AM Frequency of the week: 650

First of all, Happy Father's Day to all the Dads on the board. Hope you guys have a safe/fun day. Now to the matter at hand this week....650.

Days here far northwest suburban Chicago 650 is blank except for whatever IBOC slop is left from second adjacent WSCR (670).

Nights: All WSM. Alone and reliable. Easily breaks through WSCR's IBOC remnants. Only once or twice have I heard something underneath. Too weak to identify, but souns like Spanish, although apparently not Cuba.

Retro: When I returned from my junior year of high school in Honolulu in 1965, I was on a mission with my Halicrafters S-120 to snag, KORL. Just about every Monday morning. I knew it should be doable (as David subsequently has proven), but I never got so much as a whiff of it. WSM often spoiled the party by leaving the transmitter on and broadcasting a test pattern-like tone for some or all of the night.

In the near north Chicago suburbs 650 is blank during the daytime and all WSM at night.
As Cyberdad, I tried many times for Honolulu here, but never heard it.

Retro: when I was on the west coast in the late 70s I did snag "KORL" just before sunrise where I was in Northern California.

650 here during the day is nothing really, but WSM comes in sometimes during the winter at 450 miles with a weak signal, and any critical hours WSM comes in stronger. By the beach, Radio Progreso from Cuba comes in. It is from Ciego de Avila, on the coast, about 750 miles away.

WSM comes in strong at night usually, unless there is some interference from WFAN.

Other Location: As posted previously, I did snag WSM this past January on the beach near Pensacola/Gulf Shores via daytime skywave. Midday. Also about 450 miles. Very weak, but I did get a couple of positive IDs.

Here around Columbus, Ohio, 650 is of course all WSM at night. I logged it very weakly during the day years ago (mid-2000s anyway), and I think that was during the winter months. As long as I have DXd, it is always among the strongest signals even when next-door neighbors WFAN and WSCR might not be.

cyberdad said:

First of all, Happy Father's Day to all the Dads on the board.

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I actually saw this, right when it originally aired here.

WSM all day and night in Huntsville, AL. Sometimes at night some chatter in the background from an unknown station to the south, perhaps Cuba. Overall pretty solid, with it's low dial position and 50kw from over 100 miles away.

WSM Day and Night, just North of Atlanta

Warminster PA(Philly 'burbs):

Daytime: zippo. Maybe some splatter from local 640 WWJZ or 660 WFAN.
Night: WSM.

ai4i said:

I actually saw this, right when it originally aired here.

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Don't remember the original broadcast of that, but I do remember the series. As for the tune, I do have it on mp3 on a 14-year old Dell laptop that I use as a jukebox. (Complete with some classic PAMS jingles in the playlist rotations).

gr8oldies said:

.....A string WSM.....

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Makes perfect sense to me. Lots of strings to be heard on WSM. Guitars, banjos, fiddles, mandolins.........

South of the Minnesota River (Mpls suburbs)

daytime-nothing
nighttime-WSM

Current, from NE PA : Nothing in the day.
WSM at night. (I'm one of those codgers who still call the format C&W. That label dates way back to when I wasn't a codger).

* * * * * * *

Retro, from the JFK Airport-area days:
See, WNBC 660/WCBS 880 had their mutual stick close enough to cast a shadow on our dens when the NNW sun set at this time of year. So the devil knows how I ever heard WSM at night, considering the primitive radios I was in the habit of using. But there it was.
(WLS 890 and WWL 870 were also almost too easy, as well. Same situation -- with WCBS on the air)
The only other 650 station I logged from that area was something in Bogota.
The Bogota in Colombia, not the one in New Jersey.

And I must've been using a more recent communications rig the night I logged 'Paraguay' on 645. WNBC probably was off at the time, hi

Steve Green NEPA said:

hi

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.... ..

Day: WWJZ trash
Night: WWJZ trash but weaker. It seems WSRO trys to get through during good DXing weather but always fails miserably.

In the dial of 650 of Cincinnati there's nothing in the daytime, However at the nighttime I can get WSM moderately strong at night. That's what I hear in Cincinnati.

WSM of course. Not many people know this but they use a 195 degree tower (over half wavelength) which is considered optimal for a tower. Most stations barely have a 1/4 wave tower. Many engineers believe the more metal you have in the sky, the greater the E-field will be.

kf4rca said:

Many engineers believe the more metal you have in the sky, the greater the E-field will be.

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You seem skeptical!
Here & There

But ground conductivity is more important.