How far can you receive your local radio stations before they fade out? Here on Cape Cod we can get some Boston signals like WGBH and WBUR. Most Cape FM's travel about as far as Duxbury and Pembroke before dying out.
When I lived in Saint Louis, everything that was on the "master antenna" which is located in Shrewsbury in Resurrection Cemetery traveled a good 60-80 miles from the tower. The other stations that are on nearby towers traveled about the same distance.
WROR (105.7) seems to get up to about Manchester NH, while WCRB (99.5) seems to have a longer range, getting up to at least Concord, NH. Both are based in Boston.
Jackson, Mississippi no longer has an AM powerhouse radio station, but until the 1980s WOKJ was a 10k-watt nighttime mini-powerhouse whose signal regularly reached as far away as Colorado and Nevada with its Urban format. It was never the best-known radio station in town, but because of its nighttime reach I believe it was the most profitable station by far.
FM is line of sight, so it depends on antenna placement. You can get 50-60 miles with really tall tower - more than 1000 feet. Most masts are lower, and range goes down as square root of antenna height... Terrain in between may block signal, open water helps with the range.
My granddad likes AM 740 based out of Toronto, and apparently it has a very large range.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CFZM (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CFZM)
QuoteCFZM is perhaps the only remaining adult standards-formatted station in North America that broadcasts a 50,000-watt clear channel signal. The station's nighttime signal blankets most of the eastern half of North America–including three-fourths of Canada and just over half of the United States. It can reach as far west as Minneapolis and Winnipeg, and as far south as New Orleans.
CFZM's daytime signal can be heard as far north as Georgian Bay; as far south as Youngstown, Ohio; as far east as eastern Massachusetts and New Hampshire including Nashua, Lawrence and Portsmouth; and as far west as the Michigan Thumb.
AM is all talk or Hispanic here in Florida, but only goes regional. FM, however, here in Florida goes further than the AM does as some Orlando stations can be heard in Tampa and vice versa.
I have found Magic 107 in Orlando can be heard as far away as St. Augustine to the north and all the way to the Gulf to the west and don't know how far east cause I never went out in a boat over the Atlantic to see where the signal fades as Orlando is 50 miles from the Atlantic coast.
I also found now defunct Thunder 103.5 FM in Tampa to be heard in Panama City some 200 miles away as the crow flies, but that may be to the signal traversing over open water to accomplish that scenario.
Around the turn of the century, when my now-wife went to college in Hamden CT, we used to listen to WAAF out of Boston/Worcester all the way down there. I think their transmitter at the time was on a large hill in Paxton MA, which is just west of Worcester.
The big Boston FM stations come in as far north as Concord NH, while some of the AM ones (without power lines interfering) can be heard well in the high elevations much further north. Those same stations range well to Portsmouth NH, Plymouth MA, Worcester MA, and Providence RI.
FM: Hartford/New Haven stations typically reach up north of Springfield (usually pretty good reception in Northampton, MA), northwest west to near Becket, MA, west to Brewster, NY; southwest to near Bridgeport, southeast to New London area, east to about I-395, and northeast to the Sturbridge, MA area (where WZMX 93.7 transfers to WEEI 93.7). I've picked up Hartford stations in Riverhead, NY, which to me is almost an "Alice Through the Looking Glass" effect because you're only about 60 miles from Hartford as the crow flies, but almost 200 miles as the car drives thanks to Long Island Sound being in the way.
AM: Most AM stations have about a 20 mile range. WELI is a little stronger, reaching about a 40 mile range. WTIC, a 50k Clear Channel station, boasts that it can be received in 23 states and eastern Canada (I've picked it up at night near DC and in western MD, as well as near Quebec City).
For my system of presets across I-90:
-I can get WFLY from Fonda through Blandford; it also appears, briefly, in Canajoharie/Fort Plain, and I've received it nearly as far as Richfield Springs on US 20. On I-87, I can receive it from Saugerties/Catskill to somewhere between Lake George and Pottersville, depending on the weather (and my tolerance for static).
-WOUR works between Syracuse and Fonda. I've also picked it up along I-88 near Oneonta. No idea how far north/south it goes along NY 12.
-WMVN works from Montezuma/Port Byron to somewhere east of Utica/Herkimer; no idea of the north/south range along I-81. I may replace this one; I don't like the station as much since they rebranded themselves, but there are very few Syracuse market stations with stuff I'm interested in listening to that don't switch to Christmas music in November and December.
-WRMM works from Pembroke to Port Byron/Weedsport. I think it cuts out somewhere near Sonyea/Dansville along I-390, but I don't quite remember.
I'm debating whether to add a Buffalo station to the mix. That would extend the system along most of I-90 in New York.
I can get ESPN 940 out of Fresno almost all the way over the Sierras provided I don't have a ton of high peaks. Usually reception is pretty good westward out in the Diablo Range given it kind of plateaus.
Most of southern nh and the inner cape can get Boston radio. A Mount Washington radio station can be heard in Lawrence.
I've gotten 100.7 The Bay, Baltimore with transmitters in Westminster, down in Easton, Maryland on the Eastern Shore. I can get 103.1 WRNR, Annapolis with transmitters in Grasonville, up here in Harford County. 102.7 Jack FM in Baltimore goes almost up to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. 96.1 WSOX in Pennsylvania's Susquehanna Valley makes it down to around the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Harford County.
I hardly ever listen to local radio these days except for the news (mainly for traffic reports), but I do recall when I was in college in Charlottesville I was able to pick up 104.1-FM out of the DC area in my car down there, though the signal was quite weak there some 120 miles away.
Here in Fairfax County I can pick up 97.9-FM out of Baltimore, sometimes 97.5-FM out of Martinsburg, and usually 92.5-FM out of Winchester.
Quote from: CapeCodder on September 09, 2017, 09:40:14 AM
How far can you receive your local radio stations before they fade out? Here on Cape Cod we can get some Boston signals like WGBH and WBUR. Most Cape FM's travel about as far as Duxbury and Pembroke before dying out.
When I lived in Saint Louis, everything that was on the "master antenna" which is located in Shrewsbury in Resurrection Cemetery traveled a good 60-80 miles from the tower. The other stations that are on nearby towers traveled about the same distance.
In the daytime, San Francisco's KGO (AM810) tends to start having trouble on most car radios at the Cuesta Grade on US-101, but has no trouble being heard in most of the Central Valley. In most cases, you can get it in eastern LA county. KFI from LA can likewise often be heard in the Bay area (especially out east) and almost always in Sacramento.
For a long time there was an FM station in Sacramento and one in San Francisco and they both broadcast on 98.5. You would get a fight for a short distance at the Altamont Pass and then the closest one would win.
I actually thought of creating this very same thread when I got 98.5 FM out of La Almunia de Doña Godina, Spain (one of many Los40 frequencies) at the Aragon/Navarre border... near Yesa. But then it's not that far compared with others, only 80 miles or so. About the same are those stations out of Huesca picked up just Northeast of Calatayud, such as 96.9 FM (Los40) and 102.0* (SER). But my personal record came somewhere in Central Aragon with 95.3 FM. I expected to get Los40 out of Zaragoza, but instead got Onda Cero out of Tarragona, 110 miles away! (And 85 miles further away)
* In Spain the FM spectrum goes from 87.5 to 108.0 in increases of 0.1 MhZ.
Quote from: michravera on September 10, 2017, 12:49:21 PM
For a long time there was an FM station in Sacramento and one in San Francisco and they both broadcast on 98.5. You would get a fight for a short distance at the Altamont Pass and then the closest one would win.
How about along I-80? It used to happen the same way or just switched from one to the other?
On a normal day in my experiences, the most powerful Duluth and Twin Cities stations start to fade into each other about Hinckley. There was one afternoon years ago where I got 92.5 KQRS from the Twin Cities all the way to Two Harbors, about 30 minutes NE of Duluth.
Keep in mind that different power levels are authorized in different parts of the US on FM broadcast stations: https://www.fcc.gov/media/radio/fm-station-classes
Seems like the main FM stations in Cincinnati reached about to Sadieville KY on a car radio. But that was years ago. The dial is so cluttered now that they probably don't make it nearly that far now.
CBS-owned stations from L.A.: KCBS 93.1 and KRTH "K-earth" 101.1 (93.1-2), and KOLA 99.1 and KFRG 95.1 (99.9-2) folk, country or western from Riverside-San Bernardino have repeaters for the Palm Springs area on 93.1 and 99.9. (HD Radio frequencies .2). Public radio repeaters from L.A. metro area and Riverside county on the public 87.5-92.1 Mhz dial.
Usually, Palm Springs radio stations can reach Beaumont-Banning, some of em in Hemet-San Jacinto and Yucca Valley-29 Palms (repeaters), and relatively a few down in Imperial valley if they're based in Coachella-Indio. A few Mexicali-Imperial valley radio stations on FM and AM can reach as far away as Indio. And Palm Springs AM can reach 29 Palms.
Local AM station range here (Coos Bay OR) is much shorter than FM, especially at night. You're doing good to get a signal received when more than 5 miles away at that time! Dusk to dawn power limits for these AM'ers is 250 watts.
Heading east of Bend on US 20 showed I could receive a local FM rocker for 90 miles. You gotta love that flat eastern Oregon land!
Rick
Quote from: bandit957 on September 10, 2017, 04:15:11 PM
Seems like the main FM stations in Cincinnati reached about to Sadieville KY on a car radio. But that was years ago. The dial is so cluttered now that they probably don't make it nearly that far now.
There are alot more LP sfm stations now. WSKY 97.3 out of Gainesville, FL used to be clear in central Clay County. There is a low power modern rock station in Jacksonville ( i dont know call letters) that interferes now
LGMS428
AM in metro Phoenix is next-to-useless. Only KFYI 550 and KTAR 620 cover most of the metro at night, and they're iffy out where I live in NE Mesa. Most of the others are lower power and/or highly directional at night, and many don't even cover the city, let alone the suburbs. We have 4 sports stations (620, 910, 1060, 1580), while the rest are either right-wing talk, religion, or Spanish-language, plus one moldy-oldies outlet. Two AMs (KCKY 1150 & KPHX 1480, both of whom had been around since the 1950s) shut down this year and may or may not return. Both are currently off the air.
The FMs that transmit from South Mountain in south Phoenix have about 80-90 mile coverage easily, or from just north of Tucson to Wickenburg. But there are more than too many smaller suburban and outlying (in the mountains north of the valley, closer to Prescott and Payson than Phoenix) sticks that target the entire metro but can't make it, plus the rest of the dial is now filled up with translators and LPFMs.
Charleston's stations have varying ranges. The local AM stations (AM has less than 5% of the market, and all but two stations have FM translators) generally have a range of 25-50 miles. A few of the stronger ones (WTMA on 1250, the Catholic station on 730) have great water paths. I've heard them well down into Florida daytime, as far as Fort Pierce. You can even hear them in the Bahamas (specifically Freeport) with a good radio.
At night 1250 and 1390 WSPO can be heard in much of the southeast depending on where you are.
The strongest FMs (101.7, 92.5, 96.9, and a couple others) can be easily heard 75-100 miles at any time. You can hear them from the GA line almost to the NC line with a good radio. Most of the other viable FMs can be heard about 50 miles out.
Apparently, KSL 1160 AM can be heard from as far away as Washington State at night. It transmits from a tower just SE of the Great Salt Lake.
Quote from: KeithE4Phx on September 10, 2017, 08:24:25 PM
AM in metro Phoenix is next-to-useless. Only KFYI 550 and KTAR 620 cover most of the metro at night, and they're iffy out where I live in NE Mesa. Most of the others are lower power and/or highly directional at night, and many don't even cover the city, let alone the suburbs. We have 4 sports stations (620, 910, 1060, 1580), while the rest are either right-wing talk, religion, or Spanish-language, plus one moldy-oldies outlet. Two AMs (KCKY 1150 & KPHX 1480, both of whom had been around since the 1950s) shut down this year and may or may not return. Both are currently off the air.
The FMs that transmit from South Mountain in south Phoenix have about 80-90 mile coverage easily, or from just north of Tucson to Wickenburg. But there are more than too many smaller suburban and outlying (in the mountains north of the valley, closer to Prescott and Payson than Phoenix) sticks that target the entire metro but can't make it, plus the rest of the dial is now filled up with translators and LPFMs.
Palm Springs either gets Radio Disney on public 530 AM from Phoenix (94.5 KOOL-FM) or nowadays, 1110 KDSN from L.A. and I have memories of now gone Radio Disney's Tijuana 1500 AM (the Mexican national anthem at midnight required by Mexican law). KYDS 1140 AM from Las Vegas was audible in L.A. at night, but this children's radio station disbanded (or moved to FM). Tucson has 1600 KXEW heard all over the American southwest, one of a few Tejano-only genre stations - similar to KXTN 107 FM San Antonio.
A co-worker of mine who lives in Glassboro, NJ was able to get Boston's WBZ (AM 1030) there.
My area does not have any super high clear channel AM stations. While one TV market the different towns are seperate radio markets and, living in between, I can get both the Charleston set of stations and the Huntington set of stations. None are really exceptional. Charleston recently added three FM translators (at low power) for its three best AM stations and those stations push and identify more under their FM freq now, even though you cannot get the FM translators more than a few miles from the tower.
I am right on the edge of WLW's daytime range, can get it in the car. It used to be a great station.
I am about 95% sure that I was able to pick up 94.1 FM from Bend, OR, on a dirt road leading through the Mt. Adams Recreational Area, heading to a trailhead, north of Trout Lake, WA. Somewhere about 150 miles as the crow flies. My guess is, we were at a similar altitude to the transmitter, which is at 5965 feet above sea level (https://radio-locator.com/info/KXIX-FM). At that altitude, there is not much in the way of obstacles between there and Mt. Adams, as the normal ground level in the area is in the 1,000-3,000 ft range. Being that high above everything else probably also helps get around the Earth's curvature problem.
As for Boise stations, no idea. I listen to SiriusXM now, FM bores me (though the catalyst for me was getting a new car, where the FM sound quality was bad and muffled).
Quote from: roadguy2 on September 11, 2017, 01:15:18 AM
Apparently, KSL 1160 AM can be heard from as far away as Washington State at night. It transmits from a tower just SE of the Great Salt Lake.
KSL can be picked up here on the South Coast (Coos Bay OR) at night. KOA out of Denver also makes the trip. Our strongest clear channel station at night is KGO (San Francisco).
Before such a thing as CNN existed, when the world was looking likely to go up in flames, I would listen to KNX (LA) up here.
Best AM DX: KDKA (Pittsburgh PA) was received by me in 1973. When I went to the library to look up info on them so I could send them a signal report, little did I know that I was receiving a QSL card that said this was the first ever commercial AM radio station. It began operating in 1921.
Best AM groundwave feat: Parking on top of a hill here let me try to see what the radio in my 1964 Rambler Classic would do back in the summer of 1973. Knowing there was a 1000 watt station in Lebanon OR called KGAL, which was a fave Top 40 of mine when going to the Valley, I took my swing of the bat and got a faint but steady signal on the groundwave. I'll estimate the distance at 120 miles. Boy was that a great radio in the Rambler!
Rick
Jacksonville's stations have great ranges. During all of this hurricane coverage, 600 (WBOB) and 690 (WOKV) were two of the strongest AMs up here in Charleston. That's about 200 miles or so from Charleston, but they are steady during the daytime every day.
They both were running local coverage of Irma. 600 was running a simulcast of WJXT-TV 4, while 690 was running their own coverage most of the time except overnight when they simulcast the local CBS.
Quote from: PHLBOS on September 11, 2017, 09:28:17 AM
A co-worker of mine who lives in Glassboro, NJ was able to get Boston's WBZ (AM 1030) there.
How big is the range of am radio?
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on September 11, 2017, 09:10:44 PM
Quote from: PHLBOS on September 11, 2017, 09:28:17 AM
A co-worker of mine who lives in Glassboro, NJ was able to get Boston's WBZ (AM 1030) there.
How big is the range of am radio?
I got WBZ while driving in the mountains of West Virginia one night. WBZ is a clear channel station and its signal actually covers most of the eastern US at night (and it can go as far west as Southern Ontario during the day).
Quote from: The Nature Boy on September 11, 2017, 09:13:52 PM
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on September 11, 2017, 09:10:44 PM
Quote from: PHLBOS on September 11, 2017, 09:28:17 AM
A co-worker of mine who lives in Glassboro, NJ was able to get Boston's WBZ (AM 1030) there.
How big is the range of am radio?
I got WBZ while driving in the mountains of West Virginia one night. WBZ is a clear channel station and its signal actually covers most of the eastern US at night (and it can go as far west as Southern Ontario during the day).
I wish local music radio stations were am.
Quote from: PHLBOS on September 11, 2017, 09:28:17 AM
A co-worker of mine who lives in Glassboro, NJ was able to get Boston's WBZ (AM 1030) there.
Decades ago, people in northern Kentucky actually listened to WBZ a little bit. I think it's because Dave Cowens played for the Celtics.
One time, I was able to briefly pick up Pittsburgh's 102.5 FM (WDVE) near Blackwater Falls, WV (about 95 miles away as the crow flies). I'm thinking the elevation at Blackwater Falls (~3,000 ft) played a role in that.
I could be wrong about this, but I swear I was able to (very briefly) pick up Pittsburgh's 105.9 FM (WXDX) as I was coming down the mountain into Breezewood, PA on I-76 west (101 miles away as the crow flies).
Generally my local FM stations go about as far north as Sheboygan maybe a little farther. Far south as southern Lake county perhaps far northern Cook county and about far west as Madison. WTMJ the strongest AM in the market I have picked up as far as Lebonon IN, Lincoln IL, Eau Claire WI and Coralville IA. Even as far east as the Indiana Ohio state line.
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on September 11, 2017, 09:18:34 PM
Quote from: The Nature Boy on September 11, 2017, 09:13:52 PM
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on September 11, 2017, 09:10:44 PM
Quote from: PHLBOS on September 11, 2017, 09:28:17 AM
A co-worker of mine who lives in Glassboro, NJ was able to get Boston's WBZ (AM 1030) there.
How big is the range of am radio?
I got WBZ while driving in the mountains of West Virginia one night. WBZ is a clear channel station and its signal actually covers most of the eastern US at night (and it can go as far west as Southern Ontario during the day).
I wish local music radio stations were am.
In your neck of the woods; you'd have to set the WABAC Machine to about the early 70s. Back then, WRKO (AM 680), WHDH (AM 850), WMEX (then AM 1510), WEZE (then AM 1260) & even WBZ (between news broadcasts) all played music.
I live near Chicago. When I was younger we were camping in the mountains of northern Georgia, and we got Musicradio (RIP) WLS am 890.
Quote from: PHLBOS on September 11, 2017, 09:28:17 AM
A co-worker of mine who lives in Glassboro, NJ was able to get Boston's WBZ (AM 1030) there.
I've pulled in WBZ in Norfolk, VA, Altoona, PA, and Savoy, IL - but only at night.
KCBS-AM 740 San Francisco is a 50kw station
KNX-AM Los Angeles is a 50kw
KFBK-AM Sacramento is a 50kw
KQED-FM San Francisco is a 100kw station
KXJZ-FM Sacramento is a 50kw station.
I have picked up KNX Los Angeles from Sacramento at night though. KQED- FM starts to get spotty in parts of the Sacramento Valley due to sometimes interference by personal FM transmitters and I pick up religious talk or personal phone calls on 88.5 FM though.
Here in Nova Scotia, I've been able to pick up WBZ and also NYC's WINS as well.
Quote from: PHLBOS on September 12, 2017, 09:30:59 AM
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on September 11, 2017, 09:18:34 PM
Quote from: The Nature Boy on September 11, 2017, 09:13:52 PM
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on September 11, 2017, 09:10:44 PM
Quote from: PHLBOS on September 11, 2017, 09:28:17 AM
A co-worker of mine who lives in Glassboro, NJ was able to get Boston's WBZ (AM 1030) there.
How big is the range of am radio?
I got WBZ while driving in the mountains of West Virginia one night. WBZ is a clear channel station and its signal actually covers most of the eastern US at night (and it can go as far west as Southern Ontario during the day).
I wish local music radio stations were am.
In your neck of the woods; you'd have to set the WABAC Machine to about the early 70s. Back then, WRKO (AM 680), WHDH (AM 850), WMEX (then AM 1510), WEZE (then AM 1260) & even WBZ (between news broadcasts) all played music.
For many years, WRKO was the principal Top 40 station in Boston.
Quote from: Bluenoser on September 13, 2017, 02:42:24 PM
Here in Nova Scotia, I've been able to pick up WBZ and also NYC's WINS as well.
I've been able to pick up WSB in Atlanta, and now that the local 1120 AM station is off the air, I can get KMOX in St. Louis here in CT. There was a crazy day about 13 years ago or so where for about 3 hours, every local FM station was powered over by ridiculously distant FM signals. I was getting FM stations from southern Missouri, Louisiana, and Jacksonville, FL. Some of the DJ's in Missouri were getting calls saying that they were being heard from as far away as NJ.
From Yarmouth, Nova Scotia I received WBLM "The Blimp" 102.9, Portland, ME and WRCQ 102.9 out of Dennysville, ME both 100Kw. I also received WHOM 94.9, Mt. Washington. All while at the ferry terminal back in '02.
Quote from: CapeCodder on September 13, 2017, 07:07:24 PM
From Yarmouth, Nova Scotia I received WBLM "The Blimp" 102.9, Portland, ME and WRCQ 102.9 out of Dennysville, ME both 100Kw. I also received WHOM 94.9, Mt. Washington. All while at the ferry terminal back in '02.
https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/patg?id=WHOM-FM
The coverage map for WHOM is fairly insane. New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine are within the "local range" and parts of New York and Massachusetts are within the "fringe" range. I wonder if they hold the record for most states that can normally hear the station.
Another insane FM signal is KTJJ "J-98 The Boot" out of Farmington, MO can be heard in STL and further. KTJJ's antenna is located on Stono Mtn. KPNT "105-7 The Point" used to have its antenna near Hillsboro, MO. Signal was also very good. Got it in almost every band scan from STL to Quincy, IL.
When I was a young lad (before the Washington Capitals existed), I became somewhat of a fan of the Boston Bruins because WBZ frequently came in quite clearly in suburban DC at night. WLW 700 in Cincinnati, KDKA Pittsburgh and KMOX St. Louis were other ones that I remember right now. But these are the opposite of OP's question.
So my best answer to the actual question is "about 500 miles" based on the fact that I was visiting family in Bluffton, Indiana many years ago, and when I got tired of the cassette I was listening to, popped it out and discovered I was listening to DC's WTOP (at the time a 50kw clear channel station broadcasting on 1500).
A lot of Cincy stations start fading around Sparta and Dry Ridge, KY on I-71 and 75 in KY respectively; about 30-40 miles to the north of downtown on those interstates; and about halfway into Ripley County going west in Indiana. I don't know about east, but I'm guessing roughly about the US 62/68 corridors.
Quote from: JMoses24 on September 13, 2017, 11:51:10 PM
A lot of Cincy stations start fading around Sparta and Dry Ridge, KY on I-71 and 75 in KY respectively; about 30-40 miles to the north of downtown on those interstates; and about halfway into Ripley County going west in Indiana. I don't know about east, but I'm guessing roughly about the US 62/68 corridors.
They used to go further. Q-102 used to go well past Carrollton on I-71.
Quote from: nexus73 on September 11, 2017, 06:46:50 PM
Quote from: roadguy2 on September 11, 2017, 01:15:18 AM
Apparently, KSL 1160 AM can be heard from as far away as Washington State at night. It transmits from a tower just SE of the Great Salt Lake.
KSL can be picked up here on the South Coast (Coos Bay OR) at night. KOA out of Denver also makes the trip. Our strongest clear channel station at night is KGO (San Francisco).
Before such a thing as CNN existed, when the world was looking likely to go up in flames, I would listen to KNX (LA) up here.
Best AM DX: KDKA (Pittsburgh PA) was received by me in 1973. When I went to the library to look up info on them so I could send them a signal report, little did I know that I was receiving a QSL card that said this was the first ever commercial AM radio station. It began operating in 1921.
Best AM groundwave feat: Parking on top of a hill here let me try to see what the radio in my 1964 Rambler Classic would do back in the summer of 1973. Knowing there was a 1000 watt station in Lebanon OR called KGAL, which was a fave Top 40 of mine when going to the Valley, I took my swing of the bat and got a faint but steady signal on the groundwave. I'll estimate the distance at 120 miles. Boy was that a great radio in the Rambler!
Rick
My best DXing was pulling in WOAI in San Antonio when I was living on the Hawaiian island of Kauai in the early '80s. I was probably the only person on the island that had a car radio button set for KFI in Los Angeles!
Quote from: JMoses24 on September 13, 2017, 11:51:10 PM
A lot of Cincy stations start fading around Sparta and Dry Ridge, KY on I-71 and 75 in KY respectively; about 30-40 miles to the north of downtown on those interstates; and about halfway into Ripley County going west in Indiana. I don't know about east, but I'm guessing roughly about the US 62/68 corridors.
30- 40 miles is short for fm radio.
I normally listen to 95.1 WAIO out of Rochester, and I start to lose it on the east side of Camillus just before the hill heading into Fairmount, which is 58.9 miles (http://old.wikimapia.org/#lat=42.9999527&lon=-76.8530063&z=10&l=0&m=h&gz=0;-774212296;430339331;0;0;11649866;79162) away. Coming into Syracuse from the east side, my friend's car starts picking it up (mostly static with a few words mixed in) just east of exit 34A on the Thruway, which is 70.6 miles (http://old.wikimapia.org/#lat=43.0071947&lon=-76.7189924&z=9&l=0&m=h&gz=0;-774212296;430339331;0;0;13946052;612918) away. There's a spot on NY 5 near Sherrill where my friend gets perfect reception for a second or two, and that's 92 miles (http://old.wikimapia.org/#lat=42.9795462&lon=-76.5253718&z=9&l=0&m=h&gz=0;-774212296;430339331;0;0;18183794;427048) away!
My personal record so far was back in July. While waiting for my friend in the Taco Bell/Long John Silvers parking lot in Oneida, I got perfect reception from 100.1 CHCQ from Canada in my car. The transmitter is 124.6 miles (http://old.wikimapia.org/#lat=43.6959275&lon=-76.7120469&z=9&l=0&m=h&gz=0;-775136063;430780847;0;11891134;18714470;0) away! I'd guess having Lake Ontario between me and the transmitter helped.
An odd quirk about FM reception in Auburn is that Rochester stations come in better than Syracuse ones, even though I'm closer to Syracuse.
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on September 22, 2017, 11:05:28 PM
Quote from: JMoses24 on September 13, 2017, 11:51:10 PM
A lot of Cincy stations start fading around Sparta and Dry Ridge, KY on I-71 and 75 in KY respectively; about 30-40 miles to the north of downtown on those interstates; and about halfway into Ripley County going west in Indiana. I don't know about east, but I'm guessing roughly about the US 62/68 corridors.
30- 40 miles is short for fm radio.
It is, however the Dayton and Cincinnati markets are short spaced and there are quite a few stations that are close enough together frequency-wise that they could interfere with one another.
Quote from: Michael on September 23, 2017, 02:20:58 PM
I normally listen to 95.1 WAIO out of Rochester, and I start to lose it on the east side of Camillus just before the hill heading into Fairmount, which is 58.9 miles (http://old.wikimapia.org/#lat=42.9999527&lon=-76.8530063&z=10&l=0&m=h&gz=0;-774212296;430339331;0;0;11649866;79162) away. Coming into Syracuse from the east side, my friend's car starts picking it up (mostly static with a few words mixed in) just east of exit 34A on the Thruway, which is 70.6 miles (http://old.wikimapia.org/#lat=43.0071947&lon=-76.7189924&z=9&l=0&m=h&gz=0;-774212296;430339331;0;0;13946052;612918) away. There's a spot on NY 5 near Sherrill where my friend gets perfect reception for a second or two, and that's 92 miles (http://old.wikimapia.org/#lat=42.9795462&lon=-76.5253718&z=9&l=0&m=h&gz=0;-774212296;430339331;0;0;18183794;427048) away!
My personal record so far was back in July. While waiting for my friend in the Taco Bell/Long John Silvers parking lot in Oneida, I got perfect reception from 100.1 CHCQ from Canada in my car. The transmitter is 124.6 miles (http://old.wikimapia.org/#lat=43.6959275&lon=-76.7120469&z=9&l=0&m=h&gz=0;-775136063;430780847;0;11891134;18714470;0) away! I'd guess having Lake Ontario between me and the transmitter helped.
An odd quirk about FM reception in Auburn is that Rochester stations come in better than Syracuse ones, even though I'm closer to Syracuse.
You probably had some good DX'ing conditions the day you got that Canadian station.
Quote from: JMoses24 on September 24, 2017, 03:57:37 AM
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on September 22, 2017, 11:05:28 PM
Quote from: JMoses24 on September 13, 2017, 11:51:10 PM
A lot of Cincy stations start fading around Sparta and Dry Ridge, KY on I-71 and 75 in KY respectively; about 30-40 miles to the north of downtown on those interstates; and about halfway into Ripley County going west in Indiana. I don't know about east, but I'm guessing roughly about the US 62/68 corridors.
30- 40 miles is short for fm radio.
It is, however the Dayton and Cincinnati markets are short spaced and there are quite a few stations that are close enough together frequency-wise that they could interfere with one another.
Then use different frequencies.
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on September 25, 2017, 03:39:18 PM
Quote from: JMoses24 on September 24, 2017, 03:57:37 AM
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on September 22, 2017, 11:05:28 PM
Quote from: JMoses24 on September 13, 2017, 11:51:10 PM
A lot of Cincy stations start fading around Sparta and Dry Ridge, KY on I-71 and 75 in KY respectively; about 30-40 miles to the north of downtown on those interstates; and about halfway into Ripley County going west in Indiana. I don't know about east, but I'm guessing roughly about the US 62/68 corridors.
30- 40 miles is short for fm radio.
It is, however the Dayton and Cincinnati markets are short spaced and there are quite a few stations that are close enough together frequency-wise that they could interfere with one another.
Then use different frequencies.
They probably do. FM is very dependent on how powerful (wattage) the station is, and how good the line-of-sight toward the horizon is. For example, around Chicago, the stations start fading out as follows:
East: Benton Harbor/St. Joseph, Michigan.
North: Racine, Wisconsin.
West: Rochelle or Dixon, Illinois (depends on station antenna height and strength).
South: Dwight and Ashkum, Illinois.
Part of this is that many of the Chicago FM stations have their antennae from the tallest building in the US, the Sears Tower (that "spire" on the World Trade Center is a mere antenna), and thus can have a rather large line-of-sight toward the horizon.
I love radio dxing. One of the stations I most want to know their range is WJR in Detroit. I've heard that station can be picked up in 38 states and half of Canada. I've tried to outride the signal before but have come up short each time I tried. In the middle of the night I love to see what distant stations I can pick up. Some of the louder ones in my area are WBZ in Boston, WCBS in New York, KMOX in St. Louis, WSB in Atlanta, WLW in Cincinnati, WHAS in Louisville, WABC in New York, WOR in New York, WFAN in New York, WGN in Chicago, WSCR in Chicago, WLS in Chicago, WBBM in Chicago, KDKA in Pittsburgh, WTAM in Cleveland. I left out WJR in Detroit since I can pick that station up 24 hours a day but I can also pick up WTAM and Chicago's stations 24 hours a day just not as clear during the day. WJR and WTAM come in better than Chicago's stations since their transmitters are closer.
Quote from: JMoses24 on September 24, 2017, 03:57:37 AM
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on September 22, 2017, 11:05:28 PM
Quote from: JMoses24 on September 13, 2017, 11:51:10 PM
A lot of Cincy stations start fading around Sparta and Dry Ridge, KY on I-71 and 75 in KY respectively; about 30-40 miles to the north of downtown on those interstates; and about halfway into Ripley County going west in Indiana. I don't know about east, but I'm guessing roughly about the US 62/68 corridors.
30- 40 miles is short for fm radio.
It is, however the Dayton and Cincinnati markets are short spaced and there are quite a few stations that are close enough together frequency-wise that they could interfere with one another.
A few months ago, I was able to carry 105.9 from Middletown (between Cincinnati and Dayton) as far north as Bellefontaine.
Quote from: dvferyance on September 11, 2017, 11:54:10 PM
Generally my local FM stations go about as far north as Sheboygan maybe a little farther. Far south as southern Lake county perhaps far northern Cook county and about far west as Madison. WTMJ the strongest AM in the market I have picked up as far as Lebonon IN, Lincoln IL and Coralville IA. Even as far east as the Indiana Ohio state line.
WTMJ is insanely strong along the eastern shoreline of Lake Michigan. Also, some Milwaukee FM's make it routinely to parts of Michigan (namely areas from about Whitehall to Manistee; 93.3 WLDB, 96.5 WKLH, 99.1 WMYX, 103.7 WXSS, 106.1 WMIL, and 107.7 WVCY are the strongest ones)
I've gotten some of the best Seattle stations as far north as Bellingham (and, on rare occasions, Vancouver). To the east, it would be Ellensburg, and to the south, Portland.
Last night I was trying to DX a lot of stations. WJR wasn't coming in the best at first for some reason and I only live 97 miles from their transmitter but then I switched to FM and was pulling WCSX and WKQI in so I switched back to AM and WJR was coming in better to the point where I could hear the station again. WHAS was coming in pretty strong and usually for some reason WLW comes in strong no matter what I'm not sure if that's because they have a frequency at 700AM or what. I didn't try any of the upper channels like WTAM, KMOX or KDKA though.
Are there certain places that just always have unusually long FM radio reception? Back in 1996, I went on a roadtrip out west, and we were on I-10 in Texas - maybe somewhere around Sonora or Ozona. We picked up some FM stations from Kentucky and Minnesota. I remember WHOP-FM and WJJY-FM.
Someone else on a radio forum also said that this area always has weird reception like this.
Why?
I've been told that Seattle's KOMO AM 1000 can be heard quite a long ways south and east from here. It broadcasts from Oakville, WA. Only at night is its range that impressive, of course.
Quote from: Henry on July 12, 2018, 10:21:14 AM
I've gotten some of the best Seattle stations as far north as Bellingham (and, on rare occasions, Vancouver). To the east, it would be Ellensburg, and to the south, Portland.
Bellingham is quite a cool area. You get all of Vancouver's stations, and quite a lot of Seattle stations. Best of both worlds.
Quote from: 7/8 on September 09, 2017, 10:49:02 AM
My granddad likes AM 740 based out of Toronto, and apparently it has a very large range.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CFZM (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CFZM)
QuoteCFZM is perhaps the only remaining adult standards-formatted station in North America that broadcasts a 50,000-watt clear channel signal. The station's nighttime signal blankets most of the eastern half of North America—including three-fourths of Canada and just over half of the United States. It can reach as far west as Minneapolis and Winnipeg, and as far south as New Orleans.
CFZM's daytime signal can be heard as far north as Georgian Bay; as far south as Youngstown, Ohio; as far east as eastern Massachusetts and New Hampshire including Nashua, Lawrence and Portsmouth; and as far west as the Michigan Thumb.
I miss 740 being CBC Radio 1 out of Toronto. Missed picking it up in the middle of the night in the Pittsburgh area. As for it's replacement, 99.1 FM (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBLA-FM), if I'm lucky, I can start picking it up just outside of Erie on I-90 heading towards NY.
As for local PGH stations, my record was once picking up KDKA-1020 AM all the way down in Columbia, SC just south of I-26 one late night with my dad on a trip. Wasn't crystal clear, but the static wasn't too bad, so I could understand everything they were saying.
Another really loud FM station in my area is WUPS 98.5. The city of license is Harrison and the transmitter is in Houghton Lake 100 miles from my house and I can pull it in like it's right here in Saginaw. The station has a 100,000 watt transmitter and I've listened to that station all the way from Saginaw to the Mackinac Bridge before.
What is the reach of WJR? I'm really interested in knowing the range of that signal. If anyone can pick up WJR just reply with your location.
I have a crappy radio with a string antenna in my basement, so I don't get much. Grand Rapids is a no-go on the radio and even some of the Kzoo stations are staticky. I don't know if reception will improve when I move above ground or not.
In the car, I can pull in most of the Grand Rapids stations and I usually lose Kalamazoo stations within 50 or so miles in each direction. I have heard that WRKR can be heard in NW Ohio, but I haven't tested that theory.
Quote from: ce929wax on July 13, 2018, 07:01:29 PM
I have a crappy radio with a string antenna in my basement, so I don't get much. Grand Rapids is a no-go on the radio and even some of the Kzoo stations are staticky. I don't know if reception will improve when I move above ground or not.
In the car, I can pull in most of the Grand Rapids stations and I usually lose Kalamazoo stations within 50 or so miles in each direction. I have heard that WRKR can be heard in NW Ohio, but I haven't tested that theory.
For me I mostly listen to the Classic Rock stations like WMMQ in Lansing, WRKR in Kalamazoo, WCSX in Detroit, WILZ in Saginaw, WRSR in Flint. There are some blowtorches on FM like WUPS in Houghton Lake I can pick that up quite a bit, I can pick up some Lansing stations but with static at times and sometimes they come in clear it depends, Flint/Tri-Cities I can get every station except maybe some Flint station that has low power. Detroit I can pull in WKQI, WCSX and WRIF at times but can't seem to pull in WXYT FM or AM and that's 97.1 The Ticket that'd be a nice station to be able to pull in. I usually lose WILZ fairly quickly since it's not a real strong signal and the same for WRSR so I switch back and forth between those two depending on where I'm at. WCSX I'll usually lose that in the Flint area but by then I'm well enough in WRSR's range to switch to that while I'm still in Oakland County. WRKR I haven't been able to figure out where I pickup or lose that station because I usually switch to 97.1 The Drive in Chicago which I can pull in with static around the Paw Paw area, the static clears by the time I get between Benton Harbor and New Buffalo. I know where the transmitters are for each one of these stations and am pretty familiar with how many watts each station does too. WUPS is the biggest one I've found yet, I've listened to that station from Saginaw to the Mighty Mac, it's 100,000 watts and the transmitter is in Houghton Lake.
I also know that WBCT (B-93) out of GR has a huge tower as well. I don't listen to the station much these days because I don't like newer country music, but back in the day when I would drive in from Texas I would start getting B-93 with static around Michigan City. Going out on I-69, I would lose B-93 around Angola, IN. I haven't ever gone far enough east on I-94 to lose it, but I would imagine that comes in at least a B-grade contour in Lansing, maybe even at the edge of city grade. If I had to guess, I would guess that B-93 would start fading east on 94 east of Jackson.
Back when I had a car, I would get 94.1 The Duke (I believe the call letters were WWDK, but I am not 100% sure on that) here on the northeast side of Kalamazoo where I live, but would lose it when I went down the hill into the city. I also got a Magic (?) 106.1 which is comparable to The Bear in Ft. Wayne (I am not sure of 106.1 call letters) that I am assuming is somewhere out of the Lansing/Jackson area until I went down the hill into the city.
Quote from: Flint1979 on July 12, 2018, 11:36:14 PM
What is the reach of WJR? I'm really interested in knowing the range of that signal. If anyone can pick up WJR just reply with your location.
WJR daytime can be heard as far as the OH/WV line on the Ohio River around Parkersburg. Nighttime can be heard over most of the eastern half of the US.
Quote from: ce929wax on July 13, 2018, 11:47:09 PM
I also know that WBCT (B-93) out of GR has a huge tower as well. I don't listen to the station much these days because I don't like newer country music, but back in the day when I would drive in from Texas I would start getting B-93 with static around Michigan City. Going out on I-69, I would lose B-93 around Angola, IN. I haven't ever gone far enough east on I-94 to lose it, but I would imagine that comes in at least a B-grade contour in Lansing, maybe even at the edge of city grade. If I had to guess, I would guess that B-93 would start fading east on 94 east of Jackson.
Back when I had a car, I would get 94.1 The Duke (I believe the call letters were WWDK, but I am not 100% sure on that) here on the northeast side of Kalamazoo where I live, but would lose it when I went down the hill into the city. I also got a Magic (?) 106.1 which is comparable to The Bear in Ft. Wayne (I am not sure of 106.1 call letters) that I am assuming is somewhere out of the Lansing/Jackson area until I went down the hill into the city.
WBCT is very strong. I think the range of that station is from about the Howell area to across the lake into the Milwaukee area and from about Big Rapids to about Rome City, Indiana. Their transmitter is about halfway between Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo in the Yankee Springs area on the north side of Gun Lake. I don't really listen to that station enough though since I don't care to listen to country music. I've listened to The Bear when I've been in the Fort Wayne area I can usually pick that station up well before I get to Fort Wayne though.
106.1 is Q106 out of Lansing, it's transmitter is south of Eaton Rapids in the Onondaga area. I've listened to that station a lot, their call letters are WJXQ and I think at the top of the hour they announce Lansing-Jackson for the city. That's a solid station too I use to listen to that over WMMQ 94.9 out of Lansing but now I usually will use 106.1 in the Jackson area and 94.9 in the Lansing area.
Yes, I got 98.9 The Bear in Wapakoneta, Ohio on US 33 in my car radio and lost it just south of Coldwater.
Back in the day when WJR had it's legendary staff such as J.P. McCarthy, Jimmy Launce, Warren Pierce, Frank Beckmann, Mike Wharf, Joel Alexander, Gene Fogel, Dan Streeter, John McMurray. Some of the mentioned are still with the station and some have passed away and some I forgot to mention because really there are too many people that made WJR a great station. I surely miss those voices especially ones like J.P. McCarthy that guy was my idol growing up and being able to pull WJR in every morning listening to Dan Streeter and Gene Fogel with the news and then J.P.'s show would come on and I'd love listening to his voice it was one of a kind. At that hour of the morning WJR's reach was probably 800-1,000 miles from it's transmitter in Riverview, one of the most beautiful transmitter buildings I have ever seen.
At one time WJR was the king of sports in Detroit. Ernie Harwell's voice coming across that 50,000 watt signal along with Paul Carey, Ray Lane and George Kell and it was the home of the University of Michigan sports not Michigan State like it is today. Another legendary voice on the J.P. McCarthy Show was Fat Bob Taylor who passed away around the same time J.P. did, he was the singing plumber from Ann Arbor as well as Lugi from the car wash and other voices it was a blast and J.P. did other voices as well like the Answer Man and What's bothering you? and other stuff. I use to love hearing him say, "we'll get this turkey on the road in a minute" before going to his first commercial break.
I love the Fisher Building and have been in WJR's studios before it's a neat place and I was always into radio broadcasting so it was neat to see the studios. WJR has one of my favorite top of the hour jingles, "From the golden tower of the Fisher Building, this is the great voice of the Great Lakes, 760, W-J-R Detroit." I have another favorite top of the hour jingle from WBZ in Boston, "While your driving your car, we're driving 50,000 watts of power, news all day, every day on newsradio 1030 WBZ Boston."
Quote from: ce929wax on July 14, 2018, 12:49:39 AM
Yes, I got 98.9 The Bear in Wapakoneta, Ohio on US 33 in my car radio and lost it just south of Coldwater.
They say they have a 50,000 watt FM signal I know that won't carry as far as 50,000 watts on AM but their transmitter is in Madison Township between US-30 and US-27 about 8 miles from the Ohio border so I tried getting it in Lima, Ohio and got pretty good reception on it there.
Quote from: bandit957 on July 12, 2018, 10:32:34 PM
Are there certain places that just always have unusually long FM radio reception? Back in 1996, I went on a roadtrip out west, and we were on I-10 in Texas - maybe somewhere around Sonora or Ozona. We picked up some FM stations from Kentucky and Minnesota. I remember WHOP-FM and WJJY-FM.
Someone else on a radio forum also said that this area always has weird reception like this.
Why?
FM radio reception is based (more or less) on having a clear line-of-sight between the transmitter and receiver. So just as there are certain vantage points (https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=19395.5) where a city skyline can be glimpsed from many miles away, I'd expect there are pockets where a combination of topography and the strength of the transmitter make it possible to receive the signal despite oceans of dead zone between the receiver and the transmitter.
Back in the early-mid '80's when I was making regular trips from San Jose down to the L.A. area (actually, City of Industry) in my pickup w/camper shell to pick up custom speaker cabinets from a vendor down there (usually about 7-8 trips/yr. on average), I developed something of a regular routine, being dependent upon traffic reports on the all-news AM stations at both ends of the trip. I generally took US 101 south, with AM 740 radio on from San Jose to just south of Salinas, where the signal started to fade (generally around Chualar). At that point I switched to tapes and popped in music until somewhere around Camarillo (Ventura County). At that point I switched to the L.A. equivalent AM station (usually 980), which came in handy on more than one occasion when US 101 was backed up in the Valley, giving me the chance to switch to either CA 1 via Malibu or the CA 23/118 freeway through Simi Valley. I kept the AM station going until I completed my business in Industry and was ready to leave. At that time my then-wife was dividing her time between her firm's law offices in Madera and Millbrae; if possible, we coordinated my trips to coincide with her Madera time, when she stayed at her Fresno condo. Depending upon time of day, I started my return trip either north via I-210 and I-5 or, if traffic were an issue, popping out via CA 60 to I-15 (it was completed just that far south during that timeframe) and north via the 15/395/58 route to Bakersfield. Because AM 980 employed "repeaters" on the north side of the San Gabriels, reception of that station was possible all the way to Mojave (although I usually returned to the tapes once on US 395). After a couple of days in the Fresno area, I'd return via CA 152; my usual 740 AM radio became usable somewhere around Casa de Fruta (the 152/156 junction) and would remain on until I reached my business (off US 101 and Trimble Road).
Apparently AM 740, originally broadcast from San Bruno Mountain, has a South Bay repeater at Alviso, enabling the reception down to the Salinas area (and an North Bay equivalent near Schellville, close to the CA 12/121 junction). I didn't find out about L.A.'s 980 AM North San Gabriel repeaters (apparently two: one west of Palmdale and the other near Phelan) until I moved out to Hesperia in 2009; there are apparently several more enabling reception in most of Ventura County (hence my Camarillo reception) and south as far as Camp Pendleton (I never ascertained the precise location of those repeaters). This appears to be common practice for AM news stations, particularly those owned & operated by the major networks (generally CBS or NBC) -- which purportedly command top rates for advertising placement.
On a related whimsical note, when I was attending UC Riverside in the late '60's and early '70's, for a while I was a late-night DJ at the campus radio station -- all of 12.5 watts of broadcast power and broadcasting from a 150' antenna in the middle of the married-student housing north of campus (the radio station occupied one of those buildings). FM, of course, with reception fading out around downtown Riverside and effectively gone at Rubidoux! Of course, the mission was to broadcast to student housing -- period; anything beyond that was considered "gravy".
There are some FM stations in Michigan that have very strong signals, WUPS in Houghton Lake, WHNN in Bay City, WIOG in Saginaw, WBCT in Grand Rapids which is probably the strongest signal I've ever heard it has a coverage area of about 25,000 square miles and covers 20 counties in Michigan. Two other strong Grand Rapids stations are WSRW and WVGR. WKQI in Detroit is a strong signal, WCSX has a strong coverage area but only operates at 13,500 watts, in contrast WBCT operates are 320,000 watts.
I was just in Michigan right on the other side of the lake from Milwaukee for the first time last weekend. I discovered on 107.7 around Holland WVCY from Milwaukee sometimes battles it out with WRKR from Portage MI. Also on 99.1 WMYX also from Milwaukee can be heard in some places as WIIL 95.1 from Kenosha. It's about 70 miles across Lake Michigan. I used to be able to get the 105.7 station from Grand Rapids on this side of the lake until WSSP put in an FM transmitter there.
I'll have to ask my Dad how common it is to hear Milwaukee stations in Holland, but I know he has mentioned doing his paper route as a teenager while listening to WLS out of Chicago.
If it's a strong Milwaukee station it should be able to reach Holland. I can pull WDRV out of Chicago in around the Benton Harbor area. Lake Michigan is about 82 miles across from Grand Haven to Milwaukee.
Quote from: Flint1979 on July 17, 2018, 12:17:58 AM
If it's a strong Milwaukee station it should be able to reach Holland. I can pull WDRV out of Chicago in around the Benton Harbor area. Lake Michigan is about 82 miles across from Grand Haven to Milwaukee.
WVCY and WMYX are about the strongest FM stations in Milwaukee. WHAD public radio is strong but the transmitter is like 25 miles inland. I aso picked up WKKV 100.7 in a fight with the station from Elkhart IN. One thing I am curious about is Holland is the very NW corner of WRKR's coverage. I am wondering if WVCY can be easy to pick up north of there along the lake like around Muskegon.
Quote from: dvferyance on July 17, 2018, 10:30:18 AM
Quote from: Flint1979 on July 17, 2018, 12:17:58 AM
If it's a strong Milwaukee station it should be able to reach Holland. I can pull WDRV out of Chicago in around the Benton Harbor area. Lake Michigan is about 82 miles across from Grand Haven to Milwaukee.
WVCY and WMYX are about the strongest FM stations in Milwaukee. WHAD public radio is strong but the transmitter is like 25 miles inland. I aso picked up WKKV 100.7 in a fight with the station from Elkhart IN. One thing I am curious about is Holland is the very NW corner of WRKR's coverage. I am wondering if WVCY can be easy to pick up north of there along the lake like around Muskegon.
Have you ever tried to get WKLH on this side of the lake? I can get that in around Holland and Grand Haven. I was trying to figure out where that station was coming from and then heard them refer to Milwaukee. WHNN around my area is a strong signal and that is on 96.1, there is also a 96.1 in Holland which is ESPN radio I had always thought those two would interfere with each other's signals.
96.1 comes in pretty clear in Kalamazoo.
Quote from: ce929wax on July 17, 2018, 04:59:03 PM
96.1 comes in pretty clear in Kalamazoo.
That one is obviously WMAX out of Grand Rapids right? Well the transmitter is about halfway between Holland and GR.
WHNN in Bay City is on 96.1 too and has a 100,000 watt transmitter at the corner of the thumb a little east of Bay City.
Quote from: Flint1979 on July 17, 2018, 03:46:03 PM
Quote from: dvferyance on July 17, 2018, 10:30:18 AM
Quote from: Flint1979 on July 17, 2018, 12:17:58 AM
If it's a strong Milwaukee station it should be able to reach Holland. I can pull WDRV out of Chicago in around the Benton Harbor area. Lake Michigan is about 82 miles across from Grand Haven to Milwaukee.
WVCY and WMYX are about the strongest FM stations in Milwaukee. WHAD public radio is strong but the transmitter is like 25 miles inland. I aso picked up WKKV 100.7 in a fight with the station from Elkhart IN. One thing I am curious about is Holland is the very NW corner of WRKR's coverage. I am wondering if WVCY can be easy to pick up north of there along the lake like around Muskegon.
Have you ever tried to get WKLH on this side of the lake? I can get that in around Holland and Grand Haven. I was trying to figure out where that station was coming from and then heard them refer to Milwaukee. WHNN around my area is a strong signal and that is on 96.1, there is also a 96.1 in Holland which is ESPN radio I had always thought those two would interfere with each other's signals.
I really wasn't trying with anything at first. I just so happened to be listening to WRKR when a religious station started to cut in. I knew it had to be WVCY from Milwaukee I did try a couple others like WMYX. WKTI and WXSS are no shows due to stations on 94.5 and 103.7 right on the other side of the lake.
Confirmed by a friend of mine. WJR was picked up in Oxford, United Kingdom this morning.
Quote from: dvferyance on July 17, 2018, 06:19:19 PM
Quote from: Flint1979 on July 17, 2018, 03:46:03 PM
Quote from: dvferyance on July 17, 2018, 10:30:18 AM
Quote from: Flint1979 on July 17, 2018, 12:17:58 AM
If it's a strong Milwaukee station it should be able to reach Holland. I can pull WDRV out of Chicago in around the Benton Harbor area. Lake Michigan is about 82 miles across from Grand Haven to Milwaukee.
WVCY and WMYX are about the strongest FM stations in Milwaukee. WHAD public radio is strong but the transmitter is like 25 miles inland. I aso picked up WKKV 100.7 in a fight with the station from Elkhart IN. One thing I am curious about is Holland is the very NW corner of WRKR's coverage. I am wondering if WVCY can be easy to pick up north of there along the lake like around Muskegon.
Have you ever tried to get WKLH on this side of the lake? I can get that in around Holland and Grand Haven. I was trying to figure out where that station was coming from and then heard them refer to Milwaukee. WHNN around my area is a strong signal and that is on 96.1, there is also a 96.1 in Holland which is ESPN radio I had always thought those two would interfere with each other's signals.
I really wasn't trying with anything at first. I just so happened to be listening to WRKR when a religious station started to cut in. I knew it had to be WVCY from Milwaukee I did try a couple others like WMYX. WKTI and WXSS are no shows due to stations on 94.5 and 103.7 right on the other side of the lake.
Right 94.5 is a country station out of Grand Rapids and 103.7 is a station in South Haven which you'd probably lose before you lost 94.5 it's kind of more directed at the Benton Harbor-St. Joseph area.
It seems like WTMJ has a hard time coming in at night sometimes. I would have thought it would have came in like Chicago or Cleveland's stations.
I haven't tried it on a car radio, but I don't think 103.7 out of South Haven will come in on my indoor radio.
Quote from: ce929wax on July 19, 2018, 05:14:58 PM
I haven't tried it on a car radio, but I don't think 103.7 out of South Haven will come in on my indoor radio.
It doesn't really have a long range but it comes in the best in the southern portion of I-196.
I have the Classic Rock stations pretty much memorized for I-94. Detroit is of course 94.7, then once you start to lose that 106.1 is best for the Jackson and Albion area, then 107.7 for Battle Creek and Kalamazoo, then for awhile before you start pulling in 97.1 out of Chicago in you'll have to deal with 107.7 for awhile. Usually I'll turn it to 780AM for awhile until I feel I can pull in 97.1.
For I-75 in the Lower Peninsula it's rather easy, you'd start with 94.5 for Toledo, then 94.7 for Detroit, 103.9 for Flint, 104.5 for the Tri-Cities, 93.3 a little north of that but usually 98.5 is reachable by the time you get to Bay City and you can listen to that station all the way to the Mackinac Bridge. I was sitting under the bridge on the Lower Peninsula side and pulling 98.5 out of Houghton Lake in.
For Northeast Indiana and Northwest Ohio, 98.9 out of Fort Wayne is usually the best choice or 94.5 out of Toledo. I have all these channels set on my presets in my car since I travel around these areas enough. Going towards Cleveland 98.5 is a good station.
My go to station and I have their app on my phone is 107.5 in Houston, Texas.
I would call 98.9 out of Ft. Wayne more of an alternative station, than a classic rock station, unless they have changed their playlist since I have listened to them last?
ETA: If you like classic rock, 92.5 WZUU is also a decent station, although I would call them more butt rock than anything else.
Quote from: ce929wax on July 19, 2018, 10:00:43 PM
I would call 98.9 out of Ft. Wayne more of an alternative station, than a classic rock station, unless they have changed their playlist since I have listened to them last?
ETA: If you like classic rock, 92.5 WZUU is also a decent station, although I would call them more butt rock than anything else.
It's like 101.1 WRIF in Detroit.
I've never listened to 101.1 WRIF. Do they play "Bad, bad girlfriend" by Theory of a Deadman, because WZUU did this morning.
Quote from: ce929wax on July 20, 2018, 04:19:04 PM
I've never listened to 101.1 WRIF. Do they play "Bad, bad girlfriend" by Theory of a Deadman, because WZUU did this morning.
It's more like Alternative Rock than Classic Rock.
WRIF is owned by the same company that owns WCSX which is Detroit's Classic Rock station.
I'll have to check them out next time I am in Detroit. I still think that 98.9 the Bear is the best alternative station in the region. 94.3 the X in Knoxville, TN was a good alternative station until they fired everyone and flipped it to classic country :ded:
I wish Kalamazoo had a Jack FM station.
Quote from: ce929wax on July 20, 2018, 09:48:28 PM
I'll have to check them out next time I am in Detroit. I still think that 98.9 the Bear is the best alternative station in the region. 94.3 the X in Knoxville, TN was a good alternative station until they fired everyone and flipped it to classic country :ded:
I wish Kalamazoo had a Jack FM station.
It plays the same type of music The Bear does. My all-time favorite is 107.5 The Eagle in Houston, I also like the announcer guy on WMMQ that announces the station info, I think it's the same guy that's on WRKR. I also have KZOK's app so I can listen to Danny Bonaduce I always thought he was hilarious in The Partridge Family and think it's cool he has his own radio show.
Bay City has a station called Joe FM it just plays a format like Jack FM.
Quote from: Flint1979 on July 19, 2018, 06:41:52 PM
I have the Classic Rock stations pretty much memorized for I-94. Detroit is of course 94.7, then once you start to lose that 106.1 is best for the Jackson and Albion area, then 107.7 for Battle Creek and Kalamazoo, then for awhile before you start pulling in 97.1 out of Chicago in you'll have to deal with 107.7 for awhile. Usually I'll turn it to 780AM for awhile until I feel I can pull in 97.1.
For I-75 in the Lower Peninsula it's rather easy, you'd start with 94.5 for Toledo, then 94.7 for Detroit, 103.9 for Flint, 104.5 for the Tri-Cities, 93.3 a little north of that but usually 98.5 is reachable by the time you get to Bay City and you can listen to that station all the way to the Mackinac Bridge. I was sitting under the bridge on the Lower Peninsula side and pulling 98.5 out of Houghton Lake in.
For Northeast Indiana and Northwest Ohio, 98.9 out of Fort Wayne is usually the best choice or 94.5 out of Toledo. I have all these channels set on my presets in my car since I travel around these areas enough. Going towards Cleveland 98.5 is a good station.
My go to station and I have their app on my phone is 107.5 in Houston, Texas.
Add 96.5 for Milwaukee then 101.5 for Madison. After that you may not have any luck until 92.1 in Eau Claire as stations are few and far between in tiny markets.
Quote from: dvferyance on July 20, 2018, 10:41:48 PM
Quote from: Flint1979 on July 19, 2018, 06:41:52 PM
I have the Classic Rock stations pretty much memorized for I-94. Detroit is of course 94.7, then once you start to lose that 106.1 is best for the Jackson and Albion area, then 107.7 for Battle Creek and Kalamazoo, then for awhile before you start pulling in 97.1 out of Chicago in you'll have to deal with 107.7 for awhile. Usually I'll turn it to 780AM for awhile until I feel I can pull in 97.1.
For I-75 in the Lower Peninsula it's rather easy, you'd start with 94.5 for Toledo, then 94.7 for Detroit, 103.9 for Flint, 104.5 for the Tri-Cities, 93.3 a little north of that but usually 98.5 is reachable by the time you get to Bay City and you can listen to that station all the way to the Mackinac Bridge. I was sitting under the bridge on the Lower Peninsula side and pulling 98.5 out of Houghton Lake in.
For Northeast Indiana and Northwest Ohio, 98.9 out of Fort Wayne is usually the best choice or 94.5 out of Toledo. I have all these channels set on my presets in my car since I travel around these areas enough. Going towards Cleveland 98.5 is a good station.
My go to station and I have their app on my phone is 107.5 in Houston, Texas.
Add 96.5 for Milwaukee then 101.5 for Madison. After that you may not have any luck until 92.1 in Eau Claire as stations are few and far between in tiny markets.
Yeah and you probably lose 101.5 by the time you get to the 90/94 split in Tomah. And Tomah really isn't big enough to have radio stations like the one's we've been mentioning. Your probably right on Eau Claire being the next city to have a Classic Rock station. We've done pretty good so far I think we got from Port Huron (you can pull WCSX in there) all the way to Madison covered. 92.1 for Eau Claire but the transmitter is north of Elk Mound so there's going to be a gap in between that station and 101.5.
I also wish that Kalamazoo had a good FM Talk station like they had in Dallas back in the day. 105.3, Live 105, I forget the call letters had Tom Leykis, The Russ Martin show, and Howard Stern. Russ Martin would crack me up every afternoon on the PM Drive. I also liked 93.3 The Bone, which was kind of a bluesy, classic rock station that played lots of Stevie Ray Vaughan.
I guess Kalamazoo isn't a big enough market for those kind of stations.
Quote from: Flint1979 on July 20, 2018, 11:09:00 PM
Quote from: dvferyance on July 20, 2018, 10:41:48 PM
Quote from: Flint1979 on July 19, 2018, 06:41:52 PM
I have the Classic Rock stations pretty much memorized for I-94. Detroit is of course 94.7, then once you start to lose that 106.1 is best for the Jackson and Albion area, then 107.7 for Battle Creek and Kalamazoo, then for awhile before you start pulling in 97.1 out of Chicago in you'll have to deal with 107.7 for awhile. Usually I'll turn it to 780AM for awhile until I feel I can pull in 97.1.
For I-75 in the Lower Peninsula it's rather easy, you'd start with 94.5 for Toledo, then 94.7 for Detroit, 103.9 for Flint, 104.5 for the Tri-Cities, 93.3 a little north of that but usually 98.5 is reachable by the time you get to Bay City and you can listen to that station all the way to the Mackinac Bridge. I was sitting under the bridge on the Lower Peninsula side and pulling 98.5 out of Houghton Lake in.
For Northeast Indiana and Northwest Ohio, 98.9 out of Fort Wayne is usually the best choice or 94.5 out of Toledo. I have all these channels set on my presets in my car since I travel around these areas enough. Going towards Cleveland 98.5 is a good station.
My go to station and I have their app on my phone is 107.5 in Houston, Texas.
Add 96.5 for Milwaukee then 101.5 for Madison. After that you may not have any luck until 92.1 in Eau Claire as stations are few and far between in tiny markets.
Yeah and you probably lose 101.5 by the time you get to the 90/94 split in Tomah. And Tomah really isn't big enough to have radio stations like the one's we've been mentioning. Your probably right on Eau Claire being the next city to have a Classic Rock station. We've done pretty good so far I think we got from Port Huron (you can pull WCSX in there) all the way to Madison covered. 92.1 for Eau Claire but the transmitter is north of Elk Mound so there's going to be a gap in between that station and 101.5.
Actually not anymore. I just discovered 94.5 out of Tomah is now classic rock. They had previously been oldies. Now I got to finish the rest of I-94.
Quote from: dvferyance on July 21, 2018, 08:36:55 PM
Quote from: Flint1979 on July 20, 2018, 11:09:00 PM
Quote from: dvferyance on July 20, 2018, 10:41:48 PM
Quote from: Flint1979 on July 19, 2018, 06:41:52 PM
I have the Classic Rock stations pretty much memorized for I-94. Detroit is of course 94.7, then once you start to lose that 106.1 is best for the Jackson and Albion area, then 107.7 for Battle Creek and Kalamazoo, then for awhile before you start pulling in 97.1 out of Chicago in you'll have to deal with 107.7 for awhile. Usually I'll turn it to 780AM for awhile until I feel I can pull in 97.1.
For I-75 in the Lower Peninsula it's rather easy, you'd start with 94.5 for Toledo, then 94.7 for Detroit, 103.9 for Flint, 104.5 for the Tri-Cities, 93.3 a little north of that but usually 98.5 is reachable by the time you get to Bay City and you can listen to that station all the way to the Mackinac Bridge. I was sitting under the bridge on the Lower Peninsula side and pulling 98.5 out of Houghton Lake in.
For Northeast Indiana and Northwest Ohio, 98.9 out of Fort Wayne is usually the best choice or 94.5 out of Toledo. I have all these channels set on my presets in my car since I travel around these areas enough. Going towards Cleveland 98.5 is a good station.
My go to station and I have their app on my phone is 107.5 in Houston, Texas.
Add 96.5 for Milwaukee then 101.5 for Madison. After that you may not have any luck until 92.1 in Eau Claire as stations are few and far between in tiny markets.
Yeah and you probably lose 101.5 by the time you get to the 90/94 split in Tomah. And Tomah really isn't big enough to have radio stations like the one's we've been mentioning. Your probably right on Eau Claire being the next city to have a Classic Rock station. We've done pretty good so far I think we got from Port Huron (you can pull WCSX in there) all the way to Madison covered. 92.1 for Eau Claire but the transmitter is north of Elk Mound so there's going to be a gap in between that station and 101.5.
Actually not anymore. I just discovered 94.5 out of Tomah is now classic rock. They had previously been oldies. Now I got to finish the rest of I-94.
92.5 for the Twin Cities, that's as far west I've been on I-94. It's nice to know that you'll hear Classic Rock music on these stations. I love cruising and listening to these stations.
I used to see how far WBLM-FM 102.9 of Portland, ME would reach. While heading south from Old Orchard Beach, ME to central CT, I would leave the car radio alone. I would usually get the last bits of signal into far northeast MA on I-495 South. I never did see where WDRC-FM 102.9 of Hartford would start taking over.
I read somewhere that FM signals are actually very good right behind pointy hills and mountains, because the signal bounces downward from those. But this doesn't apply to more rounded, gentle hills.
Thread bump...
I believe that I received WVCY out of Milwaukee in Holland today when I was visiting family. It did battle with WRKR until I got east of Fennville on M-89. This was on a car radio in a 2015 Hyundai Accent.
I'm currently in Valdosta, Georgia pulling in WJR. It's coming in strong like it's a local radio station around this area. I'm passing through on I-75 and was doing some DXing to the northern 50,000 watt stations. WABC comes in good, WGN comes in good, WTAM comes in good, KMOX comes in real good about the same as WJR. It felt pretty good to hear WJR's top of the hour, once I heard, "from the golden tower of the Fisher Building" I thought wow what a powerful station.
I'm going to attempt to lose WJR tonight I'm driving south into Florida and don't know where I'll lose it but I'm assuming I will lose it somewhere in Florida. Going through Atlanta I went down one station to WSB for awhile and then back to WJR and it was still there. I have been trying forever to lose this station and I've never been able to out ride the signal before day break. I know at night the signal blankets most of the eastern half of North America.
AM: you can get WPHT from as far as DC. KYW dosent usually get further then the northern suburbs of DC. I've heard of people from Roanoke and Detroit getting it though with special conditions. Same with KYW.
FM: I've heard Philly stations as far North as Tamaqua and NYC.
WGRR in Cincinnati may have finally fixed their signal problems they've had for years. They used to be really clear, but a few years ago, their signal got bad and kept getting worse. But over the past couple days, they've been clear as a bell.
Quote from: Nanis on August 06, 2018, 08:25:03 PM
AM: you can get WPHT from as far as DC. KYW dosent usually get further then the northern suburbs of DC. I've heard of people from Roanoke and Detroit getting it though with special conditions. Same with KYW.
FM: I've heard Philly stations as far North as Tamaqua and NYC.
I'll put that to the test right now since it's 2:01am and I should be able to pull in several 50,000 watt stations at this time of the night.
My result: Both stations came in with a little static probably like you'd receive WJR. For some reason on my end WJR has a little static at night. I'm in Saginaw about 100 miles northwest of Detroit.
I should try and get WJR in Kzoo.
Quote from: ce929wax on August 07, 2018, 10:32:56 PM
I should try and get WJR in Kzoo.
You should be able to get WJR in Kalamazoo with no problems. I can get it 24 hours a day and live just under 100 milles from their transmitter. Last Thursday I was driving around the Downriver area and thought to myself I'm going to drive over to the corner of Sibley and Grange and see how this 50,000 watt transmitter sounds when I'm right under their antenna. The station sounded as clear as I've ever heard it sound before and this was during the daytime I tried to outrun their signal again before I would lose daylight so I got on I-75 and started heading south and was pretty far into Ohio when it started to get a little static I was still getting it pretty strong in Dayton though, about 175 miles from the transmitter. Kalamazoo is about 120 miles from the transmitter so I see no reason why you shouldn't get it. You should be able to pull in WGN 720AM with no problem too, both transmitters are about the same distance from Kalamazoo.
I'm also a DXer and I've gotten stuff from as far out as SLC
Reading this thread has made me think that my car's antenna is not a good one. I tried to pick up WBZ after reading this thread and couldn't pick it up until I got to Warwick, RI. I live in Mystic, Conn. and can't pick up Hartford stations; even WTIC-1080.
One out of market station I sometimes pick up is 90.3 WAMC out of Albany, NY. It sometimes overpowers URI's station (WRIU) even when I'm about 10 miles rom Kingstown.
Quote from: jon daly on August 13, 2018, 12:28:50 PM
Reading this thread has made me think that my car's antenna is not a good one. I tried to pick up WBZ after reading this thread and couldn't pick it up until I got to Warwick, RI. I live in Mystic, Conn. and can't pick up Hartford stations; even WTIC-1080.
One out of market station I sometimes pick up is 90.3 WAMC out of Albany, NY. It sometimes overpowers URI's station (WRIU) even when I'm about 10 miles rom Kingstown.
It depends on the time of the day. During the day I get static on 760 and that's WJR in Detroit I'm about 97 miles from their transmitter location. Nighttime it can have static at times but is usually pretty clear. WBZ's antenna pattern is directional though shooting a majority of their signal westward. It's nighttime signal covers most of eastern North America.
Yeah, most of my radio listening is during daylight hours.
Oddly enough, I was looking for something unrelated this morning and came across a Guardian article that discussed the distraction of the radio while driving. I'm not sure if that will stop me. It's one of the few times I listen to music and I really enjoy listening to a ball game on a Sunday drive.
Quote from: jon daly on August 13, 2018, 01:45:18 PM
Yeah, most of my radio listening is during daylight hours.
Oddly enough, I was looking for something unrelated this morning and came across a Guardian article that discussed the distraction of the radio while driving. I'm not sure if that will stop me. It's one of the few times I listen to music and I really enjoy listening to a ball game on a Sunday drive.
I can pull most of the big stations in Chicago in during the day too. WLS is the worst one of all though I have no idea what is up with that signal, WGN and WBBM both come in good.
I usually listen to the Tigers games on an AM station but the other day I was in the Detroit area and the Tigers flagship station is a FM station, 97.1 The Ticket and the audio on it was so much different. I long for the days when the Tigers flagship station was WJR. Right now the only Detroit sports team to have WJR as their flagship is the Lions.
WJR use to have such a legendary lineup of hosts it was the best station to listen to in Michigan. J.P. McCarthy was the king of WJR until he passed away in 1995. WJR's studios are also in a well known location, part of their original lease with the Fisher Building was that they had to make mention of the Fisher Building on the air so their TOH jingle goes, "From the golden tower of the Fisher Building, this is the great voice of the Great Lakes, news-talk 760, WJR Detroit." I was driving around in Georgia one time in the middle of the night and was pulling WJR in and when I heard that TOH jingle I thought this is pretty cool. The Fisher Building is an iconic landmark on Detroit's skyline.
It took me a while to get used to listening to sports on higher fidelity FM. I'm not sure what the audio equivalent of cinematography is, but some things sound better in lo-fi.
I was out driving last night and at about 3:00am I started seeing what stations I could pull in. WBZ was so clear that it was just like it was a local radio station in the area I was in then I started going around the band and WLW, WSB, KDKA, KMOX, WFAN, WSCR, WGN, WLS, WBBM, WHAS, CFZM in Toronto, WTAM, WCBS, WOR, WABC, KYW, WPHT were all coming in just as strong as WBZ was. Of course all Detroit stations were coming in WJR and WWJ. I went back to FM after awhile and was listening to WCSX out of Detroit it's the Classic Rock station in Detroit.
But after I heard WBZ's signal coming in so clear I thought to myself that signal is coming from Boston and I'm about 650 miles from their transmitter I love doing that. Since WBZ shoots their signal in the westward direction I think that is why it comes in so clear here. I'm not sure if I can pull it in during the day and my guess is that I won't be able to but it'd be worth a try.
This is WBZ's transmitter tower. https://www.google.com/maps/@42.2769734,-70.8753547,3a,60y,344.71h,105.15t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1soMStrW1WXcd01S0IG2iEgw!2e0!7i3328!8i1664?hl=en
I counted the number of 50,000 watt blowtorches that I can receive and got 24 of them.
WTMJ, WSM, WFAN, WSCR, WLW, WGN, WSB, WJR, WABC, WBBM, WGY, WBAP, WCCO, WHAS, WCBS, WLS, KDKA, WBZ, WHO, KYW, WTAM, KMOX, WHAM and WPHT.
Is something wrong with WJR's transmitter? For some reason tonight I can pull WGN in fine, WWJ comes in fine but WJR is nowhere to be found. All I'm getting on 760 is static and I can hear some voices under the static. I've had this problem before with WJR and can't ever figure it out. I'm 97 miles from their transmitter which is located in Riverview, Michigan a little south of Detroit and can't pull in a 50,000 watt clear channel blowtorch signal in? It just don't make sense to me. I didn't try WLW but I bet that's coming in fine and to have WWJ come in fine but not WJR? Not that I really wanted to listen to WJR in the first place right now but I was interested in a few long distance stations that I wanted to try to pull in and when I turned it to AM it was on WJR and I heard static I was thinking this probably isn't going to be a good night for DXing.
Why does it seem like WJR's signal was stronger years ago? When this station really was the great voice of the Great Lakes it was a flat out blow torch and I could pull it in on an indoor radio at night. It just seems like certain stations like WBZ, KMOX, WLW come in really strong and then there's WJR in the sunset barely getting over the static. I'm pretty sure with WBZ it's because I'm on their directional pattern where they are shooting a majority of their signal.
KRLD and WBAP are supposed to be the nighttime clear-channel AM's in north TX, but I've heard that WBAP ends up with a much wider signal. They even have a long-running show that caters to truck-drivers because they can pull up the station at night from so far away. I've seen a WBAP nighttime coverage map somewhere, and it takes up a good bit of the nation.
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on September 11, 2017, 09:18:34 PM
Quote from: The Nature Boy on September 11, 2017, 09:13:52 PM
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on September 11, 2017, 09:10:44 PM
Quote from: PHLBOS on September 11, 2017, 09:28:17 AM
A co-worker of mine who lives in Glassboro, NJ was able to get Boston's WBZ (AM 1030) there.
How big is the range of am radio?
I got WBZ while driving in the mountains of West Virginia one night. WBZ is a clear channel station and its signal actually covers most of the eastern US at night (and it can go as far west as Southern Ontario during the day).
I wish local music radio stations were am.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AM_broadcasting
this site might help you with any AM questions or background. As for wanting music on AM, sadly you are about 40-50 years too late on that one. Ever since FM became popular, and more recently internet-oriented sources and stations, AM has become what little you are finding.
Even though this isn't the market where you are,
http://www.dfwradioarchives.info/
would give you background on how one market's radio history has evolved.
Quote from: txstateends on September 05, 2018, 04:52:23 PM
KRLD and WBAP are supposed to be the nighttime clear-channel AM's in north TX, but I've heard that WBAP ends up with a much wider signal. They even have a long-running show that caters to truck-drivers because they can pull up the station at night from so far away. I've seen a WBAP nighttime coverage map somewhere, and it takes up a good bit of the nation.
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on September 11, 2017, 09:18:34 PM
Quote from: The Nature Boy on September 11, 2017, 09:13:52 PM
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on September 11, 2017, 09:10:44 PM
Quote from: PHLBOS on September 11, 2017, 09:28:17 AM
A co-worker of mine who lives in Glassboro, NJ was able to get Boston's WBZ (AM 1030) there.
How big is the range of am radio?
I got WBZ while driving in the mountains of West Virginia one night. WBZ is a clear channel station and its signal actually covers most of the eastern US at night (and it can go as far west as Southern Ontario during the day).
I wish local music radio stations were am.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AM_broadcasting
this site might help you with any AM questions or background. As for wanting music on AM, sadly you are about 40-50 years too late on that one. Ever since FM became popular, and more recently internet-oriented sources and stations, AM has become what little you are finding.
Even though this isn't the market where you are,
http://www.dfwradioarchives.info/
would give you background on how one market's radio history has evolved.
Music quality on AM would be the issue. Frequencies for AM broadcast have 9 or 10 kHz spacing, so maximum sound frequency is heavily limited. Not that big of an issue for voice, but music would suffer big time. Hence FM on a wider spacing in a roomier band
There's a few small AM stations that play music near me, but they're not part of my rotation.
I am in Glendale, AZ and AM DX at Night and have listened overnight to:
KSL 1160am Salt Lake City, UT/St George, UT (AM Repeater)
KFI 640am LA,CA
KNX 1070am LA, CA
KOB 770am Albq, NM
KTNN 660am Window Rock, AZ
WBAP 820am Dallas, TX
WCBS 740am San Francisco, CA
CFZM 740AM in Toronto still plays music and broadcasts on a 50,000 watt clear channel signal which covers the entire eastern half of North America. At night this station is picked up as far west as Winnipeg and Minneapolis and as far south as New Orleans. I can pick this station up clearly in Saginaw, Michigan.
Quote from: jon daly on August 13, 2018, 12:28:50 PM
Reading this thread has made me think that my car's antenna is not a good one. I tried to pick up WBZ after reading this thread and couldn't pick it up until I got to Warwick, RI. I live in Mystic, Conn. and can't pick up Hartford stations; even WTIC-1080.
One out of market station I sometimes pick up is 90.3 WAMC out of Albany, NY. It sometimes overpowers URI's station (WRIU) even when I'm about 10 miles rom Kingstown.
Yeah I was wondering the other day myself why do AM's in the Midwest go much farther than AM's in the northeast? The Chicago stations go all the way down to southern Indiana to St Louis and to north well into Wisconsin. Yet the New York stations don't even make it to Boston. I would think where you live in Connietcut you would be able to getthe big stations out of Boston, NYC, Philly and especially Hartford. I noticed that WBZ does not even make it to Albany. I remember traveling through Virginia and I as lucky if I could still get WRVA from Appomattox which is only about 70 miles from Richmond. Yet back me I can get WTMJ from Green Bay which is 120 miles from Milwaukee. I could go on with many more examples but you get the point.
Quote from: dvferyance on September 13, 2018, 05:25:08 PM
Quote from: jon daly on August 13, 2018, 12:28:50 PM
Reading this thread has made me think that my car's antenna is not a good one. I tried to pick up WBZ after reading this thread and couldn't pick it up until I got to Warwick, RI. I live in Mystic, Conn. and can't pick up Hartford stations; even WTIC-1080.
One out of market station I sometimes pick up is 90.3 WAMC out of Albany, NY. It sometimes overpowers URI's station (WRIU) even when I'm about 10 miles rom Kingstown.
Yeah I was wondering the other day myself why do AM's in the Midwest go much farther than AM's in the northeast? The Chicago stations go all the way down to southern Indiana to St Louis and to north well into Wisconsin. Yet the New York stations don't even make it to Boston. I would think where you live in Connietcut you would be able to getthe big stations out of Boston, NYC, Philly and especially Hartford. I noticed that WBZ does not even make it to Albany. I remember traveling through Virginia and I as lucky if I could still get WRVA from Appomattox which is only about 70 miles from Richmond. Yet back me I can get WTMJ from Green Bay which is 120 miles from Milwaukee. I could go on with many more examples but you get the point.
I think they go about the same. WBZ is an easy station to pick up in states like Michigan and Wisconsin due to their signal being directed towards the west since an omni directional signal would give them a lot of signal over open water which would be kind of pointless. I have problems at times getting WJR to come in anymore and I live under 100 miles from their transmitter. I think some of the problem is that WJR's transmitter is south of Detroit and I'm north of it but I'm still thinking that it shouldn't be a problem it's a 50,000 watt clear channel signal and one of the strongest stations in the country so I should have no problem picking WJR up at any time of the day and what's funny is that one night about a week or two ago I was dxing in the middle of the night and could pick up WLW clearly but WJR was in and out. I didn't have any problems pulling WJR in when I pulled up right next to their transmitter located at the corner of Sibley and Grange Roads in Riverview.
One cool looking transmitter building. This is WJR's transmitter. The building was built in 1934.
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.1698957,-83.2132919,3a,75y,194.79h,106.37t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s88icYawgEOoGp7dkXMk1jg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Quote from: Flint1979 on September 14, 2018, 08:55:20 AM
Quote from: dvferyance on September 13, 2018, 05:25:08 PM
Quote from: jon daly on August 13, 2018, 12:28:50 PM
Reading this thread has made me think that my car's antenna is not a good one. I tried to pick up WBZ after reading this thread and couldn't pick it up until I got to Warwick, RI. I live in Mystic, Conn. and can't pick up Hartford stations; even WTIC-1080.
One out of market station I sometimes pick up is 90.3 WAMC out of Albany, NY. It sometimes overpowers URI's station (WRIU) even when I'm about 10 miles rom Kingstown.
Yeah I was wondering the other day myself why do AM's in the Midwest go much farther than AM's in the northeast? The Chicago stations go all the way down to southern Indiana to St Louis and to north well into Wisconsin. Yet the New York stations don't even make it to Boston. I would think where you live in Connietcut you would be able to getthe big stations out of Boston, NYC, Philly and especially Hartford. I noticed that WBZ does not even make it to Albany. I remember traveling through Virginia and I as lucky if I could still get WRVA from Appomattox which is only about 70 miles from Richmond. Yet back me I can get WTMJ from Green Bay which is 120 miles from Milwaukee. I could go on with many more examples but you get the point.
I think they go about the same. WBZ is an easy station to pick up in states like Michigan and Wisconsin due to their signal being directed towards the west since an omni directional signal would give them a lot of signal over open water which would be kind of pointless. I have problems at times getting WJR to come in anymore and I live under 100 miles from their transmitter. I think some of the problem is that WJR's transmitter is south of Detroit and I'm north of it but I'm still thinking that it shouldn't be a problem it's a 50,000 watt clear channel signal and one of the strongest stations in the country so I should have no problem picking WJR up at any time of the day and what's funny is that one night about a week or two ago I was dxing in the middle of the night and could pick up WLW clearly but WJR was in and out. I didn't have any problems pulling WJR in when I pulled up right next to their transmitter located at the corner of Sibley and Grange Roads in Riverview.
I was referring to AM's during the day not at night. Typically at night the only NYC AM I can get is WCBS and that is only some nights due to every big Chicago AM being right next door. WLS is the farthest from me so that is why WCBS comes in sometimes.
WAPL (a classic rock station based in Appleton) goes really far. I can usually hear it as far south as Beaver Dam, on the way to Madison. Meanwhile, one of the radio stations in Sheboygan doesn't go very far, and usually cuts out before reaching Manitowoc.
Quote from: dvferyance on September 14, 2018, 04:57:40 PM
Quote from: Flint1979 on September 14, 2018, 08:55:20 AM
Quote from: dvferyance on September 13, 2018, 05:25:08 PM
Quote from: jon daly on August 13, 2018, 12:28:50 PM
Reading this thread has made me think that my car's antenna is not a good one. I tried to pick up WBZ after reading this thread and couldn't pick it up until I got to Warwick, RI. I live in Mystic, Conn. and can't pick up Hartford stations; even WTIC-1080.
One out of market station I sometimes pick up is 90.3 WAMC out of Albany, NY. It sometimes overpowers URI's station (WRIU) even when I'm about 10 miles rom Kingstown.
Yeah I was wondering the other day myself why do AM's in the Midwest go much farther than AM's in the northeast? The Chicago stations go all the way down to southern Indiana to St Louis and to north well into Wisconsin. Yet the New York stations don't even make it to Boston. I would think where you live in Connietcut you would be able to getthe big stations out of Boston, NYC, Philly and especially Hartford. I noticed that WBZ does not even make it to Albany. I remember traveling through Virginia and I as lucky if I could still get WRVA from Appomattox which is only about 70 miles from Richmond. Yet back me I can get WTMJ from Green Bay which is 120 miles from Milwaukee. I could go on with many more examples but you get the point.
I think they go about the same. WBZ is an easy station to pick up in states like Michigan and Wisconsin due to their signal being directed towards the west since an omni directional signal would give them a lot of signal over open water which would be kind of pointless. I have problems at times getting WJR to come in anymore and I live under 100 miles from their transmitter. I think some of the problem is that WJR's transmitter is south of Detroit and I'm north of it but I'm still thinking that it shouldn't be a problem it's a 50,000 watt clear channel signal and one of the strongest stations in the country so I should have no problem picking WJR up at any time of the day and what's funny is that one night about a week or two ago I was dxing in the middle of the night and could pick up WLW clearly but WJR was in and out. I didn't have any problems pulling WJR in when I pulled up right next to their transmitter located at the corner of Sibley and Grange Roads in Riverview.
I was referring to AM's during the day not at night. Typically at night the only NYC AM I can get is WCBS and that is only some nights due to every big Chicago AM being right next door. WLS is the farthest from me so that is why WCBS comes in sometimes.
During the day I can get WJR as far away as Dayton, Ohio to the south, probably somewhere around Houghton Lake to the north, Chicago to the west and probably about Buffalo to the east. Never really tried to the north or east. For NYC at night though I can get WFAN, WOR, WABC and WCBS pretty good and for Chicago WSCR, WGN, WLS and WBBM but I have a local station here on 790 which overrides 780 at times so WBBM is harder during the day.
Quote from: MantyMadTown on September 14, 2018, 05:00:04 PM
WAPL (a classic rock station based in Appleton) goes really far. I can usually hear it as far south as Beaver Dam, on the way to Madison. Meanwhile, one of the radio stations in Sheboygan doesn't go very far, and usually cuts out before reaching Manitowoc.
WAPL can be heard consistently in Manistee and Ludington, across Lake Michigan
WAPL is 100,000 watts just like WUPS in Houghton Lake, I can listen to WUPS from about Saginaw to the Mackinac Bridge.
For every station in New York City and Chicago they are one station away from each other on the dial. Like 710 is WOR, 720 is WGN; 660 is WFAN, 670 is WSCR; 770 is WABC, 780 is WBBM; 880 is WCBS, 890 is WLS.
I once read on another forum that if you took an FM radio out into the middle of Lake Michigan, you wouldn't be able to pick up anything except stations all interfering with each other. They said it was because water is a good conductor of FM signals.
Also, I have a family member who went on a commercial flight back in 1990 who said they had an FM radio (this was before the government banned radio on flights) and heard stations that had to be 200 miles away.
Quote from: bandit957 on September 18, 2018, 12:02:31 AM
I once read on another forum that if you took an FM radio out into the middle of Lake Michigan, you wouldn't be able to pick up anything except stations all interfering with each other. They said it was because water is a good conductor of FM signals.
Also, I have a family member who went on a commercial flight back in 1990 who said they had an FM radio (this was before the government banned radio on flights) and heard stations that had to be 200 miles away.
WAPL should be able to be picked up in the middle of Lake Michigan fine. Their transmitter is actually closer to Green Bay than it is Appleton. I always check on transmitter coordinates so I know where I can pick up a station. I was able to pick up WAPL at Ludington State Park. I'm also pretty sure that Lake Michigan is at one of it's narrowest points between Ludington and Manitowoc. It's probably about 70 miles across the lake at that point, between Muskegon and Milwaukee it's more like 100 miles wide.
Quote from: CNGL-Leudimin on September 10, 2017, 01:00:58 PM
I actually thought of creating this very same thread when I got 98.5 FM out of La Almunia de Doña Godina, Spain (one of many Los40 frequencies) at the Aragon/Navarre border... near Yesa. But then it's not that far compared with others, only 80 miles or so. About the same are those stations out of Huesca picked up just Northeast of Calatayud, such as 96.9 FM (Los40) and 102.0* (SER). But my personal record came somewhere in Central Aragon with 95.3 FM. I expected to get Los40 out of Zaragoza, but instead got Onda Cero out of Tarragona, 110 miles away! (And 85 miles further away)
* In Spain the FM spectrum goes from 87.5 to 108.0 in increases of 0.1 MhZ.
Quote from: michravera on September 10, 2017, 12:49:21 PM
For a long time there was an FM station in Sacramento and one in San Francisco and they both broadcast on 98.5. You would get a fight for a short distance at the Altamont Pass and then the closest one would win.
How about along I-80? It used to happen the same way or just switched from one to the other?
Neither distance would be as impressive as over the Altamont. San Francisco and Sacramento are only about 140 km apart and in a direct line on I-80 (as probably provokes your question). The Altamont is about that distance from either city. I would be surprised that other FM stations from either city couldn't be heard further away than this, but haven't recently conducted the experiment.
In 1995, I was driving from either Reno or Sacramento to San Jose and wanted to listen to the NCAA basketball game. I got it on a Casper AM station and kept it almost all of the way home. A quick lookup shows the distance as 1450 km to San Jose. I suspect that I lost it 30-40 km north, but 1400 km seems likely!
Around here 98.5 is a 100,000 watt blowtorch out of Houghton Lake. I'm about 68 miles from their transmitter and have no problem picking that station up. I was pulling it in on the Mackinac Bridge as well about 100 miles north of the transmitter.
FYI the absolute record is held by Mike Fallon from Sussex, England, who managed to get the religious station La Voz de la Luz broadcasting from Salvaleon de Higüey, Dominican Republic, 4300 miles away. This was achieved through E-skip (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sporadic_E_propagation), an unusual form of radio propagation.
Well, we had a radio in our house near Manchester, CT and we can pick up NYC stations on it.
Quote from: MattCollopy on October 03, 2018, 08:22:47 AM
Well, we had a radio in our house near Manchester, CT and we can pick up NYC stations on it.
I used to get a faint signal of WQHT-FM 97.1 (a.k.a. HOT 97) about once a week. That was in the south end of New Britain, roughly 10 miles southwest of downtown Hartford. Then the Spanish "Bomba" station (with a transmitter in Bolton) moved from 97.5 to 97.1. I even picked up WBLS-FM 107.5 a time or two. Despite WFCS-FM 107.7, the CCSU college station being 2.5-3 miles away, I'd still get it. It helps that the CCSU station is a mere 36 watts horizontal. In fact, if I had my antenna the right way, I'd get a weak signal from JAM'N 107.7 from the New London radio market!
I was trying to do some DXing in between but I listened to Clemson crush Alabama on 700 WLW tonight. I was driving through Cincinnati when the game started and made it almost to Knoxville, Tennessee when the game ended.
I also like to do DXing. I used to do it from time to time (mainly with local stations, such as 96.9 which is part of Los40). But what got me in was a few months ago when I finally managed to get 98.5, another Los40 station but out of Inoges (near Calatayud, on the first page I mentioned it as broadcasting out of La Almunia de Doña Godina but that is where it is licensed), in my hometown, just to turn a corner and suddenly finding a Catalan-speaking station on the very same frequency! I identified this station as Catalunya Informacion from the Mont Caro trasmitter in Southern Catalonia (which I now know as the "hundred-mile transmitter" because that is the distance in a straight line from home). Soon after I started finding some stations from near Logroño, and then I learned about tropospheric propagation (the "tropo"). I took advantage of this phenomenon not too long ago, when after some foggy days the fog cleared up in my area leaving a temperature inversion, which allowed me to pick up Catalunya Radio from Barcelona on 102.8 (As I've noted earlier the FM band in Spain, and Europe in general, goes from 87.5 to 108.0 with 0.1 increments). Meanwhile 98.5 has become my favorite frequency, as I can switch between the two stations mentioned earlier just by turning the antenna.
The more powerful FM Jackson stations can get as far as Meridian and Hattiesburg.
I can pick up most Dallas radio stations going north right up until I cross the Arbuckle Mountains In Oklahoma. On the other side I have to switch to OKC.
I've always been impressed how deep down into Illinois the big Chicago AMs would reach in the daytime. I remember hearing a faint signal of WGN as far down as the Marion/Carbondale area.
In San Diego, KFI and KNX could be heard like if they were locals.
Quote from: golden eagle on January 11, 2019, 07:28:46 PM
I've always been impressed how deep down into Illinois the big Chicago AMs would reach in the daytime. I remember hearing a faint signal of WGN as far down as the Marion/Carbondale area.
In San Diego, KFI and KNX could be heard like if they were locals.
I had WJR on a few months ago when I was in the Dayton, Ohio area during the daytime and it was still coming in pretty good, that'd be about 175 miles. I can pickup Chicago's big stations during the daytime here as well. As the crow flies Chicago is about 215 miles away.
Quote from: Flint1979 on January 11, 2019, 08:44:20 PM
Quote from: golden eagle on January 11, 2019, 07:28:46 PM
I've always been impressed how deep down into Illinois the big Chicago AMs would reach in the daytime. I remember hearing a faint signal of WGN as far down as the Marion/Carbondale area.
In San Diego, KFI and KNX could be heard like if they were locals.
I had WJR on a few months ago when I was in the Dayton, Ohio area during the daytime and it was still coming in pretty good, that'd be about 175 miles. I can pickup Chicago's big stations during the daytime here as well. As the crow flies Chicago is about 215 miles away.
Could you pick up WTAM, WHAS or KDKA?
Quote from: golden eagle on January 12, 2019, 06:37:05 PM
Quote from: Flint1979 on January 11, 2019, 08:44:20 PM
Quote from: golden eagle on January 11, 2019, 07:28:46 PM
I've always been impressed how deep down into Illinois the big Chicago AMs would reach in the daytime. I remember hearing a faint signal of WGN as far down as the Marion/Carbondale area.
In San Diego, KFI and KNX could be heard like if they were locals.
I had WJR on a few months ago when I was in the Dayton, Ohio area during the daytime and it was still coming in pretty good, that'd be about 175 miles. I can pickup Chicago's big stations during the daytime here as well. As the crow flies Chicago is about 215 miles away.
Could you pick up WTAM, WHAS or KDKA?
WTAM comes in just as good as Chicago's big stations here, I can hear that one 24 hours a day.
WHAS comes in great at night but fades in and out during the daytime hours.
KDKA comes in better than WHAS does during the day but fades in and out at times but not as much as WHAS.
When I was in Dayton a few months ago I switched to 700 WLW after I got closer to Mason and Cincinnati. I'm sure WHAS would have been coming in pretty good in Dayton.
One time I was sitting at the corner of Sibley and Grange Road right next to WJR's transmitter and antenna and put it on 760 just to hear what it sounded like that close and the signal was actually vibrating as it was coming in.
WJR has perhaps the best looking art deco transmitter building I have ever seen https://www.google.com/maps/@42.1699016,-83.2127609,3a,21.2y,211.99h,96.06t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sbrbXXDSweb0XB4TLrpEc4A!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en
Sort of related, but it always seem like my local radio stations have a bigger range than out of town ones.
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on January 12, 2019, 09:30:32 PM
Sort of related, but it always seem like my local radio stations have a bigger range than out of town ones.
The only Boston station I can pickup here is WBZ. I know that transmitter is in Hull and designed to shoot most of the signal in the westward direction since going east would be over open water and pointless. Detroit is exactly due west of Boston so I get most of that signal at night.
Quote from: Flint1979 on January 13, 2019, 01:11:31 AM
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on January 12, 2019, 09:30:32 PM
Sort of related, but it always seem like my local radio stations have a bigger range than out of town ones.
The only Boston station I can pickup here is WBZ. I know that transmitter is in Hull and designed to shoot most of the signal in the westward direction since going east would be over open water and pointless. Detroit is exactly due west of Boston so I get most of that signal at night.
Oh I was talking about fm. Am radio has a huge range.
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on January 13, 2019, 10:06:59 AM
Quote from: Flint1979 on January 13, 2019, 01:11:31 AM
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on January 12, 2019, 09:30:32 PM
Sort of related, but it always seem like my local radio stations have a bigger range than out of town ones.
The only Boston station I can pickup here is WBZ. I know that transmitter is in Hull and designed to shoot most of the signal in the westward direction since going east would be over open water and pointless. Detroit is exactly due west of Boston so I get most of that signal at night.
Oh I was talking about fm. Am radio has a huge range.
There are some strong FM stations around here. 95.5 in Detroit is pretty strong, 98.5 in Houghton Lake is strong. One night a few weeks ago at about 2am I decided to try FM and see how far I could pick up stations. I was pulling 97.1, 94.7 and 101.1 out of Detroit in pretty strong. I'm about 100 miles northwest of Detroit.
I was surprised I kept hearing ESPN 710 out of Los Angeles all the way from Newhall Pass to Fresno two days ago. That's about a good 200 miles north of Los Angeles which also happens to have a large number of coastal mountains in the way.
Interesting one for me is that you can get KNX 1070 out of Los Angeles, albeit with a lot of interference, at night in the Denver Metro area. If you're focused, you can pick up most of what's being said.
Quote from: Gulol on January 14, 2019, 07:57:06 PM
Interesting one for me is that you can get KNX 1070 out of Los Angeles, albeit with a lot of interference, at night in the Denver Metro area. If you're focused, you can pick up most of what's being said.
That's a pretty hefty distance. I can pick up WSB in Atlanta up here in Michigan. I have got bits and pieces of KOA and WBAP. About 2am I had it on 850 and was trying to figure out where this station was at then I was shocked when I heard them mention KOA Denver at the top of the hour. That's about 1,000 miles from me.
The two radio stations on Mount Washington can go as far west as Burlington, Vermont and as far south as Massachusetts. One of them claims to be heard into New York State but I don't know if this is true or not.
Out in Worcester you can easily hear WBZ 1030 and most of the Cape doesn't get Boston stations, but I will say that the Cape stations are fairly good.
Quote from: The Nature Boy on January 14, 2019, 09:42:59 PM
The two radio stations on Mount Washington can go as far west as Burlington, Vermont and as far south as Massachusetts. One of them claims to be heard into New York State but I don't know if this is true or not.
They seem to fuzz out right at the MA border though.
Quote from: Ben114 on January 18, 2019, 11:21:30 PM
Out in Worcester you can easily hear WBZ 1030 and most of the Cape doesn't get Boston stations, but I will say that the Cape stations are fairly good.
WBZ's transmitter is in Hull and it is directional due to the open waters of the ocean being to the east which would be a waste of signal so it's directional towards the west. I can pick it up in Michigan at night with no problem.
Quote from: Flint1979 on January 19, 2019, 03:40:11 AM
WBZ's transmitter is in Hull and it is directional due to the open waters of the ocean being to the east which would be a waste of signal so it's directional towards the west. I can pick it up in Michigan at night with no problem.
Boo! It could have been received in Europe due to its frequency (1030) being far apart from the valid ones: 1026 and 1035 (In Europe the AM band goes from 531 to 1610 in 9 khZ increments, as opposed to the 10 khZ used in the USA). However I don't know its output, so it may have not been possible. Most reports of transatlantic radio are for VOCM from St. John's, NL, Canada. Being a clear channel station on 590 (far from the European 586 and 595) and at the closest point of the Americas from Europe helps.
I finally got it to come in. Last night I was scrolling around the band and I had it on 850AM and was wondering what the heck channel is this because I heard two channels coming in together so I moved my car around a little bit and one of the channels started coming in better. It was near the top of the hour so I decided to wait for the top of the hour jingle to figure out which station it was. It was KOA in Denver and it was coming in with another station but KOA overpowered the other station after I started moving around. It was pretty cool to hear a station from that far away.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O5X3YIcmVE
KGO-AM San Francisco a 50kw station that could be heard on the Western portion of the USA at night.
Quote from: Flint1979 on January 14, 2019, 08:03:49 PM
Quote from: Gulol on January 14, 2019, 07:57:06 PM
Interesting one for me is that you can get KNX 1070 out of Los Angeles, albeit with a lot of interference, at night in the Denver Metro area. If you're focused, you can pick up most of what's being said.
That's a pretty hefty distance. I can pick up WSB in Atlanta up here in Michigan. I have got bits and pieces of KOA and WBAP. About 2am I had it on 850 and was trying to figure out where this station was at then I was shocked when I heard them mention KOA Denver at the top of the hour. That's about 1,000 miles from me.
Dang ... that is pretty far! Must be something with that frequency or maybe the antenna for the station, which is perched in the town not too far from where I live (Parker, CO), was built on an old Indian burial ground or on some cosmic portal. The first house I had near where the antenna is had the radio station come through loud and clear on our land line telephone almost to a point where the radio station was drowning out the person on the other end of the phone. Took buying a special filter at a HAM radio store to plug in to the jack and eliminate that ... never did try and see if I could get the station through my toaster though! :D
Quote from: Gulol on January 21, 2019, 01:18:52 PM
Quote from: Flint1979 on January 14, 2019, 08:03:49 PM
Quote from: Gulol on January 14, 2019, 07:57:06 PM
Interesting one for me is that you can get KNX 1070 out of Los Angeles, albeit with a lot of interference, at night in the Denver Metro area. If you're focused, you can pick up most of what's being said.
That's a pretty hefty distance. I can pick up WSB in Atlanta up here in Michigan. I have got bits and pieces of KOA and WBAP. About 2am I had it on 850 and was trying to figure out where this station was at then I was shocked when I heard them mention KOA Denver at the top of the hour. That's about 1,000 miles from me.
Dang ... that is pretty far! Must be something with that frequency or maybe the antenna for the station, which is perched in the town not too far from where I live (Parker, CO), was built on an old Indian burial ground or on some cosmic portal. The first house I had near where the antenna is had the radio station come through loud and clear on our land line telephone almost to a point where the radio station was drowning out the person on the other end of the phone. Took buying a special filter at a HAM radio store to plug in to the jack and eliminate that ... never did try and see if I could get the station through my toaster though! :D
I have KOA's antenna tower estimated to be around 6,000 feet above sea level. I also estimated that their reach covers just about the entire western half of the United States as well as parts of Canada and Mexico at night, during the day it's reach probably covers most of eastern Colorado all the way down into New Mexico and all the way up into Wyoming.
Yeah those filters work pretty good. I use to be a lot more heavily not quite as much anymore but use to be heavily into the CB radio and I even created override into my neighborhood coming through TV's and landline phones and stuff. I had a neighbor that complained so much that I actually went and bought them a filter to shut them up. I also went with another antenna after awhile that wasn't nearly as bad.
I guess KOA really is the blowtorch of the west. It's the only western U.S. station I've ever received here in Michigan. I've never even tried anything further west since I know it's probably not going to work. Are you able to get any of LA's stations or anything out there in Denver?
During the winter and at night, I can get KNX 1070 out of Los Angeles. If you can mentally filter out the static and interference from other stations, you can pick out what's being said.
Bumping the thread.....
For me, I've picked up WKSK in Winston-Salem and Hickory several times (AM, that is!)
Most of Springfield's local stations are actually located in Fordland, 20 miles east of here. This is because Fordland is 300 feet higher. I've never tried the AM stations but most FM stations go at least 100 miles, and therefore interfere with KC's stations.
First time I've ever noticed getting this station tonight but WWL in New Orleans is getting picked up in Michigan.
My newest DXing record came from a cruise I just went on over winter break. I picked up WCBS 880 and WBZ 1020 on our stateroom balcony somewhere between San Juan and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Close to 2,000 miles for both.
As for FM, the strongest Columbia/Jefferson City/mid-Missouri stations (95.7 KWWR (a favorite of mine), 96.7 KCMQ, 97.7 KPOW) can be heard from Hannibal and Macon in the north down to Osage Beach and Ft. Leonard Wood south. Depending on the location of the transmitter, a couple reach Kansas City or St. Louis (but usually not both). From time to time I can pick up their stations here though.
Low band conditions have been great. Within the realm of ham radio, I worked Mongolia on 1805kHz yesterday at sunset. :D
I've found the trick to picking up weaker local FM stations -- even college ones with about 30 watts maximum available -- is to use an analog tuner -- one that uses a variable leaf capacitor as the tuning element. That will allow you to "detune" a bit if the frequency's a bit off -- more modern digital tuners, including all those included in home-theater shit, will generally only receive a signal that can be duplicated from their internal frequency menu; if it's off, they don't recognize it (with the exception of some nice but pricey Yamaha dedicated tuners). Some of the better analog tuners have digital readouts -- but incorporate a bit of "play" in the tuning mechanism, reading the proximate frequency even if the tuner's actually in between the standard marks (i.e. -- if you're looking for 99.1 FM, you can still "detune" down to 99.05 and up to 99.15 if that's what it takes to actually receive a workable signal.). But the best tuner performance is achieved with a decent antenna -- an outdoor omnidirectional works well; that's what I use to pick up the local (San Jose to San Mateo) college stations in my main downstairs system. Upstairs, I have a passive indoor antenna called a Beam Box (dating from the early '80's) that's almost as good as the outside except with the really weak stations. Well-programmed radio's a nice thing to have available -- but sometime you gotta tweak a little to get it right. I'm in south-central San Jose, and can pick up College of San Mateo with my main rig -- and even Stanford with the bedroom tuner -- and college stations are as weak as they come (by charter!).
The farthest station I've managed to get down here was SF State, which broadcasts from the hills above Daly City -- and that was with a 1966-vintage Marantz 10B vacuum-tube tuner my business acquired a couple of years back -- that thing could pick up anything with our attic "whip" antenna at the office. But we acquired it to resell, so it ended up with a customer who drove down from Oregon to pick it up. Damn thing was amazing!
Tuning on radios these days is terrible compared to what it used to be.
Last night during my evening commute, I listened to WABC 770 AM for about half an hour. Came in pretty well most of that time. I was on the west side of Indianapolis, a cool 660 miles (give or take) from the transmitter. I'm sure WABC's signal goes a lot farther west when conditions are favorable. Oddly enough, WABC was coming in much better than Chicago stations WGN, WBBM, and WLS.
Quote from: Rushmeister on January 29, 2020, 12:33:19 PM
Last night during my evening commute, I listened to WABC 770 AM for about half an hour. Came in pretty well most of that time. I was on the west side of Indianapolis, a cool 660 miles (give or take) from the transmitter. I'm sure WABC's signal goes a lot farther west when conditions are favorable. Oddly enough, WABC was coming in much better than Chicago stations WGN, WBBM, and WLS.
I get that with WJR sometimes and I'm only 97 miles from the transmitter. For some reason WLW blows in here really strong all day long and the Chicago stations are all pretty good all day.
I've been having pretty good luck. Not too long ago I was able to get KOA in Denver for the first time ever. I've got WBAP in Dallas too.
Quote from: Flint1979 on January 29, 2020, 05:31:21 PM
I get that with WJR sometimes and I'm only 97 miles from the transmitter. For some reason WLW blows in here really strong all day long and the Chicago stations are all pretty good all day.
I've been having pretty good luck. Not too long ago I was able to get KOA in Denver for the first time ever. I've got WBAP in Dallas too.
I thought I'd mention I pick up WJR here in Columbia on the regular (at night of course). Not that it's super surprising, it's not like we're all that far from Detroit. Still haven't heard that top of the hour ID though.
Quote from: TravelingBethelite on January 30, 2020, 12:27:41 PM
Quote from: Flint1979 on January 29, 2020, 05:31:21 PM
I get that with WJR sometimes and I'm only 97 miles from the transmitter. For some reason WLW blows in here really strong all day long and the Chicago stations are all pretty good all day.
I've been having pretty good luck. Not too long ago I was able to get KOA in Denver for the first time ever. I've got WBAP in Dallas too.
I thought I'd mention I pick up WJR here in Columbia on the regular (at night of course). Not that it's super surprising, it's not like we're all that far from Detroit. Still haven't heard that top of the hour ID though.
It's a strong station you can pick it up all the way to about Dayton, Ohio during the day. The transmitter building is pretty cool too it's an art deco design building in Riverview, a suburb a little south of Detroit.
They change the top of the hour up often. The most used one goes, "from the golden tower of the Fisher Building - the great voice of the Great Lakes, 760 WJR Detroit."
Back in the day they had some of the best local personalities around. Ever show was local.
When I was picking up KOA I heard the top of the hour and they said something then I heard, "the 50,000 watt blowtorch of the Rocky mountain west" and I thought wow that's KOA.
Many years ago, In addition to WJR from Detroit, i was able to if i turned my radio right, i could pick up CKLW out of nearby Windsor while i was in visiting family in Gadsden AL. But if i turned my radio 180 degree, instead of CKLW, i would pick up Trans World Radio from the Netherlands Antelies (just less 100 miles from Venezuela) from my location in Gadsden.
I remember back in the 80's WJR's TOH was, "from the golden tower of the Fisher Building this is AM Stereo 76 WJR Detroit."
They announce the Fisher Building because it was part of their original lease when the building first opened in December 1928. WJR is the Fisher Building's oldest tenant.
Quote from: bandit957 on September 18, 2018, 12:02:31 AM
I once read on another forum that if you took an FM radio out into the middle of Lake Michigan, you wouldn't be able to pick up anything except stations all interfering with each other. They said it was because water is a good conductor of FM signals.
Also, I have a family member who went on a commercial flight back in 1990 who said they had an FM radio (this was before the government banned radio on flights) and heard stations that had to be 200 miles away.
I have heard far-away FMs in the air, so that sounds about right.
Water is a good conductor for FM radio. I remember driving on the Lake Pontchartrain bridge near New Orleans around 2:30 in the afternoon and picking up FMs out of Jackson, MS and Houston like if they were locals in New Orleans. Not too far east on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, you can hear 620 from Tampa, well over 400 miles as the crow flies.
I think salt water enhances AM signals. Not sure about FM stations. It likely explained why I got WCBS-AM 880 of New York City in the early afternoon in Newport, RI (2004). A similar thing happens with WBZ-AM 1030 of Boston. It comes in almost like a local in certain parts of Portland, ME during the day.
I'm in Minnesota currently and WJR is coming in really strong just like I'm sitting next to the transmitter in Riverview. I'm getting some new stations in I can't figure out the call letters but I heard an ad mention area code 206 which is Seattle.
Only at night when the AM tower isn't using as much power, and I'm in a area where there isn't a lot of fringe static, I'm able to pick up the Boise station, KBLY AM 670 in Missoula on my car radio.