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What's the closest you've been to..?

L

Lawppy

This is a subject inspired a little bit by the 'closest unheards' thread recently added to the board.

What is the closest you've been to any given local station and still been able to get another, more distant one? Example. Hearing a 100kw station from 150 miles away over a 3kw peashooter 8 miles away from your location. This is something that has always interested me. Here are some of mine from Coldwater, MI.

91.3 WCSG Grand Rapids (50kw 67 mi.) over WCKZ Orland, IN (2kw 15 mi.)- This one happens the most, but sometimes WGTE Toledo (13.5kw 83 mi.) trumps the much weaker WCKZ.

94.7 WLS Chicago (4.4kw 136 mi.) destroys WCVM Bronson (4kw 19 mi.) during strong lake enhancement.

100.3 WILV Chicago (5.7kw 135 mi.) burys WLKI Angola, IN (4kw 18 mi.) during the same strong lake enhancement openings.

My local translators at 97.1 (180w, 1 mi.) and 101.1 (27w, 2 mi.) have both been wiped out by Chicago or Detroit stations. I once heard WRIF Detroit over the 101.1 Tx under one mile from the then Tx site.

And from the 'Close, but no cigar...' category.

During a STRONG record breaking Es opening in June of '07, I ALMOST got a station in over my local 50kw station at 98.5 (7 miles away). It never got strong enough to take over the very dominant WNWN, but you could definitely hear that something was just right below the surface waiting to break through. I still listen to the audio clip regularly and I still can't believe it happened.

How about the rest of you guys? I know some of you have done better than I have
 
I've been right in the studio/transmitter facility of WJIB 740 Cambridge MA, listening to 740 from Toronto.

Of course, WJIB was off the air for the night at that point... ;D

Seriously, though, I'm about two miles from locals WROC 950 and WHTK 1280 here in Rochester, and on rare occasions can get enough of a null on either to hear WWJ and WADO, respectively, underneath. And that's in their night lobes...there are spots within their nulls as close in as half a mile where it's easier to hear Detroit or NYC than to hear the "local"...
 
Flying at 20,000 feet over Queens, NY with a great view of Manhattan and WBEB Philadelphia strongly heard on 101.1. WCBS-FM never showed up strongly, in only fought in for a few minutes over southern CT.

(Disclaimer: Don't try this yourself - in a post-9/11 world you might not get away with such shenanigans!) ;)
 
The first thing I thought of was years back when I paid close attention to the e-skip in summer when we didn't yet have cable and used the big roof antenna. In South Jersey, New York stations 2, 4, and 5 would completely vanish beneath good signals from places like Florida, Texas, or even Canada. With just the rabbit ears, even the local Philly channels 3 and 6 could be briefly over taken by those thick rolling humming bars and other channels would slip in.
 
gar fla said:
The first thing I thought of was years back when I paid close attention to the e-skip in summer when we didn't yet have cable and used the big roof antenna. In South Jersey, New York stations 2, 4, and 5 would completely vanish beneath good signals from places like Florida, Texas, or even Canada. With just the rabbit ears, even the local Philly channels 3 and 6 could be briefly over taken by those thick rolling humming bars and other channels would slip in.
Click to expand...

E skip can throw this whole question up in the air. I live 20 miles north of Chicago, but many times over the years. I've received interference to the local TV from distant e skip. I've even received Madison, Wi FM over WBBM FM on 96.3. I'm 20 miles from BBMs stick on Sears Tower & 150 from Madison.
 
There was a super-trop event (1993 or 94) where I was working at WLFI-TV 18 in Lafayette and we were getting severe interference on the off-air monitor from the 18 in Milwaukee. We were maybe 10-15 air miles from the transmitter. Many Chicago area stations were in like locals, with WXRT killing WNAP (whatever it was then) on 93.1, WLS-FM (still doing the "WLS-FM Talks" format) obliterating WFBQ, and a strong WYLL (when it was on 106.7) doing serious damage to WGLM in the south part of Lafayette.

We have several K-LOve translators; often the 96.9 in Lexington, KY will overcome the originating station's signal and all the translators will be relaying Delilah. I've heard interference from 94.5 in Lexington in the South Dayton suburbs to WDKF.

I've outlined the interference to 1290-WHIO in another thread. All of the Dayton AMs suffer interference pretty close in. I've heard 980 in Nashville very strong under WONE at about 10 miles.
 
Scott Fybush said:
I've been right in the studio/transmitter facility of WJIB 740 Cambridge MA, listening to 740 from Toronto.
Click to expand...

That brings to mind an event which happened one summer about 7 or 8 years ago when I was working at WCTQ in Venice, FL. The skip was so bad (or good for us DXers!) that I while I was doing my shift, our studio receiver could no longer pick up our own signal on 106.5. Instead we were overpowered by WOCY "Oyster County 106.5" from Carrabelle, FL (which Mapquest lists as being 359 miles away from Venice, FL) I took calls from people all over town thinking we changed our format!
 
2.5 miles from 50kw WPRB 103.3 during the intense Summer '04 e-skip, I got Oldies 103.3 KLOU from St Louis.
2 miles from 200 watt WVPH 90.3, when the transmitter used to be only 7 feet off the ground, e-skip overpowered the studio monitor during my show for over 5 minutes, I got a 90.3 from Arkansas. I quit my show in the middle of it because nobody would be listening, went to my car and DXed (and had a really good explanation why I quit in the middle of it ;) ). The skip was strong and lasted over an hour.
In sight of WBZC's translator at 95.1, I was able to get 95.1 WAYV during a strong tropo.
A half mile from 10 watt WWPH 107.9, WEBE 108 obliterated WWPH, and ruined an aircheck I was making of WWPH's programming that day.
Been right under the tower of a 50kw 101.5, and got a 101.3 from 120 miles away.
 
>>I quit my show in the middle of it because nobody would be listening, went to my car and DXed (and had a really good explanation why I quit in the middle of it ). The skip was strong and lasted over an hour>>

Did you get paid for that hour ;D
 
A few years ago, in northern VA and 40 miles SW of Wash. DC, I heard Dallas's Classical WRR 101.1 overpowering DC's rock station WWDC 101.1 during one E-skip, and last year, also during Es, when driving just west of Fredericksburg, VA I heard a country station from MN on 103.5 instead of WTOP.
 
Last summer in Sanford, Maine I was listening to 107.5 WFNK which comes in great, then all of a sudden 107.5 WFCC from Cape Cod completely took over the station and lasted for a couple hours. No matter how I moved the antennae I couldn't get Frank FM. I could also get 106.1 WCOD that day too.
 
a strange one near me is the Univ of Pittsburgh campus FM station, WPTS 92.1. Pitt was very late to the dance to get a broadcast license, and by the time they did there was no room left for them in the noncommercial end of the band. They got special dispensation to run 10 watts at 98.5, and later were shifted to 92.1. They are about four miles from my house (I can see the tower atop the Cathedral of Learning) but more often than not are blown away by WPKL in Ellwood City, PA (3000 watts and 47 miles away). When they were at 98.5 they ran a very strange directional pattern to protect a commercial station to their southeast, and I think they may still be running this pattern.

A couple of local AM's were similar. WASP-AM 1130 in Brownsville, PA is frequently shouted down by WBBR in New York late in the day.
And when WKHB was still at 1530, WCKY in Cincy would blow them away for much of the day (no doubt why they moved to 770, where WABC only seems to affect them just before sunset)
 
FreddyE1977 said:
a strange one near me is the Univ of Pittsburgh campus FM station, WPTS 92.1. Pitt was very late to the dance to get a broadcast license, and by the time they did there was no room left for them in the noncommercial end of the band. They got special dispensation to run 10 watts at 98.5, and later were shifted to 92.1. They are about four miles from my house (I can see the tower atop the Cathedral of Learning) but more often than not are blown away by WPKL in Ellwood City, PA (3000 watts and 47 miles away). When they were at 98.5 they ran a very strange directional pattern to protect a commercial station to their southeast, and I think they may still be running this pattern.
Click to expand...

According to FCC database, WPTS runs 16 watts, and has a directional anternna, sending less signal to the W, NW, and N.
 
I've recieved the Moody station (WGNR) in Anderson IN on 97.9 as close to powerhouse WNCI/Columbus as Springfield (45 miles). Also occasionally WLHK in Shelbyville/Indianapolis covers WBNS-FM.
 
When I lived in Rupert, Idaho (Twin Falls-Sun Valley DMA), there was a sweet spot where I would often get KHCQ FM (102.1 -Driggs, ID, xmtr. Jackson, WY ERP - 4kw) over the top of KIRQ FM (Kimberly, ID 23kw ERP). I was probably 25 miles away from the KIRQ transmitter, but was over 200 away from KHCQ's site, located at the top of a ski resort in Jackson, WY. Before KIRQ went on the air, I could often get 102.1 fairly well in a car radio. All of that outside of the station I worked at, so there was a lot of RFI in the parking lot to boot!

http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=KIRQ&service=FM&status=C&hours=U
http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=KCHQ&service=FM&status=L&hours=U
 
For me it might have been driving on the Eisenhower extension by the old WAIT stick one night....the old chicken farm north of Elmhurst, IL....while listening to WBAP. Not just underneath it....but overpowering it.
 
cyberdad said:
For me it might have been driving on the Eisenhower extension by the old WAIT stick one night....the old chicken farm north of Elmhurst, IL....while listening to WBAP. Not just underneath it....but overpowering it.
Click to expand...

Yeah that old WAIT nighttime signal was bad.










































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