Yes, WTTI come in to Huntsville, AL weak but audible from Dalton. I'll bet they get stepped on in or near their coverage area by WCKY during critical hours in the winter months.
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Your Best daytime-skywave AM DX Catch ?
- Thread starter Steve Green NEPA
- Start date
Wouldn't doubt that.
The line seperating the good from the mediocre ground conductivity in Wisconsin runs roughly from Green Bay to the Southwest corner of the state. ....Also, I worked with a guy in the early '70s who had worked at KSTP. The main thing he talked about regarding his KSTP days was how just about everyone there was preoccupied with their "nighttime pattern problem".
Very interesting! I can see their night pattern being a problem
For a long time, WTOP...WFED, WJBK...WLQV, and KSTP sought to modify their patterns to let out the nulls toward each other. This finally culminated close to 20 years ago. George Storer, owner of WJBK, had always sought to be 50 kW Fulltime, but there was really no way to do it. They actually only fed 2.5 kW to the 12 tower Night DA, using an SLR to burn off 2.5 kW to be a 5 kW licensed station at Night. This was due to taller towers and the pattern gain. Eventually, they input 3 kW Night after licensing a new pattern, followed by 10 kW after the agreements between the three stations were finalized. They finally licensed the three new facilities in the early 2000s. David may know more about George Storer's plans. Of course, WJBK was 250 watts on 1490 kHz before moving to 1500 kHz in the 1950s. At first, it was 10000 watts Day and 1000 watts Night with less towers. They went to 50/5 U4 circa 1967, with 9 towers Day and 12 towers Night. There is extensive detuning of nearby high tension wires, with scores of towers detuned to maintain the patterns. WJBK moved from Highland Park to Lincoln Park circa 1956. More towers were added for the 50/5 U4 in the late 1960s. They took three towers down in the 10 kW Night pattern, and had already removed them several years before, while on temporary 3 kW Night facilities.
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Interesting....thanks for sharing. I only have heard WJBK here at my home location once or twice. Long time ago, and via daytime skywave IIRC. George Storer did better reaching my location with WSPD (1370 Toledo), and WITI-TV (Channel 6 Milwaukee).
WJBK was the only station that could be heard along I-75 in Detroit and the Inner Suburbs under overpasses without noticeable fadeouts. It was due to the pattern gain in the major lobe and the closer TL. Even WJR and CKLW faded in most tunnels. Of course, over the years, Ed Buterbaugh installed a leaky cable antenna inside the Detroit Windsor Tunnel, first for CKLW, then for WJR. When CKLW went away from a format targeting the US, they stopped, and later WJR did it. But that was just one tunnel. In 1969, WJBK became WDEE, and later, WLQV, WCZY, and WLQV again. It is often heard on Daytime Skywave in the Straits Area, and is a DX "Pest" in Scandinavia.
It looks like the KSTP mainly augmented their pattern without changing the parameters of the array. To fill the nulls reliably, they would have to change parameters. I recall reading that somewhere years ago.
It looks like WTOP...WFED filled the nulls toward WJBK...WLQV and KSTP by modifying the array parameters somewhat. The easiest way is to shift the phase of the center tower, and that seems to be the way it was accomplished. Like I said before, WJBK...WLQV took three of their twelve towers down to change their pattern. They sold the land they were on to build a Kmart, and of course, that's gone. Don't know what is in the building now.
I think WLW is kind of exceptional in some ways. I regularly look for it if I'm driving through eastern Iowa or northern Illinois during the day because I've heard it so many times in places farther than I'd expect the signal to reach even on days that it's hard for me to imagine that daytime skywave conditions are present.
It's that time of year...at my location in the SFV today on my car radio at High Noon, skywave from KFBK 1530 was clearly audible for a few minutes. In June this would be next to impossible.
This map does not show XESURF Tijuana 25 kw/100w nor XEWA San Luis Potosi 150 kW
Nor does it show the 5 kw AM on 540 in Santo Domingo, in the signatory Dominican Republic, Radio ABC.
Was hoping the 700 am and 650 am I received in north Austin, TX, at 3:30 p.m. this afternoon was from Cincinnati and Nashville. Unfortunately, the automated 700 had nothing identifying it for nearly an hour with the annoying Ben Shapiro rerun until TOH and 650 was sports betting. So Houston stations.
At 4:30 p.m., 840 WHAS Louisville came in and other skywavers, like 1110-KFAB and the Chicago 600-790 AM clear channels came in.
At 4:30 p.m., 840 WHAS Louisville came in and other skywavers, like 1110-KFAB and the Chicago 600-790 AM clear channels came in.
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But it.... at least the new and improved version....does show Mexican stations on 550, Nothing for Central America or the Carribean on 540 or 550, however.
Do you ever pick up KSEV at night in Austin? When I lived in League City, I was far enough out of their main nighttime lobe to hear WLW almost every night.
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