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Cyberdad's Excellent 2014 Road Trip Adventure

gar fla said:
That map is fascinating. Are there the same kind of maps for other stations?
Click to expand...

Agree that the map is fascinating, and agree with the map. I had CBK all the way into British Columbia this morning. I can't think of any other station that you can keep during the daytime for more than 700 miles of driving.

And crainbebo. I was all set to DX through the Canadian Rockies, but between rain, fog, and traffic, I really didn't think it would be safe. The best I could do was sneak a couple of quick listens. I'll report in more detail over the weekend, when the pace slows down. BUT, what I can tell you is that this morning at sunrise in my hotel room in Medicine Hat (southeast Alberta in the prairies), Seattle was roaring in.....KIRO, KTTH, 820, KOMO (the strongest of them all) and even 1090. I also heard sports talk on 1380 mixing with an even stronger oldies stations. Never was able to ID the canned programming on either one, but I was thinking that the sports had to be KRKO.

Tonight, I'm in Coer d' Alene. Again, over the weekend, I'll post whatever I come up with here as long as more details on the last couple of days. I'll also try to do better in the car tomorrow when I drive from here to Portland.
 
Thanks for that report.

And after the post E Skip season blues, it's nice to talk about interesting Am reception again.

I don't know if you've seen this but it's an account of a trucker driving east from Colorado reporting along the way how far he can hear certain stations in the daytime and I thought you would especially appreciate this.

http://radio-timetraveller.blogspot.com/2010/04/cross-country-pipeline-daytime-mw-dx.html

From your reports and the one in this story, it appears that the daytime DXing opportunities in the central part of the the continent are almost as good as they are going across saltwater.

Real interesting because the conductivity levels are supposed to be 5000 on sea water compared to 30 which would be the most conductive land. Maybe someone such as David who knows a lot of detail about the dynamics of this kind of thing could explain the nearly similar DXing distance results with such a big range in conductivity values.

I hope to one day make it to the center of the country even if just to check out the good daytime DXing.
 
Your oldies station is KSRV Ontario, Oregon. Sports talk definitely KRKO. Sometimes at night I will also hear KTKZ 1380 Sacramento in the mix with Salem conservative talk.

Check FM through eastern WA and try for our locals - 92.9, 94.5, 104.1, 105.7, 107.3 and 91.1. 107.3 shouldn't be too bad through Coeur D Alene as the 107.1 is in Deer Park, north of Spokane. 107.3 here is KFFM which is a 100KW blaster with top 40 music. Before Victoria went on and the band was less crowded in the 80s, KFFM could be heard in many locations across the Cascades in western Washington. The other 5 are blocked by locals or hash from 103.9 KBBD (104.1). \
KJR should be mixing with KMTX Helena and maybe XEKAM or CFAM through AB and eastern BC as well at night. KMTX has flipped to America's Best Music from oldies.

-crainbebo
 
gar fla said:
Thanks for that report.


Real interesting because the conductivity levels are supposed to be 5000 on sea water compared to 30 which would be the most conductive land. Maybe someone such as David who knows a lot of detail about the dynamics of this kind of thing could explain the nearly similar DXing distance results with such a big range in conductivity values.
Click to expand...

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.
 
But would it by via skywave even daytime this time of year and on that low a frequency?

If cyberdad was getting a steady signal of CBK the whole time, wouldn't that mean it's a ground wave?

And in that link with the trucker DXing, he was hearing, for example, a steady signal of KOA from 600 to 675 miles away in Missouri from 12:30 to 1:30 pm on April 19. Could that be a skywave?




Speaking of skywaves, I never really thought about listening for CBK at night where I am but the Orlando station usually isn't that strong at night here, especially due to the miltipathing cancellation and it's null would be in about the exact direction the radio would be facing toward Regina. Also, there aren't any other stations on that frequency with any significant power at night to interfere, at least not consistently.

Hmm.
 
It is indeed groundwave. As a former Alberta resident, sunset in summer doesn't occur until 10 pm in July and around 9 in August. Sunrise is also extremely early. That map of CBK is dead on. There's been radio blackouts lately and there has been a huge reduction in skywave activity here in Canada, and even more so up where Cyberdad is, due to being much further north. That explains the reception issues at night on this trip.
 
What do you mean by a radio blackout? And what causes reduction in skywave activity? Also, what might cause skywave reception to take place during the daytime? Sorry to ask all these questions, but I'm a fairly active DXer, yet I don't think I understand these phenomena very well (but I'm extremely curious). Thanks for your patience. :)
 
Hi guys.... Just a heads-up to let you know that I seem to be having a few issues logging in. I just finished a rather detailed update that didn't post, because the system logged me out. No idea what caused the problem, but I'm going to just have to try to get caught up over the next couple of days. BTW, I'm now in Portland in a downtown hotel that's great for the panoramic view out the window, but lousy for DX, due to the steel frame construction of the building and the multiple noise sources.
 
Thanks for checking in.

I was getting a little concerned that we hadn't heard from you in a while.

From what I've heard, Portland is a very Eco friendly town so your hotel is probably loaded with those fluorescent bulbs we're all supposed to use now. Same reason I couldn't hear much on AM back when I was in Santa Cruz.

Those bulbs are a DXer's nightmare.
 
You're in Portland again! Wish I was. Next time you go through there, stay at the Hampton Inn east of Portland in Gresham. Great hotel, great employees, HDTV from DirecTV with all the locals and national channels, and great beds. Was there 2 years ago on Labor Day weekend. Farthest FM I got was 92.9 KISM Bellingham at 220 miles (tropo probably). AM was loaded with the usual western stuff and I heard KONP and KSUH from WA on 1450 in the graveyard muck after phasing out KBPS.

-crainbebo
 
That was a nice report. I was curious if it was winter or summer. There are winter days where the skywave never quite leaves. I had that kind of day going from Knoxville to Nashville and I had interference with WLAC into Davidson county, as well as WCKY (usually absent days) and 2 Dayton AMs at 3pm EST/2pm CST in Nashville.

gar fla said:
Thanks for that report.

And after the post E Skip season blues, it's nice to talk about interesting Am reception again.

I don't know if you've seen this but it's an account of a trucker driving east from Colorado reporting along the way how far he can hear certain stations in the daytime and I thought you would especially appreciate this.

http://radio-timetraveller.blogspot.com/2010/04/cross-country-pipeline-daytime-mw-dx.html

From your reports and the one in this story, it appears that the daytime DXing opportunities in the central part of the the continent are almost as good as they are going across saltwater.

Real interesting because the conductivity levels are supposed to be 5000 on sea water compared to 30 which would be the most conductive land. Maybe someone such as David who knows a lot of detail about the dynamics of this kind of thing could explain the nearly similar DXing distance results with such a big range in conductivity values.

I hope to one day make it to the center of the country even if just to check out the good daytime DXing.
Click to expand...
 
The time of year in that blog that I linked was April 19 and the time frame was 12:30 to 1:30 pm when the sun is at it's highest.

And the frequency was lower on the band too.

The stations you mentioned are above 1500 and that's where they almost start acting like shortwave.
 
Thanks, gentlemen for the kind words.

crainbebo: I was thinking of you while I was on 395 between Spokane and Pasco. Here I was driving through this barren, deserted, almost treeless, Columbia Plateau with apparently no people, but an FM dial that had something on almost every frequency. I didn't quite know what to look for, but there was so much stuff. I didn't really know where to begin. As far as I could tell, it certainly wasn't E skip, and maybe not even tropo. Just a high prairie with nothing really to stop all those signals. All of them very listenable. It was like being in a heavily populated urban area, yet it was 90-odd miles of driving through the middle of nowhere!

Later, driving along the Columbia river on I-84 I was surprised at how poorly the Portland AMs were getting out. 620 being the best of what turned out to be a rather pathetic lot. Ground conductivity must be pretty bad in that direction. Worse than the path to Seattle, where at least a few of the Portland "big boys" manage make the hop.

Speaking of Seattle.... Maybe it was my imagination, but KIRO seemed rather weak, wherever the Seattle stations were present. KVI and even KOMO, OTOH, each seemed to be doing better than I might have expected.

Again, I'll try to fill in a few more details over the next few days.

Oh...and regarding hotels. For the most part on this trip, I'm burning Marriott points and staying in hotels for free. I'm also using Hertz points for the car. Now....if only I could figure out a way to get free gasoline! :)
 
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crainbebo said:
You're in Portland again! Wish I was. Next time you go through there, stay at the Hampton Inn east of Portland in Gresham. Great hotel, great employees, HDTV from DirecTV with all the locals and national channels, and great beds. Was there 2 years ago on Labor Day weekend. Farthest FM I got was 92.9 KISM Bellingham at 220 miles (tropo probably). AM was loaded with the usual western stuff and I heard KONP and KSUH from WA on 1450 in the graveyard muck after phasing out KBPS.

-crainbebo
Click to expand...

Not to subtract from Cyberdad, but I am curious about what you were able to get on your radio in Portland from Seattle.
 
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? :D
 
Yep - and just within 98-100 in that in-between-Pasco-and-Spokane area you should have gotten: 98.1 KISC, 98.3 KEYW, 98.5 KEYG, 98.7 KMNA, 98.9 KKZX, 99.1 KUJ, 99.3 KDRM, 99.5 KZLY (SS) or KZZL (Country), 99.7 KHHK and 99.9 KXLY! Even Ellensburg is plenty packed. If you tried 93.5, you likely heard smooth jazz music. That is the new KWDR Royal City ex-SS religion. It is less than 250 watts and I heard it as far as MP 66 on I-90, west of Easton in the middle of the mountains!

-crainbebo
 
In Portland, I had KQOC/KWAO on 88.1, KPLU 88.5, KISM 92.9, KUBE 93.3 through KKNU, KMPS 94.1, KUOW 94.9 through KNRK's HD, 95.7 KJR through KBFF's HD, 96.5 KJAQ and KWLZ Warm Springs OR, 97.3 KIRO, 98.1 KING, 98.9 KLCK, 100.7 KKWF, 102.5 KZOK and 103.7 KMTT.

-crainbebo
 
crainbebo said:
In Portland, I had KQOC/KWAO on 88.1, KPLU 88.5, KISM 92.9, KUBE 93.3 through KKNU, KMPS 94.1, KUOW 94.9 through KNRK's HD, 95.7 KJR through KBFF's HD, 96.5 KJAQ and KWLZ Warm Springs OR, 97.3 KIRO, 98.1 KING, 98.9 KLCK, 100.7 KKWF, 102.5 KZOK and 103.7 KMTT.

-crainbebo
Click to expand...

Cool, I didn't think you would get anything from Cougar Mountain. Are we strictly talking tropo here, or is it possible to receive some of these stations on a regular basis? I figure that the Tiger Mountain signals may be useable, along with KYNW, KXXO, and KWAO.
 
KYNW, KXXO and maybe KWAO - and definitely KOMO, were 24/7. The rest was pure tropo.

-crainbebo
 
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