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Your 2009 Want List

Yesterday (Saturday, Jan 24) at 2:30 on a bright sunny cold afternoon, the upper end of the band was "lit up like a Christmas tree" here 40 miles NW of Chicago. Too many rarities to mention, but the most notable was WCKY blasting in like a local on 1530. No fading whatsoever, and semi-local WJJG was completely absent.
First time catch WMKT from Northern Michigan was hammering everything else on 1270, and on and on it went.
 
I didnt get to ID anything but Sunday at about 1:30 the upper part of the band was wide open. Someone was doing black gospel on 1580
 
After getting KFI last night, I've been taking more time than usual to scan the AM band tonight and the stations from the northeast (New York and Philly) are loud and clear like I haven't heard in a long time. I even got KYW Philadelphia which I haven't been able to get here for years.

So, I'm listening to 880 WCBS just to appreciate the good signal and I turned the radio away from that direction because I started to hear something I've never heard on that frequency before and it was a station that was coming in from a more east/west direction. I only heard it for about 30 seconds and it was a man talking in a British accent about some kind of sports event. The station was as loud as WCBS had been and then it soon faded away. I listened for another few minutes and it sounded like the station came back briefly again and there was a woman speaking with a British accent too. From what I understand, don't the stations in Europe use different frequencies than ours? I want to know what I heard. This is weird.
 
Gar,

I believe Europe uses 880 or 881. They are very close to right on freq at 880.
I picked up WCBS 880 in London years ago just before UK sunrise.
Regarding your good reception, are you able to pick up any of the Chicago 50KW these days?
Does WLS ever still come in down there?
 
I've done some more listening on 880 and I think I may have solved the mystery but I still haven't heard any station IDs. What appeared to be that same station came back again and this time it was a man speaking in an American accent talking about the stock market. It faded a bit and then I heard some commercial where they were giving a "1-800" number. I put 2 and 2 together because earlier, I noticed on 850 where I can often hear KOA was dominated by a station that I never noticed in the past, WFTL from South Florida. I looked in the AM frequency guide and there's a station from that same area on 880. It's WZAB a business station. I guess the signals from that direction are coming in much better than normal tonight, so even though I didn't get any ID from the mystery station on 880, I have to think it's WZAB.


Oh, and yes, WBBM and WLS from Chicago are always regulars down here at night but many times they have good competition from the Spanish stations too.
 
I visited Gulf Shores, Alabama, for the past few days, and had some interesting AM catches. They may not have really been "catches," just that I found them interesting. One was XEW/900 from Mexico City, which I know is a flamethrower anyway, but I can't recall if I have ever heard them before in travels around the south/southwest. I tried to hear XEX/730, but couldn't say for sure if what I heard was that station. I also heard what sounded like Mexican Spanish on a few other stations, but didn't get IDs.

LOTS of Cuban stations coming in loud and clear -- I suspect this is a regular thing, but again, it was a novelty for me -- including 570, 600, 620, 790, 890, 910, and maybe others as well, including 990 (?). Not sure what I was hearing on 990. I heard what sounded like two signals in Spanish on 1180, one of which I assume was Cuban, could the other have been Radio Marti? I thought that was beamed almost exclusively south toward Cuba. It wasn't WHAM, I'm pretty sure of that.

670 and 710 sounded like Cuban stations as well, and I assume that's the case, rather than the Miami stations on those frequencies, which I think are highly directional, correct?

I tried for KOA, which I thought was unlikely, and heard WFTL from West Palm instead.

However, the midwest powerhouses were coming in reasonably strong -- I heard WGN, WBBM, WCCO, and WHO at various times, and of course, KMOX and WHAS. Also WLS was audible under the 890 that I heard (probably Cuba, I surmised). Maybe these are regular catches down there, I am not sure. No WSCR, however, and no WJR. Also heard WFAN and WCBS briefly. WOAI and WBAP, probably pretty predictable there. And of course, good old WWL, which seems to roll in there at all hours.

I was kind of surprised to hear WCCO -- isn't there a very strong signal from Havana on 830? What I heard was clearly 'CCO.

Maybe nothing earth-shattering here, but it was fun. I wasn't surprised to hear Cuban stations booming in there across the gulf, I just didn't expect quite that many, or for the AM dial on the Alabama coast to be almost dominated by them at night.
 
About 1 hr S of Tampa I heard 1120 KMOX and a Dallas station on 1160 (can't remember the calls) at about 8:50 AM or 1.5 hrs after local sunrise. Conditions were clear. Stations came in quite well.

Glad to know KFI is possible from SW Fl. Congrats.
 
icybluelake said:
I visited Gulf Shores, Alabama, for the past few days, and had some interesting AM catches. They may not have really been "catches," just that I found them interesting. One was XEW/900 from Mexico City, which I know is a flamethrower anyway, but I can't recall if I have ever heard them before in travels around the south/southwest. I tried to hear XEX/730, but couldn't say for sure if what I heard was that station. I also heard what sounded like Mexican Spanish on a few other stations, but didn't get IDs.

LOTS of Cuban stations coming in loud and clear -- I suspect this is a regular thing, but again, it was a novelty for me -- including 570, 600, 620, 790, 890, 910, and maybe others as well, including 990 (?). Not sure what I was hearing on 990. I heard what sounded like two signals in Spanish on 1180, one of which I assume was Cuban, could the other have been Radio Marti? I thought that was beamed almost exclusively south toward Cuba. It wasn't WHAM, I'm pretty sure of that.

670 and 710 sounded like Cuban stations as well, and I assume that's the case, rather than the Miami stations on those frequencies, which I think are highly directional, correct?

I tried for KOA, which I thought was unlikely, and heard WFTL from West Palm instead.

However, the midwest powerhouses were coming in reasonably strong -- I heard WGN, WBBM, WCCO, and WHO at various times, and of course, KMOX and WHAS. Also WLS was audible under the 890 that I heard (probably Cuba, I surmised). Maybe these are regular catches down there, I am not sure. No WSCR, however, and no WJR. Also heard WFAN and WCBS briefly. WOAI and WBAP, probably pretty predictable there. And of course, good old WWL, which seems to roll in there at all hours.

I was kind of surprised to hear WCCO -- isn't there a very strong signal from Havana on 830? What I heard was clearly 'CCO.

Maybe nothing earth-shattering here, but it was fun. I wasn't surprised to hear Cuban stations booming in there across the gulf, I just didn't expect quite that many, or for the AM dial on the Alabama coast to be almost dominated by them at night.
Click to expand...

That part of the Gulf Coast is almost ideal for DXing. Not only do you hear a lot of Cubans and Mexicans, but you're still close enough to New York and the Midwest to hear those blasters too. Texas stations come in well there too, such as WBAP, KRLD, WOAI and KTRH a bit weaker than the other three because of its pattern. NYC stations never get to Houston and it can be a struggle to hear some Midwestern stations here, though KMOX and WLW often get in here and WHAS can be surprisingly loud.
As far as 1180, I believe Radio Marti is extremely directional (as in you can be within sight of the towers and not hear it) but one of the posters from Michigan said a few years ago here that he has definitely heard Radio Marti up there. I have trouble picking anything out of the slop on 1180 here in Houston, but I have heard the Marti jammer in Ohio under WHAM.
If Rob in Fort Walton Beach reads this post he can add to this, but I'm pretty sure you can hear some of those Cuban powerhouses 24/7 along the Gulf Coast because of the salt water path.
 
vibe said:
About 1 hr S of Tampa I heard 1120 KMOX and a Dallas station on 1160 (can't remember the calls) at about 8:50 AM or 1.5 hrs after local sunrise. Conditions were clear. Stations came in quite well.
Click to expand...



That's unusual. Had to have been a skywave, I'd guess, but what conditions would cause such a thing at that time of day?
 
gar fla said:
I'd also like to know if there are any strong Mexican stations, especially from the Yucatan, that I could search for. I can't seem to find the same kind of online listing for Mexican stations as I have for ours in the US and Canada.
Click to expand...

Check out dxfm.com. Although this site specializes in FM and TV DX, they have downloadable spreadsheets for Mexican AM stations, as well as USA, and Canada, and the rest of the Western Hemisphere. Very complete, and quite up-to date.
 
Well, I got KOA a couple of weeks ago, in Spartanburg, SC (very weakly, under WRUF, WFTL, and probably three other stations), but it was the first time I ever picked them up in SC, which was a goal for me. My next goal is to pick them up (or any Western station) in Charleston, which is much harder with the higher amount of Cuban noise around.
 
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