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What was the longest distance DX you have heard on AM or LW?

S

stormy01

Location: NW suburbs of Chicago Receivers: Sony ICF-SW7600GR (no external antenna) and Icom IC R-75 (with a 100' long wire)

In the fall of 2006 I heard on two successive evenings the Norwegian station in Kvitsoy 1314kHz [unfortunately that has been decommissioned] and the Serbian station on 1134kHz with good audio - these are in the 4,000-5,000 mile range. I have heard heterodynes on 1206 and 1377 (suspected to be France) but the audio was not above the noise. On LW I have heard only weak carriers on 162, 198 and 252 but there too the audio was below the noise.

I have also heard Colombia, Venezuela, Belize (no longer on AM), Nicaragua, Guatamala, Costa Rica, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Bonaire, Turks and Caicos. And of course the nearby countries of Canada, Mexico and Cuba...

So what have you heard from your "listening post?" "DXpeditions" are included in this!
 
Here are my records all on DXpeditions:

In Sept 1977 while in London, England I picked up WCBS AM just before London sunrise.
In Nov 1978 while in Hawaii I picked up WLS & WBBM.

In Feb 2009 while in Hawaii I picked up KFAQ Tulsa (not as far as Chicago, but my most recent distance record).
On same trip picked up various unconfirmed stations from the far east (could not identify because of the language difference).
Also on this trip I picked up british/Aussie accented talk station on 1116 just before Hawaii sunrise.
I never was able to confirm, but strongly suspect that the station I heard was in Brisbane, Australia which if true would be my all time record.
 
In the late '50s got KFI in Spencerport, NY (outside of Rochester) on a National NC-60 5 tube AM/SW radio. Got a QSL card from them. Still have the radio, lost the QSL.
 
Winter of 77-78, I heard KFI for a few minutes in South Jersey right outside Philly on a portable radio.
 
My best was Italy on 845 and Avalon CA on 740 (KBIG then?) in Bloomington IN during the winter of 1971, on a Hammarlund HQ-145 and 50-foot wire antenna in the attic.

Since I've been in Phoenix, my best has been WBBM 780 Chicago in January and KSTP 1500 St. Paul last summer, both on my car radio. In the '70s, WGN 720 & WLS 890 Chicago were also regulars here, but nothing further east. I was able to get them regularly, but weakly, on a portable radio during the winter. But this was before KDWN and KDXU came on the air.
 
Being a young buck and not really starting AM DX'ing until recently, I missed out on the excitement of the X-band filling up, clears signing off for maintenance, etc. So with that said, here are mine. They're not as impressive as some of the DX veterans in here.

1060 XEEP Mexico City- 1,760 miles
900 Radio Rebelde- Approx. 1,600 miles
530 RVC Turks and Caicos- 1,600 miles
650 KMTI Manti, UT- 1,400 miles (during DX test)
660 KTNN Window Rock, AZ- 1,350 miles

And some tentative catches.. I don't know (and may never find out) if I actually heard these ones.

800 Radio Bonnaire- 2,200 miles
840 KXNT N. Las Vegas, NV- 1,640 miles
960 CFAC Calgary, AB- 1,500 miles
 
Lawppy said:
Being a young buck and not really starting AM DX'ing until recently, I missed out on the excitement of the X-band filling up, clears signing off for maintenance, etc. So with that said, here are mine. They're not as impressive as some of the DX veterans in here.

1060 XEEP Mexico City- 1,760 miles
900 Radio Rebelde- Approx. 1,600 miles
530 RVC Turks and Caicos- 1,600 miles
650 KMTI Manti, UT- 1,400 miles (during DX test)
660 KTNN Window Rock, AZ- 1,350 miles

And some tentative catches.. I don't know (and may never find out) if I actually heard these ones.

800 Radio Bonnaire- 2,200 miles
840 KXNT N. Las Vegas, NV- 1,640 miles
960 CFAC Calgary, AB- 1,500 miles
Click to expand...

Bonaire is very likely as I've heard it. As far KTNN is concerned--good job I've never been able to snag that one.
 
DavidKaye said:
For me it was WBZ in Boston from San Francisco using a Philco 41-290 console radio from 1941. The thing looked like a jukebox and had a 15 inch speaker with a wire loop antenna that could be rotated for best reception. It was great for SW, too.

Here's a link to a photo of this neat radio: http://www.antiqueradios.com/gallery/v/Philco/Philco_41_290.jpg.html
Click to expand...

Do you remember what year it was when you heard WBZ in SF? I heard WBZ in the pacific northwest in 1963 well before the station in Wyoming came on.
 
The Dude said:
w0w it l00ks awesome!!

I bet the front end on AM was outstanding :)
Click to expand...

It was. It had two detectors, two IF stages, a really good AGC for the period, and nice flat push-pull audio. SW stations like NHK boomed in in the mornings and the audio was astounding.

I guess Philco made quite a few of these because I see them once in awhile in EBay or Craigslist. They don't cost much, usually in the $150 range.
 
radioman148 said:
Do you remember what year it was when you heard WBZ in SF? I heard WBZ in the pacific northwest in 1963 well before the station in Wyoming came on.
Click to expand...

1970s some time. I heard WBZ when KTWO was off the air for maintenance. KTWO, of course, came in very well.

I regret that I was never able to get WABC, WCBS, or WNBC ever, even though the stations they share with would also go off for maintenance in those days. Now I guess nobody goes off for maintenance anymore. Gosh, it's been a long time since I've DXed.
 
DavidKaye said:
radioman148 said:
Do you remember what year it was when you heard WBZ in SF? I heard WBZ in the pacific northwest in 1963 well before the station in Wyoming came on.
Click to expand...

1970s some time. I heard WBZ when KTWO was off the air for maintenance. KTWO, of course, came in very well.

I regret that I was never able to get WABC, WCBS, or WNBC ever, even though the stations they share with would also go off for maintenance in those days. Now I guess nobody goes off for maintenance anymore. Gosh, it's been a long time since I've DXed.
Click to expand...

Yeah in the old days the bands would open up for great catches when stations were down for maintenance.
 
Brings up a point.

What is the record for longest distance AM MW signal received both in the early days and modern?

What is record for the combination of the longest distance reception of the lowest power AM MW transmitter?
 
There was someone in Finland in the 90's I believe that has heard some stations from here in the USA with only a few watts of power. Of course they are not in the middle of the RF "Forest" (radio "noise") that we experience here (in other words they are on the outside looking in), they have an RF quiet location away from electrical interference and they are often using receivers like JRC, Racal and AOR and beverage antennas and possibly preamps.
That's NOT fair!!!

Check this article out: http://www.dxing.info/articles/1580.dx For sure, there are many other stories like this one!

I have also read somewhere that then, as in now, it is possible to hear AM (MW) stations almost halfway around the globe, but that often requires a great location, usually near water, greyline propagation, high end equipment and beverage antennas, and lots of time and patience...The dxing.info site is a good place to start reading about DX records, the DXers equipment setups, their logs and sometimes there are recordings of the DX catches...
 
Icangelp said:
Brings up a point.

What is the record for longest distance AM MW signal received both in the early days and modern?

What is record for the combination of the longest distance reception of the lowest power AM MW transmitter?
Click to expand...

There was a guy on this messageboard several months ago who heard quite a few X banders from the US in Australia. He even posted a recording of WRLL in Berwyn, Illinois when they were running 1KW.
I believe that's over 8,000 miles.
 
During the early 1980s I could often hear ( in Los Angeles )

880 kHz La Voz de Bogota,( Colombia )

828 kHz. NHK, Osaka, Japan

and one time only,

840 kHz. Lima, Peru
 
I have DXed Navtex transmissions (hey, a number of people count 518 as MW!) from Alaska and California quite regularly in the past. About two or three years ago I intercepted Navtex transmissions from Boston and Miami at my (former) apartment in Portland, through a crappy Superadio 3 on my crappy (former) Dell laptop which had an even crappier sound chipset. I think that was my farthest DX catch on record. It happened around 0200-0400 PT, if I remember right. That also is the only trans-continental MW DX that I have ever heard. (Maybe "read" as the case warrants?)

I am not going to consider it AM, despite the fact that Navtex (supposedly) is USB and I was receiving it on an AM mediumwave receiver at the time.
 
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