What does your AM radio look like at night

Started by dvferyance, October 15, 2018, 08:43:25 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

MikeTheActuary

Quote from: CNGL-Leudimin on October 19, 2018, 04:13:17 AM
I see a green circle just inside North Korea? That would be quite a feat. But nope, it's (barely) in South Korea. I like how do you have contacts with really remote islands, including all notable DX-peditions listed on Wikipedia.

My three favorite contacts are:

VK6FZM/MM, which was the crew that activated Amsterdam Island, while on their way back to Perth.  At the time I worked them, they were pretty close to the antipode of where I was operating from, which I thought was really cool

RI1ANF on 160m (the ham band just above the AM broadcast band).  I heard them and worked them, feeling very surprised that I could get into Russia on that frequency. Only the next day did I look him up, and realize that he was stationed at a base in the South Shetland Islands.

NA1SS (not shown) -- The International Space Station.  I helped a bunch of middle schoolers talk to an astronaut on the ISS.  That was extremely cool.


dvferyance

I will finish my list
1100 WTAM Cleveland OH good most nights
1110 KFAB Omaha NE some nights
1120 KMOX St Louis MO hard to get due to local WISN being next door
1130 WISN local
1140 nothing mostly WRVA from Richmond VA comes in if I get farther out
1150 WHBY Appleton WI faint signal some nights
1160 WYLL Chicago IL good most nights
1170 WWVA Wheeling WV some nights
1180 the station from Rochester NY good most nights
1190 WOWO Ft Wayne IN some nights
1200 WOAI San Antonio TX some nights
1210 station from Philadelphia PA good most nights
1220 Nothing I can identify
1230 Nothing
1240 Nothing
1250 WSSP local
1260 nothing
1270 Ocasionaly the station from Detroit
1280 Nothing
1290 Nothing
1300 Nothing
1310 Some station from Canada ocasionally
1320-1420 Mostly just slop I once got the 1370 station from Toledo
1430 Occasioanly a astation from Indianapolis
1440 Nothing
1450 Nothing
1460 Local
1470 Station from Peoria IL
1480 Nothing
1490 Nothing
1500 KSTP St Paul MN some nights
1510 WLAC Nashville TN Good most nights
1520 Either state station from Oklahama City or Rochester MN
1530 WCKY Cincinati OH Good most nights
A will leave it at that

Flint1979

Quote from: dvferyance on October 24, 2018, 12:29:28 PM
I will finish my list
1100 WTAM Cleveland OH good most nights
1110 KFAB Omaha NE some nights
1120 KMOX St Louis MO hard to get due to local WISN being next door
1130 WISN local
1140 nothing mostly WRVA from Richmond VA comes in if I get farther out
1150 WHBY Appleton WI faint signal some nights
1160 WYLL Chicago IL good most nights
1170 WWVA Wheeling WV some nights
1180 the station from Rochester NY good most nights
1190 WOWO Ft Wayne IN some nights
1200 WOAI San Antonio TX some nights
1210 station from Philadelphia PA good most nights
1220 Nothing I can identify
1230 Nothing
1240 Nothing
1250 WSSP local
1260 nothing
1270 Ocasionaly the station from Detroit
1280 Nothing
1290 Nothing
1300 Nothing
1310 Some station from Canada ocasionally
1320-1420 Mostly just slop I once got the 1370 station from Toledo
1430 Occasioanly a astation from Indianapolis
1440 Nothing
1450 Nothing
1460 Local
1470 Station from Peoria IL
1480 Nothing
1490 Nothing
1500 KSTP St Paul MN some nights
1510 WLAC Nashville TN Good most nights
1520 Either state station from Oklahama City or Rochester MN
1530 WCKY Cincinati OH Good most nights
A will leave it at that
You get WXYT in Wisconsin? I always thought that station had a pretty weak signal. It's the station you mentioned from Detroit on 1270. It's 50,000 watts but isn't a clear channel signal and the transmitter is almost in Monroe.

You want to hear something funny though. Tonight I was sitting my car going all the way through the band I started at 620 and WTMJ wasn't really coming in that well but I could understand everything being said and I get to 760 and think WJR should come in better than it does for being a 50,000 watt clear channel signal and this was at almost midnight. What I heard on 760 was a scrambled up mess like two stations were fighting each other with WJR coming in behind it in the background, I have no clue what station WJR would be fighting with in my area I only live 97 miles from their transmitter. WLW was coming in the best and I didn't go much further past 760 so I didn't get up to KMOX or any of those stations. Does WJR sound clear over there in Wisconsin at night like no other station is messing with it? I mean that's really not that far away but far enough that you probably don't get it very well during the day time. I'm just surprised, I grew up listening to WJR when it was REALLY the great voice of the Great Lakes and that station was a force. I remember being in Georgia coming home from Florida in 1995 and was listening to WJR south of Macon when I heard them break the news on the Oklahoma City bombing. It comes in great going to the south on the I-75 corridor until you get a little ways into Florida.

MikeTheActuary

Here's what came in tonight.  I have a suspicion that some of my unidentified stations are pirates.   My results are probably not typical as I have large antennas and a very sensitive receiver.  Jumbles of multiple weak stations are omitted, and  stations without locations are mostly local to me.

560 WHYN
570 WSYR (Syracuse)
600 WICC?
610 WSNG
640 WNNZ
660 WFAN
670 WSCR (Chicago) and unid Latin music
700 WLW (Cincinnati)
710 WOR (NYC) and WAQI (Miami)
720 WGN (Chicago) and 1 other
730 WACE
740 CFZM (Toronto)
750 WSB (Atlanta)
760 WJR (Detroit)
770 WABC (NYC)
780 WBBM? (Chicago)
800 CKLW Windsor
810 WGY (Schenectady) + one other
830 WCCO (Minneapolis) + WCRN (Worcester)
840 WHAS (Louisville) and WRYM (Hartford)
860 CJBC (Toronto)
870 WWL (New Orleans)
880 WCBS (NYC)
890 WLS (Chicago)
900 CHML (Hamilton, ON)
910 WLAT
1010 WINS (NYC) and CFRB (Toronto)
1020 KDKA (Pittsburgh)
1030 WBZ (Boston)
1040 WHO (Des Moines) and unid country
1060 KYW (Philadelphia) and others
1080 WTIC
1100 WTAM (Cleveland)
1110 WBT (Charlotte)
1120 WPRX
1130 WDFN (Detroit)?
1170 WCTF
1210 WPHT (Philadelphia)
1230 WNEZ
1240 WWCO
1250 WARE
1270 WACN
1290 WNWW
1320 WATR
1360 WDRC
1410 WPOP
1450 WHLL
1480 WKND
1490 WSPR
1500 WFED (Washington DC)
1520 WWKB (Buffalo)
1530 WCKY (Cincinnati)
1540 KXEL (Waterloo, IA) + 2 others
1550 WSDK
1560 WFME (NYC)
1570 XERF-AM (Ciduad Acuña) behind unid. Latin music
1580 CKDO (Oshawa)
1600 WLZX
1610 CHRN (Montréal)
1620 unid Latin music
1660 WWRU (Jersey City)
1670 unid Latin+English music
1690 WPTX (Lexington Park, MD)

Flint1979

Quote from: MikeTheActuary on October 26, 2018, 03:10:54 AM
Here's what came in tonight.  I have a suspicion that some of my unidentified stations are pirates.   My results are probably not typical as I have large antennas and a very sensitive receiver.  Jumbles of multiple weak stations are omitted, and  stations without locations are mostly local to me.

560 WHYN
570 WSYR (Syracuse)
600 WICC?
610 WSNG
640 WNNZ
660 WFAN
670 WSCR (Chicago) and unid Latin music
700 WLW (Cincinnati)
710 WOR (NYC) and WAQI (Miami)
720 WGN (Chicago) and 1 other
730 WACE
740 CFZM (Toronto)
750 WSB (Atlanta)
760 WJR (Detroit)
770 WABC (NYC)
780 WBBM? (Chicago)
800 CKLW Windsor
810 WGY (Schenectady) + one other
830 WCCO (Minneapolis) + WCRN (Worcester)
840 WHAS (Louisville) and WRYM (Hartford)
860 CJBC (Toronto)
870 WWL (New Orleans)
880 WCBS (NYC)
890 WLS (Chicago)
900 CHML (Hamilton, ON)
910 WLAT
1010 WINS (NYC) and CFRB (Toronto)
1020 KDKA (Pittsburgh)
1030 WBZ (Boston)
1040 WHO (Des Moines) and unid country
1060 KYW (Philadelphia) and others
1080 WTIC
1100 WTAM (Cleveland)
1110 WBT (Charlotte)
1120 WPRX
1130 WDFN (Detroit)?
1170 WCTF
1210 WPHT (Philadelphia)
1230 WNEZ
1240 WWCO
1250 WARE
1270 WACN
1290 WNWW
1320 WATR
1360 WDRC
1410 WPOP
1450 WHLL
1480 WKND
1490 WSPR
1500 WFED (Washington DC)
1520 WWKB (Buffalo)
1530 WCKY (Cincinnati)
1540 KXEL (Waterloo, IA) + 2 others
1550 WSDK
1560 WFME (NYC)
1570 XERF-AM (Ciduad Acuña) behind unid. Latin music
1580 CKDO (Oshawa)
1600 WLZX
1610 CHRN (Montréal)
1620 unid Latin music
1660 WWRU (Jersey City)
1670 unid Latin+English music
1690 WPTX (Lexington Park, MD)
Where are you located? I was reading your list and surprised to see WDFN 1130AM out of Detroit on the list with all the other ones. That's because WDFN powers down to 10,000 watts at night but runs at 50,000 watts on a class B signal. It has a funny nighttime signal and I don't know what station they are protecting on 1130 I'm thinking probably either WISN out of Milwaukee or WBBR out of NYC, probably WISN though.

MikeTheActuary

Quote from: Flint1979 on October 26, 2018, 10:27:37 AM
Where are you located? I was reading your list and surprised to see WDFN 1130AM out of Detroit on the list with all the other ones. That's because WDFN powers down to 10,000 watts at night but runs at 50,000 watts on a class B signal. It has a funny nighttime signal and I don't know what station they are protecting on 1130 I'm thinking probably either WISN out of Milwaukee or WBBR out of NYC, probably WISN though.

I'm outside Hartford CT....but I was doing this with ham radio gear.   I had made a couple of European contacts around 1810-1825 just before their sunrise, running only 100w, so my results may not be typical.

It wasn't WBBR...or more correctly, WBBR wasn't the dominant broadcast in what I was hearing.   I'm familiar with them, but New York is skip-zone distance to me, so even clear channel broadcasters can be difficult to hear, depending on their tower array and broadcast pattern.   I could "pick them out of the mud", but I was focusing on clearly dominant signals  in my list.

My ad-blocker and annoyance-blocker plugins on my browser make online streaming of broadcast radio stations hit-or-miss, and I wasn't able to test through those means whether it was WDFN or WISN.  Both stations are at 10kW at night, and their FCC records indicate both have tight beams to the north at night...so I was puzzled.  And, of course, as with most frequencies I was hearing multiple stations.   If I had waited around for station ID or a local commercial, I could have figured it out (or the band could have changed and given me something else to listen to)...but given that I was trying to make a relatively quick pass up the band, I had to conclude that WDFN was the least implausible candidate.

One of the reasons I enjoy playing with radio is that sometimes very implausible things happen.  It's very cool to be there when they do.  :)

Flint1979

Quote from: MikeTheActuary on October 26, 2018, 11:13:30 AM
Quote from: Flint1979 on October 26, 2018, 10:27:37 AM
Where are you located? I was reading your list and surprised to see WDFN 1130AM out of Detroit on the list with all the other ones. That's because WDFN powers down to 10,000 watts at night but runs at 50,000 watts on a class B signal. It has a funny nighttime signal and I don't know what station they are protecting on 1130 I'm thinking probably either WISN out of Milwaukee or WBBR out of NYC, probably WISN though.

I'm outside Hartford CT....but I was doing this with ham radio gear.   I had made a couple of European contacts around 1810-1825 just before their sunrise, running only 100w, so my results may not be typical.

It wasn't WBBR...or more correctly, WBBR wasn't the dominant broadcast in what I was hearing.   I'm familiar with them, but New York is skip-zone distance to me, so even clear channel broadcasters can be difficult to hear, depending on their tower array and broadcast pattern.   I could "pick them out of the mud", but I was focusing on clearly dominant signals  in my list.

My ad-blocker and annoyance-blocker plugins on my browser make online streaming of broadcast radio stations hit-or-miss, and I wasn't able to test through those means whether it was WDFN or WISN.  Both stations are at 10kW at night, and their FCC records indicate both have tight beams to the north at night...so I was puzzled.  And, of course, as with most frequencies I was hearing multiple stations.   If I had waited around for station ID or a local commercial, I could have figured it out (or the band could have changed and given me something else to listen to)...but given that I was trying to make a relatively quick pass up the band, I had to conclude that WDFN was the least implausible candidate.

One of the reasons I enjoy playing with radio is that sometimes very implausible things happen.  It's very cool to be there when they do.  :)
Wow ok you might be able to help me out then. I've been into CB radio but haven't been active on it in about six years or so. I still have an IMAX 2000 in the air so I was thinking I might be able to use that antenna to pull in AM radio stations but I was never sure if it would work. I always love to hear about how far WJR's reach is since that's my nearest 50,000 watt blowtorch and I've had trouble with that station lately I'm about 97 miles from the transmitter but then will go down to 700 and WLW is blowing smoke up this way.

I'm assuming it could have been WDFN since that signal would be closer to you than WISN but with your location I thought New York stations would come in better up that way. That could be my problem with WJR being in the skip-zone distance from me, I drove right up next to their transmitter because I wanted to see what a 50,000 watt signal sounded like right next to the tower and as I drove away the first 50 miles wasn't bad but after that it was hit or miss. I would indeed be in that tight beam to the north for WDFN I'll have to try that one to see I'd like to get about halfway between Milwaukee and Detroit probably around the Grand Rapids area or somewhere in between Lansing and Grand Rapids to see what comes in out that way.

I get that a lot too with multiple stations coming in. A lot of the 50,000 watt blowtorches that are between 500 and 1,000 miles away come in great. WSB in Atlanta comes in pretty solid, KMOX in St. Louis with where St. Louis is located might have the biggest reach in the country. When the Cardinals were in the World Series in 2011 their first year back on KMOX as their flagship station one of my friends who's a Cardinals fan left St. Louis about 2-3 hours before game time and kept it on KMOX. He wanted to see if he could lose KMOX before the Cardinals game was over. He told me he started driving west on I-70 and was about 50 miles east of Kansas City when the game started and said that he got around Hays, Kansas when the game got over and that KMOX was still coming in strong. He said it was like he never left St. Louis that's how it was coming in. I mean Hays is over 250 miles from Kansas City let alone how far it is from St. Louis lol.

I'll have to try WDFN when they power down tonight to see how it comes in here. I was looking at their transmitter site and it looks like it might have a directional antenna pattern. It's about 4 miles south of WJR's transmitter but I don't think WJR would effect the signal. I'm not sure how listened to WDFN is though, it's a sports station and most people listen to 97.1 The Ticket for Detroit sports.

MikeTheActuary

Quote from: Flint1979 on October 26, 2018, 07:45:00 PM
Wow ok you might be able to help me out then. I've been into CB radio but haven't been active on it in about six years or so. I still have an IMAX 2000 in the air so I was thinking I might be able to use that antenna to pull in AM radio stations but I was never sure if it would work.

If you could make the connection, you probably would receive signals through that antenna, but I doubt that you would get much improvement.  I was connected to a 150 foot long wire antenna, with a similar-length folded counterpoise to get an adequate RF ground.  Still not a resonant antenna for AM broadcast, but better than what most people listen to.

Most of the AM broadcast stations have charts on file in the FCC database that show what their daytime and nighttime radiation patterns are; easiest way to access them is through the link usually found at the bottom of the Wikipedia page for the station.  That's how I know that both WDFN and WISE have a narrow beam north (which is why it's odd that I heard one of them -- either it was a fluke, or they aren't transmitting in the pattern they're licensed to use)

New York at night....while the details depending on how the ionosphere is doing and the towers being used by the broadcaster, there is a zone where you are too far to hear the signal via groundwave, but too near to hear the signals via skywave.  For me, last night, New York City was near that zone.  I could hear most of the NYC high power stations....but it wasn't easy.


I'm assuming it could have been WDFN since that signal would be closer to you than WISN but with your location I thought New York stations would come in better up that way. That could be my problem with WJR being in the skip-zone distance from me, I drove right up next to their transmitter because I wanted to see what a 50,000 watt signal sounded like right next to the tower and as I drove away the first 50 miles wasn't bad but after that it was hit or miss. I would indeed be in that tight beam to the north for WDFN I'll have to try that one to see I'd like to get about halfway between Milwaukee and Detroit probably around the Grand Rapids area or somewhere in between Lansing and Grand Rapids to see what comes in out that way.

I get that a lot too with multiple stations coming in. A lot of the 50,000 watt blowtorches that are between 500 and 1,000 miles away come in great. WSB in Atlanta comes in pretty solid, KMOX in St. Louis with where St. Louis is located might have the biggest reach in the country. When the Cardinals were in the World Series in 2011 their first year back on KMOX as their flagship station one of my friends who's a Cardinals fan left St. Louis about 2-3 hours before game time and kept it on KMOX. He wanted to see if he could lose KMOX before the Cardinals game was over. He told me he started driving west on I-70 and was about 50 miles east of Kansas City when the game started and said that he got around Hays, Kansas when the game got over and that KMOX was still coming in strong. He said it was like he never left St. Louis that's how it was coming in. I mean Hays is over 250 miles from Kansas City let alone how far it is from St. Louis lol.

I'll have to try WDFN when they power down tonight to see how it comes in here. I was looking at their transmitter site and it looks like it might have a directional antenna pattern. It's about 4 miles south of WJR's transmitter but I don't think WJR would effect the signal. I'm not sure how listened to WDFN is though, it's a sports station and most people listen to 97.1 The Ticket for Detroit sports.
[/quote]

dvferyance

Quote from: Flint1979 on October 25, 2018, 02:47:36 AM
Quote from: dvferyance on October 24, 2018, 12:29:28 PM
I will finish my list
1100 WTAM Cleveland OH good most nights
1110 KFAB Omaha NE some nights
1120 KMOX St Louis MO hard to get due to local WISN being next door
1130 WISN local
1140 nothing mostly WRVA from Richmond VA comes in if I get farther out
1150 WHBY Appleton WI faint signal some nights
1160 WYLL Chicago IL good most nights
1170 WWVA Wheeling WV some nights
1180 the station from Rochester NY good most nights
1190 WOWO Ft Wayne IN some nights
1200 WOAI San Antonio TX some nights
1210 station from Philadelphia PA good most nights
1220 Nothing I can identify
1230 Nothing
1240 Nothing
1250 WSSP local
1260 nothing
1270 Ocasionaly the station from Detroit
1280 Nothing
1290 Nothing
1300 Nothing
1310 Some station from Canada ocasionally
1320-1420 Mostly just slop I once got the 1370 station from Toledo
1430 Occasioanly a astation from Indianapolis
1440 Nothing
1450 Nothing
1460 Local
1470 Station from Peoria IL
1480 Nothing
1490 Nothing
1500 KSTP St Paul MN some nights
1510 WLAC Nashville TN Good most nights
1520 Either state station from Oklahama City or Rochester MN
1530 WCKY Cincinati OH Good most nights
A will leave it at that
You get WXYT in Wisconsin? I always thought that station had a pretty weak signal. It's the station you mentioned from Detroit on 1270. It's 50,000 watts but isn't a clear channel signal and the transmitter is almost in Monroe.

You want to hear something funny though. Tonight I was sitting my car going all the way through the band I started at 620 and WTMJ wasn't really coming in that well but I could understand everything being said and I get to 760 and think WJR should come in better than it does for being a 50,000 watt clear channel signal and this was at almost midnight. What I heard on 760 was a scrambled up mess like two stations were fighting each other with WJR coming in behind it in the background, I have no clue what station WJR would be fighting with in my area I only live 97 miles from their transmitter. WLW was coming in the best and I didn't go much further past 760 so I didn't get up to KMOX or any of those stations. Does WJR sound clear over there in Wisconsin at night like no other station is messing with it? I mean that's really not that far away but far enough that you probably don't get it very well during the day time. I'm just surprised, I grew up listening to WJR when it was REALLY the great voice of the Great Lakes and that station was a force. I remember being in Georgia coming home from Florida in 1995 and was listening to WJR south of Macon when I heard them break the news on the Oklahoma City bombing. It comes in great going to the south on the I-75 corridor until you get a little ways into Florida.
I can even sometimes faintly get WJR during the day. It comes at least ok most nights. As far as 1270 goes I have only gotten that station on rare occasion it's not like it comes in every night.

dvferyance

Quote from: Flint1979 on October 26, 2018, 10:27:37 AM
Quote from: MikeTheActuary on October 26, 2018, 03:10:54 AM
Here's what came in tonight.  I have a suspicion that some of my unidentified stations are pirates.   My results are probably not typical as I have large antennas and a very sensitive receiver.  Jumbles of multiple weak stations are omitted, and  stations without locations are mostly local to me.

560 WHYN
570 WSYR (Syracuse)
600 WICC?
610 WSNG
640 WNNZ
660 WFAN
670 WSCR (Chicago) and unid Latin music
700 WLW (Cincinnati)
710 WOR (NYC) and WAQI (Miami)
720 WGN (Chicago) and 1 other
730 WACE
740 CFZM (Toronto)
750 WSB (Atlanta)
760 WJR (Detroit)
770 WABC (NYC)
780 WBBM? (Chicago)
800 CKLW Windsor
810 WGY (Schenectady) + one other
830 WCCO (Minneapolis) + WCRN (Worcester)
840 WHAS (Louisville) and WRYM (Hartford)
860 CJBC (Toronto)
870 WWL (New Orleans)
880 WCBS (NYC)
890 WLS (Chicago)
900 CHML (Hamilton, ON)
910 WLAT
1010 WINS (NYC) and CFRB (Toronto)
1020 KDKA (Pittsburgh)
1030 WBZ (Boston)
1040 WHO (Des Moines) and unid country
1060 KYW (Philadelphia) and others
1080 WTIC
1100 WTAM (Cleveland)
1110 WBT (Charlotte)
1120 WPRX
1130 WDFN (Detroit)?
1170 WCTF
1210 WPHT (Philadelphia)
1230 WNEZ
1240 WWCO
1250 WARE
1270 WACN
1290 WNWW
1320 WATR
1360 WDRC
1410 WPOP
1450 WHLL
1480 WKND
1490 WSPR
1500 WFED (Washington DC)
1520 WWKB (Buffalo)
1530 WCKY (Cincinnati)
1540 KXEL (Waterloo, IA) + 2 others
1550 WSDK
1560 WFME (NYC)
1570 XERF-AM (Ciduad Acuña) behind unid. Latin music
1580 CKDO (Oshawa)
1600 WLZX
1610 CHRN (Montréal)
1620 unid Latin music
1660 WWRU (Jersey City)
1670 unid Latin+English music
1690 WPTX (Lexington Park, MD)
Where are you located? I was reading your list and surprised to see WDFN 1130AM out of Detroit on the list with all the other ones. That's because WDFN powers down to 10,000 watts at night but runs at 50,000 watts on a class B signal. It has a funny nighttime signal and I don't know what station they are protecting on 1130 I'm thinking probably either WISN out of Milwaukee or WBBR out of NYC, probably WISN though.
Mostly likely WISN during dawn WDFN sometimes mixes in with WISN. Also don't forget KLTK in Minneapolis.

Flint1979

Quote from: MikeTheActuary on October 26, 2018, 08:33:52 PM
Quote from: Flint1979 on October 26, 2018, 07:45:00 PM
Wow ok you might be able to help me out then. I've been into CB radio but haven't been active on it in about six years or so. I still have an IMAX 2000 in the air so I was thinking I might be able to use that antenna to pull in AM radio stations but I was never sure if it would work.

If you could make the connection, you probably would receive signals through that antenna, but I doubt that you would get much improvement.  I was connected to a 150 foot long wire antenna, with a similar-length folded counterpoise to get an adequate RF ground.  Still not a resonant antenna for AM broadcast, but better than what most people listen to.

Most of the AM broadcast stations have charts on file in the FCC database that show what their daytime and nighttime radiation patterns are; easiest way to access them is through the link usually found at the bottom of the Wikipedia page for the station.  That's how I know that both WDFN and WISE have a narrow beam north (which is why it's odd that I heard one of them -- either it was a fluke, or they aren't transmitting in the pattern they're licensed to use)

New York at night....while the details depending on how the ionosphere is doing and the towers being used by the broadcaster, there is a zone where you are too far to hear the signal via groundwave, but too near to hear the signals via skywave.  For me, last night, New York City was near that zone.  I could hear most of the NYC high power stations....but it wasn't easy.


I'm assuming it could have been WDFN since that signal would be closer to you than WISN but with your location I thought New York stations would come in better up that way. That could be my problem with WJR being in the skip-zone distance from me, I drove right up next to their transmitter because I wanted to see what a 50,000 watt signal sounded like right next to the tower and as I drove away the first 50 miles wasn't bad but after that it was hit or miss. I would indeed be in that tight beam to the north for WDFN I'll have to try that one to see I'd like to get about halfway between Milwaukee and Detroit probably around the Grand Rapids area or somewhere in between Lansing and Grand Rapids to see what comes in out that way.

I get that a lot too with multiple stations coming in. A lot of the 50,000 watt blowtorches that are between 500 and 1,000 miles away come in great. WSB in Atlanta comes in pretty solid, KMOX in St. Louis with where St. Louis is located might have the biggest reach in the country. When the Cardinals were in the World Series in 2011 their first year back on KMOX as their flagship station one of my friends who's a Cardinals fan left St. Louis about 2-3 hours before game time and kept it on KMOX. He wanted to see if he could lose KMOX before the Cardinals game was over. He told me he started driving west on I-70 and was about 50 miles east of Kansas City when the game started and said that he got around Hays, Kansas when the game got over and that KMOX was still coming in strong. He said it was like he never left St. Louis that's how it was coming in. I mean Hays is over 250 miles from Kansas City let alone how far it is from St. Louis lol.

I'll have to try WDFN when they power down tonight to see how it comes in here. I was looking at their transmitter site and it looks like it might have a directional antenna pattern. It's about 4 miles south of WJR's transmitter but I don't think WJR would effect the signal. I'm not sure how listened to WDFN is though, it's a sports station and most people listen to 97.1 The Ticket for Detroit sports.
[/quote]
Might be able to do it if I could ever find an adaptor for the coax and hook it up to a radio. I have one of those little rubber antennas but the stations still come in pretty good. I know WBZ has a very directional antenna but with where Boston is located I guess it would be pointless to send all that signal over open water. New York at night for me is hit or miss, I can get some of the bigger stations like WFAN, WABC, WCBS but WOR is a harder one at times. In order to get a station like WBBM though I have to get out of my area a little ways due to the override from a local station on 790.




Flint1979

Quote from: dvferyance on October 26, 2018, 09:10:57 PM
Quote from: Flint1979 on October 26, 2018, 10:27:37 AM
Quote from: MikeTheActuary on October 26, 2018, 03:10:54 AM
Here's what came in tonight.  I have a suspicion that some of my unidentified stations are pirates.   My results are probably not typical as I have large antennas and a very sensitive receiver.  Jumbles of multiple weak stations are omitted, and  stations without locations are mostly local to me.

560 WHYN
570 WSYR (Syracuse)
600 WICC?
610 WSNG
640 WNNZ
660 WFAN
670 WSCR (Chicago) and unid Latin music
700 WLW (Cincinnati)
710 WOR (NYC) and WAQI (Miami)
720 WGN (Chicago) and 1 other
730 WACE
740 CFZM (Toronto)
750 WSB (Atlanta)
760 WJR (Detroit)
770 WABC (NYC)
780 WBBM? (Chicago)
800 CKLW Windsor
810 WGY (Schenectady) + one other
830 WCCO (Minneapolis) + WCRN (Worcester)
840 WHAS (Louisville) and WRYM (Hartford)
860 CJBC (Toronto)
870 WWL (New Orleans)
880 WCBS (NYC)
890 WLS (Chicago)
900 CHML (Hamilton, ON)
910 WLAT
1010 WINS (NYC) and CFRB (Toronto)
1020 KDKA (Pittsburgh)
1030 WBZ (Boston)
1040 WHO (Des Moines) and unid country
1060 KYW (Philadelphia) and others
1080 WTIC
1100 WTAM (Cleveland)
1110 WBT (Charlotte)
1120 WPRX
1130 WDFN (Detroit)?
1170 WCTF
1210 WPHT (Philadelphia)
1230 WNEZ
1240 WWCO
1250 WARE
1270 WACN
1290 WNWW
1320 WATR
1360 WDRC
1410 WPOP
1450 WHLL
1480 WKND
1490 WSPR
1500 WFED (Washington DC)
1520 WWKB (Buffalo)
1530 WCKY (Cincinnati)
1540 KXEL (Waterloo, IA) + 2 others
1550 WSDK
1560 WFME (NYC)
1570 XERF-AM (Ciduad Acuña) behind unid. Latin music
1580 CKDO (Oshawa)
1600 WLZX
1610 CHRN (Montréal)
1620 unid Latin music
1660 WWRU (Jersey City)
1670 unid Latin+English music
1690 WPTX (Lexington Park, MD)
Where are you located? I was reading your list and surprised to see WDFN 1130AM out of Detroit on the list with all the other ones. That's because WDFN powers down to 10,000 watts at night but runs at 50,000 watts on a class B signal. It has a funny nighttime signal and I don't know what station they are protecting on 1130 I'm thinking probably either WISN out of Milwaukee or WBBR out of NYC, probably WISN though.
Mostly likely WISN during dawn WDFN sometimes mixes in with WISN. Also don't forget KLTK in Minneapolis.
I would think so since they are running at the same power. Both are suppose to be shooting their signal north at 10,000 watts at night and I'm assuming that's why WDFN's transmitter is that far south of Detroit, it's near the free bridge to Grosse Ile.

KTLK looks like yet another station that's suppose to be sending it's signal north but at 25,000 watts. I'm thinking KTLK would be too far from Connecticut to reach that. A good test of Minneapolis stations would be to see how good WCCO comes in since that's a 50,000 watt clear channel signal and that one comes in pretty good over here at night.

Flint1979

You guys should honestly hear how good WLW and WBZ come in where I'm at. I'm almost certain I'm dead on with their directional pattern.

MikeTheActuary

Quote from: Flint1979 on October 26, 2018, 09:26:22 PM
KTLK looks like yet another station that's suppose to be sending it's signal north but at 25,000 watts. I'm thinking KTLK would be too far from Connecticut to reach that. A good test of Minneapolis stations would be to see how good WCCO comes in since that's a 50,000 watt clear channel signal and that one comes in pretty good over here at night.

WCCO was clear to me, aside from getting WCRN at about the same strength.  (WCCO's nighttime pattern isn't on file with the FCC.  WCRN is 50kw but in a cardioid pattern to the northeast; I should be pretty close to WCRN's null...but like I said, I have better antennas and receivers than most casual listeners would.)

Flint1979

Quote from: MikeTheActuary on October 27, 2018, 07:06:06 PM
Quote from: Flint1979 on October 26, 2018, 09:26:22 PM
KTLK looks like yet another station that's suppose to be sending it's signal north but at 25,000 watts. I'm thinking KTLK would be too far from Connecticut to reach that. A good test of Minneapolis stations would be to see how good WCCO comes in since that's a 50,000 watt clear channel signal and that one comes in pretty good over here at night.

WCCO was clear to me, aside from getting WCRN at about the same strength.  (WCCO's nighttime pattern isn't on file with the FCC.  WCRN is 50kw but in a cardioid pattern to the northeast; I should be pretty close to WCRN's null...but like I said, I have better antennas and receivers than most casual listeners would.)
I only get the real big stations from New England over here. I don't think I've ever had any interference from hearing WCCO which is a good distance away so I'm probably getting it on that 700-1,000 mileish skip pattern. I never have much of a problem picking WJR up during the day and can pickup most of the big Chicago stations during the day as well. WLS is the worst station in Chicago for me it comes in the weakest out of their 50,000 watt stations WGN, WSCR and WBBM all come in pretty solid 24 hours a day but WLS has a problem coming in during the day but comes in pretty solid at night.

02 Park Ave

WHO in DesMoines Iowa is most interesting.  I can get it clearly here in South Jersey most nights and I've picked it up in Flagstaff Arizona.
C-o-H

Flint1979

I think I figured out something with WLW. I was listening last night trying to figure out why it's one of the loudest 50,000 watt stations I can receive and I think the reason for this is their transmitter site is north of Cincinnati in the city of Mason, Ohio. I looked at the pattern and figured out that I am due north and very very slightly east of their transmitter site 283 miles away. It seems like the stations that are more than 250 miles away come in the best. KMOX comes in very well and I'm 450 miles from their transmitter.

Does anyone on the east coast ever get WBAP 820AM out of Fort Worth? I've been wanting to try that one for awhile.

Flint1979

What a difference a car radio makes between two of them. I couldn't get WJR for crap in a 2008 Ford Fusion now I tried it in a 2017 Nissan Versa and it was coming in like I was sitting next to the transmitter site on Sibley and Grange Roads in Riverview. In the Fusion I had static coming in with the signal all the time and now in the Nissan WJR blows over any static that's there.

I checked a few other stations WGN, WBBM, WCCO, WLW and WSB were all coming in very strong.

Like I described in my previous posts I believe I'm in the sweet spot for WLW's signal. I never have any problem pulling that station in at any time of the day.

I got bits and pieces of WBAP in Fort Worth which is a good sign.

TheHighwayMan3561

I had WCCO on close to midnight tonight and the host made a point to mention "xx:xx PM, Central Time" as the current time, perhaps as a nod to the station's power. Do other blowtorch hosts do this overnight?
self-certified as the dumbest person on this board for 5 years running

Flint1979

Quote from: TheHighwayMan394 on November 02, 2018, 03:35:21 AM
I had WCCO on close to midnight tonight and the host made a point to mention "xx:xx PM, Central Time" as the current time, perhaps as a nod to the station's power. Do other blowtorch hosts do this overnight?
Perhaps if it's a local host. For WJR, during the week Michael Savage is on around the midnight time frame so that's not a local show. WJR's most legendary overnight show was Night Flight 760 with Jay Roberts.

I vouch for WJR all the time because when I was growing up that station was the strongest and most well known radio station in Detroit. It still is the strongest station but as far as most well known it's probably that to outsiders for Detroit radio but inside the Metro area I don't think WJR is the most well known anymore. WWJ is the go to station in Detroit on the AM side.

Not sure how many people would be able to pickup WWJ. I don't know why they don't put in to become a full 50,000 watt station since the station they use to protect no longer operates. WWJ is Michigan's only commercial all-news station with traffic and weather together every 10 minutes around the clock. It has it's transmitter even further south than WJR does and shoots it's signal in a northern path.

Flint1979

Also WJR mentions, "the middle of America" during their TOH in the overnight hours. Basically goes like this, "From the Golden Tower of the Fisher Building to the middle of America this is the Great Voice of the Great Lakes, 760, WJR - Detroit."

Perhaps that's a nod to the stations power. I wish they'd mention 50,000 watts somewhere in their TOH though.

For TOH I always loved listening to WBZ's when they did this one. "While your driving your car, we're driving 50,000 watts of power, news all day, every day on newsradio 1030 WBZ - Boston."

Another jingle from WBZ that I liked was, "We Got The Spirit of New England on WBZ - Boston."

WBZ is another station I'm right in line with. Between WBZ and WLW both come in like I'm sitting in Boston or Cincinnati.

kphoger

Quote from: Flint1979 on November 01, 2018, 11:17:08 PM
I checked a few other stations WGN, WBBM, WCCO, WLW and WSB were all coming in very strong.

I once picked up WBBM while driving in Denver.  Pretty wild to hear a traffic report from a thousand miles away.
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

Flint1979

Last night I was coming home from Ohio and had WJR on the entire way. Never once had a problem and earlier in the day I was in the Toledo area pulling in WLW just like I was sitting next to the transmitter in Mason.

WJR didn't do anything special for the TOH though. Just went, "This is the Great Voice of the Great Lakes news talk 760 WJR Detroit."

Flint1979

Quote from: kphoger on November 02, 2018, 01:58:45 PM
Quote from: Flint1979 on November 01, 2018, 11:17:08 PM
I checked a few other stations WGN, WBBM, WCCO, WLW and WSB were all coming in very strong.

I once picked up WBBM while driving in Denver.  Pretty wild to hear a traffic report from a thousand miles away.
That's crazy. I don't think I've ever been able to pull in KOA in this part of the country. I pulled in WBAP the other night and thought that was a pretty good dx.

Out of Chicago's blowtorches WGN and WBBM are the strongest in my area.

dvferyance

Quote from: Flint1979 on November 03, 2018, 11:24:03 AM
Quote from: kphoger on November 02, 2018, 01:58:45 PM
Quote from: Flint1979 on November 01, 2018, 11:17:08 PM
I checked a few other stations WGN, WBBM, WCCO, WLW and WSB were all coming in very strong.

I once picked up WBBM while driving in Denver.  Pretty wild to hear a traffic report from a thousand miles away.
That's crazy. I don't think I've ever been able to pull in KOA in this part of the country. I pulled in WBAP the other night and thought that was a pretty good dx.

Out of Chicago's blowtorches WGN and WBBM are the strongest in my area.
I have picked up KOA a few times around the Chicago/Milwaukee area. My guess is though that is about as far east as it goes.



Opinions expressed here on belong solely to the poster and do not represent or reflect the opinions or beliefs of AARoads, its creators and/or associates.