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What would You say were Your five best AM DX catches were?

I'm not sure how I'd rank them, but here's 5 that come to mind...

1) 700 KALL Salt Lake City, UT - received at Borrego Springs, CA at around midday. Radio was a Panasonic RQ-SW20, antenna was a Select-A-Tenna.
2) the airport TIS's at DFW - received from El Cajon, CA nighttime, using the same radio setup as in #1. This was before the expanded band started getting crowded.
3) 1240 KALY Albuquerque, NM (Radio Disney - station now off air) - received nighttime at El Cajon, CA, while local 1240 KNSN (then KSON - I'm close enough to them to be within their nighttime service area without the typical rumble associated with the graveyards) was actually ON the air - just broadcasting an unmodulated carrier.
4) 530 LAX's airport TIS - same location & setup as previous two.
5) 780 WBBM Chicago, IL, and 720 WGN Chicago, IL, from El Cajon, CA, using same radio and antenna. I think I got WBBM under Reno's KKOH (and local 760 KFMB's 50kW splatter (thankfully it wasn't, and still isn't, IBOC)), and I think Las Vegas's KDWN was off the air at the time I received WGN.

I still have yet to log my first trans-oceanic station, though. I now have a Tecsun PL-380, which has excellent selectivity and multiple AM bandwidths, but I guess I've just been tuning in at the wrong times. (Also, it doesn't help that local 600 KOGO, which uses IBOC and is less than 10 miles west of me, seems to be impairing my efforts to hear the Japanese station on 594.)
 
1. KFI from Richmond IN on Labor Day. One shot try from a motel room.
2. KSL from Englewood FL
3. Amazing winter afternoon of DX ing the x banders well into Texas and as far as the Ft. Smith area Also included is getting KCRA Corpus over semi local 1030 Orlando. N of Tampa I got 560 Beaumont TX over 560 Miami.
4. KOA from Englewood FL with much closer 850's around.
5. I only have 4 that truly come to mind but I'll add #5 on behalf of a boyhood friend who subsequently died in Vietnam. He DX'd KFI from New Britain CT at age 13.
 
My five best DX receptions:

1. KFI 640 in the early 80's here in Atlanta (before WGST moved over to 640 from 920).
2. KNX 1070 back in January
3. WBAP 820 Dallas (back in 1997 while out on a two-week deployment on a Navy Ship
off the California Coast between San Clemente and San Diego.)
4. WGN 720 (during 1997 in Orange County CA early one Monday Morning when KDWN was
off the air).
5. WLW 700 (1986 while I was at Camp Pendleton CA temporarily).
 
For me, I'd have to say 850 KOA from Salt Lake City (Mid-1980s). Believe it or not, this was NO easy catch. From Denver, it's the reverse as KSL isn't very easy either ESPECIALLY with the "Format Of The Month" station parked at 1150 (KSL wasn't an easy catch back in the mid-1980s either).

At least in SLC, you knew what was on 860 back in the mid-1980s - Ivan's favorite format - Adult Standards (If memory serves me correctly).

Just my $.02 worth.....

Cheers :D
 
Pat Cook said:
For me, I'd have to say 850 KOA from Salt Lake City (Mid-1980s). Believe it or not, this was NO easy catch. From Denver, it's the reverse as KSL isn't very easy either ESPECIALLY with the "Format Of The Month" station parked at 1150 (KSL wasn't an easy catch back in the mid-1980s either).

At least in SLC, you knew what was on 860 back in the mid-1980s - Ivan's favorite format - Adult Standards (If memory serves me correctly).

Just my $.02 worth.....

Cheers :D

Hi Pat, I know what you mean in that I had frustrations at times in trying to listen to KOA when I lived in the Salt Lake City area thanks to what is now known as KKAT and was KUTR for years. It's only 196 watts at night, but from a good location in South Salt Lake. Your success rate depends on two things:

1) The selectivity/bandwidth of your radio; and
2) Your location in the valley.

If you're staying in downtown Salt Lake or along I-15 north of Sandy, you have to be able to null out the local. If you're staying too close to the eastern rim of the valley, the Wasatch Mountains actually do block some skywave from the east. Some parts of Salt Lake City have no problem at all getting a strong, listenable signal from KOA every night. It just depends where you are and what you're working with.

I'd imagine that the same is true for KSL in the Denver area at night. It used to come in quite well in Colorado Springs at night when I lived there (beautiful area, by the way).
 
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