WBAP 820 AM picked up in Scotland

[texasstooge]

I don't know if this was posted in the boards earlier, but I gotta share this:

I've stumbled upon this YouTube video where a radio listener in Scotland with his specialized radio picked up WBAP News/Talk 820 AM. I know it's picked up in 38 other states, but I never thought it would reach that far. ;D Depends on a receiver and position of antenna.

Here's the vid:
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxwaEzQUzEY

 

[BBontheRadio]

They don't call themselves the 50,000 watt blowtorch for nothin'!

 

[grantchester]

They used to talk about 'Whistlers'... radio waves that would go completely around the world and arrive out of phase with the signal you were trying to receive.
The long wave bounces back and forth between the ocean and the ionosphere.

 

[LibertyNT]

WBAP As Big As Texas.

Pretty cool That they can get picked up in Scotland.
The Only other Texas station I know that Can get picked up (nearly every night) in Europe is KVNS Brownsville with a whopping 880 watts on 1700.

 

[dfaulkner]

Slightly off topic, but not much. A lady working at KRLD 1080 in the mid 80's told me that they (This was in the old Carpenter Freeway studios.) had a postcard from someone in the Phillipines that had picked them up.

 

[copydesk2]

Years ago when the airwaves weren't so crowded, it wasn't that unusual for WBAP to be picked up in Europe.

 

[grantchester]

At WOAI in the mid '80s, I saw CQ requests from Japan, France and Sweden.

 

[Lancer]

I remember right before Charles & Diana were married way back in the early 80's, Bill Mack played the song "What Have You Got Planned Tonight Diana" by Merle Haggard.

Bill mentioned the signal could possibly be picked up in Europe & as a kid I was amazed.

 

[unclepudd]

An evening announcer on WFAA 820 would get calls from many places where they could barely speak enough English to be understood.... Calls from ships in the western Pacific were not unusual.

 

[davideduardo]

Years ago when the airwaves weren't so crowded, it wasn't that unusual for WBAP to be picked up in Europe.

Since 820 is not used in Europe, the channel has no interference. While 50 kw is not a particularly high power, on an open channel its definitely enough to be heard by DXers with selective receivers.

 

[Rock Chalk]

Bill Mack once told me that in 1970 he received a post card from a Marine serving in Viet Nam, saying he'd pick up Bill's Truckin' Show. (It was late afternoon in 'Nam.) The guy was from Fort Worth. I did Bill's show for five years on weekends in the early 90s. One Saturday night/Sunday morning, I received calls from Pittsfield, Maine....Palmdale, California..... Spokane, Washington and Port Saint Lucie, Florida. The power of WBAP never ceased to amaze me.

Jason Walker

 

[unclepudd]

Working perimeters early mornings in Nam in mid 60's you could regularly hear KOMA in OK City.

 

[oldmanradio]

I don't know if this was posted in the boards earlier, but I gotta share this:

I've stumbled upon this YouTube video where a radio listener in Scotland with his specialized radio picked up WBAP News/Talk 820 AM. I know it's picked up in 38 other states, but I never thought it would reach that far. ;D Depends on a receiver and position of antenna.

Here's the vid:
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxwaEzQUzEY

Tragically, as you may have read, scores of citizens were hospitalized after listening to only 10 minutes of Rush Limbaugh.

Experts say the basso profundo entertainer is a health risk to normal people. Those with IQs under 80 were not affected.

 

[cyberdad]

Since 820 is not used in Europe, the channel has no interference. While 50 kw is not a particularly high power, on an open channel its definitely enough to be heard by DXers with selective receivers.

There's a BBC outlet in Edinburgh on 810, which has the best am signal in the city itself. I don't recall how much power they're running, but I don't think it's exactly a flamethrower. Scotland is a large place with lots of open area and surrounded on three sides by salt water. I found a lot of good DX when I was there in '99. But most of what I was hearing was Scandinavia, Russia, and the adjacent Baltic sea area.

 

[oldmanradio]

Working perimeters early mornings in Nam in mid 60's you could regularly hear KOMA in OK City.

That's true.

Gary Sinclair (M.G. Kelly) worked the all-night shift on KOMA in the early '70's while I was working at WKY. He told me he often received cards and letters from servicemen stationed in Guam.

Charlie Tuna worked mornings on KOMA in 1965. Later when he moved to KHJ in LA, he said he often could listen to KOMA in downtown Los Angeles.

KOMA's signal beamed west northwest causing 50kw to become perhaps more like 150 kw. Dave would know more about directional signals. I am not an engineer.

Another factor: KOMA broadcast on 1520 Khz quite near the beginning of the shortwave band where skywave propagation is greater. KSTP in Minneapolis-St. Paul on 1500 and WLAC in Nashville at 1510 are two other stations that enjoyed that advantage.

In the early 70's I often listened to Lohman and Barkley on KFI 640 in Los Angeles. The signal, of course, traveled west to east through darkness, and reception was superb until the sun began to rise in southern California.

Interference on the AM band has ended much of that.

 

[davideduardo]

There's a BBC outlet in Edinburgh on 810, which has the best am signal in the city itself. I don't recall how much power they're running, but I don't think it's exactly a flamethrower. Scotland is a large place with lots of open area and surrounded on three sides by salt water. I found a lot of good DX when I was there in '99. But most of what I was hearing was Scandinavia, Russia, and the adjacent Baltic sea area.

They are listed as 100 kw, with two transmitters and another of 5 to 10 kw in Scotland.

My 1 kw AMs in Ecuador got many reports from Europe (and Australia and New Zealand) in the late 60's. As was posted, the interference today both from other stations and noise, makes that difficult now.

 

[cyberdad]

There's a BBC outlet in Edinburgh on 810, which has the best am signal in the city itself. I don't recall how much power they're running, but I don't think it's exactly a flamethrower.

They are listed as 100 kw, with two transmitters and another of 5 to 10 kw in Scotland.
.

Actually, after my post, I got curious and decided to look this up. After I did, I was going to correct myself, but you beat me to it! I definitely stand corrected....and now I have an explanation as to why 810 was the strongest thing I was hearing on my visit to Scotland!

 

[Triple Fake Jerry]

Because of the 9-KHz spacing, the only round-number frequencies in Europe are 540, 630, 720, 810, 900, 990, 1080, 1170, 1260, 1350, 1440, 1530.

(The 1600-1700 range appears void in Europe except for pirates, which would seem to make it prime DXing turf for stateside sticks.)

The adjacent couple of frequencies on either side are close enough for 10-KHz spaced radios to get, but once you get into the "tweener" freqs (like 580/590, 670/680, etc.) American radios are useless.

 

[SuperCFL]

I can personally attest to some of this. On vacation in Hawaii, I heard both KOMA and WBAP on a rental car radio, as well as KFI and a number of other mainland stations.

 

[cyberdad]

I drove from Dallas to St. Louis today (daytime). WBAP audible on the car radio up 75/69/44 all the way through Oklahoma to the point where Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri all come together. Then for about another half hour additional into Missouri on I-44 past Joplin. By contrast, KMOX didn't surface until about 40 miles Northeast of Springfield (MO). (And yes, I understand the difference between 820 and 1120, blah, blah, blah).

Next best Dallas signals were KSKY, KLIF, and KAAM, roughly in that order. But all three were long gone by the time I got to the point where the three states come together. KRLD was also pretty good, but didn't do quite as well as the lower dial positions.