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What is the lowest-power signal from the farthest distance you can get?

C

charlestondxman

Living near Charleston, SC, I can get signals from far away with low powers, especially graveyarders on AM. I can get WSBB from New Smyrna Beach, FL at 262 miles with just 1,000 watts.

The lowest power FM I can get all the time is WALI 93.7, 37 miles with 6,000 watts.

Not counting graveyarders, WEFL 760 from Tequesta, FL with just 3,000 watts comes in at 397 miles.

What about you?
 
I'm going to go with WKDP, Corbin KY on 99.5 from Knoxville
AM let's go with WEKC, 710, Williamsburg KY with 4200 watts
 
32 Watt WMHW 91.5 Mount Pleasant, MI back in the early 1980s, 65 miles away. Several 10 watt FMs from 40-55 miles away.

50 Watt WJJD 1160 Chicago, IL on special PSA during year around DST in 1974, 216 miles away. Equal signal to 50000 watt KSL 1160 Salt Lake City fading back and forth. A believable flea power logging and tape.
 
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I have picked up KVNS 1700 in Brownsville TX twice from 700 miles away. Wikipedia says they lower power to 880 watts at night.

I also picked up KCRS 550 in Midland TX one night a few weeks ago from almost 600 miles away. I believe they broadcast at 1 kw.

I frequently get stations all over Texas but struggle to get anything further west than that.
 
I'll have to give this some thought, but for AM daytime, off the top of my head, I'll say WAUK 540. It's 400 watts from about 80 miles away, north-northwest of Milwaukee.

At night on AM, again off the top of my head, I'm thinking the 1160 from Waukon, IA (KNEI?....I don't remember the calls). Anyway, they were (supposedly) at 26 watts ND.
 
I have a few Class A/C3 FMs that come in on occasion from long distances:
92.3 WJMQ Clintonville, WI (6kW @ 120 miles)
96.9 WWWX Oshkosh, WI (6kW @ 109 miles)
99.3 WOWN Shawano, WI (14kW @ 104 miles)
100.5 WDTX Rothschild, WI (25kW @ 173 miles)
103.9 WVBO Winneconne, WI (25kW @ 106 miles)
104.3 WKZG Seymour, WI (5.6kW @ 100 miles)
107.1 WOCO Oconto, WI (3kW @ 91 miles) - a 3kW Class A on a very short tower!
This doesn't even include the Door Peninsula Class A's that come in!
 
I've also gotten translators from a very long distance with my Sangean PR-D15 and car radios.

I've gotten W249BS, a 250 watt translator for 1290 WTKS in Savannah, at least 5 times from 85 miles away on 97.7. There is also a 104.3 translator in Savannah I've heard several times. During skip, I also get a 106.5 translator from Hilton Head, 64 miles out.
 
KVNS (1700 AM from Brownsville, Texas) might be the right answer for me, but WREC (600 from Memphis) might be as well.
KVNS was a nightly pickup for me when I lived in Houston. This was back when they were playing oldies in the late 2000s. So's that 880 watts at roughly 300 miles, and a more robust 880 watts I'm not sure I've ever heard or seen given the far-flung DX reports.
WREC also got to me in Houston on occasion, usually outside the main lobe of local KILT on 610. 5,000 watts nighttime at about 500 miles, with its main lobe pointed almost directly at the Houston area.
Which one of those is a better catch is anybody's guess, but I will say KVNS blanketed Houston at night and probably still does. WREC was a tougher catch and far weaker, but listenable.
 
KVNS from 3,670 miles away.

They are sometimes mixed with the closer San Diego station on 1700.

Would be more interesting to hear if they still played oldies.
 
I did hear KXBT (or KDIA) on 1640 in Vallejo, CA when it was 1000 watts at Night during the early years of its existence.

The next closest 1000 watt station I have heard (quite regularly before 24 hour service began at many more stations around 1980) is KGLC, now KVIS 910 in Miami, OK.
 
Schroedingers Cat said:
I did hear KXBT (or KDIA) on 1640 in Vallejo, CA when it was 1000 watts at Night during the early years of its existence.
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My two low power records from NE Ohio were KIKI-830 from Honolulu with 250 watts and AFRS, Ramey AFB, Puerto Rico on 780 with 50 watts.
 
KPET Lamesa has the most coverage for a low power signal I have ever heard. I could start getting them just outside of Ft. Worth. No doubt they have some excellent ground conductivity at their tower site.
 
hawaiigar said:
KVNS from 3,670 miles away.

They are sometimes mixed with the closer San Diego station on 1700.

Would be more interesting to hear if they still played oldies.
Click to expand...

Truth.
KBGG from Des Moines is what I get on 1700 here in Ohio. I have tried to get KVNS, especially during the winter months, and have never heard it here. No doubt I have just tried at the wrong times ... if Hawaii and Scandinavia can get it, surely I'd be able to here.
 
hawaiigar said:
KVNS from 3,670 miles away.

They are sometimes mixed with the closer San Diego station on 1700.

Would be more interesting to hear if they still played oldies.
Click to expand...

Nope - they switched to sports a couple of years ago. OFF my presets now - they were a difficult signal daytime anyway, mixed with a station from Sherman.
 
Another DX back in the day, in Minnesota from the 90's, a faint WJDM 1660 Elizabeth NJ 1 kW night on the first radio I bought with the expanded band: a Sony Walkman. Of course WJDM had 1660 all to itself then. It was part of the old Radio AAHS kids radio network. Little did I know I would find myself in the belly of what was left of the Radio AAHS beast in St. Louis Park MN a few years later for a successor network best left forgotten.
 
I heard WJDM 1660 from the first day or almost the first day. It was on a small portable, nothing special. It goes up to 1660 or 1670 without modification. They were playing Oldies. Good Oldies as I recall!

Most of the Sony portables from the late 1960s to early 1990s went up to 1660 or 1670 without modification. Not the AM Stereo models though, which only got up to about 1630. And the GE SuperRadio II only went up to 1630.
 

My GE Supe II doesn't even go that far. 1610 seems to be about it.

And since we're talking about x-band catches on 1kw night power.... My best one was Salt Lake City. KXOL, IIRC on 1660. Probably about 1600 miles, back when the channel was otherwise empty. I also had the 1700 from Miami a few times back when it was alone there. Just about as far as KXOL.
 
cyberdad said:
My GE Supe II doesn't even go that far. 1610 seems to be about it.

And since we're talking about x-band catches on 1kw night power.... My best one was Salt Lake City. KXOL, IIRC on 1660. Probably about 1600 miles, back when the channel was otherwise empty. I also had the 1700 from Miami a few times back when it was alone there. Just about as far as KXOL.
Click to expand...

All the GE 1 and 2's are easily re-tuned to cover the X-band to 1700. I made a custom scale that looks just like the original.
 
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