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Southern California Reception

As mentioned the other day, our carrier current campuis radio station when I was in college in southeast Iowa was on 570. And yes, when we were off the air during the daytine, WIBW came through on 580. And for that matter on 560 it was KWTO with WIND underneath.
 
radioman148 said:
I'm a bit surprised you heard WIND even in SE Iowa. They null that way and KWTO I'd think would be pretty strong there.
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I receive KWTO 24/7 here although the signal is much stronger during the day. This station has terrible sounding audio. Reminds me of the sonics on the 1963 Gary "U.S." Bonds hit "Quarter To Three." Very limited frequency response but they put out a great signal...

Bob
 
radioman148 said:
I'm a bit surprised you heard WIND even in SE Iowa. They null that way and KWTO I'd think would be pretty strong there.
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I had a couple of good radios when I was in college. Including an RCA portable my senior year that was a real stud on the AM band. Between that, the good ground conductivity in southeast Iowa and the fact that WIND's null wasn't quite as deep to the southwest as it was (is) to the south-southwest, I was able to hear a very weak WIND under a not-quite-so-weak KWTO. In general, WIND started to become listenable right around the Mississippi River, which was about 30 miles east of me.

At night. KWTO completely took over. I'm not really sure why WIND's deeper null was more south-southwest than southwest. In general, I don't think they were obligated to protect WHBQ, but at first glance that's sort of what it looks like.
 
cyberdad said:
I had a couple of good radios when I was in college. Including an RCA portable my senior year that was a real stud on the AM band. Between that, the good ground conductivity in southeast Iowa and the fact that WIND's null wasn't quite as deep to the southwest as it was (is) to the south-southwest, I was able to hear a very weak WIND under a not-quite-so-weak KWTO. In general, WIND started to become listenable right around the Mississippi River, which was about 30 miles east of me.

At night. KWTO completely took over. I'm not really sure why WIND's deeper null was more south-southwest than southwest. In general, I don't think they were obligated to protect WHBQ, but at first glance that's sort of what it looks like.
Click to expand...

As you say it appears that WIND was protecting WHBQ. How was your reception of WCFL in SE Iowa? In De Kalb where I went to college, WCFL was OK during the day, but at night they sounded like distant DX without the fading. I remember driving west at night WCFL would have a large dropoff just west of Aurora.
 
I think I got WIND in Quincy, IL. Shortly after I got there, WIND was off the air between the Group W ownership and the Spanish language format






cyberdad said:
I had a couple of good radios when I was in college. Including an RCA portable my senior year that was a real stud on the AM band. Between that, the good ground conductivity in southeast Iowa and the fact that WIND's null wasn't quite as deep to the southwest as it was (is) to the south-southwest, I was able to hear a very weak WIND under a not-quite-so-weak KWTO. In general, WIND started to become listenable right around the Mississippi River, which was about 30 miles east of me.

At night. KWTO completely took over. I'm not really sure why WIND's deeper null was more south-southwest than southwest. In general, I don't think they were obligated to protect WHBQ, but at first glance that's sort of what it looks like.
Click to expand...
 
radioman148 said:
As you say it appears that WIND was protecting WHBQ. How was your reception of WCFL in SE Iowa? In De Kalb where I went to college, WCFL was OK during the day, but at night they sounded like distant DX without the fading. I remember driving west at night WCFL would have a large dropoff just west of Aurora.
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WCFL definitely made it to southeast Iowa (Mount Pleasant). But during the daytime, splatter from now defunct WCAZ (990) from Carthage, IL made it pretty much unlistenable. At night, the signal was usually even weaker, but still always present. The problem, aside from the poor signal, was frequent fading, along with XEOY trashing it from time to time. KTOK also intruded on occasion. Once in a very great while, conditions would be just right and you could catch Dick Biondi without too much difficulty, but that was the exception rather than the rule. KAAY and KOMA were the usual nighttime "go-to" stations on campus, as well as top 40 on our campus carrier current station, KOED.
 
cyberdad said:
WCFL definitely made it to southeast Iowa (Mount Pleasant). But during the daytime, splatter from now defunct WCAZ (990) from Carthage, IL made it pretty much unlistenable. At night, the signal was usually even weaker, but still always present. The problem, aside from the poor signal, was frequent fading, along with XEOY trashing it from time to time. KTOK also intruded on occasion. Once in a very great while, conditions would be just right and you could catch Dick Biondi without too much difficulty, but that was the exception rather than the rule. KAAY and KOMA were the usual nighttime "go-to" stations on campus, as well as top 40 on our campus carrier current station, KOED.
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Just as I figured. If the night signal was weak in De Kalb, I didn't figure it would be good where you were.
A guy I was in college with who wasn't into radio said during the day WCFL had half the signal of WLS. At night it was about 10% of WLS.
 
radioman148 said:
Just as I figured. If the night signal was weak in De Kalb, I didn't figure it would be good where you were.
A guy I was in college with who wasn't into radio said during the day WCFL had half the signal of WLS. At night it was about 10% of WLS.
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Before I got a car as an upper classman, I used to take the CB&Q evening train on my trips home. Of course I had a radio/ear plugs with me. WCFL after dark wasn't listnable until just outside of Aurora. WLS was no bargain, either, due to cancellation. Surprisingly, the top 40 station that was really strong after sunset for a little better than half the trip (east of Galesburg) was WIRL.
 
cyberdad said:
Before I got a car as an upper classman, I used to take the CB&Q evening train on my trips home. Of course I had a radio/ear plugs with me. WCFL after dark wasn't listnable until just outside of Aurora. WLS was no bargain, either, due to cancellation. Surprisingly, the top 40 station that was really strong after sunset for a little better than half the trip (east of Galesburg) was WIRL.
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WLS cancellation wasn't a factor for me in De Kalb. I had to get over 100 miles from Chicago for that to become an issue.
 
radioman148 said:
WLS cancellation wasn't a factor for me in De Kalb. I had to get over 100 miles from Chicago for that to become an issue.
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I remember when KFI's half-wave (or was it a .625 wave?) antenna came down due to a small plane hitting it. They ran for several years on the old KRKD 1150 tower between LA and Pasadena. That tower, while half-wave at 1150, was, I believe, just over quarter wave at 640. So the night cancellation zone moved from somewhere out on the high desert on the route to 'Vegas and near Desert Crossing on the 10 towards Phoenix to the eastern area of the Inland Empire... Redlands, Moreno Valley, Banning all had cancellation on most nights. It moved the cancellation zone in by about 100 miles, in fact.
 
DavidEduardo said:
I remember when KFI's half-wave (or was it a .625 wave?) antenna came down due to a small plane hitting it. They ran for several years on the old KRKD 1150 tower between LA and Pasadena. That tower, while half-wave at 1150, was, I believe, just over quarter wave at 640. So the night cancellation zone moved from somewhere out on the high desert on the route to 'Vegas and near Desert Crossing on the 10 towards Phoenix to the eastern area of the Inland Empire... Redlands, Moreno Valley, Banning all had cancellation on most nights. It moved the cancellation zone in by about 100 miles, in fact.
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My wife's brother lives in an open area near Victorville up in the high desert. I remember on a couple of visits hearing cancellation on KFI and being rather surprised by it. I've also heard some cancellation there from KNX, but that didn't/doesn't totally surprise me.
 
hawaiigar said:
KFI has a listenable daytime signal as far north as Santa Cruz.

And back in 1977, I remember it had a good signal midday in the summer in the central valley when we got on Interstate 5 coming from Gilroy.
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I really do wish this was the case, but it is not. I'm in South San Jose, and I can't get a whisper of KFi during the day. With that said, I have picked it up in the winter months, in late afternoon. I may be wrong, but maybe, just maybe, if you are on the beach in Santa Cruz, it might come in on a Sangean PR-D5/15 ( I just randomly picked that radio as it is so good ). I do know, KFi can be heard as far north as Fresno though.
 
Speaking of Southern California reception...


Barring if COVID still restricts a lot of things next year, I plan on vacationing in San Diego and LA next August. Got some bandscans I’m wanting to log as well. While I’ve seen the AM reception posts, how is FM in SoCal? (Particularly with the translators and LPFMs in LA, the IE and the OC?) Any key spots to be to capture as much as possible? Wanting to log (if possible) every AM and FM, plus HD, even if that means being in a car driving for hours.
 
formula72 said:
I really do wish this was the case, but it is not. I'm in South San Jose, and I can't get a whisper of KFi during the day. With that said, I have picked it up in the winter months, in late afternoon. I may be wrong, but maybe, just maybe, if you are on the beach in Santa Cruz, it might come in on a Sangean PR-D5/15 ( I just randomly picked that radio as it is so good ). I do know, KFi can be heard as far north as Fresno though.
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In my original post that started this thread, I made comments on the reception of KFI and KALL along I-8 from El Centro, CA to Western AZ past Yuma. With respect to KALL, I recall being amazed that KALL was audible (barely) near El Centro, CA during the day. I wondered at the time whether that was a typical groundwave for the station, or unusual daytime skip. Looking at the predicted daytime contour on Radio Locator, the 0.15 contour, i.e. blue circle, seems to approach the CA border. That makes me believe that KALL can be reliably heard near El Centro during the day.

https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=KALL&service=AM&h=D

Concerning KFI, I believe the blue contour is too far east and, in my estimation, runs through the CA and AZ border just west of Yuma. That's still a good signal considering the rugged and varied terrain in SoCal.

https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=KFI&service=AM&h=D

I'm looking forward to another trip to Southern CA to see if KALL can be reliably heard about 600 miles during the day. If that is the case, that's an impressive daytime signal. Perhaps someone from SoCal can check it out while traveling I-8 through the Imperial Valley.
 
Geographer said:
In my original post that started this thread, I made comments on the reception of KFI and KALL along I-8 from El Centro, CA to Western AZ past Yuma. With respect to KALL, I recall being amazed that KALL was audible (barely) near El Centro, CA during the day. I wondered at the time whether that was a typical groundwave for the station, or unusual daytime skip. Looking at the predicted daytime contour on Radio Locator, the 0.15 contour, i.e. blue circle, seems to approach the CA border. That makes me believe that KALL can be reliably heard near El Centro during the day.
Click to expand...

What time of day and what time of year was it that you heard KALL near El Centro? That would be amazing if it was truly ground wave.
 
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