107.3 KFFM Yakima

I think I've caught it somewhere around the JBLM area while scanning through the dial in traffic. As I have been told before, that was the result of some sort of "knife-edge" reflection, so nobody is hearing it on car radio in Seattle.

There were many times in the past I've picked it up in Bremerton and Silverdale. In recent years though CHBE in Victoria BC and a CSN religious translator have made that more difficult, if not impossible.

KFFM has a great transmitter site. At least from a location standpoint.

100kW ERP from 3,260ft! Always seemed like overkill for Yakima.

What you were experiencing is "atmospheric ducting" where some transmissions at certain angles get into what amounts to a trough between warm and cool air layers. We have that happen almost weekly here on the East Coast this time of the season, where local stations lose typical fringe coverage, but show up over the top of co-channel stations 300 miles away.

I've heard Yakima stations are audible in Olympia and Shelton, but have never been able to confirm that. Has anyone done a bandscan from Wilkeson? I was up there last week but didn't take a radio, and wouldn't have had time to DX anyway. I suspect it's so close to the mountains that there wouldn't be much interesting. Maybe one of these years when I get up there I'll take a radio.

I've never heard a Yakima FM station anywhere in the Seattle area. Or any other Eastern Washington station here, for that matter. I once heard The Dalles, Oregon on FM during tropo, a long time ago. But anytime I do an FM bandscan, the Cascade Mountains pretty much block anything from the East.

I suppose if you're in an elevated area, you might get an Eastern Washington station. Or as the others said, there are places south of the metro where one can get 'knife edge' reception, in spots.

But the Cascade Mountains are a fairly large barrier for FM.

A couple other Eastern Washington stations (KPQ 102.1 and KXLE 95.3) make it over here to Bremerton at times, but depends on location. KPQ is usually the strongest. A unique situation one time about a couple summers ago, was when 95.3 had 3 different stations overlapping each other while in the WinCo parking lot. KXXK out of Aberdeen, CKZZ out of Vancouver, and KXLE out of Ellensburg.

KPQ out of Wenatchee is usually only listenable in West Bremerton with the right receiver. Go across the bridge to the east side, and it gets quickly taken over by KSWW out of Aberdeen.

Rarely heard KFFM on the westside, usually via aircraft scatter. Heard them once on Hwy 167 near Kent, and a couple times faintly in Monroe. KPQ and KXLE were much more common. This is the Cascade Mountains (and low Seattle elevation in general) doing its work.

MarioMania said:

I didn't realize the Mountains would block it

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The radio locator map is really misleading (as most of those maps tend to be). It looks like the "distant" coverage can almost reach Seattle, but in reality the cutoff for coverage to the west would be be a jagged line along the mountain range.

I routinely get KPQ-FM, but have never heard KFFM or KXLE over here. I've tried for KFFM during a tropo opening but all I've gotten is the CSN relayer. I did happen to catch KFFM at my aunt's place in Stevenson a couple years ago.

Coming back from Yakima you can carry KFFM all the way to just this side of Snoqualmie Pass. Several years ago, we were doing just that, and after miles and miles of a somewhat static-filled signal, right about the top of the pass the stereo kicked in for just a second. A couple miles later, I began to hear what sounded like KNDD splatter cutting in, so flipped the station.

Until KUOW put up a LPFM on Tumwater Hill, i could get it around certain places around town. I do receive 105.7 from Yakima occasionally. BTW Free Radio Olympia is back

fordranger797 said:

I think I've caught it somewhere around the JBLM area while scanning through the dial in traffic. As I have been told before, that was the result of some sort of "knife-edge" reflection, so nobody is hearing it on car radio in Seattle.

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When I lived in Lakewood (quite near what was then Fort Lewis and is now JBLM), I could get a weak monophonic signal from KFFM on a pretty regular basis, but it wasn't good enough to listen to on a regular basis. Even back then it was Top 40, but it was automated, playing pairs of current songs that were back-announced (but definitely not TM Stereo Rock).

That's also knife-edge reflection in Lakewood. Mt. Rainier creates this phenomenon. You have to be at the right place to get this DX - Shelton is one of them. Go into Downtown Shelton and tune in 106.5 - you definitely won't hear any Christian music. Instead, it's KEGX Richland with classic rock.

crainbebo said:

That's also knife-edge reflection in Lakewood. Mt. Rainier creates this phenomenon. You have to be at the right place to get this DX - Shelton is one of them. Go into Downtown Shelton and tune in 106.5 - you definitely won't hear any Christian music. Instead, it's KEGX Richland with classic rock.

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The big 100K fm's in Tri-Cities can easily be heard just across the Cascade crest. (KEGX 106.5, KORD 102.7, and KIOK 94.9). And to the east, I recently picked up KEGX loud and clear just west of Colfax, WA on the plateau and it sounded local! Monster signal.

More related to knife edge - heard CIOC 98.5 and CKKQ 100.3 Victoria in Ellensburg on Friday. Ocean 98.5 wasn't bad, but CKKQ was huge! I don't know if it was tropo enhancement or if Mt. Stuart/Enchantment Range have to do with the strong signals.
Also a fair signal from KZHR/92.5 Dayton (130 miles) 'Mi Favorita'. Guess I'm getting the other way around based off seatownmedia's report from Colfax. Mountains can screw up signals, but they can also deliver unexpected results. It's a fact that heading down Umtanum Ridge near the Selah rest area, you can get several Portland FMs for a few miles before they fade. KXL-FM is usually the strongest, but KRSK is probably 2nd. I have a friend on YouTube who used to live in Pomona/Selah in the mid 1990s, and he was able to get KGW/8 and KOPB/10. Not very strong, but always there 24/7.

I remember picking up KONA 105.3 and several other Tri Cities FMs on 26 between Othello and Colfax. I think I lost them before we actually got into town, but they were pretty strong. More related to knife edge, I got several of those same fm stations in Salem a couple years ago, Mount Hood does the same thing as Rainier.

I would suppose in Oregon, Medford and Klamath Falls stations are possible through knife edge in the right spots as well. The signal would have to bounce off Mt. Shasta or Mt. McLoughlin, but probably possible.