AM Frequency of the Week - 1320 kHz

What do you get on 1320 AM?

Here in Vermilion, OH I get local WOBL/Oberlin, OH with a country format day and night mixed with CJMR/Oakville, ON and WJAS/Pittsburgh, PA

Yakima, WA
Hardly anything days, usually a very weak KGDC Walla Walla, WA if anything. (News/Talk)
Sunset it's KXRO Aberdeen, WA, CHMB Vancouver, BC and KCTC Sacramento, CA all mixing together.
Nights is mainly CHMB, but sometimes KXRO, and a couple times I've gotten KFNZ Salt Lake City, UT.
STILL WANTED ON 1320: KSCR Eugene, OR!! Can never get it at sunset (even on 1KW).

-crainbebo

Pickerington, Ohio ...
WLOH from Lancaster, about 20 miles SE, with a good signal daytime. It completely disappears at night, dropping to 16 watts and rendering itself unlistenable even within parts of Lancaster itself. When it transmitted from along U.S. 33 on the northwest side of Lancaster before moving to its current location east of town about 15 years ago, it was easily heard at night in Pickerington and throughout most of Fairfield County.
Luckily, the AM coverage problems are largely moot because it simulcasts on FM at 104.5.

Far northwest suburbs of Chicago.....

Days: Pretty much blank. Sometimes a very weak WKAN (Kankakee, IL).

Nights: Typical "regional channel" mess. WILS (Lansing, Michigan) used to be a regular. Now the Lansing 1320 is a rarity. I've also heard CJMR, from the Toronto area, a couple of times, but not recently.

Have you heard WILS during critical hours and around sunset and sunrise in Chicago Northwest areas? It's 25000 watts daytime and beamed West. I see why you don't hear it much at night anymore. I heard it too with the old pattern without hardly even trying. I was amazed when I heard WILS and WKMI at night so easily in the 1960s near there, especially when it was 1000 watts night. I was amazed at sunset when I heard WPON 1460 Pontiac. I also heard what was probably WAMM 1420 at sunset before signoff but didn't believe that was what it was. It is just 500 watts, but the directional antenna favors that direction with greater than an omni 1000 watt inverse field. Mr. Rieger has logged it at DXMidAmerica near Milwaukee. It's probably a frequent UNID because people dismiss it with 500 watts as impossible. It's now WFLT with a Black Gospel format.

Can add KSCR Eugene, OR to this list - logged early this week at sunset with "1320 Info Radio" IDs.

-crainbebo

Cincinnati West

Days
Local WCVG Covington, KY
.5KW Days, .43KW Nights
Transmitter in Latonia KY, just south of beautiful downtown Covington.
Day direction is kidney shaped pattern pointed West and tilted a bit South.
Nights it's directional north/Southeast with a small bulge to the Southwest.

Interesting station (under its call letters of WCLU-Covington-"The Big CLU") that includes colorful stories of the original owner and the station's programming history.

Though the night signal is weak, I've never logged another station on this frequency.

Schroedingers Cat said:

Have you heard WILS during critical hours and around sunset and sunrise in Chicago Northwest areas? It's 25000 watts daytime and beamed West. I see why you don't hear it much at night anymore. I heard it too with the old pattern without hardly even trying.

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Yes, in fact, I've heard WILS a couple of times around dawn....with a good signal. For all I know its a regular on day pattern during critical hours, but I don't spend much time on 1320.

cyberdad said:

Yes, in fact, I've heard WILS a couple of times around dawn....with a good signal. For all I know its a regular on day pattern during critical hours, but I don't spend much time on 1320.

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I was doing some rough calculations with the old skywave curves, and with the daytime pattern and power with nighttime conditions, WILS would be around 3-4 mV/m 10% skywave near there, not surprising since it it close to a Class I/Class A omni inverse field in that direction, has fairly short towers with no vertical radiation characteristic null, and is a fairly short distance away, about 150 miles.

Interesting DX and a new state for me.

I am in the west suburbs of Detroit and on my car radio I got WDER out of New Hampshire.
I have to think it was still on day pattern/Power (10KW) as it was coming in quite strong. This was at 10 pm ET

billmich said:

Interesting DX and a new state for me.

I am in the west suburbs of Detroit and on my car radio I got WDER out of New Hampshire.
I have to think it was still on day pattern/Power (10KW) as it was coming in quite strong. This was at 10 pm ET

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I think you're right about being on day pattern. According to R-L, WDER's day pattern favors the Motown area, while the night pattern has a null in that direction. Presumably to protect CJMR (Suburban Toronto) and/or possibly the Pittsburgh 1320, along with maybe WILS in Lansing.

Warminster PA(Philadelphia area):

Daytime: semi-local WTKZ from Allentown PA
Night: mess of stations, including WTKZ

Scatter from 1330 WBTM Danville

Schroedingers Cat said:

I was doing some rough calculations with the old skywave curves, and with the daytime pattern and power with nighttime conditions, WILS would be around 3-4 mV/m 10% skywave near there, not surprising since it it close to a Class I/Class A omni inverse field in that direction, has fairly short towers with no vertical radiation characteristic null, and is a fairly short distance away, about 150 miles.

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where /how do you find what their old patterns were?

billmich said:

where /how do you find what their old patterns were?

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I made a long answer and it disappaeared.

It's the new day WILS pattern, not the old night pattern, that I was predicting the 10% Skywave, based on the skywave curves in the 1960 NAB Engineering Handbook found on David Eduardo's Site. With the current solar activity, I believe it is more accurate.

Logged here in NE PA, 1320 during the day says 'WKAP' Allentown.
SSS has beamed WLEE Richmond toward me (12-13-94), and WJJS VA (12-14-94
Nighttime once delivered WJAS and the Standards from Pittsburgh PA (12-21-94 taped).

* * * * * * *

Way back in the JFK Airport days -- my pre-Geritol existence -- 1320 was a pretty darned good frequency. This, despite the fact, and maybe because of the fact, that NYC had two time-sharing stations on neighboring 1330. Locals WEVD (the louder) and WPOW (weaker) used to leave 1330 free at weird times when the stations were trying to untie their shoelaces from each others'.
As a result, I had 23 stations logged on 1320, with one 'K' call (KXYZ Houston) and three countries (USA, Canada and Puerto Rico).

The aforementioned WILS Lansing did a DX test somewhere around the mid-Sixties. The reception on Long Island was as easy as shooting monkeys in a barrel. That test broadcast must've been heard halfway around the globe that early MM.

WILS

Schroedingers Cat said:

I made a long answer and it disappaeared.

It's the new day WILS pattern, not the old night pattern, that I was predicting the 10% Skywave, based on the skywave curves in the 1960 NAB Engineering Handbook found on David Eduardo's Site. With the current solar activity, I believe it is more accurate.

Click to expand...

I did not know David had a site, can you post the link please?

1320 is a mess at night, but an interesting mess. Usually it's hash, but I've pulled out a number of different signals on occasion: WILS Lansing, KOZY Grand Rapids, MN, WJAS Pittsburgh, and most often, KELO Sioux Falls, SD. I am pretty sure I also heard CHMB Vancouver, BC a couple of years ago. I couldn't ID it, but I heard Chinese talk and did a little investigating and concluded that that was what I heard.

Daytimes, a weak KMAQ from Maquoketa, IA.