Hi guys:
So we had to go from West Hartford, CT
to the Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio.
The trip was to get our son, who had been working
there all summer.
It was a nice car trip, and I was able to do a little bit
of radio listening.
Some say there are hardly any clear channels left
on the AM BCB, but I guess there are some left.
516 miles west of our CT home to Sandusky, Ohio,
a lot of clear channels were unchanged, In the
Ohio hotel room, it was just as if I was sitting in
the kitchen listening in Connecticut - 650, 660,
690, 700, 710, 720, 740, 750, 760, 770, 780, 800, 840,
860, 870, 880, 890, 900, 1020, 1030, and 1060 were all the same.
There were probably at least 4 others that I didn't
get to check.
WTIC AM 1080, our local 50 kW flamethrower in Hartford, CT, got well into
Pennsylvania on it's day pattern. At night - halfway
through PA, and into OH - there was no trace of it.
WTIC protects KRLD 1080 in Texas - so that's why.
But on the other hand, WBZ 1030 in Boston, MA
sounded louder in OHIO than it did back home 80
miles from Boston, MA. (At night.)
Sandusky, OH also had what appeared to be
a thriving full service AM station on
1450, a local channel. (Local meaning 1 kW day,
1 kW night, with no protection from dozens (?) of
surrounding 1450 stations - 1 kW day and night -all stations
on the channel having the same status - i.e. -
none at all - at night.) The local 1450 kHz station
was part of a business cluster of 8 other stations, most or
all FM - but stiil - Sandusky, OH seemed to need
that 1450, and it gave the area what it needed.
During afternoon drive, there were 2 live people
in the studio - and no automation at all. And lots
of local radio ads.
Interesting stuff. Little commercial AM stations -
and big ones.
Bruce
Really enjoyed the trip in your radio car with all the DXing.
Maybe some of those stations should select you to do distance listening as part of their coverage mapping.
I don't suppose KDX came blasting in(?)
Sorry, Carl - no KDX.
You just reminded me, tho - I did
log WWJ on 950 kHz. I can't remember
where it is, but I am always glad to hear
any 3 letter call BC station still going.
(I really like those 3 letter callsigns.)
I'm sure KMOX was blasting in for hundreds
of miles on 1120, and thousands at night - but
I never got that high up on the AM dial. KMOX
is no problem in West Hartford, CT. There is
a local 24 hour station about 10 miles away, but
it is easily nulled out to get KMOX, St. Louis.
I'll have to look up WWJ, and our local 1120.
(I can't remember this stuff anymore.)
Oh, your KDX frequency -1550 - well - I didn't
hear KDX, of course. But it's an interesting channel.
We have a local here in Bloomfield, CT. 1 kW
night shooting out over the Atlantic Ocean. I am told
it comes in like gangbusters at night in the Bahamas.
This station is highly directional at night. It is the
only commercial BC station I ever worked for, and
that was 30 years ago. The studio was a lot closer
to my apartment than the transmitter site. At night
I would WALK HOME from the station and then
BARELY HEAR IT in my apartment. It was
battling it out with a CBC Canadian station
on 1550 in those days. I did check 1550 out
at night in Ohio. I think I actually heard a Canadian
CBC station on the channel. So that would be about
5 days ago. Was it the same CBC station I heard on 1550
30 years ago? I don't know.
Great stuff, isn't it?
Bruce
Poking around on the analog AM radio dial is one of the rewards of human life.
If they convert to a digital medium wave band all of us will be blocked out.
By the way, in addition to 1550, KDX is right now also at 1670, but you may not be able to hear it, even though I am OVER POWER at 150mW.
Turn me in, but I'll just come back.
enjoy the AM band as it is now.
In fact, if there is anything I have
learned lately, enjoy what you have
today. Don't worry about that other
stuff.
Carl, I remember that you put the
AMT-5000 onto 1670. I had actually
forgotten the exact frequency - but I
do remember 1680 wasn't working
out for you.
One more funny thing about this trip -
in CT on 900 kHz, I get CHML in
Hamilton, Ontario, a 50 kW that I've
heard all of my "Radio life." In the
middle of PA at night, I got a very
local sounding WCPA on the 900 kHz
channel. It was oldies, and sounded
like a 50,000 watt flamethower. But
it turns out that first overnight hotel
must have been right next to WCPA,
because it was only 500 watts nighttime.
There was no noise at all on the night signal,
and it was "wide" on the analog AM dial.
When we got into Ohio at night, I checked
900 kHz, and there was CHML from
Hamilton, Ontario again. I sounded just
as it sounded in my home in CT, 500
miles to the east of our Ohio location.
I'll have to check a map again. Bruce
Carl: Do you have any idea what the implications are? Running 50 mW over is as bad as running 5 KHZ above 1705! You are a bad boy!
Those days of running 50mW high are long ago.
As bold and dangerous as that was, it only lasted for 15-minutes, then we returned to an exact 100mW where it's stayed ever since.
We have a great responsibility of using milliWatts with care,
As far as 1710 is concerned, I listen to it once a day and have never heard anyone doing anything on there. More government waste.
Use the power you have, but don't use power you're not supposed to have.
Life in the Homeland is subject to suspicion.