I had mentioned in another thread that I'm hearing very little English on the mw dial from here in Costa Rica. I've ID'ed WFFG 1300 Key West, 1640 from Biloxi, and 1700 in S Texas. I was surprised to find that my unid on 1030 is WBZ. Caught a positive ID at 0100 UTC tonight. Fair to good signal mostly in the clear over presumed Mexico City and general mush. Pretty amazing to me that this is my only northern US catch. It's a pretty crowded band down here overall.
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WBZ heard in Costa Rica
- Thread starter wildthangjim
- Start date
Is 740 very crowded? I would think that KTRH might make it. They send alot of signal that way.
740 has some very powerful stations in Venezuela and Colombia, although there is no Costa Rican station on the frequency.
In the 70s KTRH had a very good signal deep into Mexico, but that was a long time ago and the frequency wasn't as crowded then.
I used to get 710 quite often around 7 to 9 PM in my car... in Quito, Ecuador. There were locals on 700 and 720, but with my Blaupunkt I was able to get WGBS quite nicely.
710 is downgrading to around 6.8 kw at night, with a very different pattern so it will not be an easy catch later this year.
1180 may, finally, be subject to budget cuts.
All three are in Spanish, of course.
That was then.
All three are more jammed than a Jamaican dance club.
The interesting thing is that "Radio Here" will still have one of the best night signals in Miami.
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The Cuban Progreso stations on 710 are all fairly low power... the most being 30 kw. 1140's jammer appears to be gone, replaced by a bunch of low power stations. 1180 is still aggressively jammed.
710 towards Ecuador (and Costa Rica) is less congested that it used to be due to the thinning of the crop on AM.
700 used to be HCJB in Quito, but it moved to 690 with its 50 kw but went off permanently in December. There's nothing there on 710 of any strength. The 710 in Caracas is running 10 kw or less instead of its previous 100 kw, and the Colombian is also running less than 10 kw now. Up in El Salvador, the 710-720-730-740 YSR synchronous repeaters is gone, now FM only.
This is somewhat like the 730 - 900- 940 AMs in Mexico City. Used to be 100 kw, 250 kw and 50 kw. Now are 60 kw, 100 kw and 30 kw... celebrating the death of AM.
I'm a little surprised that 1180 here at night is all WHAM. The Cuban jammers (R. Rebelde) are strong in much of Florida 24/7. Then at night they're also strong in most of the southeast and south central states. I've heard the Cubans within a couple hundred miles south of here at night, but not at my home location.
As for WBZ... Despite Gar pointing out that it can be tough duty sometimes in Florida, my experience with it is that WBZ's DA can result in some noteable "over-achieving". As I've pointed out previously, I've hard them on a cheap clock radio in Arizona. And here at home at night, I can almost always pull them out from under my local 1030 (WNVR). That's with WNVR's stick being less than two miles from my house.
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Didn't hear KTRH on 740, just a mix of 2 or more SS stations (presumed Colombia/Venezuela). I was only able to listen between 6:30-7:00, which should have been just past Houston sunset. I did get a quick 10 minutes on the radio one night after 9:00 local time and heard more English then. WBAP was particularly strong then. I was thinking I might hear KGOW 1560, as others have reported a strong signal to the south, but nothing but presumed CR and Nicaraguan semi-locals.
Plenty of Cubans were heard, including Radio Reloj's tick-tick on multiple frequencies.
Plenty of Cubans were heard, including Radio Reloj's tick-tick on multiple frequencies.
870 is a Costa Rican "national" channel used by Radio Universidad, the station at the national university. So much of the time, WWL would be blocked.
WBZ and WWL are the only two 24/7 directional dominant clears.
Both stations, especially the later, have broad, 2 tower cardioid patterns,
and avoid broiling the nearby fish.
At the times I checked, I never heard a hint of WWL, only the Costa Rican and a bit of the tick tick from Cuba underneath. I'm guessing I would have a chance at local sunrise, but never got up that early
At the times I checked, I never heard a hint of WWL, only the Costa Rican and a bit of the tick tick from Cuba underneath. I'm guessing I would have a chance at local sunrise, but never got up that early
WWL operates with the same directional pattern day and night. Same goes for WBZ, for that matter. The idea, as stated previously, is to send as much signal as possible over land.
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