Music on Skywaves?

ai4i said:

Looks like a lot of signal challenged stations at my ultimate destination.

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As Crainbebo mentioned, CKOR Penticton plays pop and AC, and it usually hits the Seattle area with S4-S5 signals. Williams Lake is about the same distance, and CKOR's night pattern is apparently non-directional. 800 Khz may be worth a shot when you get to central BC.

If it isn't too late, try 93.7 The Rock out of Littleton (Denver). Its AM parent is KCKK 1510, 10 kW day and 25 kW night. The night pattern is a six tower figure 8 NNE to SSW. So it'll be worth a try in the Dakotas, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Generally 70s and 80s pop.

Don't worry about the unfortunate KCKK calls, there's nobody in goofy white pointed hoods behind the mic. At night, probably nobody behind the mic period. They don't promote the AM frequency or calls except for the required hourly ID.

Does anyone know whether all those CBC-1's on 860 will heterodyne or if they are sunch (synched, phase-locked)?

I will report on my findings in about three weeks.
I spent several hours of research eliminating many stations
from this list of predictions on what will be heard in Lac La Hache
on FM and daytime AM with built-in antennæ
(nighttime skywaves should bring in a lot on AM):
---------------------------------
Local signals from 100 Mile House:
__840 - CKBX - Country 840
_91.3 - CBC-1- NewsTalk
_99.7 - CFFM - The Goat
106.7 - VOAR - Adventist
--------------
Weaker signals:
__570 - CKWL - Cariboo Country (Williams Lake)
__610 - CHNL - NL Variety ---- (Kamloops)
-----------------------------------------

RE: CBC on 860: as far as I know, they are synched fairly well. Never heard a het on 860 from them, in years of DXing. The loudest one you may hear will be CFPR, Prince Rupert, which is sometimes audible as far south as Seattle, and crainbebo in the Yakima area has heard it also.

CHNL is News/Talk, I don't think they air music anymore. CKWL and CKBX are still country.
The only 860 CBC EE I've heard is CFPR. I think several 40w 860s are still operating in BC. I'm still looking for CBKY-1350 Keremeos, BC, also 40w and should be easy at about 180 miles. Yet it's never showed up. I've heard NOAA TIS stations at farther distances at the same power! I'm also looking for CJBC yet I keep hearing CBKF-2 Saskatoon when it's French.

I heard music on CHNL earlier this year. August, on their 1340 kHz outlet out of Ashcroft. I didn't note the time, but they were playing Classic Hits. I think they are a mix of talk, news, and Classic Hits.

Also: Ai4i: if you're going through Spokane there is now a rock station on 790, The Bear 94.1. If you like rock, they're actually quite good. I'm listening to them right now as I write this. Rage to AC/DC to STP.... heard Audioslave and Def Leppard earlier. Seem to be 80's-00's classic rock.

CHNL's website shows them as talk in the day and variety music late at night,
but since they reduce power and go very directional at night,
I only expect them to be a daytime regular.
The have at least two graveyard channel translators,
but I do not expect to hear them in Lac La Hache.

ai4i said:

CHNL's website shows them as talk in the day and variety music late at night,
but since they reduce power and go very directional at night,
I only expect them to be a daytime regular.
The have at least two graveyard channel translators,
but I do not expect to hear them in Lac La Hache.

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One thing to remember is you'll be farther north (Lac La Hache is almost 52 degrees N, I think), and it will be darker longer. And possibly more daylight-DX conditions in November. From some pics I've seen of the area, it looks like a beautiful place.

We are passing through the Peachtree state and WSM is solid and has some nice classic gold jingles.
Every so often my phone charger with its switching power supply wipes them out.

The Peachtree state was COLD the night we passed through it.
Chattanooga has a lot of buildings on high hills
and they might be private homes;
I would love to locate an antenna farm on any of them.
WSM has Gr8 groundwave and skywave signals
and a nice nostalgic format.
We passed a single stick AM radiator entering St. Louis (I don't think it was KMOX),
then the big McDonald's Arch, quaint brick Cardinals baseball stadium, and basketball stadium.
A classic hits station on 740 and 99.5 (K?Z?) was just east of Des Moines.
I am used to seeing 3-tower, endfire arrays, but not a single one thus far on this trip.

ai4i said:

),
A classic hits station on 740 and 99.5 (K?Z?) was just east of Des Moines.

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That's KMZN, the former KBOE Oskaloosa. The KBOE calls are on their 50 kW FM. The former owner of the station told me that once upon a time, back in the early 50s, they had listeners in Oskaloosa, Kansas.

ai4i said:

The Peachtree state was COLD the night we passed through it.
Chattanooga has a lot of buildings on high hills
and they might be private homes;
I would love to locate an antenna farm on any of them.

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I noticed when I was in the Carolinas (first and only time east of the Mississippi, or in the South -- I'm a NW kid) there were a lot of houses, farms, etc. on hilltops -- places you wouldn't usually expect to see older developments here in the NW, where you will sometimes see new housing developments on the sides of hills, but not usually on the tops of hills or mountains. I take it to be a sign or older development (as far back as the early 1800's or late 1700's in some areas in the SE US), or the land is more buildable on hilltops back east.

boombox4 said:

I noticed when I was in the Carolinas (first and only time east of the Mississippi, or in the South -- I'm a NW kid) there were a lot of houses, farms, etc. on hilltops -- places you wouldn't usually expect to see older developments here in the NW, where you will sometimes see new housing developments on the sides of hills, but not usually on the tops of hills or mountains. I take it to be a sign or older development (as far back as the early 1800's or late 1700's in some areas in the SE US), or the land is more buildable on hilltops back east.

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Apologies for the veer.... When I was in Italy last summer (2016), most of the small towns were built on hilltops and mountaintops. A number of locals where we were staying (outside of a small town 30 miles south of Florence), the reason was when the small towns were built centuries ago was so that the townspeople could defend themselves in case a neighboring village might turn hostile and decide to attack!

Back on topic.... The 740 in Oskaloosa is very familiar to me (as KBOE). 250 watts (then) with a better signal than most of 5kw stations in other parts of the country. Even the night signal on flea power was impressive. Solidly on top of CFZM in The Amana Colonies, more than 40 miles to the east-northeast.

740 gets into eastern Des Moines (daytime) after 99.5 is long gone.
I saw an interesting pair of self supporting sticks off the interstate just after leaving Billings, Montana.
The closest one to the highway has a large cross sectional part at the top that looks like it used to support an FM station.
Right now, I am enjoying one of the most prestigious classical music stations, KING, Seatle.
KING is a "full" full class C with reduced power over 600 meters high and they sound it.

Canada disallowed our desire to enter their country for temporary residence.
This is the end of my story.

ai4i said:

Canada disallowed our desire to enter their country for temporary residence.
This is the end of my story.

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Sorry about what you ran into. Do you have any recourse? Some other plan B?

Ai4i: there are plenty of places in Washington and Oregon that are just as nice as any place in Canada. And they won't disallow you to stay a while.

boombox4 said:

Ai4i: there are plenty of places in Washington and Oregon that are just as nice as any place in Canada. And they won't disallow you to stay a while.

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My intent was to join a group that is establishing in the Cariboo region and cannot just pick up and move South.