DXing in the ATL

WSSL was stomping all over WNNX this morning--the worst I have ever heard it, to the point where it was practically unlistenable all the way down to about Jimmy Carter.

I checked some of my other DX favorites (WQZY 95.9 out of Dublin, WUSY 100.7 out of Chattanooga) and couldn't get them at all--although you usually have to be south of I-20 to get WQZY because of Power 96. WBBQ 104.3 out of Augusta was coming in great. So was 94.5 WGTK, also out of Greenville.

Anyone having any luck DXing with this hot weather?

Noticed this as well. No Bailey and Southside - Just country music. WFBC/Greenville and WPEZ/Macon were duking it out on 93.7. WMGB/95.1/Macon was coming in also. I wish one of the blowtorches (100kw) would go down sometime here during the heavy DXing so we can hear some really far away stations. Once late on a Saturday night, Q100 went off air and I could hear WOOF in Dothan and WMC in Memphis. I noticed there are no 99.7FMs between here and Memphis I assume due to WMCs 300kw power. WWTN is northwest in Nashville and WOOF is southwest in Dothan.

WQZY tower is about 5 minutes from my parents house near Twin City Georgia. The signal actually isn't all that impressive in terms of pull. I really don't pull it much further northwest than Macon and that is difficult.

To be honest, 97.1 The River has the most impressive pull in the state beating the Augusta 104.3 station.

Still, it's the Raleigh NC stations are by far the most impressive when being pulled. I can pull most of the 100KW Raleigh stations down to Florence SC which is amazing. This is during the day mind you.

I hear WSB FM (98.5) gets pulled an awful lot up in Greenville SC.

I get Atlanta signals sometimes all the way over in Charleston. 97.1 is the most frequent. It comes in maybe 2-3 times a summer. Before our band was filled with translators and other class A signals, multiple Atlanta stations used to come in frequently. 98.5 came in frequently also, but now there's a sports translator. We had tropo a couple of years ago on a summer morning and I heard most of the metro Atlanta stations. 106.7 is blocked here because of Columbia, SC.

Until about 10 years ago, 97.1 used to be a nearly every day pickup in Columbia, SC, but a religious translator was put there.

I use to pick up a Top 40 station called 95SX in Charleston back in the 90s and 2ks down in Vidalia Ga all the time. Came in nearly every single night and sometimes during the day.

Would also get 92.9 (or was it 92.5) which was a country station located near the "South of the Border" on the NC/SC border.

I mentioned above though - The Raleigh stations stand out because I use to pull them on a regular basis down to Florence and sometimes as far south as the Santee SC area. Main stations I would pull would be WRDU 100.7, WQDR 94.7 and WRAL 101.5.

You picking up 97.1 The River is no surprise. 97.1 is 80% clear as far west as Bremen/Carrollton regardless of the day and that is about 70 or so air miles away. Most 100K watt stations at 1100 ft (avg) go about 60 air miles in these parts.

106.7 is another impressive signal and I have to wonder if technically it is not positioned to send signals out further than 97.1 if only it was 100KW.

charlestondxman said:

I get Atlanta signals sometimes all the way over in Charleston. 97.1 is the most frequent. It comes in maybe 2-3 times a summer. Before our band was filled with translators and other class A signals, multiple Atlanta stations used to come in frequently. 98.5 came in frequently also, but now there's a sports translator. We had tropo a couple of years ago on a summer morning and I heard most of the metro Atlanta stations. 106.7 is blocked here because of Columbia, SC.

Until about 10 years ago, 97.1 used to be a nearly every day pickup in Columbia, SC, but a religious translator was put there.

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acheron1982 said:

WQZY tower is about 5 minutes from my parents house near Twin City Georgia. The signal actually isn't all that impressive in terms of pull. I really don't pull it much further northwest than Macon and that is difficult.

To be honest, 97.1 The River has the most impressive pull in the state beating the Augusta 104.3 station.

Still, it's the Raleigh NC stations are by far the most impressive when being pulled. I can pull most of the 100KW Raleigh stations down to Florence SC which is amazing. This is during the day mind you.

I hear WSB FM (98.5) gets pulled an awful lot up in Greenville SC.

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I've picked up 97.1 as far east as Columbia SC, under normal conditions.

acheron1982 said:

Would also get 92.9 (or was it 92.5) which was a country station located near the "South of the Border" on the NC/SC border.

106.7 is another impressive signal and I have to wonder if technically it is not positioned to send signals out further than 97.1 if only it was 100KW.

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When 92.9 out of Dillon (the station you mention near SOTB) was classic rock, I always thought it funny that their moniker was "Z93" (calls at the time were WZNS) but they were using the same VO guy that 96 Rock was using at the time for their imaging. Wish I had gotten an aircheck. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WEGX . It's a 100kW full class C.

97.1 and 106.7 are the only two full class C's in ATL. 106.7's transmitter on the Fish Stick is a little bit higher (505 meters, or about .3 miles) than 97.1's (473 meters).

From what I understand, when 106.7 moved from the Chateau Elan tower used by WSRV and WSBB to the Fish Stick, they had to reduce power because the new transmitter was so darn high.

I live next to the Fish Stick and 106.7 has bled through my computer speakers before. There have been extremely rare occasions in my lifetime where very good tropo conditions have stomped over local stations so bad it would step over the 100kw stations in town. I remember one evening back in the 90s, we had poor grade cable in the house (for cable TV) and when you had this situation back in the analog days, you would get ingress on 2, 5, 8, and 11. I recall WDEF/12 in Chattanooga bleeding in through the cable. That was some of the heaviest DXing I ever experienced.

Wonder if that is because of over modulation vs just the power of the station. I ask only because in my hometown of Vidalia, the local 3KW station bleeds over everything around town including today. It's illegal as hell I would assume but they don't do anything because the radio station is small community station in a small town in the middle of no where.

I think 106.7 is one of the best positioned signals in the city covering both Atlanta and Athens. Perfect signal for an attempt at some form of modern rock should Iheart kill radio 105.7

RadioDoogie said:

I live next to the Fish Stick and 106.7 has bled through my computer speakers before. There have been extremely rare occasions in my lifetime where very good tropo conditions have stomped over local stations so bad it would step over the 100kw stations in town. I remember one evening back in the 90s, we had poor grade cable in the house (for cable TV) and when you had this situation back in the analog days, you would get ingress on 2, 5, 8, and 11. I recall WDEF/12 in Chattanooga bleeding in through the cable. That was some of the heaviest DXing I ever experienced.

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DavidEduardo said:

There is a limit to how much an FM can over-modulate before the bandwidth exceeds that of the average radio and starts producing "goose farts" on receivers. In my experience in a country where modulations was not monitored by the government, the limit is between 125% and 130%. That still only causes some splatter onto the two adjacent channels, not up and down the band. What you are hearing sounds like a different issue than modulation.

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I've been trying hard to learn technical terminology. Glad to add "goose farts" to my engineering vocabulary!

acheron1982 said:

Wonder if that is because of over modulation vs just the power of the station. I ask only because in my hometown of Vidalia, the local 3KW station bleeds over everything around town including today. It's illegal as hell I would assume but they don't do anything because the radio station is small community station in a small town in the middle of no where.

I think 106.7 is one of the best positioned signals in the city covering both Atlanta and Athens. Perfect signal for an attempt at some form of modern rock should Iheart kill radio 105.7

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Why would one do that? Athens businesses generally can not pay Atlanta Rates. 105.7 being the only on the air ALT station in Atlanta is sliding down to a 2.0 (6+). 106.7 is at 1.9 (6+) last published period. I know the demos are different but there other more lucrative program holes in this market rather than to try to take down a station that isn't even the top 15.

acheron1982 said:

I use to pick up a Top 40 station called 95SX in Charleston back in the 90s and 2ks down in Vidalia Ga all the time. Came in nearly every single night and sometimes during the day.

Would also get 92.9 (or was it 92.5) which was a country station located near the "South of the Border" on the NC/SC border.

I mentioned above though - The Raleigh stations stand out because I use to pull them on a regular basis down to Florence and sometimes as far south as the Santee SC area. Main stations I would pull would be WRDU 100.7, WQDR 94.7 and WRAL 101.5.

You picking up 97.1 The River is no surprise. 97.1 is 80% clear as far west as Bremen/Carrollton regardless of the day and that is about 70 or so air miles away. Most 100K watt stations at 1100 ft (avg) go about 60 air miles in these parts.

106.7 is another impressive signal and I have to wonder if technically it is not positioned to send signals out further than 97.1 if only it was 100KW.

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Both 92.9 and 92.5 were country in Florence for a long time. 92.9 still is. That dominates that frequency still in most of SC east of I-77 and I-20. 92.5 (from Manning) could be heard clearly in Florence and Charleston before they moved into the Charleston market about 15 years ago.

The Charleston FMs have good ranges well down into GA even on a pretty normal day in the summer. You can hear most of the big ones as far as Brunswick during the summer. Vice versa with the Savannah FMs in Charleston. 97.3, 95.5 and 96.5 (the three biggest signals from Savannah) come in sometimes even during the winter.

A few years back I was listening on a Walkman and 106.7 was in all the way to Thomson (30 miles from Augusta).