Tremendous Salt Water Propagation for AM

[schmave]

Someone also recently made a claim of getting WCBS during the mid day on the shore of Puerto Rico with a special antenna in the early 60s. I don't recall if the time of year was mentioned or not.

This seems more believable to me. Not having an atlas in front of me, to the best of my memory there is no land between New York and Puerto Rico.
Gar, sorry you didn't hear anything from Texas. I plan to go down to Galveston either tomorrow or Thursday to DX and hope to get something. I just have to figure out the best place to go.

Hope you get right on the beach at Galveston and there are no static crashes.

Well I finally got to sneak down to Galveston today to see what I could do. I went to the eastern end of the island - am NEVER doing that on a holiday again - and the DX wasn't what I expected but I did get a few pleasant surprises and another station I've never heard before.
Unfortunately I didn't get right on the beach - I was maybe 75 yards from the water - and there were static crashes though no storms came close to the area.
My observations:
560 - KLVI had pretty much a local-grade signal. It's strong in much of Houston but it was crystal clear by the water.
570 - A very weak KLIF. I thought I might pull in Reloj but no luck.
590 - Completely dominated by the Spanish-language station just across the border in Mexico. Little if any trace of KLBJ.
620 - Just a trace of Spanish under KILT splatter. I don't know what this is and it was too weak to really make out anything.
810 - Never heard this station, but it was a Spanish-language talk and music station of consistent strength. Mostly talk before 5 CT, then music after. This signal faded shortly after I crossed the 45 bridge heading back to the mainland.
1030 - KCTA was quite strong. 8 out of 10 on the strength scale.
1140 - Sounded like a gospel station to me. I did not find a station of that format on Radio Locator that would reach Galveston.
1170 - Weak Spanish talk. Never heard this either.
1700 - The pleasant surprise of the day was KVNS from Brownsville. A consistent signal, maybe 5 out of 10 on the strength scale, for the entirety of my stay minus a one-time fade for less than a minute.
Given the time of day I was there (2:30-4:30 p.m.) at this time of the year, I highly, highly doubt there was skywave involved. KVNS has 8,000 watts during the day, so with a salt-water path I'm sure it could get here.
It lasted about five miles over the bridge on 45 before it faded.

 

[radioman148]

>>1700 - The pleasant surprise of the day was KVNS from Brownsville. A consistent signal, maybe 5 out of 10 on the strength scale, for the entirety of my stay minus a one-time fade for less than a minute.
Given the time of day I was there (2:30-4:30 p.m.) at this time of the year, I highly, highly doubt there was skywave involved. KVNS has 8,000 watts during the day, so with a salt-water path I'm sure it could get here.
It lasted about five miles over the bridge on 45 before it faded>>

How far is Brownsville by air from Galveston?

 

[dlf]

The 620 is probably Rio Bravo (fairly close to McAllen). 810 and 1170 are out of Reynosa. 590 XEFD can be heard under KLBJ AM in parts of South Comal County (only 65 miles from Austin).

1140 may well be KYOK out of Conroe.

dlf

 

[schmave]

>>1700 - The pleasant surprise of the day was KVNS from Brownsville. A consistent signal, maybe 5 out of 10 on the strength scale, for the entirety of my stay minus a one-time fade for less than a minute.
Given the time of day I was there (2:30-4:30 p.m.) at this time of the year, I highly, highly doubt there was skywave involved. KVNS has 8,000 watts during the day, so with a salt-water path I'm sure it could get here.
It lasted about five miles over the bridge on 45 before it faded>>

How far is Brownsville by air from Galveston?

275 miles.
Thanks for the observations so far, guys. I found AM 810 from Reynosa is only 1,000 watts, and since it's considerably inland from the Gulf that seems like a good catch.

 

[tomservo]

How far inland do you have to go lose WWL?

Okay it's irrelevant to the saltwater topic, but I had to chime in on WWL. I get WWL at a wisp of a faint signal in Winona, Mississippi, 245 miles north of N.O. It's easily listenable from just south of Jackson at 155 miles.

On cloudy days it's actually strong enough to stop my car's scan (when the antenna decides to work) in Winona and is pretty steady all the way down I-55.

Just thought I'd throw in a good word for ground conductivity for the funnofit. ;D

Some of the St. Pete stations are strong enough during the day along the Alabama coast that I've included them in the radio dial listings for the Mobile-Pensacola-Biloxi area on my website. 620, 820, 970 and 1040 are strong enough to be listenable within a mile or two of the coast. 870 is practically a local down there and has shown up in the Mobile ratings, but it's only about 140 miles out. And of course Radio Marti and/or the Cuban jammer are usually audible along that part of the coast as well.

 

[radioman148]

>>And of course Radio Marti and/or the Cuban jammer are usually audible along that part of the coast as well.>>

In the daytime?

 

[schmave]

I heard one of the stations on 1180 very well during the day in Panama City Beach, Florida when I vacationed there about five years ago. I had no way to tell whether it was Marti or the jammer, but if Marti is indeed as directional as people say it had to have been the jammer even with an all-salt water path.
Re. WWL, I get a pretty good signal here at my house about 10 miles west of Galveston Bay and 20 miles northwest of Galveston proper. But by the time you get into Houston, it's lost. I can't hear it at my job on the west side of town ... no trace at all.

 

[tomservo]

>>And of course Radio Marti and/or the Cuban jammer are usually audible along that part of the coast as well.>>

In the daytime?

Like schmave I don't speak spanish so I couldn't tell you which it was, but there was definitely spanish on 1180 during the day in Gulf Shores, Alabama last time I DX'ed down there. That was several years ago so YMMV.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

I heard one of the stations on 1180 very well during the day in Panama City Beach, Florida when I vacationed there about five years ago. I had no way to tell whether it was Marti or the jammer, but if Marti is indeed as directional as people say it had to have been the jammer even with an all-salt water path.
Re. WWL, I get a pretty good signal here at my house about 10 miles west of Galveston Bay and 20 miles northwest of Galveston proper. But by the time you get into Houston, it's lost. I can't hear it at my job on the west side of town ... no trace at all.

I can get WWL in Cypress in the daytime with a 2 1/2 foot loop. It is very weak - when I tried in Galveston, both WWL and 1060 (used to be WNOE) were very strong.

 

[radioman148]

>>And of course Radio Marti and/or the Cuban jammer are usually audible along that part of the coast as well.>>

In the daytime?

Like schmave I don't speak spanish so I couldn't tell you which it was, but there was definitely spanish on 1180 during the day in Gulf Shores, Alabama last time I DX'ed down there. That was several years ago so YMMV.

It must have been Cuba because Radio Marti is very directional.

 

[charlestondxman]

I was in New Orleans yesterday, and I could listen to 620 WDAE, listenable all throughout the French Quarter. It was even barely listenable inside our hotel room, even though it was 475 miles away.

Because of the heavy RF around the French Quarter and some interference, I couldn't pick up any other Tampa station, but I could pick up Mobile's 660, and 590 almost came in from Panama City.

At night, not much came in because of all the local stations and their interference. I did get to hear WGN, I believe, and WSM came in well.

 

[BRNout]

I was in New Orleans yesterday, and I could listen to 620 WDAE, listenable all throughout the French Quarter. It was even barely listenable inside our hotel room, even though it was 475 miles away.

Because of the heavy RF around the French Quarter and some interference, I couldn't pick up any other Tampa station, but I could pick up Mobile's 660, and 590 almost came in from Panama City.

At night, not much came in because of all the local stations and their interference. I did get to hear WGN, I believe, and WSM came in well.

I've picked up WDAE at night (quite well) from Managua, Nicaragua; San Pedro Sula, Honduras; and the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. It was the strongest US station in those places when I tuned in.

 

[schmave]

I was in New Orleans yesterday, and I could listen to 620 WDAE, listenable all throughout the French Quarter. It was even barely listenable inside our hotel room, even though it was 475 miles away.

Because of the heavy RF around the French Quarter and some interference, I couldn't pick up any other Tampa station, but I could pick up Mobile's 660, and 590 almost came in from Panama City.

At night, not much came in because of all the local stations and their interference. I did get to hear WGN, I believe, and WSM came in well.

WSCR, WGN and WBBM were coming in well in Houston last night. WGN was the weakest but I still was able to listen the Cubs when I was out and about around 9:30 p.m.
890 was completely dominated by the South American station on that frequency, and I don't think WMVP sends much signal this way at all.

 

[radioman148]

I was in New Orleans yesterday, and I could listen to 620 WDAE, listenable all throughout the French Quarter. It was even barely listenable inside our hotel room, even though it was 475 miles away.

Because of the heavy RF around the French Quarter and some interference, I couldn't pick up any other Tampa station, but I could pick up Mobile's 660, and 590 almost came in from Panama City.

At night, not much came in because of all the local stations and their interference. I did get to hear WGN, I believe, and WSM came in well.

WSCR, WGN and WBBM were coming in well in Houston last night. WGN was the weakest but I still was able to listen the Cubs when I was out and about around 9:30 p.m.
890 was completely dominated by the South American station on that frequency, and I don't think WMVP sends much signal this way at all.

Do you still get WLS at times in Houston?