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The Out-Of-Area Little Pistol Where You Are

A

audioguy

What is the most consistent out-of-area little pistol you can hear where you live? It could be AM or FM and it doesn't have to "boom" in, but it should be "listenable" most of the time you try for it (either day, night, or both). For classification purposes I suggest a power limit of about 5 kW for either band to qualify as a little pistol during the time you are listening.

For me in the north Chicago suburbs, these include WAUK 540 (400W D+N), WILL 580 (5 kW D), WKZO 590 (5 kW D), and WMBD 1470 (5 kW N).
 
Here are a few reliable 5kw or less nighttime that come to mind here in the far northwest suburbs of Chicago. I'll limit my list to stations more than 100 miles away....

550: KTRS, St. Louis
590: KXSP, Omaha
610: KCSP, Kansas City
980: WONE, Dayton, OH (good signal, but often WITY 1kw from Danville, IL underneath)
1170: KJOC, Davenport, IA (1kw...hopefully Cumulus won't get around to fixing their night pattern...LOL)
1290: WIRL, Peoria (Omaha and Dayton also frequent visitors here)
1430: KZQZ, St. Louis (I think they're still at 5kw night....they were a regular as 5kw WIL and WRTH)
1470: WMBD, Peoria (sometimes almost like a local)
1630: KCJJ Iowa City (1kw)
1700: KBGG Des Moines (1kw)
 
Here in central Ohio, it's WFIR-AM (960) out of Roanoke, Virginia. I've heard it late at night carrying Coast to Coast AM. Also, occasionally WRJZ (620) from Knoxville makes an appearance outside WTVN's primary nighttime lobe. I've heard it to within a few miles of WTVN's tower coming into Columbus from the south (main nighttime lobe goes north).
Outside of that, I can't think of very many. Cincinnati, Dayton and Cleveland stations generally aim away from this area at night, and anything that would get here from those cities would be extremely weak.
 
cyberdad - Out of curiosity, do you ever pull in KWMT 540 Fort Dodge, IA?

I live in SW Missouri within 10 miles of the Arkansas border and if I'm listening on a car radio in the ideal place and right conditions in the daytime, I can pull them in just good enough to ID them. KWMT must be a good 400+ miles from me, too. I'm pretty sure it is my best daytime AM catch.
 
KWMT-540 has a tremendous DAYTIME signal to the West....MUCH MUCH better than Radio-Locator Indicates. I drive to Colorado Springs every June along I-70 westbound through Kansas. KWMT is "there until just before the Colorado border when a Spanish language station (can't remember the call) from New Mexico starts to control the frequency. In CENTRAL Kansas, however, KWMT is a little tough to copy with the splatter from KFRM-550 from Salina, but once you get west of Hays, KWMT is clear copy on my Bose AM/FM in my 2006 Silverado.
 
Bill Shadowcat said:
cyberdad - Out of curiosity, do you ever pull in KWMT 540 Fort Dodge, IA?

I live in SW Missouri within 10 miles of the Arkansas border and if I'm listening on a car radio in the ideal place and right conditions in the daytime, I can pull them in just good enough to ID them. KWMT must be a good 400+ miles from me, too. I'm pretty sure it is my best daytime AM catch.
Click to expand...

As another Chicago area listener (near north suburbs), I'll throw in my 2 cents.
KWMT can be heard in the daytime faintly at my location only if I null WAUK which is pretty solid here.
Back in the 60s before 540 'WAUK" in the Milwaukee area came on the air, KWMT was a regular daytime catch at my location.
Since Cyberdad is west of me he will possibly have a different take on this.
 
SW Ohio (Cincinnati West Side)

Days
860 WMRI Marion IN 1 KW directional
930 WHON Centerville IN .5 KW directional
1010 WCSI Columbus IN .33 non directional
1220 WSLM Salem IN 5 KW directional

There are several Dayton area daytimers that send their signal to my house.

Nights
540 WAUK Jackson WI .4 KW directional
680 WCTT Corbin KY .88 KW directional
1550 WDLR Deleware OH (only when they forget to power down which doesn't happen much these days) .5 KW days directional
910 KVIS (Ex. KGLC) 1 KW directional used to be regular, but I don't hear them anymore.

On all of the directionals, I benefit from their directional patterns.
 
Bill....

KWMT is doable daytime where I am (44 miles northwest of downtown Chicago). What Radioman said about WAUK is true at my location also. Solid signal....but with a good radio you can null it and hear KWMT. Very weak, but it's reliable and you can ID it.

I've never heard KWMT here at night, save for one very notable exception. A couple of years ago (IIRC) they were having issues of some sort and the day power/pattern was on all night for a week or two. A lot of us on this board who had never heard KWMT before were suddenly getting a very listenable signal. Here at my location WAUK and CBK usually fight it out at night, but on day power, KWMT was on top of both of them.

Actually, KWMT uses the same pattern day and night. There's a null to the north protect CBK 24/7. The signal gets out very well in all other directions.
 
cyberdad said:
Actually, KWMT uses the same pattern day and night. There's a null to the north protect CBK 24/7. The signal gets out very well in all other directions.
Click to expand...

You're right, and I have no idea why the FCC lists them as a DA2.
 
From the SE corner of Michigan, it's CHHA 1610 Toronto (Voces Latinas) - starts coming in well before sunset, and sounds more like 20kW than 1kW at night (more reliable at night, and with less co-channel interference, then CFZM)

Not quite "fully listenable", I've been hearing 540 WDAK Columbus, GA night after night ever since CBEF left the channel (heard KWMT in there a few times as well - loved listening to it on a Lincoln-Detroit drive a few years back - lost it just East of the Quad Cities, they really do get out).

Back in 1984, I went into a gas station in Harbor Beach, MI, and was surprised to hear their crew listening to (not DXing) 500-watt WHND, 560 Monroe, about 150 miles away (was oldies, station is now WRDT with religious talk).

I beautiful "little pistol" was WFRO, 900, Fremont, OH - the 500 w daytimer was easy to listen to in Detroit proper, and was a nice full-service station to listen to (sadly, it was killed off to allow Flint's 910 channel to be trafficked into the Detroit market, though WFDF's daytime signal on Detroit's east side is actually a little weaker than WFRO's had been!)
 
boiseengineer said:
DA2 because of a different power day/night. 5 kw day / 170 watts night.
Click to expand...

Oh, I know. But same pattern is same pattern and I've never understood why they use the designation like there's a difference.
 
Would Radio Enciclopedia count for me? If I'm within a mile or two of the beach with a sufficiently narrow radio, it's there day and night. No idea what power they run.

WDIZ Panama City on 590 is a good candidate. It's just 5 kW days if I remember correctly but booms in here despite the less than ideal saltwater path. KAGY 1510 from Louisiana is only 1 kW and isn't unusual to hear during the day, either. It does a surprisingly good job across the Gulf to Alabama for its flea power stature.

We don't have any real low powered FMs around here, but I could probably say I'm really impressed with the signal from W277CC 103.3 in Pensacola, Florida. 250 watts at 430 feet. It shouldn't even be audible where I live but it's there, with what sounds like knife-edge static all over it. 28.5 miles.

The original post said something about being easily listenable, but I have one that isn't, but still manages to show up here more than it should. That's WOLM 88.1 in D'Iberville, Mississippi. It shows up here a lot more than it should, despite me being in the 60 dBu of co-channel WUWF in Pensacola.

If you can tell me how WOLM's 1 kW at 217 feet HAAT can make it here at 67 miles while overriding WUWF's 100 kW at about 40 miles, then I think that qualifies as a real little pistol!
 
Sometimes they show DA-2 when the parameters are the same because there are two proofs with different augmentations, so that the augmented pattern shape is different, and somehow the two ended up in different database records. I've sometimes seen this carried over inconsistently as U4 in WRTH, and later corrected to U3. There may be advantages to two separate records when upgrading, so make sure you don't try to correct it in the FCC files if it is advantageous to have two proofs for day and night. One example would be if you were in the 50% RSS or 25% RSS calculation and had to reduce 10% (50% RSS) or stay the same (25-50% RSS), rather than have to go to 25% or below RSS. This might mean the difference between being able to be 50 kW night and the 15-25 kW night common for upgrades with nearby former III-As and III-Bs and standard patterns that limit it to that.
 
All FMs running 25kW equivalent or less (A, B1, C3)
In Manistee, MI (not all of these come in all the time):
92.1 WLTU Manitowoc, WI (A)
92.7 WAUN Kewaunee, WI (A)
93.7 WBFM Sheboygan, WI (A)
94.7 WZOR Mishicot, WI (C3)
96.7 WBDK Algoma, WI (C3)
98.1 WLKN Cleveland, WI (A)
99.3 WOWN Shawano, WI (C3)
100.1 WPJP Port Washington, WI (A)
100.1 WVIB Holton, MI (A)
102.1 WRKU Forestville, WI (A)
102.3 WQTC Manitowoc, WI (A)
103.1 WOGB Kaukauna, WI (C3)
103.9 WVBO Winneconne, WI (C3)
104.1 WRLU Algoma, WI (A)
104.3 WKZG Seymour, WI (A)
104.5 WXER Plymouth, WI (A)
104.9 WPCK Denmark, WI (C3)
105.1 WSBW Sister Bay, WI (A)
105.3 WLVE Mukwonago, WI (A)
106.5 WHBZ Sheboygan Falls, WI (A)
106.7 WKRU Allouez, WI (C3)
106.9 WLGE Baileys Harbor, WI (A)
107.1 WFON Fond du Lac, WI (A)
107.5 WDUZ Brillion, WI (C3)
Allendale, MI:
103.7 WCSY South Haven, MI (A)
106.3 WGLM Lakeview, MI (A)
 
Here in Vermilion, OH I can count on hearing:

530 CIAO/Toronto daytime too away from electrical interference
550 WGR/Buffalo daytime and WKRC/Cincinnati at night
560 WIND/Chicago on top of others at night
660 WMIC/Sandusky, MI daytime
960 WFIR/Roanoke, VA at night on top of others
1320 WJAS/Pittsburgh, PA at night with radio oriented in their direction
1690 WVON/Chicago at night
1700 KBGG/Des Moines at night (with IBOC hash from someone on 1690)

I'll add more if I can think of them
 
The out of area little pistols here just south of Jacksonville
On the AM side daytime
1130 WHHW Hilton Head with 1 kw 154 mi
1230 WSBB New Smyrna beach 1kw 85 mi
1490 WMOG Brunswick 600 w 74 mi.
On the FM side
WLOV Daytona 2.2 kw 68 mi with tropo mixes w/ a faint but constant W205CD (WSOS FM) St Augustine 24 mi with 36
Sorry but I could not come up with much on the FM side unless you can count 106.9 W295AZ Jacksonville being hear well in St Augustine 37 miles w 99 watts

At the beach The SC AM'S ON 730, 810, 910, 1250, 1390 come in well with 730 being the clearest.
Miami's 560 is listenable in Vilano Beach near St Augustine with 550 nulled. I also remember picking up 810 from Freeport and 1540 from Nassau some time ago. 810 would be fighting the 810 from SC and 800 from Palatka FL which puts out a nice signal for 1 kw. No luck picking up AM stations north of Charleston yet.
 
Zach said:
Would Radio Enciclopedia count for me? If I'm within a mile or two of the beach with a sufficiently narrow radio, it's there day and night. No idea what power they run.
Click to expand...

Count it! I saw them listed somewhere at 10kw.

I seem to recall someone somewhere....perhaps it was David....saying that they may be running something more like 30kw. I wouldn't doubt that at all. They're certainly listenable when I'm on the beach near where you are. And they're fairly reliable here in the Chicago area at night. To be sure, they're weak, sometimes they're fighting CIAO, but they're almost always there.
 
Perhaps not completely out of the area but 560 WNSR Brentwood Tn operating on an sta 250 watts from wire antenna near se side of downtown Nashville. Good signal 35 miles sw of Nashville even a good copy at night....
 
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