Picked up NYC News Radio From Philidelphia

[pr60user]

On a hill, I turned my car radio to 880 AM and I can pick up WCBS Newsradio 880 out of Lower Manhattan. How do I tell if I am picking up the transmitter or some repeater? That is more than 60miles away from me.

 

[ecps92]

AM Radio carries (depending on the power, location, antenna, orientation etc) quite a distance. 1010 WINS is easily heard here in Boston in the Car.

WBZ 1030 can be heard in 38 States and a good portion of Canada

Haven't tried 880 in years, tho

On a hill, I turned my car radio to 880 AM and I can pick up WCBS Newsradio 880 out of Lower Manhattan. How do I tell if I am picking up the transmitter or some repeater? That is more than 60miles away from me.

 

[wa3hdi]

WCBS 880 KHz is a "clear channel" station running 50 KW (the AM broadcast limit) to an Omni-directional antenna. It has no repeaters.

In 1941, the FCC designated 60 broadcast stations (1920's & 30's) as Class I (now Class A) licensees, to cover as much of the US landscape as possible, so no other station within a specific geographic radius will re-use their frequencies.

Examples are WBZ 1030 Boston; WFAN (previously WEAF, then WNBC) 660, WABC 770, & WCBS 880 New York [old radio network flagships], KYW 1060 & WPHT (formerly WCAU) 1210 Philadelphia, KDKA 1020 Pittsburgh, and WBBM 780 & WLS 890 Chicago.

When skip is running in the summer,

 

[CrabbyMilton]

I could also pick up WABC 770khz in the Milwaukee area early in the morning. I think I may try that again tomorrow morning. As great as the internet is, there is something fun and a feeling of accomplishment of finding stations that are many hundred miles away.

 

[pr60user]

Also in the early morning here. I wonder why I can pick them up in my car radio but not my scanner

 

[Thunderknight]

On a hill, I turned my car radio to 880 AM and I can pick up WCBS Newsradio 880 out of Lower Manhattan.

Their transmitter is actually on High Island in The Bronx. Their studios are in Manhattan.

Many other NYC AM transmitters are in the Meadowlands (NJ).

 

[ka3jjz]

No scanner can pick up frequencies this low - there are a few handheld receivers - the recently discontinued Icom R20, for example - can.

This is the best time of year for MWDXing - few TStorms, and less noise. There are 2 clubs in North America that specialize in this, and between the two, have been around for close to a century. These are the International Radio Club of America (IRCA) and the National Radio Club (NRC). Check them out if you want to get more serious in this side of DXing...

International Radio Club of America

National Radio Club -World's Largest & Oldest MW DX Club

Mike

 

[ecps92]

what Scanner do you have that can be used in the AM Radio Band (Medium-wave)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MW_DX

Also in the early morning here. I wonder why I can pick them up in my car radio but not my scanner

 

[pr60user]

just my old radio shack pro-60 with a base station antenna on it.

 

[VE3RADIO]

AM Radio carries (depending on the power, location, antenna, orientation etc) quite a distance. 1010 WINS is easily heard here in Boston in the Car.

WBZ 1030 can be heard in 38 States and a good portion of Canada

Haven't tried 880 in years, tho

I get all those stations listed in Toronto.. lots of NYC, Chicago, Detroit, Boston etc.. even Atlanta on occasion.

 

[ka3jjz]

just my old radio shack pro-60 with a base station antenna on it.

It will never happen; the pro-60 will not go down that far to the MW band, and even if it did, it would need a little ferrite loop in there, which I doubt it has...Mike

 

[scosgt]

Lots of scanners have had AM coverage in the past.
Uniden 346 comes to mind.
Icom IC R2 and R5
ICOM R3 (yes, I know the Icoms are technically not scanners, but they do scan).

 

[Rred]

Some of the clear channel carriers in the NYC area (or I should say "former" clear channel carriers, since that program was killed off and some corporate media monster has a very similar name now) had the foresight to build their antennas in places like High Island and the meadowlands of NJ, where the antenna is literally grounded into a saltwater marsh or the ocean. Making for a VERY near perfect ground and a much stronger signal.

All part of the same logic that they used when they put up incredibly powerful transmitters, to get the most listeners they could.

Car radios generally were hooked up to radio antennas designed for long-distance reception while traveling. 2-3' whips with the car itself as counterpoise. Now they're usually smaller actively amplified antennas, but no scanner is going to match that unless you've invested in antenna.

 

[ecps92]

Lowest the 346 went was 25 Mhz, so Nope :roll:
BC346XT - The RadioReference Wiki

Seems you might be confusing the AM Broadcast Band (Medium Wave)
and the use of Amplitude Modulation

Lots of scanners have had AM coverage in the past.
Uniden 346 comes to mind.
Icom IC R2 and R5
ICOM R3 (yes, I know the Icoms are technically not scanners, but they do scan).

 

[GTR8000]

The Uniden BR330T covers from 100 kHz to 1.3 GHz

That's the only modern handheld scanner I can recall having AM Broadcast. So while it's certainly not "lots of scanners", it's also not "no scanners" :roll:

 

[ka3jjz]

Yep, didn't think of that. It was something of a dog on HF and below anyway (from the few reports I've seen on the subject), utterly forgettable, just like the HF receiver they tried to market several years ago. Woof Woof Mike

 

[bob550]

On a hill, I turned my car radio to 880 AM and I can pick up WCBS Newsradio 880 out of Lower Manhattan. How do I tell if I am picking up the transmitter or some repeater? That is more than 60miles away from me.

Welcome to AM BCB DX'ing! You've discovered a hobby enjoyed by many over the years. That's how I became interested in chasing elusive radio signals when I was young. If you're bitten by the bug, check out the GE (RCA) Superadio in various versions, probably mostly available on ebay now. It's AM band is very sensitive, and the radio has connections for an external antenna if you want to go that route.

 

[kc4jgc]

just my old radio shack pro-60 with a base station antenna on it.

As Mike stated, there is no way your scanner can receive freqs anywhere near the AM broadcast band. Generally, lower range scanners receive about 25 MHz (millions of cycles per second); the AM band runs from 520-1710 khz (thousands of cycles per second).

That being said, Philadelphia is well within the service contour for WCBS.
WCBS-AM Radio Station Coverage Map

You should try listening to the band after dark; you'll be amazed at what can be heard. From my location, I can hear almost every 50kw station in the eastern U.S., at least one in Ontario, and some cubans.

On the NC outer banks, All the NYC 50kw stations can be heard 24/7 (exception WOR which in my view in recent years has technical troubles of its own as well as being covered up by a high powered cuban).

 

[601]

I regularly pick up 880 from my car in Charlotte, North Carolina. On occasion I have also picked up a station from Michigan down this way... It makes the 2am drives home a little more interesting. And being originally from New Jersey, it's nice to hear a little bit of home on my stereo.

 

[kd0ega]

...Heard here in N. E Ks, on a regular basis...at night...WBBM 780 & WLS 980 from Chicago and some blow torch station from the Dallas- Ft. Forth area.