoths made it into Ohio. IIRC there was a 730 in Toledo that trashed WGN. I could be thinking of something else, however.


IME, CFZM was usually good from Toledo to beyond Rochester. And at least audible south to Columbus. CJBC could be heard almost....but not quite....as well as CFZM. Yes, CFZM and CJBC are diplexed on the same tower (owned by the CBC), about 15 miles west-northwest Toronto. As posted previously, I've driven by the tower dozens of times on the 401 freeway. No shortage of urban sprawl in the vicinity, but the immediate area adjoining the CFZM/CJBC tower is open. I don't know the height of the tower, but I presume that it was built for 740.
That station on 730 would have been Jimmy Swaggart's WJYM. Depending how long ago, CHYR's daytime facility on 710 could have been a factor.

I've had the last breath of WGN in Vermillion, OH on Lake Erie, and the last breath of CFZM in Sandusky.
 
I think CJBC was decent but not as good as CFZM.

In the end I didn't try DXing on the plane. I was in an aisle seat anyhow so I probably wouldn't have heard much on the AM radio.
Hope you enjoyed your time here in Rochester!

The other rock solid Toronto AM here, most of the time, is CHLO 530, which has the channel all to itself and a nice tall tower just northwest of the 740/860 site in Hornby.

As for those two, I just had a nice visit there a week ago. The tower is about 700 feet tall, slightly more efficient for 740 than for 860. And 740 is processed more aggressively than 860, making for a louder signal.
 
I think CJBC was decent but not as good as CFZM.

In the end I didn't try DXing on the plane. I was in an aisle seat anyhow so I probably wouldn't have heard much on the AM radio.
At least based on my experience from when I was on planes every month or two, you wouldn't have heard anything on AM. :)
 
That station on 730 would have been Jimmy Swaggart's WJYM. Depending how long ago, CHYR's daytime facility on 710 could have been a factor.
Thanks for unraveling the 730 "mystery". As for CHYT, it was listenable for much of the route on the Turnpike in northwest Ohio, but I don't recall it being strong enough to be much of an issue for WGN.

As for the extent of the "last gasp" of WGN and CFZM, my experience on the Ohio Turnpike has been pretty much the same as yours.
 
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I was listening to WGTO on Lake Shore Drive today, when they put on "Mack the Knife" by Bobby Darin. Not particularly being into that song, I started roaming and when I got to 1500, once again it was "Mack the Knife". It turns out WAKE in Valaparaiso IN now simulcasts WGTO 910. According to wikipedia it just shifted this month. WAKE was one of a very small number of greater-greater Chicago area stations I had never logged before. So if anyone else in the general area needs to log it, it is easy to verify the catch now by just comparing it to WGTO.
 


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