The tones and carrier cuts were part of the "short" regular test. The national all-station tests were a full half hour and nothing else was on the air at the time.
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Your Best daytime-skywave AM DX Catch ?
- Thread starter Steve Green NEPA
- Start date
When I was in Port Douglas Queensland (far NE Australia) in 2013, 585 in Port Moresby Papua New Guinea was strong enough to stop the scan on my car radio at just over 500 miles.
In Tulsa in the early 70's, I could normally get DFW (WFAA/WBAP), Kansas City (WDAF, WHB, KCMO), and Topeka (WIBW) during the daytime (~200 miles). In midwinter, Omaha (KFAB, WOW) and St Louis (KMOX) could usually be heard at 400+ miles.
In Tulsa in the early 70's, I could normally get DFW (WFAA/WBAP), Kansas City (WDAF, WHB, KCMO), and Topeka (WIBW) during the daytime (~200 miles). In midwinter, Omaha (KFAB, WOW) and St Louis (KMOX) could usually be heard at 400+ miles.
I remember hearing one Conelrad test in the late 50s maybe 1960.
But those are not daytime skywave. They are either due to salt water or high ground conductivity in the Great Plains. Groundwave, but excellent examples of that.
During the winter I would park my car at a park in Redmond WA and listen to KFBK pretty much every lunchtime. 626 miles. Amazing signal for the upper end of the dial. But, then again, an amazing antenna helps!
I picked up CBKF-1 from Gravelbourg, Saskatchewan near Sac City, Iowa, a few years ago. Distance of about 1,005 miles.
Memorable runner-up: when I was in college, I picked up WMT Cedar Rapids and WHO Des Moines from my dorm room one afternoon. Distance of about 550 and 650 miles respectively.
Memorable runner-up: when I was in college, I picked up WMT Cedar Rapids and WHO Des Moines from my dorm room one afternoon. Distance of about 550 and 650 miles respectively.
Sorry, the Australia example was responding to your discussion of your reception in Puerto Rico. Should have clarified that.
Certainly the DFW/KC reception from Tulsa was groundwave. I was thinking that getting Omaha and STL, at twice the distance, only in midwinter must be skywave, but maybe not. Is groundwave enhanced in the winter?
I remember one test. I think it was in 1956, right after we got a TV. I remember going to the TV, turning it on, and turning through every channel, and seeing nothing by snow. Seems like we could get CKLW-TV Channel 9 very weakly 60 miles away, but I don't remember seeing it, or if they were participating in the test. I don't remember trying CKLW 800 or any other fairly close AM stations in Canada. I think CHYR was just 250 watts or 1000 watts then, CFCO would have been 1000 watts, CHOK would have been 5000 watts. Those were probably all I could have heard on the radios we had then. Wow, I think we only had three radios then, one GE AM Clock Radio with the five tube typical complement, one Westinghouse AM/SW Table, and one Zenith AM/SW 78 RPM record changer turntable Console. I was too young in 1956 to do what I would have done now. I still have a couple radios that have the Conelrad markings on the dial. Only the Clock Radio had the Conelrad markings.
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WWRL, even with its very directional four tower parallelogram, has always gotten out all over the place, usually in the back and side lobes. Some of the WAAM 1600 DJs who had First Phones and assistant engineer duties reported hearing it on the off air monitor when they signed off from their seven total towers, 4 Day/4 Night, next to US 23 near Merritt Rd. The studio moved there for a while, away from the one you see Ollie McLaughlin in online. The Day pattern has a large lobe toward New York City.
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WWRL is now 30 kw daytime. How long ago was that experience?
It's easy to see how truly concerned, even frightened, we were about a Soviet attack that we did not criticize at all the silence of every US radio station for a full half hour for the test of the CONELRAD system. At school, we'd duck under our desks.
I'm glad I missed that part of the Cold War. My parents, however, didn't talk that much about the scares (October '62, etc.). I remember the Day After movie scaring people, but the actual potential of nuclear war was seemingly so unbelievable that I think it was easy for most of us to shrug it off.
As for Conelrad, I remember the markings on the older radios, and I remember the EBS two-tone tests, along with the accompanying announcements.
Back to radio reception: at 540 khz, how far will groundwave generally extend? In my example of CBK, it looks like their coverage map reaches into Alberta, but not as far as the Rockies.
During the Cuban missile crisis when we were in school we actually had our eyes out the window watching for missiles. It was a scary time.
The groundwave depends on the ground conductivity at the transmitter site. 540kHz has the potential for the largest groundwave service area of any medium wave frequency.
Yup, anything below 600 khz has a massive coverage area in the plains, and if we still had LW broadcasts, it would cover even more, hopefully.
CBK covers like a beast. I could hear them in Sheridan, WY, and Rapid City, SD all of 400 miles away in the daylight.
Actually, CBK's day signal does make it to the Rockies. As posted previously, I picked it up on a good car radio (Toyota Camry) on the Trans-Canada highway in the mountains at the British Columbia - Alberta border. I lost it about ten miles west of that point. This was in August 2012.
As for best daytime skywave, I'd probably go with WWL in Rock Island, IL one sunny winter day during the mid 70s at high noon on a car radio. Fair steady signal from about 900 miles. Aside from that, during winter , I'd routinely pick up the New York City blowtorches along with WBZ and WTIC on biz trips to Canada during daytime drives between Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa.
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