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Skywave Daytime AM

M

MarioMania

I was reading an old topic from last year about Skywave Stations in the Daytime in the Winter...

I'm in Vallejo, CA

Is it possible to catch a LA 50Kw station in the Daytime like KNX 1070??
 
It is possible. It may depend on how much interference you get from 1050 and 1080 in the Bay Area, but chances are pretty good in December and January.
 
I had some real good skywave on AM starting about 3-4 hrs before local sunset. In South Carolina, I got the NYC and Chi stations well before sunset. Had Milw and St. Pete both on 620. St. Louis was in well before sunset. And there have been a lot of other days, particularly at Englewood Beach FL where X banders from TX and I think the Ft. Smith AK were in about 1.5 hrs before sunset. All with ID's. Weird.
The silly season is upon us. In answer to the orig post, yes...
 
I've offen heard WBZ from Boston (and other distant 50 kw stations) between Noon and 2 PM here in Central KY in December and January. The extended band from 1610-1700 frequently brings in stations 500-750 miles away during the day in the winter, too. :)
 
In California south of LA I heard KGO, KNBR, & KCBS in January around 1PM so it's definitely possible for you to do it. You should certainly be able to hear XEPE from Tijuana on 1700 during that time of year.
 
During the middle of winter, I can get WJR Detroit, WPHT Philadelphia, and WWRL New York among others in clear daylight in Schenectady, NY...
 
Mario, I'd think that with a very good AM radio + an antenna like Select-a-Tenna which I use, you might get to hear KNX 24 hours a day. I could be wrong, due to the terrain in the Bay Area, though.

December 21 is the shortest day of the year. That could be your best chance of hearing KNX in the middle of the day.

BTW about 3 years ago, I got a big signal on AM 1530 here on my Superadio at about 2 pm (I forget which month). I knew there were no loud 1530's around my location (southeast FL), but thank the Lord it was right around the top of the hour. Turned out to be WYMM in Jacksonville, which couldn't increase power if it wanted to (already the 50kW limit). About 10 minutes later it was totally gone! That was freaky. I wanna say it was Aurora-related, but I just don't know.

Bottom line, just keep 1070 on your mind!

cd
 
Long distance daytime skywaves are not nearly as common this far south as they are for the rest of the country but I managed to get my greatest ever long distance middle of the day skywave catch at Clearwater Beach last December.

It was 700 WLW from Cincinnati with a listenable signal a little past 1 pm.

The station was slowly fading in and out but I was so amazed. The weird thing was, I tuned to other frequencies from up north that have 50 kw stations like 650 WSM, 660 WFAN, 720 WGN, etc and heard nothing.

Nothing could even be heard from the Cincinnati 50 kw station WCKY way up at the high end of the dial at 1530 which you would assume should have a better skywave.

WLW was completely gone by the time I got back to Tampa. After that, I often left my radio on inside set to 700 during the day seeing if it would drift in again but I never heard a thing.

If anyone can figure out why that happened, be my guest.

But anyway, I should think that 1070 KNX should be heard where you are, Mario, during the day during the middle of winter when the conditions are right but you may have to try a few times until you finally get it.
 
Almost never get such daytime DX here in VA, in the past I've gotten WJR, WLW, and WSM, and that's it. No skywave heard from Chicago. (I now have a semilocal 700 that signed on, so any no more chance to hear WLW on days)
 
There are those winter days that the band never really closes. I've heard WBZ at high noon in southwest Ohio (never managed to log any of the NYC clears during the day). Often WLAC on 1510 and KXEL on 1540 are in all day, and the X-band can be open all day.

One of the stranger days I've had with daytime DX was in January on a day trip between Crossville, TN and Nashville. WCKY-1530 was in strong all day, and there was interference behind WEAW-133o in it's home county. Scanning up and down the dial it many frequencies sounded like nighttime graveyards. I could hear graveyard-type interference under WLAC in Davidson County, and just outside Nashville I clearly IDed a couple of my home stations, ESPN-1410 WING, Dayton, sitting atop the channel and WHIO-1290 weak but in the clear, even with a 1300 locally. This was 2pm CST/3pmEST
 
I had this daytime DX experience several times usually Dec or Jan. In the Chicago area I did hear the NYC clears along with WBZ, WHAM and the 1210 in Philly.
 
Regularly get winter midday reception of 1530 KFBK Sacramento, sitting in a park NE of Seattle whilst eating my lunch. Car radio- 99 Jeep (AM Stereo, baby!) That's about 600 miles, I think. I don't believe this will be possible for me this winter or ever again, as a station at 1520 (KKXA) has just signed on 10 miles north of me, and it has IBOC. SO 1530 is trashed. Was funny listening to WX forecasts with "sunny and 65" while I was watching little snowflakes accumulate on the hood of my Jeep.
 
IndigoCoyote said:
Regularly get winter midday reception of 1530 KFBK Sacramento, sitting in a park NE of Seattle whilst eating my lunch. Car radio- 99 Jeep (AM Stereo, baby!) That's about 600 miles, I think. I don't believe this will be possible for me this winter or ever again, as a station at 1520 (KKXA) has just signed on 10 miles north of me, and it has IBOC. SO 1530 is trashed. Was funny listening to WX forecasts with "sunny and 65" while I was watching little snowflakes accumulate on the hood of my Jeep.
Click to expand...

You bring up a good point. We'd have far more incidents of this kind of reception with clearer frequencies. There were several tests of the CONELRAD system in the late 60's, and all stations in the US were off except for a few that alternated on and off using 640 or 1240. From NE Ohio, I heard many Canadians at around noon, EST, including Regina, Saskatchewan on, IIRC, 1470. A tentative on Winnipeg on 680 was also made, along with a number of stations from PQ, as well.

My other example of this was the one-time reception, also in NE Ohio, of 4VEH from Haiti on 1035 kHz, which is of course a channel with no other station on it. Reception was clear enough to understand words in Kreyol.
 
I remembered hearing KFBK like as it was almost local in western Oregon as early as 2:50 PM Pacific time in October. (Or was it November?)
 
Here in Charleston we have many of these episodes. The X-banders do well, especially Macon at 1670 and Charlotte's 1660. I've heard Macon as early as 1pm in December.

KMOX comes in well during the winter. One day last December, I heard it past 9am, with a good signal. WSB comes in early, along with WCBS. During Nov.-Jan, WCBS is often in as early as 3:30pm.

One day about six or seven years ago I picked up a trace of WCBS on a cloudy day at about 1:30. 1530 WCKY also comes in early in the afternoon.

1560 from Lancaster, SC is almost always in strong daytime during the winter, and WSB sometimes is in too.
 
As posted in another thread, I used to get daytime skywave DX almost without fail during cold weather months when my business activites took me to Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa not all that long ago (roughly 1993-2008). The regulars were WCBS, WBZ, WWKB, and WQEW. Sometimes they'd be in all day long with very little fading.

As for Mario's question, it gets a little more difficult as you go farther south. But I think if you keep after it in December and January, you might be able to snag KNX via daytime skywave. I caught WWL here in Northern Illinois at high noon one sunny January day. That's a north-south path not unlike L.A. to the Bay area....albeit a little longer.

Happy hunting!
 
As Indigo Coyote mentioned, KFBK 1530 is a regular winter daytime visitor in Puget Sound. And usually the farthest.

Most winter daytime skywave usually comes from KXTG 750, Portland (It's not unusual to hear them all day long in Puget Sound.) KGA 1510 Spokane is also quite audible.

Occasionally, CKMX 1060 Calgary comes in.....
 
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