List of MW stations in North America

[frankdrebbin]

Thanks! That's good information.

 

[GB46]

Thanks for the info.

Stations that simply rebroadcast signals aired on many stations via satellite make this difficult since their content mostly brands using the generic identification ("This is iHeart Radio") and often mostly play national commercials. To ID them you pretty much need to wait for the top of the hour (at least most will do the ID at pretty much the exact top of the hour).

True, and that takes a bit of patience, especially if I don't like their programming. Sometimes I put the station in one of the radio's memories and make a mental note to go back at the top of the hour, only to find they've faded out by then, sometimes fading back in after the ID. That happens a lot when listening to international broadcasters on HF, too, with the exception of Radio Havana Cuba, where the station is identified ad nauseum throughout every program segment.

If you have a directional loop antenna, you may further narrow down the station by nulling the signal out using the loop (making the signal go away by rotating the loop) and your station is most likely the one that's off either end of the loop.

I do all my MW listening with my portable and its internal loopstick, since my 23 ft. wire antenna isn't long enough for MW. Consequently, my R75 gets nothing but our local AM station, along with lots of RFI on those frequencies.

The portable's loopstick is very directional. Most of the MW stations I hear are south of me (mainly Washington and California), probably because I live in a valley running north and south, with high mountain ranges to the east and west of me. On very rare occasions I can hear a few stations in the midwestern states. Here in Canada, Calgary comes in every night, but not very strong. At any rate, pointing the end of the loop SSE seems to work best, especially because it nulls out some of the RFI.

When I lived in New Jersey as a kid, I used to stay up late at night pulling in stations from all over North America on a 10-transistor pocket radio. "Pocket" radio was actually just advertising hype. I had no pockets that big. Maybe they were referring to a kangaroo's pocket.

 

[Boombox]

I already have a listing from a now defunct page (I think it's the AM-DX site that no longer exists) that I keep updated when I hear of a local or regional station switching formats, etc. But I tried copying and pasting your list into a notepad or wordpad doc and it wouldn't copy.

Just an FYI.

One the DX World BCBLogger site there are a few links at the bottom with AMDX lists for the US, Canada and Mexico, and they apparently are zipped. They might be useful to MW/AM band DXers without a list to draw from.

PS, with many of the network stations (ESPN, FSN, etc.) there are local spots throughout the hour. I've IDed more than one ESPN or FOX Sports station that way.

 

[GB46]

I already have a listing from a now defunct page (I think it's the AM-DX site that no longer exists) that I keep updated when I hear of a local or regional station switching formats, etc. But I tried copying and pasting your list into a notepad or wordpad doc and it wouldn't copy.

That's odd, but it is a large file and can consume lots of memory, so I wouldn't recommend using copy and paste, especially if you are viewing it in the browser. A better way would be to download the file and try opening it in Notepad. Either right-click the file in your file manager and choose "Open with...", or launch Notepad and use the Open dialogue there.

I can't recommend WordPad, because it usually defaults to a proportional font, which would misalign the columns, since they are separated by spaces, not tabs.

Hope that helps!

Gerry

 

[kc4jgc]

It's a good start; I wonder how old is the information, notably for the non-US stations. For example the station on 740 in Toronto is listed as CHWO. The call has been CFZM since 2008.

 

[GB46]

It's a good start; I wonder how old is the information, notably for the non-US stations. For example the station on 740 in Toronto is listed as CHWO. The call has been CFZM since 2008.

Good point! I just searched that list for CJOR. It was a very well-established station in Vancouver, BC, which I used to hear when I lived there from the late 60s to the early 90s. The call sign has since been reassigned to a station in Osoyoos, a town in BC's southern interior, and not far from where I live now, but the call doesn't show up at all in the list. That file is the result of a search I did earlier this month at the FCC's website, but maybe the FCC doesn't bother updating its database for non-US stations, since they are not licenced by the FCC.

 

[GB46]

Good point! I just searched that list for CJOR. It was a very well-established station in Vancouver, BC, which I used to hear when I lived there from the late 60s to the early 90s. The call sign has since been reassigned to a station in Osoyoos, a town in BC's southern interior, and not far from where I live now, but the call doesn't show up at all in the list. That file is the result of a search I did earlier this month at the FCC's website, but maybe the FCC doesn't bother updating its database for non-US stations, since they are not licenced by the FCC.

Oops, of course CJOR is not in that list; I had forgotten that it's now an FM station!

 

[Boombox]

CJOR 600 changed over to "the Bridge" in the 90's I think, and then left the AM airwaves some time afterwards.

I've read rumors that there was a CP for a new station in Vancouver on that frequency, but I think it was just that.

 

[GB46]

CJOR 600 changed over to "the Bridge" in the 90's I think, and then left the AM airwaves some time afterwards.

I've read rumors that there was a CP for a new station in Vancouver on that frequency, but I think it was just that.

The listing I have shows:
600 CHOF VANCOUVER BC CA 10.0 kW (the time of day is unlimited)

I'm not likely to pick that up here, but you never know.

 

[GB46]

http://gerryb.altervista.org/radio/MW_Freq_List.txt

II'll be removing this file from my website in a couple of days, so if anyone still wants it, please right-click the link and choose "Save link as" or "Save target as", depending on your browser.

At any rate, there are probably enough replies under this thread to help AM DXers find the same info elsewhere.

Gerry

 

[jay427]

Thanks for the list Gerry!

 

[Boombox]

The listing I have shows:
600 CHOF VANCOUVER BC CA 10.0 kW (the time of day is unlimited)

I'm not likely to pick that up here, but you never know.

Never heard it here in my part of W. Washington.