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Wsm! 12/20/14

C

crainbebo

Walk of Fame Participant
Yes, the "Country Legend" has just made it to Washington.

650 - WSM Nashville, TN; fair-good with jingle ID "Happy Holidays...650 W-S-M" and into country song at 0051 PT 12/20. Then heard again at 0100 PT with end of "Ain't Nothin' Bout You" Brooks & Dunn, and "WSM" jingle; mention of "Another hour of your all-time favorites." NEW STATE!! NEW #670, 50KW, 1882 miles! This is now state #28 logged from WA.

Also heard last night; all relogs
630 KHOW CO with Red Eye Radio, RARE
870 KJMP CO with gold oldies
1040 WHO IA with ID
1340 KLOO OR TOH ID
1260 KPOW WY NBC Sports
1000 tentative KKIM NM with religious preaching, would not be new.

-crainbebo
 
That's impressive. I heard them in Calgary 2 nights in a row about 3 weeks before 660 came on the air.
 
Congrats, crainbebo!

And considering other nearer stations on the same frequency WSM had to struggle with to break through, especially CISL which is so close, that is one good catch there.
 
CISL *NEVER* comes in here. CKOM is much more common. Nights are usually a mix of KSTE, CKOM and/or KMTI Manti, UT here. Want to try for WNMT at sunrise however. Still a big stretch (10KW @ 1293mi) but if conditions would ever get back to normal (meaning western Plains 90 min before sunrise here) WNMT might just make it.

-crainbebo
 
CISL was always a regular day/night on my trips to Seattle, maybe because there's enough of a saltwater path to permit it. As for WNMT, I'd think it could eventually be do-able. They do have a very good signal when they're at 10kw....better than R-L would suggest.
 
Congratulations, WSM was never easy even before a lot of the other stations (KSTE, CKOM, KMTI, etc.) came on that frequency.

It would come in about as often as WWL.

First time I heard them was on a AM-FM-SW transistor radio when I was little (barefoot, no external loop, didn't even know what an external loop was back then -- the radio had no TRF stage, but a decent IF section and a decent loopstick) -- then in the 1980's I heard them once or twice on a boombox, probably with my spiral loop. CISL was always fairly easy to null or weaken, either with the radio or the loop.

I haven't heard them since then.
 
Nice catch on WSM!
 
I'm a DX newbie here with a question about how WSM's signal would travel that far (to Crainbebo's receiver) on one particular night, but not the rest of the time. My question is: what kind of fluky conditions does it take for a signal to travel that far on the AM band? I know about skywave, but why would this happen so infrequently and from so far away? Specifically, what happens in the atmosphere to allow this to happen only rarely?
 
dualux said:
I'm a DX newbie here with a question about how WSM's signal would travel that far (to Crainbebo's receiver) on one particular night, but not the rest of the time. My question is: what kind of fluky conditions does it take for a signal to travel that far on the AM band? I know about skywave, but why would this happen so infrequently and from so far away? Specifically, what happens in the atmosphere to allow this to happen only rarely?
Click to expand...

Just as we have variable weather, both by day and season, at our own location, radio propagation in the AM band is determined by the "weather" in the ionosphere.

The ionosphere is defined as the layer of the Earth's atmosphere that is ionized by solar and cosmic radiation. It lies 75-1000 km (46-621 miles) above the Earth.

The ability of the ionosphere to reflect radio waves varies. It is affected in the longer term by sunspots, and in the shorter term by other atmospheric conditions.

In addition, things like noise level from electric storms (static) and such affect reception.

At a distance like Spokane to Nashville, the right propagation conditions have to be in effect, and the interference from other co-channel and adjacent channel stations has to be at a minimum.

This is a rather simplified response but if you want to understand more, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionosphere has a good start, even including such things as "Ephemeral Atmospheric Perturbations" and such. :rolleyes:
 
Specifically, what happens in the atmosphere to allow this to happen only rarely?
Click to expand...

In the old days when the 'clear' channels were actually clear and not crowded with other stations on the same frequency, that kind of distance was not rare at all.

In northern California in the summer in 1977, WLS Chicago was a nighttime regular along with WLW Cincinnati and WWL New Orleans. I don't recall whether or not I got WSM which was around the same distance or maybe I never listened for it.

But even sometimes very late at night after the stations half way across the country signed off, I was able to hear a very weak 880 WCBS New York and 1210 WCAU Philadelphia.

Those days are long gone and hearing anything east of the Mississippi on the west coast is now a very good rare catch.
 
Thank you DavidEduardo for your helpful info about AM DX -- the wiki link was excellent.

gar fla, wish I had paid more attention to AM DX back in the day before the clutter and noise. These days I can still get WSM, WSB, and WHAS on my car radio at night here in Central Texas - and from the west, KOA and sometimes KNX and KSL.
 
When you hear about AM DXing, it's almost always what you can hear at night.

But did you know that daytime AM DXing can be just as interesting depending on your location?

AM signals go far greater distances over saltwater than they do on land but the ground conductivity of land can vary greatly depending on where you are.

Central Texas has very good ground conductivity compared to the rest of the country.

Here's the ground conductivity map of the US.

http://filebay1.home.comcast.net/~filebay1/ground.jpg


You may want to try out the AM band in the daytime and you will likely be fascinated with what you can get.

And you mentioned hearing KOA at night.

I've seen reports of it being heard hundreds of miles east during the middle of the day.

I don't know what local interference you may have on that frequency in the day from stations on that same frequency or adjacent frequencies but you might want to give it a try.

If you can't hear KOA, there are many other stations to try for.

http://topazdesigns.com/ambc/aminfo.html
 
Guess I'm dating myself but I can remember WSM being a semi-regular in Oregon back in the late 60's and early 70's.
 
gar fla said:
When you hear about AM DXing, it's almost always what you can hear at night.

But did you know that daytime AM DXing can be just as interesting depending on your location?

AM signals go far greater distances over saltwater than they do on land but the ground conductivity of land can vary greatly depending on where you are.

Central Texas has very good ground conductivity compared to the rest of the country.

Here's the ground conductivity map of the US.

http://filebay1.home.comcast.net/~filebay1/ground.jpg


You may want to try out the AM band in the daytime and you will likely be fascinated with what you can get.

And you mentioned hearing KOA at night.

I've seen reports of it being heard hundreds of miles east during the middle of the day.

I don't know what local interference you may have on that frequency in the day from stations on that same frequency or adjacent frequencies but you might want to give it a try.

If you can't hear KOA, there are many other stations to try for.

http://topazdesigns.com/ambc/aminfo.html
Click to expand...

That ground conductivity map is over 50 years old - it is from the International Geophysical Year. I sure wish there was a better map somewhere, one with more resolution.
 
rbrucecarter5 said:
That ground conductivity map is over 50 years old - it is from the International Geophysical Year. I sure wish there was a better map somewhere, one with more resolution.
Click to expand...

Somewhere on the FCC site there is a set of higher resolution maps... each one for a much more specific area of the US and territories. I have not looked for them in several years, but they are a bit more granular.

Most "newer" measurements come from specific situations where a station does its own study to show variances from the broad FCC maps that may allow for slightly different operations than when using the standard maps. The FCC appears to generally accept such detailed measurement. The usual procedure is to get a temporary license for a test transmitter that emits no programming while measurements are made. My most recent memory, IIRC, is the move of KBRT from Catalina to the mainland which involved the use of one of these test transmitters to get a better definition of conductivity in near-desert location picked for the new site.
 
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