Wausau, Wisconsin Quick Bandscan

[cyberdad]

Good radio in my Toyota Camry rental car. 8pm CDT (a little over an hour after sunset) Thurs March 14. Wausau, which is in the Central part of Wisconsin.

For openers, all of the 50kw Chicago blowtorches were there and alone. WYLL was the strongest....WMVP was the weakest, but all were alone and good. The surprises were WIND breaking through the splatter of 20kw WSAU on 550 just a couple of miles from me, and WNWI on 1080...also alone and quite good. Other highliguts....

600: WMT...very good.
640: WOI...good and alone
660: WFAN good
690: CINF (or whatever), fair
700: WLW fair
710: WOR usually on top in fight with KCMO
740: CFZM...absolutely blasting
760: WJR good
770: WABC fair
820: WBAP fair
830: WCCO fair
840: WHAS poor
850: KOA good
860: CJBC fair...nowhere near as good as CFZM from the same stick
870: WWL weak....which is a bit unusual
880: WCBS fair-poor
1010: CFRB-good. Blowing out a semi-local from Stevens Point, WI
1030: WBZ-fair-poor
1040: WHO-good
1070: WTSO-fair. A surprise because this one usually is quite good in "upstate, WI". Probable convergence zone
1100: WTAM-good
1120: KMOX good
1180: WHAM fair-good. Something underneath (Cuba?)
1500: KSTP weak
1510: WLAC fair-good
1530: WCKY fair
1540: KXEL good
1550: I was getting French with a good signal. Perhaps Tincap, Mimo, or someone else knows if perhaps SRC or someone else is doing something with the old CBE facility.

 

[w9wi]

No WTMJ??? (or just that WTMJ doesn't count as a "highlight", a decision I'd agree with )

Regarding 1550, it's indeed the former CBE facility. The towers for 540 were in bad shape, while 1550 was in good repair when closed down. So the CBC got the CRTC's permission to light the 1550 facility back up & use it instead of 540.

 

[mimo]

Agreed, it's SRC Windsor. And 690 is now CKGM...unless you were hearing French, then it is the station in Saskatchewan.

 

[radioman148]

Regarding WYLL, when they changed their night facilities 4 or 5 years ago they became the strongest Chicago signal at night blasting north.
I was shocked to find that out myself when I was up that way in 2009.
WNWI is a surprise. I wouldn't have expected that one up there.

 

[cyberdad]

WTMJ? Indeed, it's there (in Wausau) day and night.  Fair signal daytime, a little better at night, but with CKRM underneath.

As fpr 690 and 1550, these turn out to be pretty much what I thought.  I did hear English on 690.  Of course, I remember and associate French with the Montreal 690.  And I also remember the CIGM call letters with 990.

Finally, the "surprise" Chicago signals....  1160 didn't really surprise me all that much.  I know they're beaming lots of juice straight north.  I will say, however, that I don't think I expected them to be louder than the ND stations.

As for 1080....I didn't really expect that one to be right up there with the big boys!  But the fact is, they pushing the main lobe of their 2,600 watt nighttime signal right at where I was. 

I remember when I lived in and around Northwest Wisconsin for a time in the early 70s.  1kw directional KSTT from Davenport, Iowa was right up there with the bigger fish in the neighborhood....KMOX, WHAM, WOAI, etc.  Same goes for 5kw directional WHB from Kansas City (then on 710).

(BTW, I had meant to post this in the DX and Reception sector. Apologies. Although Chicago stations are discussed here, moderator can feel free to move this thread.)

 

[w9wi]

Yeah, the 50kw upgrade really helped WTMJ quite a bit upstate. Used to be it was decent copy on a car radio up there but not particularly loud -- last I was up there after the upgrade it's solid car radio reception in Wausau & decent copy statewide. (unless you're too close to KDAL-610 or KDWB-630 in Duluth & the Twin Cities)

Interesting about WYLL. Never tried for them in Wisconsin since the upgrade. They are, strangely enough, the dominant signal on 1160 at night down here in the western half of the Nashville area. (yes, WAY over our local station on the frequency which beams all of its signal due east to protect Salt Lake)

1080 is quite good in Milwaukee after the move from Indiana. Never tried in Central Wisconsin, interesting to hear it does that well. There was once a 1080 station in Duluth, wonder where the two would have intersected

KSTT was frequently pretty decent in Madison.

 

[[email protected]]

Years ago (up to 2007 ) when I was Chief Engineer of WYLL-1160 we would regularly get reception reports from the Netherlands during the winter months. The 50Kw Night Directional array put the equivalent of about 200Kw at a bearing of 5 degrees east of true north. It is suprising that the signal also heads south as well.....it really isn't supposed to.

Dave Dybas

 

[radioman148]

Years ago (up to 2007 ) when I was Chief Engineer of WYLL-1160 we would regularly get reception reports from the Netherlands during the winter months. The 50Kw Night Directional array put the equivalent of about 200Kw at a bearing of 5 degrees east of true north. It is suprising that the signal also heads south as well.....it really isn't supposed to.

Dave Dybas

When was the current nighttime array built for WYLL? I thought it was after 2007, but I may be way off.
When 1160 used the old facilities in Des Plaines at night, you were lucky to hear them north of Waukegan.

 

[cyberdad]

Years ago (up to 2007 ) when I was Chief Engineer of WYLL-1160 we would regularly get reception reports from the Netherlands during the winter months. The 50Kw Night Directional array put the equivalent of about 200Kw at a bearing of 5 degrees east of true north. It is suprising that the signal also heads south as well.....it really isn't supposed to.

Dave Dybas

When was the current nighttime array built for WYLL? I thought it was after 2007, but I may be way off.
When 1160 used the old facilities in Des Plaines at night, you were lucky to hear them north of Waukegan.

With the old facility, going out my way, you'd lose 1160 at night between Schaumburg and Elgin on the tollway. They'd be audible in Crystal Lake, but not really listenable. Now it's a pretty good nighttime signal, but still with stuff underneath. It was actually better the other night in Wausau.

 

[drded]

Last time I visited the old WJJD facilities (around 1972) they had the two towers and that beautiful RCA 50KW Amplihpase transmitter. I thought at the time they had one of the cleanest AMs in Chicago.

What happened to that nice rig?

Dave

 

[DaveArnold]

I was also getting good copy on WJJD in Nashville back in the late 1970's.