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Range of your local signals

C

charlestondxman

I was just in Georgetown, South Carolina, about 50-60 miles from Charleston, and most of our major FM signals at least reach up to that area and the bigger ones reach beyond deep into Georgetown County and even Horry. Only 100.5 and 106.3 among the commercial Charleston FMs didn't make it. Along with the translators that have 250 watts.

Myrtle Beach signals also reach well down there. What about your area?

 
NYC Locals go very far with most transmitting from the top of the Empire State Building. 100.3 and 101.1 unfortunately starts getting interference from Philadelphia's same channels only 25-30 miles away going towards Philly. I typically get a listenable signal of NYC until Wall township, NJ (45 miles South) Stanhope, NJ (40 miles west) I-684's North end near Danbury, CT (50 miles) and around Milford, CT (55 miles) I never been to Long Island to test out the signals.
Best signals: 103.5 and 106.7. Worst: 100.3, 101.1 and 105.9
 
I'm in the upper Connecticut River Valley on the Vermont side, about 60 miles north of the Massachusetts line. FM reception is quite good north-south -- from Brattleboro VT and Keene NH all the way up to Montpelier, but east-west reception is severely limited by the Green and White Mountains. The difference is very noticeable on a pair of NPR stations. WNCH Norwich VT (88.1) blasts into my location, but WEVH Hanover NH (91.3) is scratchy indoors despite being only about 8 miles further away.
 
East Tennessee (Knoxville/Sevierville). Most powerful signals are WCYQ 100.3, WJXB 97.5, WIMZ 103.5, WWST 102.1, WIVK 107.7. Depending on what translators are where, they can cover parts of East Tennessee, Southeast Kentucky, Western North Carolina, Southwest Virginia, into Georgia and even into Alabama. The Class As, such as WNOX 93.1, WNFZ 94.3, WJBZ, WKHT 104.5 have a much more limited range, and crash into the mountains in Sevierville and Pigeon Forge. With translators, there aren't much in the way out out of town signals,but WQUT, Johnson City, WXBQ, Bristol, VA, WTFM, Kingsport and WAEZ, Greeneville, TN can be listenable driving around. I can get a weak signal from WKSC, Old Fort, NC which was helpful for me to keep up with the Hurricane Helene emergency
 
Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina. Our most powerful FM signals are WRAL (101.5), WQDR (94.7), WRDU (100.7), WNCB (93.9), WUNC (91.5), WCPE (89.7), and, to a slightly lesser extent, WBBB (96.1). These regularly get out 75+ miles clearly, from Greensboro in the west to Greenville in the east, to south of Fayetteville and a few miles north into Virginia. WQOK (97.5) and WDCG (105.1) both moved and dropped their power a few years back, but both still do pretty well. We have some powerful rimshots and some lower C/class A facilities, such as WKIX (102.9), WFXC (107.1), and WNNL (103.9) that cover the metro moderately (the first two employ other stations for simulcasts though).
 
The big Columbus FMs typically go 65-70 miles, even to the east and southeast counties where the foothills of the Appalachians start. Some adjacent-channel and even co-channel interference comes into play on the very fringe.
WNCI, even with its 175,000 watts, has few if any discernible advantages in signal on the outer edges of the market over the likes of 93.3, 96.3 and 97.1.
 
Charleston FMs are basically an average of 50-60 miles around the metro, with the stronger ones (92.5, 101.7, 96.9, 95.1) going much further than that.

96.9 has nothing in the 150 miles around it which makes it the best signal in town. It tripped up the HD in Georgetown when the other locals did not and is audible pretty much anywhere on the SC coast. The only things to stop it through most of SC is a gospel station in the Augusta area and the Charlotte country signal.

96.9 is steady 90 miles from the transmitter usually. The weaker stations like 100.5 WALC (His Radio) and the local translators (250 watts) usually come in about 20-25 miles out, while 100.5 is usually about 30 miles.
 
From the radio fan perspective, I did enjoy those huge signals when I lived in the Houston area. Not used to those here in Ohio, but they get out down south. It was something else knowing a signal that blasted into your home radio was sometimes coming from 50 or more miles away. Doesn't happen much up here.
 
I'll start with my home market (Seattle):

AM is generally pretty good, thanks to transmitter placement on Vashon Island (and the saltwater of Puget Sound). Smaller AM's don't do amazingly well, but they service their respective community pretty well. The major stations all sound very good throughout the market (with notable exceptions to the east side of the market). In general, I'd say that 80-90% of the market is serviced by a very strong signal on all of the core AMs (though if you keep driving east you'll start to run into issues).

FM performs extremely well too. There are pockets of the market that have some issues with shadowing, but all of the local FMs are on Cougar or Tiger Mountain, and put a strong signal into most of the market. Driving south, I can reliably listen to most of the FM's until I get about 85 miles south (in the town of Centralia). Driving west, I can easily hear any of the FMs (as long as I don't cross over the Olympic Mountains). The best example I can provide is driving west out to the ocean beaches. The FM's can still be heard (albeit not that clearly) ON the ocean beaches. Driving east, you can hear the FM's until you get too far over the Cascade mountains. East is probably the only direction where you'd lose a signal quickly.

Seattle FM's also perform extremely well to the north. The exact point I lose the Seattle FM's is when I am driving and descend into the Skagit Valley (near Mount Vernon). However, it's possible to hear these stations again when you leave the Skagit Valley to the north. I currently live in British Columbia, and can hear many of the Seattle FM's around where I live (if the conditions are right). At my apartment, there's a radio on the windowsill that I use to listen to the radio from Seattle all of the time.

Now I'll move onto my current market (Vancouver, BC):

AM's don't perform as well as Seattle, but they do reasonably well since the market is relatively small. The core population doesn't live very far from where most of the AM transmitter sites are located. With that being said, many of these stations really struggle to put much signal out to the east. There are parts of the Fraser Valley that struggle to pick up much of the Vancouver AM dial (and instead hear various other dxed stations at night).

FM is also very good, with most of the transmitter sites being located high above Mount Seymour. Mount Seymour towers over the population core, which keeps the transmission site close to the core population. I find that the FM stations of Vancouver sound ultra clear on my radio in most pockets of the market. It's hard not to receive a clear signal, as you can see Mount Seymour from most parts of the market.

With that information in mind, there are a few notable issues. These stations cannot be heard (or sound extremely weak) if you are driving along the Sea-to-Sky Highway (highway 99) between Vancouver and Whistler. If you're in West Vancouver and Horseshoe Bay, there are also reception issues (due to a significant amount of land standing in your way). Marine Drive (in south Vancouver) is also a bit of a touchy spot.

Most of the Vancouver FM's do well in parts of the Fraser Valley, but start to die off near Abbotsford (and certainly further east towards Chilliwack). These stations are also decently clear on Vancouver Island, where they start to get rough towards Victoria. If you head too far north on Vancouver Island, you'll reach a point where the mountains directly next to Mount Seymour block out reception. So that cuts down on the signal range quite a bit.

Vancouver FM's cover northern Washington State extremely well, but this region doesn't matter much for Canadian FM's. In the ideal world, I'm sure they would prefer to cover the Sea-to-Sky region and Fraser Valley better before reaching northern Washington farmland.


That was far more than any one radio geek should ever write on this topic, but this topic stuck out as something interesting to me. I think it's interesting how some cities have FM's that reach a ton of land mass (and a ton of population). In other cases, it's the opposite. And so much of it depends on where the transmitter sites are located. There are cases (like Seattle) where you can pretty much hit everything. There's also cases (like Vancouver) where there are critical areas that have absolutely no reception at all. That's part of what makes radio interesting. I'll shut up now.
 
North of Canton Ga, with the poor soil conductivity and electronic pollution AM struggles daytime . WSB 750 is the only 24 / 7 signal. 680 comes in a little better than 750 daytime but at night it is totally covered by WPFT. The Silva NC 680 has switched frequency and IMHO something could be done with WCNN but the economy of AM most likely will stop any meaningful improvements. Except for car radios the Radio-locator circles are generous coverage wise.

Commercial FM not counting translators:
The Atlanta market C0's C1's and C2's work. Except 100.5 which gets hammered by WSSL at least once a week. 92.9 gets interference one or twice a month but it is not long enough to figure who it is. We get big Chattanooga FMs except when 106.7 Gainesville went back to music and (HD?) it messes with WSKZ on 106.5 east of I575 and GA 515 in Pickens County. These stations had some kind of a FCC short space agreement a couple of decades ago so it is what it is. 100.3 from Knoxville (Oak Ridge) is a regular visitor. Of course both of the Gainesville GA class Cs work well. Of course the local 100.1 and 101.1 work well.
 
My 90 watts at 60 feet goes 15 miles in one direction because of line of sight but doesnt make it 7-8 miles in others because of no line of site.
 
It's always weird how the local stations in different parts of the Southeast go. Savannah market stations always go easily into the Charleston area 90% of the time. 98.7 and 106.9 have their transmitters on the SC side of the Savannah area, including Hilton Head/Beaufort, and are audible through 75% of the Charleston area on a half-decent radio.

97.3 WAEV and 96.5 WJCL both have relatively open frequencies and can carry a long way. Like

FM tropo isn't what it was even 15 years ago with so many translators all over the place, but around here my range is basically anywhere within the FL peninsula, GA, SC, or NC. Orlando's big FMs are like 275 miles from me and they still come in about once a week, sometimes more during the summer. 97.1 from Gainesville was always the steadiest Atlanta area signal here, coming in multiple times a year but then HD came in and blocked that.

Roanoke is about the furthest semi-regular I used to have at about 300 miles with WSLQ 99.1, WSLC 94.9 and WVTF 89.1. It'd come in 2-3 times a year until very recently.
 
Most Grand Rapids-area signals can be heard on a car radio as far as around Whitehall, Howard City, Portland, Kalamazoo, and South Haven. There are three grandfathered signals (93.7 WBCT, 104.1 WVGR, 105.7 WSRW) that get out farther, mostly to the south and east as their sticks are all in western Barry County.
 
ftballfan said:
Most Grand Rapids-area signals can be heard on a car radio as far as around Whitehall, Howard City, Portland, Kalamazoo, and South Haven. There are three grandfathered signals (93.7 WBCT, 104.1 WVGR, 105.7 WSRW) that get out farther, mostly to the south and east as their sticks are all in western Barry County
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These are also some of the most reliable Michigan signals here on the other side of the lake. Actually, THE most reliable Michigan FM here is WBLV 90.3. Big signal, helped by the no competition on the frequency.

Most of the Chicago full-market stations used to be decent all the way to the Milwaukee County line, until their frequencies started being used for Milwaukee translators and/or HD hash. Most are not comfortably listenable in Kenosha anymore.

Most Milwaukee FMs are dead before Waukegan, again largely from HD sidebands. Most Milwaukee stations are on adjacent frequencies to Chicago's.
 
Charleston (101.7) seems to be my favorite Signal from that area. Have heard it pretty much static free from Florence down to Savannah, and a long time ago, even on Route 74 in North Carolina between I-95 and Wilmington which must have been tropo. Haven't ever heard the 96.9 WIWF west of Columbia as the WKKT station seems to do much better even into the Spartanburg area.

The 99.9 signal on the bandscan sounds like the over performing signal from Wilmington NC (WKXB). Also the 92.9 Eagle WEGX station is/was a common DX tropo station heard in Upstate SC before W225DL from Gastonia NC signed on.
 
Yes it was. Also 102.7 WGNI is a overperformer always. Used to come into Charleston all the time before WXLY’s HD turned on. 101.3 Double Q as well before WayFM put a translator in.

Georgetown is a nice place for a DXer since you’re 40-60 miles from the Charleston transmitters and far enough away from Myrtle Beach that other than a couple signals they don’t impact you as much.
 
A Long time ago in Upstate SC, many DX Tropo regulars from the coast were WEGX, WAZO, WGNI, WNMX, WWXM & WMYB. I've also Heard WSOL a few times and a few others from Savannah as well.

Lately it Seems Even WMHK makes it up here (east of Spartanburg) most of the time, even winning the channel over the Greenville 89.7 Translator.
 
KenoGuy said:
These are also some of the most reliable Michigan signals here on the other side of the lake. Actually, THE most reliable Michigan FM here is WBLV 90.3. Big signal, helped by the no competition on the frequency.

Most of the Chicago full-market stations used to be decent all the way to the Milwaukee County line, until their frequencies started being used for Milwaukee translators and/or HD hash. Most are not comfortably listenable in Kenosha anymore.

Most Milwaukee FMs are dead before Waukegan, again largely from HD sidebands. Most Milwaukee stations are on adjacent frequencies to Chicago's.
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It also helps that WBLV's tower is barely in Zone II, so it is 100,000 watts.

I'm still shocked how 106.9 was dropped into Milwaukee despite there being a Class B on 106.9 in Muskegon! For 105.3 to be dropped in at Mukwonago, the 105.3 in Hart (which was a 100kW C1) had to be downgraded to C2 (28kW) at its then-site east of Hart [said station is now operated out of Grand Rapids with a tower near Fremont]
 
I'm in northern N.H., and WHOM/94.9 (licensed to, and transmitting from Mt. Washington) at one time covered most of New England, and even into parts of N.Y. state. I believe it's grandfathered at a higher power for its elevation than would be permitted today. Only station I'm aware of whose city of license is a mountain (there's no city/town called Mt. Washington). The station has always considered itself a Portland station, and that's where programming has always originated from.
There's another FM that also broadcasts from the same site, WPKQ/103.7. Initially licensed to Berlin, now to N. Conway, it's also now programmed from Portland. Not quite the coverage of WHOM, but still a monster signal that reaches a lot of moose.
 
Oldbones said:
I'm in northern N.H., and WHOM/94.9 (licensed to, and transmitting from Mt. Washington) at one time covered most of New England, and even into parts of N.Y. state. I believe it's grandfathered at a higher power for its elevation than would be permitted today. Only station I'm aware of whose city of license is a mountain (there's no city/town called Mt. Washington). The station has always considered itself a Portland station, and that's where programming has always originated from.
There's another FM that also broadcasts from the same site, WPKQ/103.7. Initially licensed to Berlin, now to N. Conway, it's also now programmed from Portland. Not quite the coverage of WHOM, but still a monster signal that reaches a lot of moose.
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Similar in Coverage area are definitely WMIT and WKSF and to a lesser extent, WNCW, all broadcasting from the mountains of Western NC.

WMIT definitely takes the cake here, and the coverage is definitely underestimated on maps. They have a great signal from Knoxville to Charlotte and listenable down to Augusta GA. WKSF is also heard as far west as Knoxville and almost into Charlotte as well (blocked by adjacent but co-owned WRFX).
 


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