Your most distant AM DX catches

[radioman148]

1. Radio Farda on 1575 kHz, Al-Dhabbaya, UAE, from my location north of Brockville ON, at a distance of 10840 KM (6735 miles).

2. Syria`s Radio 1 on 783 kHz, Tartus, Syria, at 8815 KM (5475 miles).

Both of these I posted here, as I picked them up on several occasions last season (exciting times indeed!).

Equipment used: Realistic DX-440 on internal antenna.

BG

So far Tincap your 6735 miles seems to be the leader in distance. Wish that guy in Australia who has DXed North America would check in.

 

[vibe]

Daytime (no skywave) KCRA 1030 Corpus Christi TX from Englewood FL 800 mi?

I'd say more like 900 miles.

I can vouch for that reception too beacuse up the coast right on the Gulf, I can hear a religious station with preaching behind some louder Spanish station and I think the religious station can't can't be anything other than KCTA by the process of elimination.

I never heard any official ID so I didn't count that as my most distant daytime catch.

Vibe, did you also have any problem with that dominating Spanish speaking station where you were? I don't know where that comes from but I only hear it on 1030 at the beach, not here well inland.

Never ID'd the Spanish station on 1030. I spent an agonizing amount of time/patience to get the ID on KCRA 1030 (hoping that the usually Spanish dominant stayed in the background).
Being 80-90 mi S of gar would probably make my distance to CC about 850 mi.

 

[kilokat7]

From West Michigan within the last year or so:

Confirmed by e-QSL:

1566 Khz - Trans World Radio from Benin in Africa, tough reception but it was enough to snag a nice e-QSL from TWR, 5700 miles

Tentative receptions:

549 Khz - Unid but presumed BSKSA Saudi Arabia based on programming heard (I can say for certain that it wasn't Algeria). If so then distance would be 6160 miles
774 Khz - Unid but presumed Egypt based on programming and time heard. If so then distance would be 5900 miles
783 Khz - Unid but presumed Syria based on programming and time heard. If so then distance would be 5920 miles

Furthest domestic catch for me would be KNX at 1840 miles from last December. With the exception of Saudi Arabia, these were all heard on the old flea market DX-440 using an external antenna and a lot of patience. I have yet to receive Radio Farda here - maybe this will be the year...

 

[gar hi]

Never ID'd the Spanish station on 1030. I spent an agonizing amount of time/patience to get the ID on KCRA 1030 (hoping that the usually Spanish dominant stayed in the background).
Being 80-90 mi S of gar would probably make my distance to CC about 850 mi.

I calculated 927 miles to be exact.

So far, you have the farthest daytime catch with an ID for a ground wave.

I'm in second place with 775 miles. I hope I can break my own record, though.

Vibe, you should try for KTRH where you are. You won't have the signal of WYGM to contend with as I did.

1070 KNTH may be another possibility too.

 

[pianoplayer88key]

How much of that daytime DX distance is over a saltwater path?

What's the record for midday DX entirely over a land path (an occasional lake or river is permissible)?

My own record is 626 miles - receiving 700 KALL North Salt Lake City, UT, from a couple miles east of La Mesa & south of El Cajon, CA. I'm 32 miles north/northeast of a 77kW station on 690, btw, and was using a Select-A-Tenna. Considering the Tecsun PL-380 was desensing badly (RSSI was 41-43dBu, SNR was 0-1dB) even though 690 was nulled as well as I could, I think greater distances would be possible in a quieter environment or with a receiver with better dynamic range.

I know someone (maybe / maybe not a member here) who has my daytime land-path DX record beat by something like 200 miles, but who else on here has achieved 600+ mile groundwave land-path DX on the AM BCB? Also I understand Bruce Carter (rbrucecarter5) has heard 1000-mile daytime land-path (Chicago to northern Texas) DX with his 4' loop antenna, but his antenna site is down and I haven't seen a peep from him here in quite some time. Anyone have any idea how he is or if anything's happened?

 

[Tincap]

1. Radio Farda on 1575 kHz, Al-Dhabbaya, UAE, from my location north of Brockville ON, at a distance of 10840 KM (6735 miles).

2. Syria`s Radio 1 on 783 kHz, Tartus, Syria, at 8815 KM (5475 miles).

Both of these I posted here, as I picked them up on several occasions last season (exciting times indeed!).

Equipment used: Realistic DX-440 on internal antenna.

BG

So far Tincap your 6735 miles seems to be the leader in distance. Wish that guy in Australia who has DXed North America would check in.

I am pleasantly surprised. Actually, I have to give kilokat7 a nod of thanks. He has a DX-440, as well, and it was his initial loggings which really sparked my interest in finding the DX potential of my own. For a 25 year-oldradio, it is obviously still a very, very capable unit.

BG

 

[gar hi]

How much of that daytime DX distance is over a saltwater path?

What's the record for midday DX entirely over a land path (an occasional lake or river is permissible)?

My own record is 626 miles - receiving 700 KALL North Salt Lake City, UT, from a couple miles east of La Mesa & south of El Cajon, CA. I'm 32 miles north/northeast of a 77kW station on 690, btw, and was using a Select-A-Tenna. Considering the Tecsun PL-380 was desensing badly (RSSI was 41-43dBu, SNR was 0-1dB) even though 690 was nulled as well as I could, I think greater distances would be possible in a quieter environment or with a receiver with better dynamic range.

I know someone (maybe / maybe not a member here) who has my daytime land-path DX record beat by something like 200 miles, but who else on here has achieved 600+ mile groundwave land-path DX on the AM BCB? Also I understand Bruce Carter (rbrucecarter5) has heard 1000-mile daytime land-path (Chicago to northern Texas) DX with his 4' loop antenna, but his antenna site is down and I haven't seen a peep from him here in quite some time. Anyone have any idea how he is or if anything's happened?

When I say groundwave, I mean anything that's a non-skywave.

That includes the saltwater.

I really think it's impossible to get any 1000 mile ground wave over land. A skywave had to be involved to get something like that.

I think it's very possible to get a signal from 1000 and possibly more miles away on the saltwater path.

 

[vibe]

It is entirely possible to get 1000 mi daytime straight groundwave reception but I had 2 things going for me w/ KCRA, a 927 mi catch-
1: a straight saltwater path=which makes the catch more like 250 mi at best.
2. A preset to 1030 where I 'worked' the frequency every day for a number of days w/o any success until the right conditions were present.
3. Being a snowbird the catch was during the autumn/winter months which is not the same as a summer catch. How much of the daytime catch about 2 hrs after local sunrise but during sunny conditions was skywave enhanced?

I've tried for 740 hou and 1700 brownsville (daytime) but to no avail from Englewood. Only at nite on 1700 and not very often on 740.
I think getting LA on 640 and 1070 by gar and 680 SF from another FLA dX 'er are much more desirable catches....

 

[Icangelp]

It would be interesting to see a day coverage map of "The Nation's Station", WLW, when it was running 500KW. They started out non directional, but went directional protecting CBU Toronto when Canada complained about interference on 690KHZ.

I recall that there used to be service area maps at the WLW Mason, Ohio transmitter building for both the 500KW & a proposed 1,000KW transmitter. Anyone know engineering personnel at WLW?

 

[radioman148]

Wow--I also would love to see that!

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

I had the pleasure of meeting and talking to former WLW engineer Jack Gray in the late 1960's. He provided me with a great deal of information on the station from that standpoint. Unfortunately, Jack passed away only a few years later.

Jack did tell me that WLW used the 500,000 watts from 1934 - 1939. He indicated that there were times after midnight when the station actually experimented with running even higher power such as 750,000 watts.

It would be interesting to hear from someone from that period who remembers dialing in WLW from a distant point. I, too, wonder how far the signal might have been heard with 500,000 watts during the day.

 

[radioman148]

As Icangelp mentioned, I would love to see a map of their groundwave coverage when they were 500K.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

People used to talk about a concept called "The Law Of Diminishing Returns". The best way to look at WLW is that the 0.1 mV/m day groundwave contour would become the 0.316 mV/m with 500 kW. You could figure it out, but going from 50 kW to 500 kW wouldn't push the service contour out than much considering the power bills and related maintenence. Plus it would put about 10 times the area in the 1 V/m blanketing contour. But as I understand it, it only ran 500 kW during the hours from 12 Midnight until 6 AM.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

Here's an idea. Go to the radio locator site. Look at WLW's daytime coverage map. The outer contour is 0.15 mV/m. With 500 kW, the 0.5 mV/m would be just inside the 0.15 mV/m contour.

 

[pianoplayer88key]

If a station on 540 kHz (or 153 kHz), using a Franklin antenna (two 180-degree antennas separated by an insulator, stacked vertically and fed at the center), has a distance to the 614.4 V/m radiofrequency radiation exposure limit contour (FCC 1.1310) of, say, 2 mi (of course the station would be probably built in a very rural area), what would the power output / transmitter power (whichever is usually specified by FCC database) of the station have to be to achieve that distance at that contour, how far could the station be heard in the daytime with a good quality communications receiver and a beverage antenna until it's equal with the atmospheric noise floor? Assume there's no co- or adjacent-channel interference, no nearby thunderstorm activity within a couple thousand miles of the receive location, and no nearby man-made noise above the atmospheric noise level. Also, if such a place exists, assume that within the above-mentioned 614.4 V/m contour, the ground conductivity is no higher than 1 mS/m, but the 1 V/m blanketing contour does hit some non-landlocked saltwater (for example, Great Salt Lake, Dead Sea and Salton Sea are disqualified, but the oceans are not). Also, how far could said station be heard on a cheap pocket-sized radio, with full noise quieting, assuming that portable has relatively poor sensitivity (like 1 mV/m @ 0 dB SNR - I have one that's probably like that, and even my 50 kW local daytimer on 1170 that's 9.3 miles away, with an ERP north of 100 kW toward me, and a local ground conductivity, per the FCC map, around 8 mS/m, isn't quite to that level on that radio)?

 

[MarioMania]

Is it possible to pick up SF Station's like KCBS & KGO from like Australia or even NZ in the Winter Times??

 

[cd637299]

Is it possible to pick up SF Station's like KCBS & KGO from like Australia or even NZ in the Winter Times??

We have a member here who lives in Australia, and he is quite knowledgeable on catching mainland USA stations.

I am sure he has heard SF Bay area stations from Oz before, but KCBS & KGO have certain nighttime patterns that may make it difficult to reach Oz. Heck---even in Hawaii it is not easy. I'd say that the most likely ones he can catch would be KFAX 1100 & maybe KTRB 860 (based on them sending the night signal outward into the Pacific...I believe KTRB does this....I myself have heard KFAX in Alaska).

He may have well caught some of the regionals in the area, like KNEW 910 & KKGN 960---but he would have to tell you.

I think his most common USA mainland catch is KMIK 1580 Tempe/Phoenix, which seems to direct it's 50kW night signal right at Oz! When they ran AM Stereo as country KCWW, I heard it on his tape---yes, in stereo!

cd

 

[radioman148]

Is it possible to pick up SF Station's like KCBS & KGO from like Australia or even NZ in the Winter Times??

We have a member here who lives in Australia, and he is quite knowledgeable on catching mainland USA stations.

I am sure he has heard SF Bay area stations from Oz before, but KCBS & KGO have certain nighttime patterns that may make it difficult to reach Oz. Heck---even in Hawaii it is not easy. I'd say that the most likely ones he can catch would be KFAX 1100 & maybe KTRB 860 (based on them sending the night signal outward into the Pacific...I believe KTRB does this....I myself have heard KFAX in Alaska).

He may have well caught some of the regionals in the area, like KNEW 910 & KKGN 960---but he would have to tell you.

I think his most common USA mainland catch is KMIK 1580 Tempe/Phoenix, which seems to direct it's 50kW night signal right at Oz! When they ran AM Stereo as country KCWW, I heard it on his tape---yes, in stereo!

cd

CD is right. Although I've never been to Australia, KFAX, & KTRB are the best Bay area signals in Hawaii. I've never heard KGO during my visits there because of their tight directional pattern & KCBS is very weak when they do come in. I have heard KNEW & KMKY in Hawaii also.
Someone who was in American Samoa mentioned they heard KNX there.

 

[crainbebo]

KCBS is weak in Hawaii, as radioman148 said, but KGO is extremely rare.

-crainbebo

 

[LibertyNT]

KIRO 710 from Seattle, WA is my farthest and best catch.
Im 25 miles north of Dallas