The Nighttime out-of-area Blowtorch where you are

[ddsparxx]

I made a typing error in Reply#3...I meant WSB, not WCB. Ooops.

 

[boombox]

W. WA, Puget Sound region:

540 CBK weak -- but used to be stronger at night a few years ago.
640 KFI weak but usually steady.
670 KBOI sometimes local in quality at night.
680 KNBR a bit weaker than KBOI, but dependable.
810 KGO comes in well, some splash from local stn. during fades.
1010 CBR sometimes stronger than local KOMO-1000.
1070 KNX usually weak.
1150 KSL usually very strong, splash from 1150 local.
1500 KSTP present next to regional KGA-1510 about half the time.
1530 KFBK always in with good sigs, although there is IBOC from a local N of me.

Aside from KSTP, none of the other Midwestern blowtorches make it to my QTH without difficulty -- either there is a strong local right next to them, or their signals are too weak -- or both. Other big stations (like WBAP 820, KOA 850, WOAI-1200, KFAB 1110 and KMOX 1120) are buried by local or regional signals, and either are difficult to make out, or aren't there most of the time.

 

[schmave]

That's easy. In Houston, of course, it's WOAI-1200, San Antonio at just over 280 miles due west.

Out of state 50k watt blowtorches yields WSM & WLAC-Nashville, which are present in SE Texas every night, as is WWL-New Orleans. KMOX-St. Louis and WGN-Chicago, are present, but not near the strength that they once were back in the days. WLS-Chicago also used to be much more reliable down here, but now is hit or miss.

I don't know what's happened to it in the past couple of years, but KWKH-Shreveport at 1130 used to be very reliable down this way but I haven't heard a peep from KWKH in Houston for quite awhile now.

Where are you in Houston? When I lived on the League City/Friendswood border a few years back, WOAI reception more often than not was utter crap at night. One of my cousins in the Dallas area, who lives just north of 1190's major lobe, used to tell me the same thing when he tried to listen to Phil Hendrie on WOAI. That's been 10 years ago, anyway.
Here in central Ohio (not counting WLW because it's solid 24/7 with no cancellation where I am), the most dependable blasters every night are WGN, WBBM, WCBS, WMVP, WBZ, KMOX and WRVA. WTAM and WCKY sucks here at night. WSCR can be good, but last night the Cuban was giving it a real tough time. WFAN, WJR and WABC more often than not are good, but not at WCBS levels. WOR can be good as well, but the most we hear from it here are its hash sidebands under WLW and, sometimes, giving WGN real fits.

 

[charlestondxman]

Charleston: WCBS, strong almost every night. WBT, we are in some of their cancellation zone so it doesn't come in as strong as just S.

WWL is good whenever WCBS is not. WLAC, WCKY, 1500 in Washington all good. Pretty much all the East Coast and Midwest clears still come in. WSB has more interference than you'd expect.

Farthest W I've heard is KOA. WHO comes in frequently, but not WCCO. WSCR is rare. WGN comes in even with a local on adjacent frequency. WBBM is usually there. So is WLS and WMVP.

 

[radiorob2.0]

QTH Evansville, IN

Strongest at night is WTAM Cleveland. The Chicago AM's are pretty strong as well. KOA Denver is there each night.

 

[kinphoenix2]

WOAI San Antone TX comes in like a local early AM/late eves, KSL 1160 out of Salt Lake also very good. The Los Angeles stations don't come in as well as the Texas ones, although my location of Phoenix AZ would make one think otherwise. The Mexican XERF practically burns up the car radio. These are just the few stations I can think of off the top of my head, there may be a couple I'm forgetting at the moment.


*been avoiding the forum for a while since my 9700khz "BBC" blunder ???

 

[sam critter]

At nite here in Tucson AZ KOA 850 Denver (@600 miles away) comes in a S-levels almost as good as my local stations. In fact I can even hear KOA on a cheap 10 dollar pocket radio!

Others that run more or less consistant 5by5 levels (excluding Los Angeles and San Diego area stas) that are between 600 and 1,000 miles away include:
700 KALL Salt Lake
1080 KRLD Dallas
1110 KFAB Omaha
1160 KSL Salt Lake
1200 WOAI San Antonio
1520 KOKC Oklahoma City

1500 KSTP Minneapolis (@ 1300 miles away) when not QRMed by spill over from my local sta on 1490, usually produces a good signal ranging from S-3.5 to S-5.

All these stations are monitored with a Sangean PR-D5 and a Tecsun PL-606, both WITHOUT any inductive loops to boost the signal.....

 

[purpledevil]

Where are you in Houston? When I lived on the League City/Friendswood border a few years back, WOAI reception more often than not was utter crap at night. One of my cousins in the Dallas area, who lives just north of 1190's major lobe, used to tell me the same thing when he tried to listen to Phil Hendrie on WOAI. That's been 10 years ago, anyway.
Here in central Ohio (not counting WLW because it's solid 24/7 with no cancellation where I am), the most dependable blasters every night are WGN, WBBM, WCBS, WMVP, WBZ, KMOX and WRVA. WTAM and WCKY sucks here at night. WSCR can be good, but last night the Cuban was giving it a real tough time. WFAN, WJR and WABC more often than not are good, but not at WCBS levels. WOR can be good as well, but the most we hear from it here are its hash sidebands under WLW and, sometimes, giving WGN real fits.

I live in north Houston, Antoine & Veterans Memorial area. I never have an issue with reception of WOAI at night. Certainly not a crystal clear quality signal, but as good of reception as some of our smaller sticks.

 

[JaxRadioFan]

The clears I get nightly here just south of Jacksonville FL

650 WSM Nashville
680 WPTF Raleigh
700 WLW Cincinnati
750 WSB Atlanta
840 WHAS Louisville
870 WWL New Orleans
1110 WBT Charlotte
1120 KMOX St Louis
1130 KWKH Shreveport
1200 WOAI San Antonio
1510 WLAC Nashville
1530 WCKY Cincinnati

The top three are 1110 1510 and 1530 with the clearest signal to this area at night. In fact 1510 can at times sound better than our own so-called blowtorch 690 WOKV. It has a rather narrow lobe to the east from their night time transmitter site west of Jacksonville. .

 

[jd]

In East Texas near Tyler my list isn't that spectacular in length but several stations make up for it in strength and reliability (by reliability I'm talking about an almost total absence of fading and interference). Note that I'm in the cancellation zone for DFW blowtorches WBAP and KRLD, along with Shreveport's KWKH and plenty of interference shows up on each of those frequencies from stations in Central America, Cuba and/or Mexico.

So that leaves these stations to top the list:

650 WSM
840 WHAS
850 KOA
870 WWL
1040 WHO
1120 KMOX
1170 KFAQ
1200 WOAI
1510 WLAC*
1530 WCKY*

* = briefly in the evening until they go to night pattern

 

[KA7PAT]

The AM band has become so regional that it is hard to define "out of area blowtorch", but here are the most consistent out of area (Portland area) stations herd at night.

540 CBK (mostly late night)
640 KFI
670 KBOI
680 KNBR
690 CBU (sometimes XTRA)
710 KIRO
720 KDWN
780 KK0H
810 KGO (SOME SPLASH FROM LOCAL KPDQ)
950 KJR (SOMETIMES MIX WITH XEK)
1000 KOMO
1010 CBR
1100 KFAX
1120 KPNW
1130 CKWX
1160 KSL
1510 KGA
1530 KFBK

 

[schmave]

Where are you in Houston? When I lived on the League City/Friendswood border a few years back, WOAI reception more often than not was utter crap at night. One of my cousins in the Dallas area, who lives just north of 1190's major lobe, used to tell me the same thing when he tried to listen to Phil Hendrie on WOAI. That's been 10 years ago, anyway.
Here in central Ohio (not counting WLW because it's solid 24/7 with no cancellation where I am), the most dependable blasters every night are WGN, WBBM, WCBS, WMVP, WBZ, KMOX and WRVA. WTAM and WCKY sucks here at night. WSCR can be good, but last night the Cuban was giving it a real tough time. WFAN, WJR and WABC more often than not are good, but not at WCBS levels. WOR can be good as well, but the most we hear from it here are its hash sidebands under WLW and, sometimes, giving WGN real fits.

I live in north Houston, Antoine & Veterans Memorial area. I never have an issue with reception of WOAI at night. Certainly not a crystal clear quality signal, but as good of reception as some of our smaller sticks.

Cool. My first four months in Houston, I wasn't far from your area - my ex was renting a house right off a fairway at the old Inwood Forest Golf Course and that's where I lived. I just didn't remember WOAI ever standing out even though I figured Houston was beyond the cancellation zone. WBAP and KRLD usually were much louder in my experience, and even then KRLD took (and probably still takes) some punishment from 1070's sidebands up on the northwest side.

 

[robotique]

here just out side Boston MA the following are pretty much guaranteed to be solid without much fading or competition.

760 WJR Detroit MI
780 WBBM Chicago IL
880 WCBS New York NY
1010 WINS New York NY
1090 WBAL Baltimore MD
1100 WTAM Cleveland OH
1110 WBT Charlotte NC
1180 WHAM Rochester NY


some stations have degraded per se recently. 710 WOR used to be 100% guaranteed and loud but this season Cuba has been crushing them pretty regularly. 750 WSB wrestles with Cuba a lot now as well .... also 770 WABC but to a lesser extent.

 

[schmave]

Are you in the cancellation zone for any New York stations in Boston? Or does that fall more over Connecticut and Rhode Island?

 

[robotique]

Are you in the cancellation zone for any New York stations in Boston? Or does that fall more over Connecticut and Rhode Island?

i dunno, maybe? based on Radio-Locator maps, i sort of am....but WINS and WCBS are as loud as locals after sundown. WCBS is even present during the day. WFAN is strong but more fade-y and WABC is more constant than WFAN at night but not as loud.

 

[schmave]

Are you in the cancellation zone for any New York stations in Boston? Or does that fall more over Connecticut and Rhode Island?

i dunno, maybe? based on Radio-Locator maps, i sort of am....but WINS and WCBS are as loud as locals after sundown. WCBS is even present during the day. WFAN is strong but more fade-y and WABC is more constant than WFAN at night but not as loud.
[/quote

Yeah, you're probably beyond it if those stations come in that well. Just curious because I know the ground conductivity isn't that great up there, but there's also a water path from NYC depending on where you are. For me, I'm 140 miles from Cleveland and can't hear WTAM for crap at night, but I'm 90 miles from WLW's tower and it rarely if ever fades where I am (as opposed to 25 miles east where I lived until a month ago, where fading could be very bad at night).

 

[joebtsflk1]

I don't dx much anymore other than on occasional night-time bit waiting in the car, but as far as the clears in southern colorado,
670 WBBM, 720 WGN, 820 WBAP, 850 KOA (though mtns between me & Denver make it weaker than a 15 ms ground path would indicate), 880 KRVN, 1040 WHO, 1110 KFAB would be the most reliable ones. Of those, the DAs on 880 and 1110 make them the most likely on a pocket AM transistor radio (do they even exist anymore?!)

780-WBBM and 890 WLS have been blanked out by suburban Colorado Springs stations KCEG and KJME both from an unusual 6 tower array
https://licensing.fcc.gov/cdbs/CDBS_Attachment/getattachment.jsp?appn=101421574&qnum=5120&copynum=1&exhcnum=1
scroll down to p. 45 of the pdf

 

[cyberdad]

Far northwest suburbs of Chicago. I'll go with these (nighttime skywave)....

650: WSM
740: CFZM
830: WCCO For some reason tronger lately than its ever been
1120: KMOX
1540: KXEL

For the lower-powered former "regionals"....

980: WONE
1470: WMBD
1630: KCJJ (not a former 'regionqlz

 

[BigDave]

Here are some that boom in at night here in Woodstock. 650 WSM,700 WLW,840 WHAS,WWL 870,1100 WTAM,1120 KMOX,1200 WOAI,1510 WLAC and 1530 WCKY

 

[cyberdad]

Here are some that boom in at night here in Woodstock. 650 WSM,700 WLW,840 WHAS,WWL 870,1100 WTAM,1120 KMOX,1200 WOAI,1510 WLAC and 1530 WCKY

Those are all pretty solid in Woodstock, IL, too....eight miles from me!  ;D (And yes, I've been to Woodstock, GA, along with Woodstock, ON and Woodstock VT).