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Remember when radio was like magic

In 1979, I was living in Braintree, England not far from London. I heard WCBS once. I was DXing to see if I could hear anything from close to back home in the US. I don't know how many days of squeals and noise I put up with to finally get WOWO from Indiana.
And, I read in a DX magazine that a DXer in London heard the audio of WTTV Channel 4 from Indianapolis.
Anyway I remembered that CBer with the 1,000 watt linear who messed up my stereo back home and I'll be darned. He was loud and clear in England.
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People all over the USA listened to Wolfman Jack on XERF. However, XEW from Mexico City came in better. And, there was PJB. All of these came in well on a little transistor radio in Indiana.
 
Flying_Dutchman said:
People all over the USA listened to Wolfman Jack on XERF. However, XEW from Mexico City came in better. And, there was PJB. All of these came in well on a little transistor radio in Indiana.
Click to expand...

My experience was different... in NE Ohio, XERF was vastly better than XEW. XERF was directional towards the USA, and XEW was much farther to the south with an omnidirectional antenna that sent only about half the power to the US that XERF did. And, of course, 900 was shared by Canada and there was a lot of interference on the channel.

Further, 1580 and 1560 were fairly clear at night in the NE and Midwest, but 890 had WLS and a whole batch of stations on 910 to contend with.
 
1580 was mostly KLOU a top 40 station from Lake Charles, LA. i910 was KGLC from Miami, OK.
I remember Mexico on 800, 540, and 1050 also. There was a station from Columbia on 1170, don't remember their call letters or power.
 
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Flying_Dutchman said:
1580 w/as mostly KLOU a top 40 station from Lake Charles, LA. i910 was KGLC from Miami, OK.
I remember Mexico on 800, 540, and 1050 also. There was a station from Columbia on 1170, don't remember their call letters or power.
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Late at night, the CBC station in Quebec was off. 1580 was often in at my Cleveland location from Lake Charles in overnights once Hermosillo was off the air; same was true when I was NNW of Traverse City, MI. 910 could be most anything from those locations with KGLC being a sunset skip catch but not a late night one.

In the early 60's Colombia had only a 1 kw station on 1170. During the decade, a further realignment of channels was made, with a 10 kw station in Neiva, near the Ecuadorian border being the only one in the late 60's. Colombia allowed up to 100 kw from 540 to 1000, 10 kw up to 1250 and 1 kw from there up to 1600.
 
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Flying_Dutchman said:
In 1979, I was living in Braintree, England not far from London. I heard WCBS once. I was DXing to see if I could hear anything from close to back home in the US. I don't know how many days of squeals and noise I put up with to finally get WOWO from Indiana.
And, I read in a DX magazine that a DXer in London heard the audio of WTTV Channel 4 from Indianapolis.
Anyway I remembered that CBer with the 1,000 watt linear who messed up my stereo back home and I'll be darned. He was loud and clear in England.
.
Click to expand...
This video of Joey Reynolds and Danny Neaverth at WKBW shows a scatter distribution of reception reports of WKBW 1520. There were many reports in Western Europe and NW Africa. Not much to the West. During Auroral events, it can be heard, sometimes quite well, in Michigan as it starts to recover.

Map is at 0:59 for a few seconds on this video.

 
The good old days.

A lot of good DXing memories from my many visits to Northern California in the 70's and early 80's.

WLS was a nighttime regular, as was WLW.

WCAU (now WPHT) could be heard late at night after the station in Oklahoma signed off.

WCBS could be heard late at night after KRVN in Nebraska signed off.

When I had my Sony AM Stereo Walkman after moving to Florida, I could hear 66 WNNNNNBC in stereo after sunset, along with many other stations from up north, including WLS which came booming in back in those days.

I thought AM stereo sounded better than FM stereo because it was just a more solid sound.

That's the best way I know how to describe it.
 
KGLC/KVIS 910 reaches both coasts with its pattern, which is symmetrical around two axes, and is the equivalent of 5 kW to the ENE and WSW. When WSUI used to sign off, it boomed in to the ORD area NW of Chicago, as WLS has been rather weak there since they moved to Mokena/Tinley Park decades and decades ago.

am_pattern.php
 
Schroedingers Cat said:
This video of Joey Reynolds and Danny Neaverth at WKBW shows a scatter distribution of reception reports of WKBW 1520. There were many reports in Western Europe and NW Africa. Not much to the West. During Auroral events, it can be heard, sometimes quite well, in Michigan as it starts to recover.

Map is at 0:59 for a few seconds on this video.

Click to expand...
Today WWKB still blasts into Europe. One night last week they were very strong on the Iceland SDR.
 
DavidEduardo said:
My experience was different... in NE Ohio, XERF was vastly better than XEW. XERF was directional towards the USA, and XEW was much farther to the south with an omnidirectional antenna that sent only about half the power to the US that XERF did. And, of course, 900 was shared by Canada and there was a lot of interference on the channel.

Further, 1580 and 1560 were fairly clear at night in the NE and Midwest, but 890 had WLS and a whole batch of stations on 910 to contend with.
Click to expand...
XERF was also better at my location in NE Illinois, although if I waited until very late at night XEW did pickup strength. Since I was north of Chicago WLS didn't overwhelm my radio like the other 50KW Chicago signals.
 
gar hi said:
The good old days.

A lot of good DXing memories from my many visits to Northern California in the 70's and early 80's.

WLS was a nighttime regular, as was WLW.

WCAU (now WPHT) could be heard late at night after the station in Oklahoma signed off.

WCBS could be heard late at night after KRVN in Nebraska signed off.

When I had my Sony AM Stereo Walkman after moving to Florida, I could hear 66 WNNNNNBC in stereo after sunset, along with many other stations from up north, including WLS which came booming in back in those days.

I thought AM stereo sounded better than FM stereo because it was just a more solid sound.

That's the best way I know how to describe it.
Click to expand...
It was even better on my first trip to California in the early 60s. On my trusty Zenith Trans Oceanic which had a very good AM tuner at the time, I heard all 4 Chicago 1A clears almost every night. In addition, WNBC, WCBS, and on Sunday nights after KOB signed off, I could get WABC as well. 1210 in Philadelphia then WCAU also could be heard. This was before they broke up the 1A clear channels.
 
radioman148 said:
XERF was also better at my location in NE Illinois, although if I waited until very late at night XEW did pickup strength. S
Click to expand...
At the top of this page are my photos of XEW in 1963. The huge 5/8 wave tower, shunt fed, is shown as are the 250 kw transmitters along with my picture inside one of the big rigs.

 
DavidEduardo said:
At the top of this page are my photos of XEW in 1963. The huge 5/8 wave tower, shunt fed, is shown as are the 250 kw transmitters along with my picture inside one of the big rigs.

Click to expand...
Very impressive. My first time in Mexico City was in December 1963. XEW was a powerhouse. I had to wait until after midnight when they signed off to have any shot at DXing WLS. When I got away from Mexico City it was alot easier, but that signal was big.
 
DavidEduardo said:
At the top of this page are my photos of XEW in 1963. The huge 5/8 wave tower, shunt fed, is shown as are the 250 kw transmitters along with my picture inside one of the big rigs.

Click to expand...
Radio can still be magic but in a different way. Bemoan the clutter, or DX the clutter.
There was a few weeks in the early 80s when Radio Progreso (Cuba) was off the air or not 24 hours and I had a shot at KFI around 1 or 2am in Ohio, and I never had a shot at them any other time. I lived in a small town and on FM, when the locals and semi-locals signed off, it was like a different dial.
 
gr8oldies said:
Radio can still be magic but in a different way. Bemoan the clutter, or DX the clutter.
There was a few weeks in the early 80s when Radio Progreso (Cuba) was off the air or not 24 hours and I had a shot at KFI around 1 or 2am in Ohio, and I never had a shot at them any other time. I lived in a small town and on FM, when the locals and semi-locals signed off, it was like a different dial.
Click to expand...
Radio was alot of fun back then and we didn't have all the noise issues that we now have on AM.
 
radioman148 said:
It was even better on my first trip to California in the early 60s. On my trusty Zenith Trans Oceanic which had a very good AM tuner at the time, I heard all 4 Chicago 1A clears almost every night. In addition, WNBC, WCBS, and on Sunday nights after KOB signed off, I could get WABC as well. 1210 in Philadelphia then WCAU also could be heard. This was before they broke up the 1A clear channels.
Click to expand...

For some reason, I could never get WNBC out there and that was well before KTTN in Arizona came on the air.

All I could get was an empty frequency with the faint sound that the old TVs would make on AM radio and that sound was fluttering as if it was some kind of extremely weak signal in the background.

I used to null out KOB and heard another station in the background but it way too weak to ID.

I don't recall if KTTH Seattle was on the air yet in the mid-late 70's.
 
gar hi said:
For some reason, I could never get WNBC out there and that was well before KTTN in Arizona came on the air.

All I could get was an empty frequency with the faint sound that the old TVs would make on AM radio and that sound was fluttering as if it was some kind of extremely weak signal in the background.

I used to null out KOB and heard another station in the background but it way too weak to ID.

I don't recall if KTTH Seattle was on the air yet in the mid-late 70's.
Click to expand...
In my early trips west the 770 in Seattle was a daytime only station. I don't remember exactly when they went to night service. Maybe David has info on that.
WNBC was tough. I only got it a couple of times. WCBS was much easier. There was no competition pre-KRVN. As I previously mentioned I could only hear WABC when KOB was off.
 
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