Anyone listen to "distant" AM stations at night?

[Shortwavewave]

This was all my loggings from yesterday morning, from 6am to 10am(sunrise)
here in Midwest City, OK 6miles east of OKC

But I guess I show what I have, my radio is a IcomR75 and 2 antennas one is a Broadband 150ft loop, and a AM Bar antenna I made, shown here..

6-7am With Bar antenna
550 KTSA San Antonio, TX
580 WIBW Topeka, KS
670 WSCR Chicago, IL
680 KFEQ Saint Joseph, MO
720 WGN Chicago, IL
820 WBAP Dallas, TX
830 WCCO Minneapolis, MN
850 KOA Colorado Springs, CO
1070 KFTI Witchata, KS

7-10am with broadband loop
1120 KMOX St. Louis, MO
1170 KFAQ Tulsa, Ok
1400 KJOK Yuma, AZ

 

[Caesar]

after reading this thread i spun around the band a little tonight and from COlumbia, South Carolina i was getting
700AM out of cincy Ohio
780AM out of Illinois
840AM out of KY (WHAS)
990AM out of TN
1590AM out of TN (WKPT)

any there were many others they just didn't do station identification before i switched frequencies...

 

[k9rzz]

With the sunspots staying so low, I'm getting the itch to make a push again this winter to see what I can log. I've already got a 3 ft loop that I made and works well, but I'm thinking of a 10 or 12 footer! Remotely tuned and put up on pole with a rotator. WOW! eh?

 

[Patch42]

With the sunspots staying so low, I'm getting the itch to make a push again this winter to see what I can log. I've already got a 3 ft loop that I made and works well, but I'm thinking of a 10 or 12 footer! Remotely tuned and put up on pole with a rotator. WOW! eh?

Bigger is not always better. I'm not that up on the technical details of loops, but I do know there's a point beyond which the benefits of increasing the loop diameter drop off considerably. Increasing size may even have a negative effect.

A friend has both a three foot loop and a four foot loop that he built. He says the three foot one actually does better and is far easier to deal with.

You might want to do a bit more investigation before launching into the building of a giant, unwieldy monstrosity that in the end does nothing more than something a fourth the size.

 

[k9rzz]

Oh, I've GOT to do it! Just for the challenge if nothing else!

http://www.imagenisp.ca/jsm/Loop.html

From what I've read, a larger loop will be more sensitive and have a higher Q (therefore narrower peak of resonance) which is exactly what I need in order to hear more European AMers this winter. I could go small and use a regenerative pre-amp ... but that's just not my style. Some people like to use the smallest radio or antenna and do amazing things with it. I'd rather string up 1,000 ft of wire just for the challenge of that itself to see how it works. (Actually a friend and I did that once when we were younger - through the woods then over a pond - fun!)

Heck, I've already ordered the vactrols that I'll be using to remotely tune that bugger!

Good reading: http://www.frontiernet.net/~jadale/Loop.htm

I'll be sure to put up a video on Youtube when I get it running.

http://www.youtube.com/user/k9rzz

 

[colinpeddle]

I grew up doing this at night when I'd be going to bed and it's actually funny I stumble upon this thread.

The one channel the OP mentioned that I got a lot of was WCBS 880 out of new york. There were others, but that one was the one I'd settle on usually and listen to for a while before falling asleep. Last week I installed the ipod touch app called "tuner" (4.99 i think) to be able to listen to the feeds off liveatc. Anyway, WCBS was a preloaded channel in it, ahhhhhh the memories

Btw, i'm in Newfoundland @ the most easterly point in NA so I couldn't be any further away from WCBS going East, picking up WCBS was always really neat.

 

[SCPD]

When I was in college in Flagstaff, Arizona and could not sleep late at night I would plug an earphone into the old tunable Radio Shack Patrolman portable I had for years. It had the AM band in it as well as VHF-Hi. I could not afford a better radio so AM late night listening was a lot of fun. WLS Chicago was always a good capture and not bad inside a concrete building with no antenna. It was 5 years after graduation by the time I purchased my first programmable scanner (BC-210) and a high quality HF receiver (Yaesu FRG-7700). I don't even remember what happened to the old patrolman.

I also used to receive KOB Albuquerque, KOH Reno, and a little radio station in Bishop, California (KIBS) in my college dorm room. Little did I know at the time that I would transfer to locations near each one of those stations. I picked up KOA Denver as well, but never had the chance to transfer to Colorado, I just ran out of career before I could transfer to all the places I had thought about.

 

[w2txb]

This thread really brings back memories. Back when I was a kid, I used a couple of old tube AM receivers that came from the cabinet-type (not quite antique at the time) radios. My folks used the cabinets (munus the legs) as bases for marble-top bowl sinks in the house we lived in at the time, and I got the radios, which I kept in the basement. All I had for an antenna was a wire run up and out the basement window and up the side of the house and across the yard to the garage. It was cheap and simple, but it worked like a champ.

I used to catch WOWO (anybody remember John Cigna?) in Fort Wayne... it was a real thrill to drive past their transmitter site while on a family vacation in 1967. Also listened regularly to WLS, CKLW, WCFL, WKBW, WBZ, WABC (I went to school with a cousin of Cousin Brucie), and a number of other stations.

Fast forward to the 1970's - early 90's when I was on the road for my work (often at night), and "DX'ed" the AM band every so often - I guess I never lost the fascination with AM BC DXing. Even now I tune around there on the IC-7000 to see what is out there.

 

[allandunn]

Allan

I have been chasing stations for over 50 years, but if you want to meet a lot of enthusiasts more dedicated than me, try the National Radio Club. http://www.nrcdxas.org/

WOWO is down to 9600 Watts now, previously 50,000. This was done to allow WLIB in New York to go to higher nighttime power.

One problem is the so-called HD radio. These transmissions fill the adjacent channel with digital noise. I am near Boston, but can no longer hear KDKA on 1020 in Pittsburgh or WHO-1040 in Iowa due to WBZ 1030 transmitting it. It was bad enough daytimes, but now they allow it at night.

The new rage is listening on tiny low cost "ultra-light" portable radios.

Allan
always_faithful@comcast.net

 

[SCPD]

I listen to "distant" AM all the time. Farthest station I have recieved from here in DC is KMOX 1120 from St. Louis, MO. The majority of the stations I receive are from New York (WFAN, WOR, WABC, WCBS, WINS, etc.) Sometimes I get CINF from Montreal or CKLW from Windsor. Most of the time, I pick up right-wing radio stations that I usually skip right by if I know what the stations is and who's talking. Otherwise, it can be very interesting.

 

[atombaum]

Jean Shepherd on WBCQ internet radio

Speaking of Jean Shepherd ("Shep"), some of his extended monologues are now playing on WBQC streaming over the internet. Just fascinating! He just finished a long one on identifying old car hood ornaments. Just started a new one. His first day in the steel mill. Listening on a C. Crane "CC Wi-Fi internet Radio."

This from "Joe" Disco Electronics;

"Wow! I'm surprised no one mentioned listening to AM rockers WKBW Buffalo and CKLW Windsor.
Also fondly remember Shep on WOR telling stories about Flick and getting a buzz doing aspirin and coca cola."

Did I fail to mention my favorites in my previous post or did you overlook them? Obviously from the Springfield NJ area you heard them booming in and could pick up WOR (then transmitting from Carteret) 24/7 on a crystal set. Now it's WWKB Talk Radio (UGH!) and CK went directional E-W to protect PJB Bonaire. Ironically PJB the former half megawatt non directional monster lowered it's power to 50KW and also went E-W so back then CK dominated, PJB started an RF war and now neither can be heard worthwhile.

Just FYI for those who never visited Joe's junk store (;->) it was (is?) Disco Electronics but everybody just called it "Joe Disco". I never knew his last name and never asked. Funny how Pat moved around, last I saw him he was at Greenbrook Electronics but that was 9 years ago, then I moved "down the shore" as we say it here in Jersey.

Alas, Joe was the last dealer on the Rte. 22 strip which was New Jersey's answer to Radio Row in New York, both very familiar to Jean Shepherd K2ORS. His stories on WOR were almost pure fiction with very little truth to them, neither he nor anyone else ever got high on aspirin and Coca Cola and anyone who tried it got a belly full of gas Mythbusters style. Shep simply exploited a popular myth as he was in the habit of doing when he wasn't doing his unique style of commercials the writers never intended.

"New Jersey, the most American of all states. It has everything from wilderness to the Mafia. All the great things and all the worst, like Route 22."
Jean Shepherd

You can find a lot of great info on one of the most famous (or infamous?) radio personalities heard coast to coast and in every part of the world at one time or another right here;
flicklives.com

 

[f2shooter]

I just came upon this thread and have read a good bit of it. As a kid I listened to WBAM, the BigBam out of Montgomery, AL. Of course I wasn't far away but it was my first radio, an AM tube set and my first exposure to rock 'n roll music. I still remember a group named Strawberry Alarm Clock. When I got my first car it came with an AM radio and I would listen to radio theater out of Chicago and New Orleans in the 70's. I am sitting next to a battery powered Trans Oceanic that I use to listen to much of the world. It gets an amazing number of hours from a set of D cell batteries. I need to spend more time doing this again. I seem to have drifted a bit. I wonder where my logbooks got away to?

Rick H.

 

[robertmac]

Many, many years ago before I knew scanners and CB existed, I did use a portable AM radio to listen in on distant AM stations. I had a magazine [can't for the life of me remember what it was] that had a listing of USA and Canadian AM radio frequencies. As kids, we would highlight the stations in the magazine and then compare them with other kids the next day. Got to be a competition to see who had heard the most stations. However, even with encryption taking most of the enjoyment out of scanning, I don't think I will go back to listening for DX AM stations. Too much static and hard to hear stations.

 

[mmckenna]

I, too, spent a lot of time listening to DX AM broadcast. Usually with small radio and an earphone. Good way to fall asleep at night and not get busted by my parents.

I still occasionally do play with AM, usually while camping and away from the noises of home. I bought a frequency selective level meter that I use for some of it. Not great fidelity, but a great receiver. Built a 4 foot square loop that works great. Some day I'm going to put together a beverage and take it out camping and see what sort of damage I can do.

Some day….

 

[a29zuk]

Wow, we woke up a 9 year old thread!

 

[jonwienke]

It wants braaaaaains...

 

[KC4RAF]

Many years ago, I too use to log in the AM broadcast frequencies. Had a log of the stations, time, date, readability (listen ability ?), etc. Had all the clear channels, and many low power that were being copied.
Late at night, listen to those AM stations was fun. Just may start back again and see what's out there.
Yeah, this is an old thread, but better to use this one rather than start a new one on the same subject.

 

[FedFyrGuy]

Used to love tuning into WKBW (Buffalo) and CKLW (Windsor, Ontario) late at night....many years ago.

 

[n4yek]

Yeah, this is an old thread, but better to use this one rather than start a new one on the same subject.

Agree....Two thumbs up !!

 

[rwier]

" ... since at night you seem to be able to pick up stations that are fairly far away from you, on the AM Broadcast Band ...... does anyone do this as a hobby just to see which stations they are actually hearing? ..........

Not exactly, and not for a long time.

Somewhere around '46, I was introduced to the process of putting together a "crystal set". For an antenna, I ran a 5 +/- ft length of copper wire from the radio, and attached it at various places on a ~2ft x ~4ft metal window screen (swamp coolers by day and open "screened" windows at night). By experimenting with contact points for the "cat's whisker" together with different attachment points on the screen's grid, I was astonished at the distant AM stations I could pick up. I did this for a few years, probably related to membership in the Cub Scouts and/or the Boy Scouts. The only station locations that I can recall now were Shreveport, Louisiana and Midland, Texas. I believe I remember using a single small ~2" diameter hand-held speaker.

Somewhere around '54 I acquired my first job (ok, it was a paper route, lol). In short order I purchased a small, cheap, AM radio. I had to keep the existence of this radio a secret as listening to the device during normal sleep hours would not have been tolerated. I figured out some way to utilize my (experimental) window screen antenna system with this little plastic box. From '54 until about '58, on uncountable nights, I fell asleep to the wonderful sounds emanating from "who knows where", sounds that were identified by the broadcast station as "Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians". If I remember correctly, I placed my ear on the radio's speaker and listened at very low volume.

Thanks for triggering these faded memories!