In NW Indiana (particularly in northern Lake County), I used to be able to hear WBAP in the background around local sunset on WCPT-AM. Since WCPT-AM went 24 hours, I almost never pick up WBAP at Dallas sunset, & usually hear splatter between WBAP & WCPT-AM. Now if I cross over to the Illinois side, I can hear WCPT-AM with no trouble once I'm on I-94 around either northern Calumet City, or Burnham. WCPT-AM is heard loud & clear thru most of Chicago, with the night towers around Lockport, IL (or are they closer to Joliet?).
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What is your reception on 820 AM at night?
- Thread starter Dxer1105
- Start date
The thing is, the daytime maximum directional inverse field of WIND is a little less than half of WSCR's as I recall, and we're talking 560 vs. 670, not 560 vs. 1550. Personally, I think it's the over water path over Lake Michigan that is better than the land path, regardless as to what M-3 says to the contrary. A small amount of an ionized salt (from the Sodium and Chlorine columns of the Periodic Table) of any kind in the fresh water can also markedly increase conductivity. "Pollution" might account for it. Wouldn't take much to jack the near shore conductivity up to 30-40 mS/m.
cyberdad said:
Cyberdad,
Where in the UP were you? I know WIND sends a big signal to the north as I've heard them well past Milwaukee.
I stayed in Cedar Grove, WI once and it seemed WIND was stronger than WSCR at night. It's still not as much of a maximum inverse filed as WSCR, even though the power sent over Indiana in the daytime is sent NNW at night.
WIND sits in the swampy soil of Black Oak, Ind and has high water table and wet sandy soil all the way the Lake Mich plus the Grand Calumet and Little Calumet Rivers to enhance conductivity.... maybe 5 miles to the lake.
WLS sits maybe 15 miles inland and has good wet topsoil over limestone, but has no such wet swampy path "to"
the lake's improved conductivity as WIND has. It is likely the dropping groundwater levels everywhere suburbia
has encroached has lowered the effective conductivity over the years.
820 first got "ruint" in the early 80's out east and thru the midwest when a 1000 watter in Maryland somewhere
went 24 hr. I recall a particular drive out east and it was impossible to hear either unitl you got to within
40 miles of the "new" station, which was also country music.
Nice way to wipe out any uselfulness at all for maybe 20 states.
One of the first really painful clear channel deaths for me.
WLS sits maybe 15 miles inland and has good wet topsoil over limestone, but has no such wet swampy path "to"
the lake's improved conductivity as WIND has. It is likely the dropping groundwater levels everywhere suburbia
has encroached has lowered the effective conductivity over the years.
820 first got "ruint" in the early 80's out east and thru the midwest when a 1000 watter in Maryland somewhere
went 24 hr. I recall a particular drive out east and it was impossible to hear either unitl you got to within
40 miles of the "new" station, which was also country music.
Nice way to wipe out any uselfulness at all for maybe 20 states.
One of the first really painful clear channel deaths for me.
In Warminster PA: Always WNYC from New York. Before WNYC moved in from 830, it was
WBAP on occasions.
WBAP on occasions.
Things could have been a lot different with WNYC. The switch to 820 wasn't really what they wanted, and they also have less power they wanted. Dan Strassberg provided this insight on the long and complicated ordeal, and how 830 wound up being used in Massachusetts: http://lists.bostonradio.org/pipermail/boston-radio-interest/2007-August/012707.html
K
kenglish
Guest
KUTR-AM in Taylorsville, UT (actually located at Cedar Fort). They run 50KW/50KW/2.5KW, beamed northeast toward Salt Lake.
When Bonneville (KSL) ran it, we got many Reception Reports from Scandinavia. Not many at all from nearby (USA).
When Bonneville (KSL) ran it, we got many Reception Reports from Scandinavia. Not many at all from nearby (USA).
The salt flats don't have much effect on skywave. More than 1000 AM stations, and probably more than 2000 AM stations from the US have been heard in Scandinavia. Some can be heard quite regularly in the winter.
Schroedingers Cat said:
And many of the DXers in Scandinavia get the very low powered US stations that send their signal up north into Canada.
For example here in the Chicago area WBGX in Harvey, Il & WCGO Evanston have both been heard many times over the pole.
I'm sure there's many other examples of low powered stations sending their signals north at night that get heard in Scandinavia.
They also have logged at least a few hundred Class IVs/Class Cs with just 1000 watts nondirectional.
radioman148 said:
After some family stuff, I drove Michigan 35 Sunday from Menominee to Escanaba. Right along the shore. Many views of the lake. Rental car with a good radio. I would have never expected WIND to be "top gun" of the Chicagoans, but it sure was. Exception was immediately near Menomonee, where local WMAM (570)covered it.
Over the next day and a half, I drove beyond Escanaba to Sault Sainte Marie and then on to Ottawa. Lots of driving (and construction), along with spectacular fall color and a beautiful clear,warm, sunny day. None of the Chicago stations made it all th way across the UP. WIND was in for a while, then gave way to CFOS. The one distant station that was audible throughout the UP and on into Canada was WTMJ. East of Sault Ste Marie along Ontario highway 17, it was odd to hear most the daytime AM band completely vacant. (Of course, most of my drive was in a very, very, sparsely populated area.).
cyberdad said:
Thanks for the report.
D
Darth_vader
Guest
"By relatively close proximity to KPAM (860)'s transmitter site, do you mean something like this [standing before the tower] or maybe a bit closer?"
2-3 miles away at my Mum's house, on a hill just south of Evergreen High School. At the flat (~6 miles SSW, with that entire hill in between it and the tower, yet) 820's mostly clear during the day and a mess at night. I mainly notice this happening on my Yacht Boy 400PE, but also to some extent on my '81 Panasonic RX-5030.
[size=8pt]Standing directly in front of the tower site, the entire mediumwave band is nothing *but* KPAM and KKAD! I've even picked it up in my fillings whilst standing in front of the site, but to do that I have to be using a carefully balanced tinfoil-saliva electrolytic capacitor in my tuning circuit.
2-3 miles away at my Mum's house, on a hill just south of Evergreen High School. At the flat (~6 miles SSW, with that entire hill in between it and the tower, yet) 820's mostly clear during the day and a mess at night. I mainly notice this happening on my Yacht Boy 400PE, but also to some extent on my '81 Panasonic RX-5030.
[size=8pt]Standing directly in front of the tower site, the entire mediumwave band is nothing *but* KPAM and KKAD! I've even picked it up in my fillings whilst standing in front of the site, but to do that I have to be using a carefully balanced tinfoil-saliva electrolytic capacitor in my tuning circuit.
12:25AM here, about 60-70 miles north of Ryan in Warminster. I thought I had WNYC like he reported -- the signal was solid enough --but the ID turned out to be WWLZ Horseheads NY.
And as I literally type this, there is an ID from WWFD Frederick MD (also talk).
And thanks, DXer 1105 for the 820 workout! While positioning on the dial here, I also got three new Radio Relojs ... 790, 860 and 870, lol. Am I allowed to throw those back?
And as I literally type this, there is an ID from WWFD Frederick MD (also talk).
And thanks, DXer 1105 for the 820 workout! While positioning on the dial here, I also got three new Radio Relojs ... 790, 860 and 870, lol. Am I allowed to throw those back?
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