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Pennsylvania! 2/17/2017 midnight PT

C

crainbebo

Walk of Fame Participant
It took a local to go off, but I sure needed this one. There is NO RECORDING - Murphy's Law was out big time. When I tried to record this one, I got a much closer station instead and a bunch of hash noise. Hopefully not a bad sign for summer Es season.

1020 - KDKA Pittsburgh, PA; fair fadeup with mention of 412 area code, faded down with weak calls and faded back up stronger with CBS News at 0000 PT 2/17. The local Pittsburgh commercial w/ the 412 area code gave me the strongest confirmation. NEW STATE #31! NEW #734, 50KW at 2050 miles! Very pleased with this one, as I had been trying for KDKA for many years. It's been heard in the PacNW irregularly.
Also heard - KWIQ w/ ESPN (this is what I got when I pressed record on my recorder...a fadeup of sports scores.) and a possible KCKN Roswell with faint SS music, sounded religious. KDYK was OFF THE AIR!
The last time KDYK went 'off' was 10/2014 - but it was on dead air for a few hours. All I got was KTNQ Los Angeles in the null. It wasn't completely off like it was last night!
 
No, this was barefoot surprisingly! But WBBM was quite strong as well.
 
Congratulations, crainbebo!

FWIW, after years of apparent underperforming, KDKA's nighttime signal seems to me to have improved within the last few months.
 
Congrats! Remarkable catch. I live in that zone where KDKA's day and night signals both are awful. Can't say I've ever had a catch from that far away.
 
Is this your first 'K' call logged which has its tower east of the Mississippi, hi ?

Our fine state, described as 'Pittsburgh at one end; Philadelphia at the other; Kentucky in the middle'*, actually has three (3) AM stations with 'K'-prefixed calls. The other two are KYW 1060 and KQV 1410 Pittsburgh.

Bravo Crain ! I'd always considered KDKA to rival WGY 810 Schenectady NY as having the WORST 50,000 watt omni signals at night.

* (We live in the Kentucky part)
 
There has been some fairly balmy weather in the mid-Atlantic the last couple of days.

Last night, whipped out the XDR-F1HD...lots of tropo...pulled in (and locked HD on) several Baltimore stations at around 100 miles away.

AM didn't seem to be particularly interesting (probably because my 'good' antenna is back in WA), but I was amazed that I picked up Radio Reloj on 570 with almost no noise behind it (I'm about 60 miles from WSPZ on the same channel...they're always in the background behind Cuba at night.)


Should be another decent night tonight. It has all of the precursors of a decent early spring tropo event.

Radio-X
 
Steve Green NEPA said:
Is this your first 'K' call logged which has its tower east of the Mississippi, hi ?

I'd always considered KDKA to rival WGY 810 Schenectady NY as having the WORST 50,000 watt omni signals at night.
Click to expand...

I've felt pretty much felt the same way, Steve. At least during the past several years. But, as I alluded to earlier, I think KDKA's signal has improved lately. I checked out 1020 this morning a couple of hours before sunrise, and KDKA was blasting. Stronger than its first and second adjacents....WBZ and WHO. I can't remember the last time here that KDKA was the best signal in that particular slice of radio dial real estate.

Maybe they "fixed something"?
 
Steve Green NEPA said:
Is this your first 'K' call logged which has its tower east of the Mississippi, hi ?
Click to expand...

Our neighbor less than 20 miles north of me, "the land of cheese, beer, and bratwurst" has one of those. And it's on a GY channel, no less. KFIZ in Fon Du Lac, Wisconsin on 1450. I actually was able to hear it regularly daytime during a period when the Chicago 1450 was off for few months. The distance involved was about 100 miles to my north. Not bad for 1KW on a crowded high dial position channel!

Given Crain's skill and success with GY channel DX, I wouldn't be surprised if he snagged KFIZ some day....if he hasn't already! :)
 
cyberdad said:
I've felt pretty much felt the same way, Steve. At least during the past several years. But, as I alluded to earlier, I think KDKA's signal has improved lately. I checked out 1020 this morning a couple of hours before sunrise, and KDKA was blasting. Stronger than its first and second adjacents....WBZ and WHO. I can't remember the last time here that KDKA was the best signal in that particular slice of radio dial real estate.

Maybe they "fixed something"?
Click to expand...

I've noticed the improvement on KDKA as well. However, WGY still has a lousy signal. Back in the 60s they were one of the strongest.
 
Probably never will catch KFIZ unless I end up with the DXpedition folks in Finland, or if I travel to MN, eastern ND, SD, etc. Too many in the way, and KUTI splatters eastbound on 1460. I am still awaiting KQDI Great Falls however...we can only hope.
 
Congrats on that nice catch, crainbebo!

And the station that once made broadcast history too.
 
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