What am I hearing on 650 AM?

[ddsparxx]

At 10:30 PM EST as I turn an AM loop antenna around to null out WSM 650, I heard a faint station mixed with WFAN's IBOC, and this 650 station was playing what sounds like easy listening with vocals and broadcasting in a foreign language. I don't know what this language is. I was thinking maybe a 40W station located somewhere in Quebec, but I doubt it considering low wattage and the station is not listed in Radio-Locator. I don't think it's CKZW in Montreal. I'm in Va. Anybody knows?

 

[fybush]

It's certainly not "CKZW in Montreal" - that's a figment of Radio-Locator's imagination, as are most of its Canadian listings. It's probably one of the South Americans on the channel.

 

[gar hi]

Here's the listings for 650.

http://www.amlogbook.com/freq.htm#650


Down here in Tampa, WSM is sometimes pushed into the background by a strong signal of a Spanish speaking station. I just picked up the radio to see how it is now and there's only WSM.

 

[radioman148]

I'm only getting WSM as well here in Illinois.

 

[ddsparxx]

Thanks, gentlemen. I think the station may be in somewhere in South America. This must be a heck of a DX catch.

 

[radioman148]

Thanks, gentlemen. I think the station may be in somewhere in South America. This must be a heck of a DX catch.

Sounds like a strong possibility.

 

[K4WRF]

Thanks, gentlemen. I think the station may be in somewhere in South America. This must be a heck of a DX catch.

It would either be Bogota Colombia or Caracas Venezuela with the former being most prevalent.
Actually it’s pretty regular catch down south.

 

[davideduardo]

Thanks, gentlemen. I think the station may be in somewhere in South America. This must be a heck of a DX catch.

Generally, what is heard under WSM in auroral conditions is the Bogotá station... it's a very common catch and even a pest under such conditions.

 

[davideduardo]

Thanks, gentlemen. I think the station may be in somewhere in South America. This must be a heck of a DX catch.

It would either be Bogota Colombia or Caracas Venezuela with the former being most prevalent.
Actually it’s pretty regular catch down south.

There is no Caracas station on 650... there has been one in YV land at Maracay for the last 50 years or so. It used to be widely heard during auroral openings, but now it is mostly Bogota now that the 50 kw operation of La Voz de Centroamerica in SLP is gone.

 

[K4WRF]

Thanks, gentlemen. I think the station may be in somewhere in South America. This must be a heck of a DX catch.

It would either be Bogota Colombia or Caracas Venezuela with the former being most prevalent.
Actually it’s pretty regular catch down south.

There is no Caracas station on 650... there has been one in YV land at Maracay for the last 50 years or so. It used to be widely heard during auroral openings, but now it is mostly Bogota now that the 50 kw operation of La Voz de Centroamerica in SLP is gone.

Is the Bogota station 10 or 50? FCC says it is 10 in their database. How long has the SLP station been gone? So many questions...

 

[davideduardo]

There is no Caracas station on 650... there has been one in YV land at Maracay for the last 50 years or so. It used to be widely heard during auroral openings, but now it is mostly Bogota now that the 50 kw operation of La Voz de Centroamerica in SLP is gone.

Is the Bogota station 10 or 50? FCC says it is 10 in their database. How long has the SLP station been gone? So many questions...
[/quote]

Bogotá has likely been 50 kw since the 70's. The Colombian government reports it as such, but not all stations fun full power...

My error... I meant to put "SPS" for San Pedro Sula, where LVCA was 50 kw for some time; with the move of most audience to FM the higher powered Hondurans have cut back a lot.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

DE - What am I getting on 1030? Ever since WBZ hobbled their signal with IBOC - I've been getting weak KTWO with Spanish language underneath.

 

[K4WRF]

DE - What am I getting on 1030? Ever since WBZ hobbled their signal with IBOC - I've been getting weak KTWO with Spanish language underneath.

Im not David but you might be hearing 1030 Spanish in Memphis, Tennessee. 50 kw day 1 kw night. Once in a while, they fail to make the change.

w/

 

[cyberdad]

I'm always surprised to hear anything under WSM. The already massive nighttime signal has been even stronger than usual for the past 2-3 weeks here in Northern IL. WSCR's Iboc is no match for it, and I'm only about 30 miles from their stick.

Watt, you're buddies continue to do a super job! Especially considering some of the creeping development I noticed the last time I was in the neighborhood.

 

[radioman148]

DE - What am I getting on 1030? Ever since WBZ hobbled their signal with IBOC - I've been getting weak KTWO with Spanish language underneath.

There's Mexico City on 1030 which I've occasionally heard in the midwest usually before sunrise.
Where are you located?

 

[davideduardo]

DE - What am I getting on 1030? Ever since WBZ hobbled their signal with IBOC - I've been getting weak KTWO with Spanish language underneath.

We've got a dozen HD stations, and not one reports reduced coverage or any analog artifacts from it. That AM HD has even less a future than AM itself is another matter, but adding HD has no impact on the anlog coverage area.

 

[davideduardo]

Im not David but you might be hearing 1030 Spanish in Memphis, Tennessee. 50 kw day 1 kw night. Once in a while, they fail to make the change.

w/

Good probability. Either that or XEOY, now 50 kw, in Mexico City... XEOY is mostly talk with little music.

 

[radioman148]

Yeah, XEOY comes in pretty well from time to time.

 

[BRNout]

DE - What am I getting on 1030? Ever since WBZ hobbled their signal with IBOC - I've been getting weak KTWO with Spanish language underneath.

We've got a dozen HD stations, and not one reports reduced coverage or any analog artifacts from it. That AM HD has even less a future than AM itself is another matter, but adding HD has no impact on the anlog coverage area.

While technically you are correct David, the manner in which a station is forced to compress their analog signal gives it a "thinner" sound and a less dynamic range. This makes it harder to hear in a dx setting. When I lived in New England, the compressed audio of WBZ's analog signal was very obvious when compared side-by-side with local news/talk WRKO's audio. "RKO sounded robust while WBZ sounded very thin.

Signal strength is the same, but the audio sounds weaker in analog because so much of the signal ends up going into the inaudible (to a non-HD radio) sidebands.

 

[davideduardo]

While technically you are correct David, the manner in which a station is forced to compress their analog signal gives it a "thinner" sound and a less dynamic range.

The analog signal is not compressed any more than would constitute normal compression and peak limiting without HD. What does happen is that the audio bandwidth is limited to around 5 kHz as opposed to the NRSC 10 kHz. Per the NRSC studies, with particpants like Bob Orban, the average AM radio is down 10db at around 4 kHz and even more at 5 kHz, so the loss of the higher end is of not much impact on listener-perceived audio quality. There is no loss of analog signal.

The reason for the 5 kHz limitation is to protect the sidebands, where the digital data is transmitted at 1/100th the analog signal power.

This makes it harder to hear in a dx setting. When I lived in New England, the compressed audio of WBZ's analog signal was very obvious when compared side-by-side with local news/talk WRKO's audio. "RKO sounded robust while WBZ sounded very thin.

Yet that does not seem to have affected WBZ's ratings performance, which is quite superior to that of WRKO.