AM Frequency of the Week: 680

[cyberdad]

How far can KNBR go to east?

IME. KNBR is reliable into eastern Nebraska, Until it gets swallowed up by KFEQ.

I’ve heard it in Illinois at night but not for awhile.

Same here. The day signal makes it to the Central Illinois counties adjoining the Mississippi River.

 

[schmave]

I don't think I ever caught a California signal when I lived in greater Houston. KKYX obliterated any chance I had of snagging KNBR, as did KTRH with KCBS. I think I tried to catch KFI a few times with no success.

 

[Mark Roberts]

It’s KFEQ’s 100th anniversary this year, do you know if they’ve ever moved facilities? This article has some cool memorabilia as part of it:

Celebrate with us: KFEQ turns 100 this week! - the 1st of a 5-part series

By BRENT MARTINSt. Joseph PostKFEQ celebrates 100 years on the air th

stjosephpost.com

Judging by the FCC history cards, once KFEQ moved from Oak, Nebraska, it was in the following locations:

* Elwood & Poulin Streets, very near to the Missouri River, NNW of downtown (I-229 now goes right by that location)
* Pickett Road, SE of St. Joseph (licensed March 1938; St. Joseph News-Press article from February 10, 1938 indicates that the new site went into operation that day with a "330-foot antenna")
* The current location on the northeast side of St. Joseph, visible from I-29 (formerly US 71; current site, licensed 1943; News-Press reported that the new site, which enabled fulltime operation, was used beginning December 30, 1942)

Thanks for the link - I knew Brent Martin when he was at KOKO in Warrensburg and I was at KFRU in Columbia. When I later heard that he went to KFEQ, I knew he would do well there, and he has! Interesting videos - and I had not heard about the "exemption" some ag-oriented stations had to begin using their daytime facilities at 5 am. There is a note in the history cards that, "Application for pre-sunrise in excess of 500w ceiling dismissed; petitions for relief denied by Comm. Order 1-9-69."

 

[Mark Roberts]

I don't think I ever caught a California signal when I lived in greater Houston. KKYX obliterated any chance I had of snagging KNBR, as did KTRH with KCBS. I think I tried to catch KFI a few times with no success.

Same here. At night, when KRBE (then an early classic-rock on 1070) played album sides, one could faintly hear KNX in the silence between tracks. This would have been in 1985.

 

[wildthangjim]

I don't think I ever caught a California signal when I lived in greater Houston. KKYX obliterated any chance I had of snagging KNBR, as did KTRH with KCBS. I think I tried to catch KFI a few times with no success.

No chance for KNBR here with KKYX on ~the same bearing. Only Californian I've heard is KFI a few times early in the morning in the winter, after Cuba sunrise and before Norman OK sunrise. It's still tough with a couple of Mexican stations, KTIB, WCRV and others in the mix.

 

[cyberdad]

* The current location on the northeast side of St. Joseph, visible from I-29 (formerly US 71; current site, licensed 1943;

I've driven by the KFEQ antenna site off of I-29 several times. But the last time was probably in the early 2000s. That location struck me as a potentially choice piece of real estate. Are they still there?

 

[DavidEduardo]

How far can KNBR go to east?

Keep in mind that the major limitation on medium wave signals is congestion by other stations on the same frequency and ambient noise, whether natural static or man-made noise.

When frequencies were clearer in the 30's and even the 40's, 250 watt stations from Australia could be heard in North America. Even in the late 50's and early 60'0s I heard a 10 kw station from New Zealand in Ohio, as well as a 100 watt station from Puerto Rico. Both channels were "empty" in between me and the station.

KNBR can be heard in deep South America, Europe, parts of Africa as well as all of Oceania when the frequency is clear... and as other nations retire most AM broadcasters, such reception will return.

In around 1967 I bought a 200 watt AM on 595 in a small town in Ecuador, HCSP1. It had a longwire antenna about 80 feet off the ground, and could barely be heard 15 miles away. But there was a drawer in their file cabinet with several fat folders containing DX reports from Europe and Oceania.

 

[Mark Roberts]

I've driven by the KFEQ antenna site off of I-29 several times. But the last time was probably in the early 2000s. That location struck me as a potentially choice piece of real estate. Are they still there?

They're still there, and have added towers for KESJ. I was by there in May.

Here's a description of the configuration, from the 2010 application to modify KESJ: https://licensing.fcc.gov/cdbs/CDBS...?appn=101356407&qnum=5120&copynum=1&exhcnum=1

 

[KD4YQR]

Central Kentucky:
Days: WHBE Newburg (Louisville) with ESPN sports, and a decent signal at 50 miles out.
Nights: Mostly the 680 in Atlanta (fair)
Sometimes either WCTT Corbin or WPTF Raleigh.