Cyberdad's Excellent 2014 Road Trip Adventure

Getting caught up gradually. First, I'll try to recreate my post from the weekend that got deleted when my log in issues surfaced. That had to do with the drive across the Canadian prairies.

The gist of it had to do with the big daytime AM signals. (And a few duds)....

540: Easily the 800-pound gorilla, with CBK. Audible all the way from Winnipeg to British Columbia until the Rockies finally crashed it.
550 & 560: KFYR and KMON very impressive. Each audible for more than half the wave.
570: CKSW. Not as big of a deal as I thought it would be. Very directional to the northeast. It came and went as I went along the Trans-Canada.
620: CKRM. Second only to CBK
630: CHED. Another big signal....all the way from Edmondton and audible for several hours.
660: CFFR. A stud, but it seemed to be doing better to the west than to the east. My perception may have been affected by a few thunderstorms over Saskatchewan.
680: CJOB. Best Winnipeg signal. Audible well into Saskatchewan before CBKF took over
690: CBKF. An impressive signal in its own right. Listenable all through Saskatchewan
710: KXMR. One of the better American signals, but nowhere near as good as KFYR and KMON
740: CBX. Edmonton. Good, but not as impressive as CHED
800: CHAB. Moose Jaw, SK Audible for about half the way. Good for my oldies fix. But the highlight of Moose Jaw was a McDonald's with a silo attached for some reason!
880: CKLQ: Manitoba and about half of Saskatchewan
920: CFRY: Third best Manitoba signal after CJOB and CBW
950: CFAM: Didn't make it out of Manitoba due to tight pattern
960: CFAC: Really good signal...right up there with CFFR
990: CBW: Impressive, but didn't have quite the range of CJOB
1010: CBR: Not quite as good as CFAC and CFFR
1060: CKMX: Impressive but even with 50,000 watts, it's only good enough for fourth place from Calgary
1090: KTGO: 1,000 watts from Tioga, ND. A kilowatt in the middle of the dial is still enough to cross the border and be audible almost all the way across Saskatchewan.

More to come....

fordranger797 said:

Cyberdad, I always find it so difficult to drive and manipulate the car radio. How do you manage to do all of your fantastic testing/dx work while driving?

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Always safety first. I won't do it in difficult driving conditions of any sort.

Mini Night AM Bandscan Medicine Hat, AB. Sony SRF 37. Hotel room with sporadic noise that affected some frequencies more than others. For some reason it was worse on the upper end of the band. Also a few thunderstorms around.

540: CBK, weak (convergence)
560: KMON, good...probably groundwave, with stuff faintly underneath
570: Looking for KVI. I thought it might have had it, but it turned out to be Salt Lake City.
590: KQNT, fair...comfortably on top
640: KFI, weak but alone
670: KBOI, big signal
680: KNBR, weak
710: More or less empty until KIRO showed up at dawn
740: CBX, fair...no trace of KCBS
810: KGO, fair....was a little surprised to find it.
820: Talk....I thought it was WBAP, but couldn't ID
830: WCCO, weak
880: CKLQ, weak
890: I heard two talk stations mixing....one might have been WLS, but I couldn't ID it
1000: KOMO, fair. I also didn't expect this one
1030: KTWO. good
1040: WHO, weak
1070: KNX....barely. Took a while. Much fading, but finally was able to ID
1110: KFAB, weak
1120: KMOX, weak but steady
1130: CKWX, very weak. Mixing with UNID.
1160: KSL, fair. I expected it to be stronger.
1180: Wondering if KOFI would make it here. On this night, it didn't.
1380: At dawn it was sports mixing with Oldies. Two good signals. Crain confirmed my suspicion that the sports was KRKO.

(more to follow as I get caught up)

We were suffering from auroral effects at the time and space weather blackouts which affect AM reception. The stations you heard should have been twice as strong, if not even more so. Your 890 most likely was WLS. KOFI would normally be rock solid up there, but due to the auroral effects, it wiped it out.

I'm surprised that you didn't hear anything from KKXA 1520. They send a nice signal out east (so I thought). Perhaps they were a victim to the poor conditions that mimo mentioned.

fordranger797 said:

I'm surprised that you didn't hear anything from KKXA 1520. They send a nice signal out east (so I thought). Perhaps they were a victim to the poor conditions that mimo mentioned.

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Nope....didn't hear KXXA in Medicine hat. I also didn't hear them in Coeur d'Alene, the next night. But as I said, there was noise from the hotel covering up some of the frequencies....especially on the high end of the band. I also suspected that there were some auroral issues going on....which mimo confirmed.

I did, however hear KGA in Medicine Hat on 1510 with a fair, steady signal. Neglected to mention that one. In Coeur d' Alene, I had KGA and most of the other Spokane AM's on groundwave with good signals

KFI was a good catch.

Hearing KFI in Medicine Hat on the little Sony SRF 37 is like hearing them in Houston or Kansas City.

DavidEduardo said:

The simplest explanation is that most DX is via skywaves, so the local conductivity is irrelevant.

However, in areas of high conductivity, the local stations will be farther apart due to mutual interference, making the overall band a bit cleaner than in areas with low conductivity and high station counts.

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I've noticed definite differences in night time reception between areas of high ground conductivity and areas of low ground conductivity. And that's using radios with internal loop antennas, where there is no direct connection to the ground (as opposed to using an antenna with wire antenna and ground system).

In nearly everything I've read about MW and SW reception, the ground, and ground conductivity, is always a factor in reception. If the ground, and its conductivity were not an important factor in radio reception, then millions of SWLs and Ham enthusiasts wouldn't bother with a ground system for receiving skywave signals.

boombox4 said:

I've noticed definite differences in night time reception between areas of high ground conductivity and areas of low ground conductivity. And that's using radios with internal loop antennas, where there is no direct connection to the ground (as opposed to using an antenna with wire antenna and ground system).

In nearly everything I've read about MW and SW reception, the ground, and ground conductivity, is always a factor in reception. If the ground, and its conductivity were not an important factor in radio reception, then millions of SWLs and Ham enthusiasts wouldn't bother with a ground system for receiving skywave signals.

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I've always agreed with what David is saying here. BUT, when I was a teenager in the 60s, it always seemed to me that there were more signals and better signals in Northern Wisconsin, when I was on family vacations than later when I was in Iowa in college. But I realized that this was simply perception, and I never came across anything of a scientific nature to back it up.

Moving right along with the trip....

After Medicine Hat, came Coeur d'Alene, Idaho and then Portland for a longer stay....

Coeur d'Alene was another place where noise covered some frequencies but not others. Only in Coeur d'Alene, more frequencies were blocked than were "open". As I previously mentioned, The major Spokane signals were all available at night via groundwave. KBOI on skywave was every bit as good as the groundwave signals from Spokane. From there between the noise and the auroral conditions, things went pretty much downhill. But with a few exceptions. KFI, KNX, KNBR, and KGO were all present. The Los Angeles stations were weak. San Francisco fair. OTOH, KOMO and CKWX were both good. KSL was surprisingly weak, and KOA was missing entirely. As had been the case all week, KOA being absent completely surprised me. No CBK, either.

In Portland, the hotel was great, the visit with friends and family was great, but the DX was a lost cause due to both the construction of the hotel and the amount of noise (being near both the elevator and the ice and vending machines didn't help).

Next stops were visits more friends and family in California. I just missed the earthquake in Napa (not far from where Mario is....hope he's OK). I did encounter good DX conditions (and no readily visible quake damage) farther north in Napa Valley. And now I'm in Marina Del Rey (Los Angeles), where my hotel is suprisingly noise-free and not blocking signals. More on those two stops to come.

Might be a long shot but I'd be curious to hear what you get on 530 in the Los Angeles area.

Every time I've been to the Mojave Desert receiver at night on Globaltuners, Radio Enciclopedia was there with a weak but listenable signal.

Probably nothing other than the LAX TIS station.

-crainbebo

Just checked 530 here at 9:15pm PDT Friday evening. I heard a weak carrier, but no audio coming through. Here in Marina Del Ray, I'm only a few miles (5 perhaps) from LAX. But....I'm on the opposite side of the hotel from where he airport is. I'm going to be at my wife's brother's home in the high (Mojave) desert, 70 miles east of here for the next two nights. I'll see what turns up out there, but I sort of doubt that the SRF37 is going to be up to R. Enciclopedia. I've got a stop near LAX (Manhattan Beach) in the morning around 10am on my way out of Dodge. I'll try to track the TIS in the car to get a feel for how strong it is.

How close is your brother's house to places like Ridgecrest and Olancha? There's a Global Tuners node in Ridgecrest, CA that only does longwave-60 mhz, used to do VHF back in the day as well and got some good Es to Texas a couple times on FM. Could hear KTWV 94.7 LA, and a few select Las Vegas stations (KXPT and KPLV come to mind) but NOTHING from the Eastern Sierra. That's right - no KIBS, KSRW or KRHV.

-crainbebo

I understand that LAX TIS has been off the air for at least several months now, if not a year or two.

I'd like to know what your California daytime reception AM DX reception is like, cyberdad.

pianoplayer88key said:

I understand that LAX TIS has been off the air for at least several months now, if not a year or two.

I'd like to know what your California daytime reception AM DX reception is like, cyberdad.

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I will have to give it another try next time I am out there. I take an SRF-59 with me on trips, which is WAY better than the SRF-37! My last two trips have been frustrating - the only chance I had at night was in Mann Medical Park in Santa Clarita - far enough away from LAX to not have problems, but the television production equipment all over the park made horrific interference. So that was a total bust. I tried from San Francisco, but it wasn't completely dark so nighttime reception patterns hadn't set in. I may get to try again - its a long shot but we sent my daughter's information to original Mythbusters and to Grant, Tori, and Kari who I suspect will start their own show - if my daughter get on either show I'll go out with her to get her set up in SF. The SRF-59 will go with me and I'll try for Cuba again. Who knows -maybe it will make a good myth to confirm!

Once again, I wrote a longer post, but the system timeout dumped me. So in a nutshell.....

crainbebo: Brother in law is about 90 miles south of Ridgecrest. He's just off the I-15....the route between Vegas and the LA area. He's got a couple of acres in a relatively open areas, so its a pretty good DX spot.

pianoplayer: The San Diego stations don't do all that well here daytime in Marina Del Rey. KOGO is the strongest. XEPRS next with a fair signal. Then XETRA, KFMB, 950, and a very weak 540. The LA stations vary...strongest are 790, 870, and 1330. 570, 640, 710 and 1070 next. 930,980, 1110 all surprisngly weak (relatively speaking....apparently the former top 40 icons just ain't what they used to be!). 740 is weaker...at least here...than when it was on Catalina. 790 is interesting to me. In a thread on the LA board, David and others were discussing KABC's recent struggles....including a signal that's now inadequate for effectively covering the LA metro. Not where I am at the moment. 790 here is a monster with good audio! I was also hearing it in Napa at night (along with KLAC, KOGO, KFI, XETRA, KNX, and probably one or two others that I'm forgetting).

rbruce carter: Interesting stuff. I'm gonna have to quit talking about getting an SRF 59, and actually go out and buy one!

cyberdad said:

rbruce carter: Interesting stuff. I'm gonna have to quit talking about getting an SRF 59, and actually go out and buy one!

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I've got both - the ONLY thing the 37 has going for it is digital readout. It is a rather good implementation of the ordinary 455 kHz superhet, but sensitivity and selectivity wise it is FAR inferior to the SRF-59.

Here is my tech page on the 59: http://earmark.net/gesr/srf59.htm

Here is my tech page on the 37: http://earmark.net/gesr/m37v.htm

cyberdad said:

I've always agreed with what David is saying here. BUT, when I was a teenager in the 60s, it always seemed to me that there were more signals and better signals in Northern Wisconsin, when I was on family vacations than later when I was in Iowa in college. But I realized that this was simply perception, and I never came across anything of a scientific nature to back it up.

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There's a chart on this ham's web page that shows the difference in RF reception over a "perfect ground", wet grassland and dry desert, over a range of frequencies between 5 MHz and the higher HF ranges. At 5 Mhz there is nearly a 3 db difference in relative signal strengths.

If you look at the chart you'll notice that it implies that at lower frequencies there probably is an even greater difference in decibels between good ground conductivity and poor ground conductivity.

http://www.iw5edi.com/ham-radio/?perfect-ground-vs.-poor-ground.-what-is-the-difference-,143

Thanks for posting boombox. Good info, but unless I'm overlooking something, I don't think the article addresses whether ground conductivity has any effect on skywave.