getting portland 1540 in milwaukee
- Thread starter KF5EGM
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Rtlsdr, the nesdr smart to be exact, and i was using a longwire that ran the length of the inside of the house. Using the ham it up plus, dc block filter, and fm block filter. I should have screwnshotted the waterfall because a TON of stations showed up. I could have gotten way more dx if I had time.
I'm a little late to the party here, but there isn't an AM station on 1540 in Portland. You did mean Portland, OR, right? In Milwaukee you're highly unlikely to get anything on 1540 but KXEL out of Waterloo, IA. The only other possible big gun is CHIN out of Toronto, but their pattern is supposed to be sending zero signal in your direction and unless you have some very fancy antenna phasing equipment nulling KXEL would also null CHIN for you. If you were tuned to 1540 you were almost certainly hearing KXEL.
At midnight with a decent antenna you should be seeing signals on every single channel from 530 to 1700. There are about 35 stations pushing 50kW that you should be able to receive quite clearly most any night when there aren't a lot of storms around. Some of these stations are close to 1000 miles away.
'DX' is really more about a combination of distance, transmitter power, and interfering signals. Rarity enters into it as well. When I lived in Orlando I used to regularly hear WBBM out of Chicago and several stations out of New York virtually every night in the winter. All of these stations were over 1000 miles distant, but I didn't think of them as 'DX' because hearing a 50kW signal at night from anything under 2000 miles when there are no interfering signals just isn't that big a deal. OTOH, when I was in Los Angeles and 640-KFI went silent one night and I heard a 10kW station out of Mexico from about 1000 miles away, that was definitely 'DX' because it was a rare condition that would allow me to hear that station.
It can be fun to listen to distant stations at night, but not all of it really qualifies as 'DX'.
At midnight with a decent antenna you should be seeing signals on every single channel from 530 to 1700. There are about 35 stations pushing 50kW that you should be able to receive quite clearly most any night when there aren't a lot of storms around. Some of these stations are close to 1000 miles away.
'DX' is really more about a combination of distance, transmitter power, and interfering signals. Rarity enters into it as well. When I lived in Orlando I used to regularly hear WBBM out of Chicago and several stations out of New York virtually every night in the winter. All of these stations were over 1000 miles distant, but I didn't think of them as 'DX' because hearing a 50kW signal at night from anything under 2000 miles when there are no interfering signals just isn't that big a deal. OTOH, when I was in Los Angeles and 640-KFI went silent one night and I heard a 10kW station out of Mexico from about 1000 miles away, that was definitely 'DX' because it was a rare condition that would allow me to hear that station.
It can be fun to listen to distant stations at night, but not all of it really qualifies as 'DX'.
I though he may have meant Portland, Maine, as I was aware there isn't a 1540 in Portland, OR. I just looked up the frequency lists, and Portland, Maine has no 1540 either. So, all this said, what did the OP hear?
What programming did you hear, KF5EGM? Because if you can tell us, we might be able to give you some ideas as to what station you may have actually logged.
As for KXEL in Waterloo, Iowa, they do get out. They can often be heard here in Washington state.
As for what constitutes DX, that depends on the DXer. They all have their own definition, really. It's a hobby, not a law practice.
What programming did you hear, KF5EGM? Because if you can tell us, we might be able to give you some ideas as to what station you may have actually logged.
As for KXEL in Waterloo, Iowa, they do get out. They can often be heard here in Washington state.
As for what constitutes DX, that depends on the DXer. They all have their own definition, really. It's a hobby, not a law practice.
I didn't think about Maine, though that wouldn't have been much closer than Oregon.
This is one of the annoying things about MW these days. I'm fairly certain you could tune every channel on the dial and hear Coast-to-Coast AM on about two-thirds of them and ESPN radio on most of the rest. Makes it very difficult to ID a station. Virtually no one does local programming at night anymore.
You must be in the eastern part of the state because it looks like KXPA has a lock on the western half. Even eastern Washington is outside the fringe nighttime pattern for KXEL, so that's a pretty good catch.
True, and one's definition may well change over time. This is why I've always just logged what I heard and calculated a distance, letting the logging speak for itself as to how unusual it is.As for what constitutes DX, that depends on the DXer. They all have their own definition, really. It's a hobby, not a law practice.
I should point out that I'm really not trying to rain on anyone's parade. More trying to inject some experience and reality. I suppose I've seen far too many people bragging on how great their new radio is because it heard a 50kW flamethrower from 500 miles on a quiet winter night well after dark. They might have a great radio, but that reception by itself probably doesn't prove it. Not at all saying that's what happened here, just that it shows there's a need for a serious reality check for many in the hobby.
Just for grins I pulled out my old Sangean DT-200VX last night. It's got to be close to 20 years old, much of which was spent in my car in the heat and cold so I'd have a radio to listen to at lunch time. I couldn't say the last time I used it. I pulled in WBZ from Boston, 900 miles away, pretty much like a local. WWL from New Orleans, 800+ miles distant, clear as a bell. Admittedly, the DT-200VX is not a cheapy pocket radio, but it's still limited by the 2" antenna. I'm not trying to brag here, just illustrating the point that distance alone does not determine the noteworthiness of a reception or the outstanding quality of a radio.
ind224
Member
Best time for ID (call sign) on the hour or half hour. Requirement still once an hour and preferred time is top of the hour.
That may well still be the requirement, but there doesn't appear to be anyone enforcing it. I couldn't count the number of times I've listened to the top of the hour break and heard no station ID. I've sometimes listened for well over an hour and heard no ID. I came upon a station once that was playing nothing but commercials. No program content at all, just an endless stream of commercials. I couldn't believe it so I listened to it all the way home and then sat in the driveway listening some more. Well over an hour straight. There was another I recall that played a non-stop laugh track for several days. That last one was during a station ownership change, but still was a clear violation of the rules. Lots of smaller stations seem to have given up on IDing at all from midnight until they switch back to semi-manned operation in the morning.
I'm in the western half of WA state. KXPA does have a good lock, but you can often hear KXEL, readably, in its null.
Must have the right angle for nulling KXPA. I have a similar situation with getting some of the big guns on the east coast. I have adjacent locals that would make it almost impossible to hear the east coast stations, but the local transmitters are either to the north or the south, allowing me to null the splatter from the local and pull in the distant station.
It's one of those things that's not at all obvious at first, but it's often far more important being able to null interfering signals than it is to aim the antenna for maximum signal on the target station.
It's one of those things that's not at all obvious at first, but it's often far more important being able to null interfering signals than it is to aim the antenna for maximum signal on the target station.
w0fg
Member
I worked for KXEL in the mid 60s when Cy Bahakel owned the license. At that time, the pattern was omnidirectional during the day, but at night they switched to a cardiod pattern with a null to the south to protect some other station..sorry, I don't remember where. I know I could hear them at night at a fishing camp in northern Ontario in those days. I'd expect them to pretty well blanket Milwaukee in the evening. There 50kw transmit site was 15 miles west of my home town and they overwhelmed every crystal set I built in the days before I got my ham license.
The pattern looks to be about the same. It's cardioid with a carve out to the south, apparently to protect a couple stations in southern Texas. In the north they cover virtually all of Ontario, the southern half of Manitoba, and about a third of both Saskatchewan and Quebec. There is competition from CHIN in eastern Canada and the eastern U.S., but in Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and west over the Rockies it's all KXEL.
DXerPaulAK
Member
I would bet $20 the original posted had CHIN Toronto in some foreign language, they do mainly asian stuff, but some others
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