Strong AM signals

[schmave]

I'd say WBAP and WLW give KOA a run for its money. I personally have heard WBAP both in Ohio and Las Vegas, and WLW seems to come in all the way into the Rockies.

 

[gr8oldies]

I've heard WLW's daytime signal well enough for regular listening in Fort Wayne, Lafayette and Logansport, IN. Pre-IBOC, they were reasonable as close to Chicahgo as Rennselear, IN. When I lived in Quincy IL and worked in Hannibal, MO, though WLW blasted in at night like they were next door, I only recieved them once in the middle of the day, when I could just make out Gary Burbank's voice. Also had WLW in the daytime weakly just outside Madison, WI on a fourth of July. WLW was weak and noisy in Terre Haute more recently, but was still listenable in the Lake Erie area west of Cleveland. (Can't say the same about WTAM in this part of the state).When I would visit Crossville, TN, I did not have them much past 9am eastern. 1530s signal is actually stronger there.

When I was growing up near Celina, Ohio, of course listening to the Big 8 daily, CKLW's signal was stronger than WJR's. In Lima, they were about equal. CKLW was strong until about I-75 and I-70; very noisy in Dayton proper and the south suburbs.

Interesting thing about Quincy, IL is KMOX's signal was attenuated by the bluffs or the iron ore..or something was weird with that. KMOX blasted into Hannibal. Even the Chicago clears became stronger daytimes when you crossed the Mississipi river.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Caracas is 100 kw, nicely installed. And non directional. El Paso is directional to protect WSB.

Do you have a web site that lists all of these "South of the border" stations from Mexico, central, and South America? For us non-Spanish speaking DX'ers, it would be a valuable resource to know what direction the interferer is coming from so we can null more effectively. And maybe a few bragging rights if we know we logged something like Caracas. I remember them from a cruise in the 70's - I thought it was 730, but 750 makes more sense in light of the station in Mexico City that I think was half a million at one time. I had no idea that was where the 750 was coming from. It reminds me of the old PJB days ---

 

[gar hi]

I'd say WBAP and WLW give KOA a run for its money. I personally have heard WBAP both in Ohio and Las Vegas, and WLW seems to come in all the way into the Rockies.

In the 70s, I remember getting WLW in Northern California at night on a regular basis and it was a listenable signal.

Also there, I once got a weak signal from WCBS but that was just a one night thing.

I received the old 1210 WCAU (Now WPHT) on a couple of different visits there very late at night when the station somewhere in the middle of the country went off the air.


Doubt any of that could be done today with all the frequency crowding.

 

[BRNout]

I can still get WLW during the day north of Chicago, but absolutely no luck with WJR.
In the early 60s not only could I get WJR during the day, but 1130 (WCAR) came in also before WISN moved to 1130. Also I could hear CKLW during the day.
Never could get KMOX during the day because of WMBI, but 550 in St. Louis always came in.
Also KWMT Fort Dodge, Ia was a daytime catch before Jackson, Wi came on as well as WOI Ames, Ia. All of these daytime catches in the 60s.
It's a whole different AM band now.

I was up in Waukegan, IL today, driving along that expressway that runs parallel to the lake. Seemed far enough away from the big Chicago tx sites to try for WLW and WJR and I was right! WLW came in well enough to listen to; hardly a local but surprisingly clear. I can assure you that from my home in the NW 'burbs it's nothing like that.

As for WJR, it was buried in WBBM's hash for the most part; however, as I was right by Lake Michigan, it actually did pop in and out of the shadow of CBS' Stalinist jammer. Long enough, in fact, to get a positive ID with calls. So, you could definitely get it here - IF there was no IBOC blasting out from 780 WBBM. Seems like CBS owned stations with IBOC manage to blow out the strongest signals.

 

[charlestondxman]

KOA is available in probably 75-80% of the country. Anywhere west of the Great Smokies, it comes in well. I even heard it in Spartanburg, SC coming through.

In my area, WLW comes in about a hour before sunset, but it gets covered up by WOKV around here for a while. The strongest night signals would have to be WPHT, WHKT, and WCBS. I am at the edge of the cancellation zone, so WBT gets some noise thru its signal, but about 100 miles away, it comes in as clear as a bell.

 

[davideduardo]

Do you have a web site that lists all of these "South of the border" stations from Mexico, central, and South America?

No, I don't think there is anything only that is at all complete. The best would be the World Radio TV Handbook, but it is notoriously inaccurate for Latin American radio.

For us non-Spanish speaking DX'ers, it would be a valuable resource to know what direction the interferer is coming from so we can null more effectively. And maybe a few bragging rights if we know we logged something like Caracas. I remember them from a cruise in the 70's - I thought it was 730, but 750 makes more sense in light of the station in Mexico City that I think was half a million at one time.

XEX was never more than 100 kw. I saw the site near Lake Texcoco in the 60's, and spoke with the engineers. In any case, Caracas about as far from Mexico City than Atlanta is from Anchorage.... and there is no frequency coordination between Mexico, Central America, and northern South America. The only cooperating nations are the southern cone republics, Chile, Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Bolivia.

710 is another Caracas 100 kw station... so there were two higher power stations in that part of the dial. 720, 730, 740 were all 10 to 20 kw operations in Venezuela, although 720 in Colombia is 30 kw, 730 is 50 kw, and 740 is 20kw.

Another possiblity is to join the National Radio Club AM dx reflector... where you can ask and usually get a response in a pretty short time.

 

[BRNout]

XEX was never more than 100 kw. I saw the site near Lake Texcoco in the 60's, and spoke with the engineers. In any case, Caracas about as far from Mexico City than Atlanta is from Anchorage.... and there is no frequency coordination between Mexico, Central America, and northern South America. The only cooperating nations are the southern cone republics, Chile, Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Bolivia.

Hi David; I hate to be one of "those" people when it comes to facts and figures - let alone make of habit of correcting you when it comes to things in Latin America. However, having traveled extensively to Caracas, through Central America and into Mexico, your Atlanta-Anchorage comment made me wonder how that could be true. Seemed a bit too far to me. So I checked and you exaggerated a bit (by almost 1,200 miles). Caracas and Mexico City are 2,235 air miles apart; Anchorage and Atlanta are 3,402 miles apart. They are still pretty far apart no doubt, but New York and Phoenix would have probably been a better analogy.

Of course, that doesn't contradict your point that the two cities are far enough apart to get away with co-located high-powered AM signals. And that most Americans wouldn't realize that such distances are involved. However, I will point out that it results in a mish-mash of signals when you're in a place like Costa Rica, Panama or Nicaragua. Not that the operators in Mexico or Venezuela would be (or necessarily should be) concerned with that....

 

[davideduardo]

So I checked and you exaggerated a bit (by almost 1,200 miles). Caracas and Mexico City are 2,235 air miles apart; Anchorage and Atlanta are 3,402 miles apart. They are still pretty far apart no doubt, but New York and Phoenix would have probably been a better analogy.

I guess I did exaggerate that one. I should know better than to measure with my fingers.

Of course, that doesn't contradict your point that the two cities are far enough apart to get away with co-located high-powered AM signals. And that most Americans wouldn't realize that such distances are involved. However, I will point out that it results in a mish-mash of signals when you're in a place like Costa Rica, Panama or Nicaragua. Not that the operators in Mexico or Venezuela would be (or necessarily should be) concerned with that....

750 has, from recall, these stations on it besides the Caracas station (the confiscated Radio Caracas Radio)... 50 kw in Medellin, Colombia. 10 kw in Managua. 10 KW in Costa Rica. 50 kw in Guayaquil.

A better example might be 250 kw in Bogotá, 50 kw in Tampico, 50 kw in San Juan, 20 kw in Venezuela, 10 kw in Ecuador, 10 kw in Honduras, all on 810. None of the countries do any coordination, and the broadcasters used to just increase power if there was interference. Now that AM is in its rapid decline, many of these stations are cutting power or just signing off.

 

[bobsims]

WJR comes in clear as a bell late nights in Providence, RI. Weak and very narrow but I can pick it up just about every night.

I once had a flight where there was a change of planes in Cleveland and I had about an hour to wait for my next flight and I remember sitting there in the terminal and listening to what I could get on my little Walkman.

WJR was coming in good and AM reception is usually not that good in general in airport terminals.

Not a bad signal for being about 100 miles away received in those conditions.


Oh, and this was during the day, between 12 and 1 pm.

WJR is practically like a local around Cleveland. I recall driving north on I-271 near Mayfield Heights (east of Cleveland) at about 3:30 pm on a summer afternoon (about 3 years ago). Was looking around AM and using the seek function of my radio when it landed on 760. To be honest, I was a little slow that day and was wondering what this station was that dared compete head to head with WTAM and how they could have secured the rights to Hannity on such a nearby signal. Needless to say, I was shocked to hear the WJR ID, news and traffic at the next break.

On subsequent trips to the Cleveland area, WJR has always provided an impressive daytime signal in the area and - on a drive from there to Buffalo - I held WJR all the way up past Dunkirk, NY. Past that point, it started having issues from adjacent local signals.

I have yet to hear WLW during the day here in the Chicago area and don't see it happening thanks to the hyper-muscular signal of WGN in my area which splashes all the way down to 700 at times. WGN is the strongest AM at my house, followed closely by WBBM.

 

[cyberdad]

In Springfield, IL on my car radio, during the day I can get a strong, reliable signal of 1000-watt WCAZ-990 from Carthage, IL (110 miles northwest). I've also picked up WCAZ at least faintly in SW Wisconsin during the day before (about 175 miles northwest of Carthage), and fairly reliably as far east as Decatur and the St. Louis metro area. Pretty impressive for a small radio station with a 1kw stick in far western Illinois.

This "little" station has always had a ridiculously good signal. In college in southeastern Iowa in the late '60s. I was about 70 miles from the stick, but the 1kw on 990 blasted in like a local. Rendering WCFL more or less useless.

My favorite personal memory of 'CAZ was the top 40 program at 4pm weekday afternoon. It was always a tossup between that and Captain Ernie's Cartoon Showboat on WOC-TV, but I digress. (And actually, we preferred watching Captian Ernie in the local pub.)

Anyway, whoever the jock was obviously didn't quite get top 40....as evidenced his by introducing records by "Mister Jefferson Airplane" and "Mister Buffalo Springfield" etc. Also, the station always signed off at 5pm....regardless of when the local sunset was.

 

[over38]

Listened to WJR one night in 1984 in N Houston (Spring - Aldine Westfield & Cypresswood) in my car in my brothers driveway


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WJR barely makes it to Dallas, and I have yet to hear it from Houston. WBAP, on the other hand, often boomed into Southern Michigan, as did KOA and WWL.

[/quote]

 

[schmave]

Listened to WJR one night in 1984 in N Houston (Spring - Aldine Westfield & Cypresswood) in my car in my brothers driveway

WJR barely makes it to Dallas, and I have yet to hear it from Houston. WBAP, on the other hand, often boomed into Southern Michigan, as did KOA and WWL.

[/quote]
[/quote]

I know exactly the intersection you mention ... kind of cool to see it in that context. Like Bruce, I've never heard WJR in Houston. Ever.
All the Chicagoans except WMVP get here at some point, albeit weakly. No NYers make it here. KMOX is always in, as are WBAP and KRLD and WOAI; the last one doesn't do well here. The 1110 from Nebraska also is a regular, and of course all the big Mexican stations make it here easily.

 

[radioman148]

Listened to WJR one night in 1984 in N Houston (Spring - Aldine Westfield & Cypresswood) in my car in my brothers driveway

WJR barely makes it to Dallas, and I have yet to hear it from Houston. WBAP, on the other hand, often boomed into Southern Michigan, as did KOA and WWL.

[/quote]

I know exactly the intersection you mention ... kind of cool to see it in that context. Like Bruce, I've never heard WJR in Houston. Ever.
All the Chicagoans except WMVP get here at some point, albeit weakly. No NYers make it here. KMOX is always in, as are WBAP and KRLD and WOAI; the last one doesn't do well here. The 1110 from Nebraska also is a regular, and of course all the big Mexican stations make it here easily.
[/quote]

Can you still hear WLS in Houston with all the Mexican interference? I know I could get it there in the 70s & early 80s, but I wonder how well it does now?

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Can you still hear WLS in Houston with all the Mexican interference? I know I could get it there in the 70s & early 80s, but I wonder how well it does now?

Nope - a lot of Spanish language chatter underneath. I think the US got the short end of a treaty somewhere that allows this stuff over the border.

 

[gr8oldies]

I don't know how much of the Spanish on 890 is Mexican vs. Cuban, I know Cuba would be trashing WLS as close in as Lafayette, IN when I lived there in the mid 90s. Cuba don't care nothing about no treaties.

 

[scottwmro]

I don't know how much of the Spanish on 890 is Mexican vs. Cuban, I know Cuba would be trashing WLS as close in as Lafayette, IN when I lived there in the mid 90s. Cuba don't care nothing about no treaties.

Maybe when Castro dies, the Cuban interference will stop. Years ago, the U.S. should have taken over Cuba. There wouldn't have been a Castro ruling if we would have taken it 90 years ago.

 

[schmave]

Can you still hear WLS in Houston with all the Mexican interference? I know I could get it there in the 70s & early 80s, but I wonder how well it does now?

Nope - a lot of Spanish language chatter underneath. I think the US got the short end of a treaty somewhere that allows this stuff over the border.

You can hear it some nights, but it's within a lot of other noise. Same for WSCR, WGN and WBBM. None of them dominate their respective channels here.

 

[jd]

There's some interference under WLS that's neither Mexican or Cuban. Where I live in East Texas part of the mess is KVOZ Del Mar Hills (Laredo) TX, which runs 1,000 watts directional nighttime. Take a look at their pattern and you'll see that it really shouldn't be happening but it does; if you're along the Gulf Coast and you hear religious programming in Spanish on 890 there's a good chance it's KVOZ.

 

[schmave]

I've heard WLW's daytime signal well enough for regular listening in Fort Wayne, Lafayette and Logansport, IN. Pre-IBOC, they were reasonable as close to Chicahgo as Rennselear, IN. When I lived in Quincy IL and worked in Hannibal, MO, though WLW blasted in at night like they were next door, I only recieved them once in the middle of the day, when I could just make out Gary Burbank's voice. Also had WLW in the daytime weakly just outside Madison, WI on a fourth of July. WLW was weak and noisy in Terre Haute more recently, but was still listenable in the Lake Erie area west of Cleveland. (Can't say the same about WTAM in this part of the state).When I would visit Crossville, TN, I did not have them much past 9am eastern. 1530s signal is actually stronger there.

When I was growing up near Celina, Ohio, of course listening to the Big 8 daily, CKLW's signal was stronger than WJR's. In Lima, they were about equal. CKLW was strong until about I-75 and I-70; very noisy in Dayton proper and the south suburbs.

Interesting thing about Quincy, IL is KMOX's signal was attenuated by the bluffs or the iron ore..or something was weird with that. KMOX blasted into Hannibal. Even the Chicago clears became stronger daytimes when you crossed the Mississipi river.

Driving across northern Indiana between Chicago and Fort Wayne a few years ago when all the big Chicagoans *and* WLW and WJR were running IBOC, there wasn't one stretch of that 150-mile trip where WLW, WGN, WJR or WBBM's IBOC was not walking all over one of the other four. WLW's IBOC began to impact WGN a half hour or so west of Fort Wayne, and vice-versa, and WBBM's IBOC was getting WJR from Plymouth west. WJR began to hit WBBM farther east, but that was mostly because Detroit was farther from my route than either Chicago or Cincinnati.
It was the most memorable example, for me at least, of what an abomination IBOC is. At least some stations, like WGN and WJR, are wising up.