I was in town yesterday because I was doing some car shopping, and although that didn't give me much time to check out the airwaves, I did find some interesting things out. By the way, I brought along my Radiwow R-108, but I just couldn't find the wiggle room to set and record anything, it was just a busy day. And I forgot to lug along my FM Antenna. Not to mention that these places started to close at 5pm.
Okay, enough of my complaints, and onto the goods!
All four Cheyenne stations held on into Fort Collins (this was about 3:45pm) on the Radiwow R-108. KGAB was of local strength, KVAM and KFBC was moderate, and KRAE was weak, but listenable. KGAB'S field strength on my R-108 was about 53 dbu in each direction, while KFBC pulled about a 35. KLVZ Brighton wasn't really listenable in Fort Collins during the day, although KDFD and KRCN was powerful at 60 and 58 dbu, respectively. KOA registered about a 47 dbu.
I then stopped (4:50pm) in Brighton (again, Car lots), and now I had lost KRAE. However, the other three from Cheyenne, KGAB, KFBC, and KVAM still held their own. KGAB still sounded like a local at 48 dbu. KVAM was around 26 dbu, and KFBC was 21 dbu. I also test drove a Mitsubishi, and the radio did pull in KGAB without static, but the AM band in general is quiet on that thing, and so I had to really turn up the volume to even hear the stations.
During that test drive, I checked FM as well, and the car had poor filters on it, so you would get images and spurs. Nonetheless, I could recieve 100.7 KOLT FM with some static, and 98.1 KKFM came in nicely, despite being right next to 97.9 KXBG, which came in like a local. (I should note that I was safely setting at the train tracks waiting for a nice long BNSF to finish passing through, when I did the scan).
Going back to my own vehicle, I left it on 98.1 for a while, and although it wasn't bad, it did have bouts of static. Because I had business to do, I just left it on 810 KLVZ after that, and waited for my next car lot to scan some more.
I approached my next car lot (just south of Downtown at Evans Ave) around 6:35pm (again, they closed early, but they did allow you to check out their lot anyways). I parked near a powerline, which pumped some RFI noise into the AM band, so KGAB sounded a bit rough on my truck, and even KLVZ was doing some buzzing. However, I took my Radiwow R-108 into the center of the lot, away from the powerline, and KGAB was back to being a clear local again, at 44 dbu. KFBC was now gone, but KVAM was just barely hanging on well enough that I could hear the YNOP slogan. (KVAM was 16 dbu on the R-108, which is the bare minimum of what my radio can pick-up). I also noted some Colorado Springs stations, KCSJ, KVOR, and KPPF, all relatively weak hanging around 24 dbu. Somehow, I could not grab 780 and 890 from the Springs, no matter what I tried. Granted, I was short on time, and I probably was still in a high noise area, but those two never seemed to have their signals set up correctly. This was still about 2 hours before I noticed skywave, so I would think they would be on day-power.
On my route between Brighton and Aurora, I passed about 6 AM stations in Denver, KLZ, KLTT, KNUS, KLVZ, KPOF, and KPLS, which it was cool to see the towers. Before I made it into Brighton, I was close to the KRCN stick, but I couldn't find the tower, weirdly.
As skywave settled in on my late supper at Boston Market (Kudos to them for being so kind!), I noticed KXEL pop in first, and eventually KRVN around 9pm. Weirdly, once KGAB went to night pattern, it was somewhat listenable in Denver, but it was staticky and would fade out every little while. As I made my return trip to Cheyenne, I noticed KLVZ was consistent right up to Fort Collins, thanks to a unique night pattern. It was a long day, and I was in the mood for rock, so I turned to 99.5 The Mountain. It was perfectly strong up to the Wyoming border, before having a slight static zone, and going back to strong. At High Plains Road (Exit 4), K258DN started taking over the frequency, although even as far north as Central, (exit 12), KQMT would occasionally cut in and I would hear some music for up to 5 seconds before K258DN would come back.
I also had checked KGAB whilst in Fort Collins around 10pm, and it was back in decent, along with KVAM.
This Denver trip was overall quite awesome, and I was able to recieve some interesting stations. It especially suprised me that KVAM could be heard in Denver at 5pm, well before sunset. I should've figured KGAB would be good to go, but it was still shocking how local it was.
EDIT: That first place was about to close, but they held out on me, so that was nice. Everyone else was closed though.
Okay, enough of my complaints, and onto the goods!
All four Cheyenne stations held on into Fort Collins (this was about 3:45pm) on the Radiwow R-108. KGAB was of local strength, KVAM and KFBC was moderate, and KRAE was weak, but listenable. KGAB'S field strength on my R-108 was about 53 dbu in each direction, while KFBC pulled about a 35. KLVZ Brighton wasn't really listenable in Fort Collins during the day, although KDFD and KRCN was powerful at 60 and 58 dbu, respectively. KOA registered about a 47 dbu.
I then stopped (4:50pm) in Brighton (again, Car lots), and now I had lost KRAE. However, the other three from Cheyenne, KGAB, KFBC, and KVAM still held their own. KGAB still sounded like a local at 48 dbu. KVAM was around 26 dbu, and KFBC was 21 dbu. I also test drove a Mitsubishi, and the radio did pull in KGAB without static, but the AM band in general is quiet on that thing, and so I had to really turn up the volume to even hear the stations.
During that test drive, I checked FM as well, and the car had poor filters on it, so you would get images and spurs. Nonetheless, I could recieve 100.7 KOLT FM with some static, and 98.1 KKFM came in nicely, despite being right next to 97.9 KXBG, which came in like a local. (I should note that I was safely setting at the train tracks waiting for a nice long BNSF to finish passing through, when I did the scan).
Going back to my own vehicle, I left it on 98.1 for a while, and although it wasn't bad, it did have bouts of static. Because I had business to do, I just left it on 810 KLVZ after that, and waited for my next car lot to scan some more.
I approached my next car lot (just south of Downtown at Evans Ave) around 6:35pm (again, they closed early, but they did allow you to check out their lot anyways). I parked near a powerline, which pumped some RFI noise into the AM band, so KGAB sounded a bit rough on my truck, and even KLVZ was doing some buzzing. However, I took my Radiwow R-108 into the center of the lot, away from the powerline, and KGAB was back to being a clear local again, at 44 dbu. KFBC was now gone, but KVAM was just barely hanging on well enough that I could hear the YNOP slogan. (KVAM was 16 dbu on the R-108, which is the bare minimum of what my radio can pick-up). I also noted some Colorado Springs stations, KCSJ, KVOR, and KPPF, all relatively weak hanging around 24 dbu. Somehow, I could not grab 780 and 890 from the Springs, no matter what I tried. Granted, I was short on time, and I probably was still in a high noise area, but those two never seemed to have their signals set up correctly. This was still about 2 hours before I noticed skywave, so I would think they would be on day-power.
On my route between Brighton and Aurora, I passed about 6 AM stations in Denver, KLZ, KLTT, KNUS, KLVZ, KPOF, and KPLS, which it was cool to see the towers. Before I made it into Brighton, I was close to the KRCN stick, but I couldn't find the tower, weirdly.
As skywave settled in on my late supper at Boston Market (Kudos to them for being so kind!), I noticed KXEL pop in first, and eventually KRVN around 9pm. Weirdly, once KGAB went to night pattern, it was somewhat listenable in Denver, but it was staticky and would fade out every little while. As I made my return trip to Cheyenne, I noticed KLVZ was consistent right up to Fort Collins, thanks to a unique night pattern. It was a long day, and I was in the mood for rock, so I turned to 99.5 The Mountain. It was perfectly strong up to the Wyoming border, before having a slight static zone, and going back to strong. At High Plains Road (Exit 4), K258DN started taking over the frequency, although even as far north as Central, (exit 12), KQMT would occasionally cut in and I would hear some music for up to 5 seconds before K258DN would come back.
I also had checked KGAB whilst in Fort Collins around 10pm, and it was back in decent, along with KVAM.
This Denver trip was overall quite awesome, and I was able to recieve some interesting stations. It especially suprised me that KVAM could be heard in Denver at 5pm, well before sunset. I should've figured KGAB would be good to go, but it was still shocking how local it was.
EDIT: That first place was about to close, but they held out on me, so that was nice. Everyone else was closed though.
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