Sault Sainte Marie Ontario pre-sunrise Bandscan Highlights - May 2, 2019

[cyberdad]

Location is on the U.S-Canada Border. Second floor of a relatively noise free hotel. 360 miles north-northeast of Chicago. 300 miles north-northwest of Chicago. Radio was my Sony SRF-37 Walkman. I'll leave out the obvious stuff and only include what I found to be noteworthy. 1-2 hours before local sunrise. (Of course, feel free to ask me questions if you have any

540: Weak unidentifiable signal. CBK?
590: WKZO 5kw aimed north. Signal was good. WKZO is tough duty for me at home. So now I guess I know where all the signal goes.
610: I expected WTVN. Instead, I got a surprise in the form of a mostly empty channel
620: WTMJ fair and alone
640: WMFN with a fair-good signal and CFMJ underneath.
680: The Detroit ethic station (I forget the calls). Fair signal. This station is on 690 during daylight hours.
820: Battle between WCPT and CHAM, WCPT easily getting the better of it. No WBAP
840: Something unidentifiable under WHAS
870: Empty. WWL missing.
950: WWJ alone with a big signal.
990: CBW weak
1000: WMVP. All the usual Chicago blowtorches were present. WMVP was the strongest
1130: WDFN with WISN underneath
1150: WHBY blasting
1270: WXYT alone and good
1280: WNAM good. Pattern similar to WHBY but signal less strong
1300: WOOD fair, but alone
1380: WBEL alone. My home location is less than 50 miles away but I never hear it. Now I also know where this 5kw signal goes.
1450: WLEC from Sandusky, OH (As posted in another thread)
1500: WLQV (Detroit). KSTP and WFED both absent
1550: CBEF Fair

 

[icybluelake]

Interesting stuff. WLEC from Sandusky, but not the 1450 from Newberry, MI, just 50 or so miles away! Did you hear many of the Toronto stations? I was wondering if those would be obvious or if they were absent.
I passed through Sault Ste. Marie two years ago during the daytime and was struck by how little was on the AM dial -- it was a strain to even hear WTCM with its 50kW from about 135 miles away, a fair amount of it over water. But it's not a great area for ground conductivity. Next to nothing for mile after mile on the eastern end of Lake Superior north of Sault Ste. Marie. The FM band, on the other hand, has some interesting catches in that area.

 

[schmave]

Normally, I am sure you'd hear WTVN around Sault Sainte Marie, but I think I know why you didn't.
One of the towers in their directional array went down during a big storm in early April of last year, and ever since WTVN has been running 1,250 omnidirectional watts at night in addition to the usual 5,000-watt omni daytime. While that gives our entire Columbus area a solid signal at night, I have zero doubt areas to the north where WTVN normally would peel paint with a very directional 5K at night (have read that it's basically 20KW ERP aimed straight up U.S. 23) have not had a great or existent signal in more than a year.
WTVN was always a dependable signal when I attended the University of Toledo from 1996-2000 to the point that you could actually hear the signal improve when they went to night pattern (there was, however, some cancellation in metro Toledo). I once heard it reasonably well in a hotel room in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, at night. No doubt it was coming in even better outside.
A post on our local board said their STA has been extended, so I expect that by mid-summer WTVN will be back to the very directional northbound night signal.

 

[radioman148]

Interesting scan. Not surprised that you heard WCPT there as they send their night signal that way.
I would imagine WYLL was strong as I've heard it on the Arctic receiver many times.

 

[gr8oldies]

Definitely. WTVN will be back to being Radio Free Canada when that tower gets rebuilt

Normally, I am sure you'd hear WTVN around Sault Sainte Marie, but I think I know why you didn't.
One of the towers in their directional array went down during a big storm in early April of last year, and ever since WTVN has been running 1,250 omnidirectional watts at night in addition to the usual 5,000-watt omni daytime. While that gives our entire Columbus area a solid signal at night, I have zero doubt areas to the north where WTVN normally would peel paint with a very directional 5K at night (have read that it's basically 20KW ERP aimed straight up U.S. 23) have not had a great or existent signal in more than a year.
WTVN was always a dependable signal when I attended the University of Toledo from 1996-2000 to the point that you could actually hear the signal improve when they went to night pattern (there was, however, some cancellation in metro Toledo). I once heard it reasonably well in a hotel room in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, at night. No doubt it was coming in even better outside.
A post on our local board said their STA has been extended, so I expect that by mid-summer WTVN will be back to the very directional northbound night signal.

 

[cyberdad]

Interesting stuff. WLEC from Sandusky, but not the 1450 from Newberry, MI, just 50 or so miles away! Did you hear many of the Toronto stations? I was wondering if those would be obvious or if they were absent.
I passed through Sault Ste. Marie two years ago during the daytime and was struck by how little was on the AM dial -- it was a strain to even hear WTCM with its 50kW from about 135 miles away, a fair amount of it over water. But it's not a great area for ground conductivity. Next to nothing for mile after mile on the eastern end of Lake Superior north of Sault Ste. Marie. The FM band, on the other hand, has some interesting catches in that area.

I wasn't able to hear the Newberry 1450 even during the daytime. WTCM starts increasing rapidly during the daytime, once you start getting south of town on the Michigan side on I-75. I didn't include it my my scan report, but it was in at night with a fairly good signal. Also alone....and I'm it didn't hurt that at least three Canadian 580s in the same general area are now off the air! (CKY, CKPR, and CKAP).

Toronto? CFMJ on 640 as mentioned previously. A surprisingly weak CFZM on 740. CJBK was a little better than CFZM from the same tower on 860. I also heard what I presume was CFRB on 1010, but I couldn't positively ID it. The signal was weak with frequent fades.

As for the near-empty AM dial, there's a fair amount of weak stuff on a car radio daytime as you approach town. Only two local AM's, however, 1230 and 1400. Both on the American side. What used to be the biggest signal in town was CKCY on 920, but now long gone. CKCY used to be a regular pest for me at night during the '60s when I was trying to listen to top 40 on WOKY (Milwaukee). I even heard it regularly at my college location in Iowa.

 

[cyberdad]

Interesting scan. Not surprised that you heard WCPT there as they send their night signal that way.
I would imagine WYLL was strong as I've heard it on the Arctic receiver many times.

WYLL had a relatively good signal, but LOADS of splatter from WHBY.

 

[cyberdad]

Normally, I am sure you'd hear WTVN around Sault Sainte Marie, but I think I know why you didn't.
One of the towers in their directional array went down during a big storm in early April of last year, and ever since WTVN has been running 1,250 omnidirectional watts at night in addition to the usual 5,000-watt omni daytime. While that gives our entire Columbus area a solid signal at night, I have zero doubt areas to the north where WTVN normally would peel paint with a very directional 5K at night (have read that it's basically 20KW ERP aimed straight up U.S. 23) have not had a great or existent signal in more than a year.
WTVN was always a dependable signal when I attended the University of Toledo from 1996-2000 to the point that you could actually hear the signal improve when they went to night pattern (there was, however, some cancellation in metro Toledo). I once heard it reasonably well in a hotel room in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, at night. No doubt it was coming in even better outside.
A post on our local board said their STA has been extended, so I expect that by mid-summer WTVN will be back to the very directional northbound night signal.

Yeah, WTVN....or the lack of it...was a big surprise, but I remember something about the STA in one of the threads here. But on the other side of the coin, I did hear them a few months back here in the Chicago area (under KCSP). I hadn't heard them at night around these points prior to that.

 

[radioman148]

WYLL had a relatively good signal, but LOADS of splatter from WHBY.

Forgot about WHBY. They send a lot of signal that way and can also be heard on the Arctic receiver.

 

[cyberdad]

Forgot about WHBY. They send a lot of signal that way and can also be heard on the Arctic receiver.

Yeah, I hear WHBY on the Europe SDR's all the time...including the Arctic one in the winter. They also now usually own 1150 at my home location. Ever since CKOC "fixed" their night pattern. You may not be able to hear WHBY as well...if at all...given that WYLL probably pours enough RF into where you are
to activate every light bulb and small appliance in your house. Plugged in or not!

WHBY and WNAM have transmitter sites practically across the road from each other (I-41), along with similar patterns. I drove by them this past week on my way north. So despite the power differential, 25KW versus 5KW, usually if one is in, you can also hear the other. Even on the SDRs if conditions are good.

 

[radioman148]

.given that WYLL probably pours enough RF into where you are
to activate every light bulb and small appliance in your house. Plugged in or not!

I have heard WHBY here. It's WYLL's daytime facilities that light up my appliances. Years ago when 1160 was WJJD and Top 40 I could hear them on my tooth fillings...

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

I'm surprised you didn't hear WFDF 910, with 50/25 DA-2 with 8 towers beamed straight North.

 

[cyberdad]

I'm surprised you didn't hear WFDF 910, with 50/25 DA-2 with 8 towers beamed straight North.

Actually, I did hear something all alone on 910. I was thinking that it was "the southeast Michigan 910"....but I couldn't remember the calls or the COL. I also didn't hang around long enough to catch an ID. The signal was good, but not good enough for splatter to cause a problem on the two first adjacents. 900 was CHML.

920 was almost empty, save for a very weak signal with sports talk. Again I didn't hang around for an ID, but I presumed WOKY. The irony is that 920 in Sault Ste. Marie was the longtime home of CKCY. 5kw at night and a significant pest for WOKY. Now with CKCY gone from the channel, it's actually possible to sniff out a signal from WOKY at the home of its former "tormentor".

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

WFDF may have been on their 10 kW backup transmitter. But it usually booms in with just 10 kW. And at the old site, it boomed in into the Straits Area during CH and near Sunset with 5 kW and even at Night with 1 kW beaming in that direction. The 5 kW Day facility from Burton had a somewhat stronger ground wave in the Straits Area than the Carleton 50 kW Day facility, which is ~70 miles South.

 

[cyberdad]

I have heard WHBY here. It's WYLL's daytime facilities that light up my appliances. Years ago when 1160 was WJJD and Top 40 I could hear them on my tooth fillings...

I had forgotten about the nighttime site that was built when Salem took over. Good move for covering most of the metro at night, but probably also one that forced you to start having to buy your power from Com-Ed!

I think I've posted before about being in for some minor foot surgery at Holy Family Hospital in Des Plaines, which was basically across the road from then-WJJD's original and, at the time, only transmitter site. Late 90s. Suffice to say that it was the only useable AM signal inside the building. And it was able to blast through all the noise generated by all the exotic equipment and devices in the place and be perfectly listenable on my small Realistic portable.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

In about 1995, I was eating at a snack shop inside the O'Hare terminal. WJJD boomed in there also. I think WMAQ/WSCR, WGN, and WBBM were also strong. At my Uncle's house, 3 miles SE of WJJD, it boomed in on a Crystal Radio. Seems like I was able to tune in WHFB 1060 Benton Harbor on my Sony Portable though.

 

[radioman148]

When I had a crystal radio a long, long time ago, WJJD was the only station that I could receive on it.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, WJJD signed off at KSL Sunset. After Sunset at KSL, my Hearever Rocket Radio pulled in WGN. I don't know why I didn't hear WMAQ and WBBM in 60068. Maybe WGN's modulation was higher. I remember that some of the same exact spots were synched on WGN and WBBM to WWV time. No echo even, like the WNBC/WMAQ National Newscasts had. Also WCCO/WHAS had the echo. Nowadays, George Noory is usually displaced on adjacents by a few seconds.

Anybody know where you can get low inverse voltage 1N34 diodes? The ones in the replica Rocket Radios are horrible. Not even sure if they are Ge 1N34s. Possibly Si's. But there is considerable variation in the Ge 1N34s from what I see online.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

I have to get my Rocket Radio working again. Might have to replace the diode. I want to take it up to the Straits to see if I can get WFDF and WWJ on it. The return often exceeds 5 mV/m, and with a 125 foot longwire, I could get that signal level. WCFL and WOWO were in the range of 10 mV/m maximum skywave. They would pop in and out when the conduction voltage was exceeded.

 

[FreddyE1977]

A lot of the Detroit stations are directional to the north and throw
decent signals up that way.