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Your closest unheard AM station
- Thread starter CADXER
- Start date
KSRA-960 Salmon ID (343 miles) and KURY-910 Brookings OR (387 miles). If we are counting low power stations, then CBKY-1350 Keremeos BC is the closest one. 40 watts at 156 miles. I have heard TIS stations at similar distances (10 watts to boot) but never this CBC Radio One relay. The only real interference north-south is KSRO.
There *were* two here. Then just one. Now it's back to two. Grrrr (gnashes teeth).
I did have two closest unheard AMers east of the Susquehanna here at one time -- WPMR 960 Mt. Pocono and WGMM 1460 Tunkhannock. WPMR was an especially annoying rash, since they were in the same AREA code as I am -- 570. Then one night -- night -- I caught some pop music on 960 with mentions of 'Stroudsburg' and did every dance step I could within the limits of the earphone cord. They were simulcasting WSBG-FM and might've forgotten to drop power.
I'm dead even between Mt. Pocono and Carlisle PA on a line, and WPMR's 4 towers had to protect omni WHYL Carlisle 960 at all times.
Cool! Now I needed just one elusive station -- WGMM 1460.
And then, well, the brand-new WYNY 1450 signed on, from Milford PA, right on the Delaware.
These two %$#!!ng stations do seem as though they'd be SRS catches by me if I'm ever lucid at that frightening hour -- WGMM before Harrisburg 1460 goes omni, and WYNY 1450 at the same hour. My clock radio is set to 1450 at all times, hi.
Great post, CADXER ! It's truly the stuff the hobby was made of.
I did have two closest unheard AMers east of the Susquehanna here at one time -- WPMR 960 Mt. Pocono and WGMM 1460 Tunkhannock. WPMR was an especially annoying rash, since they were in the same AREA code as I am -- 570. Then one night -- night -- I caught some pop music on 960 with mentions of 'Stroudsburg' and did every dance step I could within the limits of the earphone cord. They were simulcasting WSBG-FM and might've forgotten to drop power.
I'm dead even between Mt. Pocono and Carlisle PA on a line, and WPMR's 4 towers had to protect omni WHYL Carlisle 960 at all times.
Cool! Now I needed just one elusive station -- WGMM 1460.
And then, well, the brand-new WYNY 1450 signed on, from Milford PA, right on the Delaware.
These two %$#!!ng stations do seem as though they'd be SRS catches by me if I'm ever lucid at that frightening hour -- WGMM before Harrisburg 1460 goes omni, and WYNY 1450 at the same hour. My clock radio is set to 1450 at all times, hi.
Great post, CADXER ! It's truly the stuff the hobby was made of.
First of all, do you mean NEVER heard the station, or USUALLY do not hear the station?
I'd have to think about the Straits Area, and never vs. usually, but at the regular Southeast Michigan location, definitely WFLT 1420 Flint (Legacy WAMM, where Casey Kasem did his first Top 40 gig, according to Casey himself, in 1957!). It is 41.77 miles away from my RL according to AM Query.
At that RL, WHK 1420 Cleveland comes in almost exclusively. Every once in a while, WFLT runs on STA nondirectional at 125 watts, and you will hear it a little in the background. If you go to a Cider Mill just 10 miles to the Northwest, WFLT comes in quite well, without almost any interference from WHK. This is due do the WFLT Directional Antenna, and a particularly bad patch of conductivity to the Northwest, which is much less than M-3, which nobody believes in but me. But it manifests itself as gravelly, stony, rocky soil, from glacier deposits, poor conductivity for all AM signals in that direction, and prevented the Clinton-Kalamazoo Canal from being completed when it reached Rochester, MI. The project was abandoned in 1843. They ran out of money when the soil went quickly from clay silt to rocky in about 12 miles from the start in Mt. Clemens. The carved out canal valley remains, marked by a road named Canal Road. So that bad patch has been there for a while. You can also see it manifested on the original WUFL 1030 Sterling Heights original DA Proof of Performance maps, where it resulted in a massive dent in the contours right in the major lobe of the DA.
I'd have to think about the Straits Area, and never vs. usually, but at the regular Southeast Michigan location, definitely WFLT 1420 Flint (Legacy WAMM, where Casey Kasem did his first Top 40 gig, according to Casey himself, in 1957!). It is 41.77 miles away from my RL according to AM Query.
At that RL, WHK 1420 Cleveland comes in almost exclusively. Every once in a while, WFLT runs on STA nondirectional at 125 watts, and you will hear it a little in the background. If you go to a Cider Mill just 10 miles to the Northwest, WFLT comes in quite well, without almost any interference from WHK. This is due do the WFLT Directional Antenna, and a particularly bad patch of conductivity to the Northwest, which is much less than M-3, which nobody believes in but me. But it manifests itself as gravelly, stony, rocky soil, from glacier deposits, poor conductivity for all AM signals in that direction, and prevented the Clinton-Kalamazoo Canal from being completed when it reached Rochester, MI. The project was abandoned in 1843. They ran out of money when the soil went quickly from clay silt to rocky in about 12 miles from the start in Mt. Clemens. The carved out canal valley remains, marked by a road named Canal Road. So that bad patch has been there for a while. You can also see it manifested on the original WUFL 1030 Sterling Heights original DA Proof of Performance maps, where it resulted in a massive dent in the contours right in the major lobe of the DA.
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In Cheyenne, it would have to be...
1220 KLDC at 104 miles and only 660 watts. I have never heard it day or night, although I get some hints at sunset that might be KLDC, but it is too weak to tell.
1240 KRAL at 132 miles which is blocked by KFBC.
And then of course, there are TIS stations much closer like the Fort Collins one on 1610, the Estes Park one on 1470, the Longmont one on 1670, and the Laramie/Buford pair on 1610. This season is ramping up however, so I hope I can clear KLDC and the TISers. This is a fun thread idea, @CADXER !
1220 KLDC at 104 miles and only 660 watts. I have never heard it day or night, although I get some hints at sunset that might be KLDC, but it is too weak to tell.
1240 KRAL at 132 miles which is blocked by KFBC.
And then of course, there are TIS stations much closer like the Fort Collins one on 1610, the Estes Park one on 1470, the Longmont one on 1670, and the Laramie/Buford pair on 1610. This season is ramping up however, so I hope I can clear KLDC and the TISers. This is a fun thread idea, @CADXER !
BTW, it is 112.16 miles from this RL to WHK, and is fairly close to 180 degrees difference in azimuth, actually 166.48 degrees, from WFLT. Much of the path is over Lake Erie, which affects all broadcast bands, favoring the direction much of the time. Every cochannel analog TV station in Ohio and Northwest Pennsylvania would kick up during tropospheric events, wiping out much closer TV stations in Michigan. Usually you could get a cochannel FM by adjusting the telescoping antenna or turning the rotator to null it out. I wonder if you could get WFLT with a Marine Direction Finder.
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Where I live in Chicago, the nearest unheard stations are:
WCSJ 1550 in Morris, IL, 57 miles, 250 W day, 6 W night.
WZTI 1290 in Greenfield, WI, 70 miles 5000 W day/night
WCMY 1430 in Ottawa, IL, 72 miles, 500 W day, 38 W night
WHRL 1060 in Rochelle, IL, 72 miles 250 W day, 50 W night
WRIN 1560 in Rensselaer, IN 72 miles, 1000 W day, 500 W night.
I've actually tried for WCSJ before but never gotten it. I guess WZTI is being blocked by WNIL and WIRL but sounds like it should be gettable due to its strength.
WCSJ 1550 in Morris, IL, 57 miles, 250 W day, 6 W night.
WZTI 1290 in Greenfield, WI, 70 miles 5000 W day/night
WCMY 1430 in Ottawa, IL, 72 miles, 500 W day, 38 W night
WHRL 1060 in Rochelle, IL, 72 miles 250 W day, 50 W night
WRIN 1560 in Rensselaer, IN 72 miles, 1000 W day, 500 W night.
I've actually tried for WCSJ before but never gotten it. I guess WZTI is being blocked by WNIL and WIRL but sounds like it should be gettable due to its strength.
From my location in NW San Antonio, it's all Texas stations:
1490 KIBL Beeville - 99 miles - 1000 W day/night
1050 KRMY Killeen - 121 miles - 250 W day / 5 W night
1000 KSTA Coleman - 161 miles - 250 W daytimer
1050 KCHN Brookshire - 165 miles - 410 W daytimer
1260 KKSA San Angelo - 167 miles - 540 W day / 71 W night
1490 KIBL Beeville - 99 miles - 1000 W day/night
1050 KRMY Killeen - 121 miles - 250 W day / 5 W night
1000 KSTA Coleman - 161 miles - 250 W daytimer
1050 KCHN Brookshire - 165 miles - 410 W daytimer
1260 KKSA San Angelo - 167 miles - 540 W day / 71 W night
Why would KASA be 10kw directional during the DAY-time? XESTN is quite some distance away, so maybe adjacent KUAZ in Tuscon?
I meant a station that you never heard and would definitively like to add to your log of stations heard. Also, I don't think TIS stations should count.
I've heard every AM in this state except KTKN 930 and KJNO 630
Usually, with a good antenna and preamp, if a station is 15 uV/m or more, I can get it. There aren't many in my state I can't get with an effort. However, when a lot of stations were using IBOC, it would block out both adjacents with signals. Most of these no longer use IBOC. If a DA is pointed away from where I am, it can be very difficult. I was about 45 miles from WITL 1010, with a three tower cardioid, and it was the same strength as CFRB 1010 220 miles away. There was about a 4 Hz heterodyne between the two. I could get both WSAM 1400 Saginaw and WJLB 1400 Detroit on a Sony Supersensitive portable just by turning the radio.
So in trying for WKVI I leave the radio on 1520, muting the TV audio near the top of the hour, and voila! I get an ID, but not WKVI or WWKB or KOKC. Nope, it's a new one, KOLM, Rochester, Minn. "1520 The Ticket" and then into sports talk. I'll take it! No. 520 for me happens to be on 1520.
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