AM Frequency of the Week: 870

Next "I-A" clear is 870....

Here northwest of Chicago daytime, it's usually "residual splatter" from the local 850 (WAIT). With the local nulled, I have heard WKAR from East Lansing, MI, a couple of times.

Night: Usually all WWL with a good signal. I've heard R. Reloj underneath several times.

Sunrise/Sunset. I used to sometimes hear the 870 from Valley head, AL mixing with WWL, Not recently, however.

In the near north Chicago suburbs a weak WKAR can be heard during the day on a good radio. At night WWL owns the frequency with a good signal.
Sometimes I hear a weak Radio Reloj underneath WWL.

Warminster PA(Philly 'burbs):

Daytime: splatter from 860 WWDB or 880 WCBS.
Night: mostly WWL.

The West Coast checks in: SF Bay Area - nights KRLA/Glendale. WWL has sneaked through more than once but I wouldn't call it regular. Day and night, KTRB splatter (tx 11 miles away).

Daytime from Yakima - KFLD Pasco, a semi-local with news/talk.
Nights - usually a mix of something, and something else, and something else, depending on conditions. Usually a 250w KFLD can be heard, and some nights I'll hear KLSQ Whitney NV (Univision Deportes) with their 430W. KJMP Pierce, CO is surprisingly common on 320w with old 50s/60s oldies 'The Big 87'. When conditions are good to the east, WWL New Orleans (News/Talk) will make an appearance. I used to get CFBV Smithers BC (Adult Contemporary) often on the westside, but rarely here in Yakima. CKIR Invermere (EZ Rock) is even rarer than CFBV but has been heard 2-3 times before. Also one logging of KRLA Glendale CA (Conservative Talk) during aurora a couple of years ago.

The only 870 I really need in the logbook is KPRM Park Rapids, MN. I'm surprised this doesn't come in during late October when I usually get strong signals from ND and SK before sunrise. They are 50,000 watts days!

Reynoldsburg, Ohio ...
* Daytime: Splatter from local daytimer WRFD, which signs off at sunset because of WCBS.
* Nighttime: Always WWL.

870 here in Charleston:

With a good radio daytime, and during the solar eclipse, I heard WTCG Mount Holly, NC with a religious format. At night, I hear WWL usually, often very strong.

Oh, I forgot...
Logged Radio Reloj once a couple years ago on the 870 frequency, just the 'RR' code but they were in under WWL.

crainbebo said:

The only 870 I really need in the logbook is KPRM Park Rapids, MN. I'm surprised this doesn't come in during late October when I usually get strong signals from ND and SK before sunrise. They are 50,000 watts days!

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Surprises me also. They get out pretty well on groundwave when they're at 50kw. Despite generally lousy ground conductivity in the area.

In NW San Antonio:

Day: Heavy splatter from local 860 KONO

Night: The splatter can be nulled out somewhat, and WWL can be heard with a fairly strong signal. A few times I've heard the R. Reloj time signals popping up very weakly.

Sunrise: XETAR "La Voz de la Sierra" in Guachochi can be heard for a bit in the same null when it signs on for the day.

Retro: A few years back, I used to hear a weak XEXM "Radio Jerez" occasionally at night.

Here in coastal Alabama, it's WWL day and night. I'm only 150 miles from the TX site and a lot of that is over salt water, so it's like a local in a lot of areas. I understand in the olden days when out of market stations were listed in the 12+ ratings, it showed up regularly in Mobile and Pensacola despite the great distance.

Daytime - nothing

Nighttime - usually nothing but I've heard WWL a couple times

Nothing daytime.
Nighttime, WWL usually.

tomservo said:

Here in coastal Alabama, it's WWL day and night. I'm only 150 miles from the TX site and a lot of that is over salt water, so it's like a local in a lot of areas. I understand in the olden days when out of market stations were listed in the 12+ ratings, it showed up regularly in Mobile and Pensacola despite the great distance.

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Strongest AM signal (by far)on the beach at the place where we stay regularly at the FL-AL state line next door to the Florabama. R-L clocks the distance at 160 miles, IIRC. But you can still null it at night and hear R. Reloj.

cyberdad said:

Strongest AM signal (by far)on the beach at the place where we stay regularly at the FL-AL state line next door to the Florabama. R-L clocks the distance at 160 miles, IIRC. But you can still null it at night and hear R. Reloj.

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Interesting, I don't think I've ever heard Reloj in the null on 870. I'll have to try again for that. I heard Progreso on 650 not too long ago, which I thought was pretty crazy considering how strong WSM can be at night. I was able to verify it by listening to 4765 kHz and matching the audio.

These days it seems like every frequency at night has Spanish language programming on it here on the coast, at some point during the night anyway.

Daytime -- nothing
One sunset -- WHCU Ithaca NY; them I have taped.
Nighttimes -- WWL.

* * * * *

From southeast Queens NYC in the 'retro' days, when nothing was retro yet -- the word might not've been coined yet -- I caught three of the usual 870 suspects (WKAR Michigan, WHCU and WWL) plus a goodie.
One night, WCBS 880 and WWL both were off. By default, in came a faint WHOA from San Juan, with their Beautiful Music/MoR programming. In English, too. My recall of the date and even the year is shot. But I'll never forget the time -- THEIR time, anyway. A jingle went 'Four-thirty ... four-thirty .... It's half past the hour of four .....'.

It's queer, thinking back, that these 870 stations came in as certified loggings by me. WCBS-880 was the closest 50,000 omni station to my 'den'. At the farthest, their stick was 12 miles north -- and some of it was water path. My radios back then weren't exactly super-het communications beasts, either.

First WHOA then R. Reloj. Caribbean stations stations "making use of" WWL's null to the south-southeast

Days...Nothing

Last night..I can say now, I have picked up the mighty WWL out of new Orleans!!! As others have said, it comes and goes out here in the San Francisco Bay Area, but when its present, its definitely there, and when its not, KLSQ ( Spanish ) out of Whitney Nevada ( essentially Las Vegas ) is taking over. Quite impressive catch, as this station is about 1,890 miles away, and has to fight its way through two other stations.

On a side note, conditions last night were above average for AM dxing ( I hope this continues ). I decided to give KOKC 1520 another go at it on the RF-2200, and there is nothing there but music from KKZZ out of Oxnard, California. If they are on 50KW, then they should have come through nicely, but I suspect they are not running full power.

formula72 said:

KOKC 1520

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A few years ago they lost a tower to a tornado. Searching for a source, I found a topic right here on Radio Discussions!

https://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?698412-Have-KOKC-downed-towers-been-rebuilt

I used to live in Florida. Before the tornado, KOKC often came through under WWKB or whatever KB is going as in Buffalo these days. Post-tornado, nada. I haven't been able to hear them in Arizona, either. Congrats on N'awlins. When they were broadcasting a baseball game, the Cubans would turn on their wobbly jammer.

I was tuning around last night, while watching the ball game with TV muted. Best thing I got was KFAB 1110 in Omaha. I assume the 770/880 duo in NYC gets through to the SF area regularly. They're big down here. From the East Coast I often tried for KFI LA, but never succeeded. What I wouldn't have given to log Colorado from Florida, where I had a strong local on 850. Now I've already got a log full of them.

Jim

Thanks KR1S....

Are you telling me you can pick up WCBS (880) and WABC (770) out their in South Arizona? That's some holy moley stuff right there!!!!

How do you hear WABC over KKOB? As for 880, I've gotten KRVN out of Lincoln, Nebraska, but not WCBS.