A great place for a good mix

I'd love to DX from Sunset Lake in Wilkeson, but likely won't have time to do so. I also suspect I would be too close to Mt. Rainier to get anything interesting. If I were a serious hiker, I might try that one you were talking about Crain. That sounds interesting. I've heard the main 105.7 many times, and several of Bill's other translators, but never that one.

I would love to put up a long beverage at Pacific Beach State Park. There's a group of DXers who go to Grayland every year and usually get lots of exotic MW DX from Asia and Oceania.
Looking at Google Earth, I see Coos Bay at 265 miles from Pacific Beach is also a 99% water path, like Lincoln City. But I haven't had luck getting those stations yet. Maybe I should go to the ocean when the tropo is hot.
This is that 7,350 ft mountain - https://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/bear-creek-mountain - it won't open up until at least July. The first 60% of the hike is nice with a lot of flowers and meadows, even a small lake. It's the scramble that makes it difficult. But at the top the horizon is open for dozens of miles and that's why the dial is amazing up there.

The coast is an excellent place to DX AM, and is better than rest of Western Washington for FM during the NW Coast’s summer (mid July-late September).

Since the OP is not from round these here parts, I should point out the weather on the Washington coast is a lot different than the Puget Sound metropolis. A beautiful clear 80 degree sunny July day in Seattle could be a 60 degree brisk day starting with sprinkles on the coast. If you’re used to the East Coast or Southern California beaches, you will be amazed at how undeveloped and remote the NW coast is in comparison—that lack of electrical interference combined with the salt water makes it incredible for AM DX. FM does get some E-skip on the coast unlike most of the Puget Sound

I tell people who aren’t from here that the weather everybody thinks Seattle has (it rains all the time) is more like the NW coast..it only rains half the time here!

In addition to the reduction in electrical noise, the Washington Coast is the perfect place to go if you're looking for open FM frequencies. One of my favourite things to do when I'm heading down for a vacation is set my car radio to scan the FM band.

When is the peak of DXing in the Northwest? It looks like I'm coming up in mid-August.

I've had the best luck in early to mid-July.

June and July are peak times for FM eskip and tropo. Albeit Es in August isn't uncommon, but the tropo is common. I've had days in late summer where KINK and KKCW were like locals in the Seattle area, albeit several years ago. And whenever KDUK-104.7 in Eugene comes in on a portable in the Seattle metro, the tropo is red-hot to Oregon. I just wish there wasn't mountains in the way between Eugene and the CA border. Medford is practically impossible via Tr in WA.

Looks like I may be staying with a friend for a bit in Bremerton. Cougar and Tiger signals hit pretty well over there I take it, but how about those from the north, south and west sides of the Sound?

ksradiogeek said:

Looks like I may be staying with a friend for a bit in Bremerton. Cougar and Tiger signals hit pretty well over there I take it, but how about those from the north, south and west sides of the Sound?

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With a good radio, west side usually gets KPQ 102.1 out of Wenatchee, but then gets drowned out at the same time when you cross the bridges to the east side by KSWW. Victoria stations do particularly well on hills. A couple times during good tropo I got KITI 95.1 Centralia on the east side of Bremerton. 92.3, 101.1, and 101.9 from Portland comes in at times as well. And there were rare times when tropo was REALLY good, I got 102.3 from Eugene.

Don’t mean to resurrect an old thread, but did some scanning when I was in the Northwest last year. Was very successful at it!

Now I’m coming back next month! Some things have changed, like Channel Q in downtown and some translators have signed on. I’m wanting to get the latest sweep of the dial, but knowing buildings and terrain being in the way of some stations (particularly the LPFMs), what would be a good spot in the city? Kerry Park or Gasworks, perhaps? Also looking to do a rolling scan via car.

ksradiogeek said:

Don’t mean to resurrect an old thread, but did some scanning when I was in the Northwest last year. Was very successful at it!

Now I’m coming back next month! Some things have changed, like Channel Q in downtown and some translators have signed on. I’m wanting to get the latest sweep of the dial, but knowing buildings and terrain being in the way of some stations (particularly the LPFMs), what would be a good spot in the city? Kerry Park or Gasworks, perhaps? Also looking to do a rolling scan via car.

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If you can deal with the seediness of it (pot shops, low-end bars, and “working girls”,) I’d probably go along Aurora through North Seattle up through Shoreline to Edmonds. Hwy 99 is basically at the top of a ridge in North Seattle. You get a lot of stuff from around the sound the closer you go to the west. You’re also at about 400 feet elevation by that point which allows a lot more of the LPFMs closer to downtown that shouldn’t come in according to a coverage map will magically appear north of Greenwood area.

That's an interesting observation. I've never DXed from there, but I live at about 465 feet. I'm assuming the reason I don't get a lot of the new signals is because I'm too far north. I think the last new signal I encountered from home was the 100.3 relayer of 1050.

ksradiogeek said:

I *may be* coming to Seattle for vacation later this summer, and since I'm into the "recording bandscans" sorta thing, where can I pull in a good mix of Seattle/Vancouver/Victoria stations (while trying to avoid the recent LPFMs and tx's), as well as Seattle/Portland?

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you need a pic of you behind the console at KZOK

rockradio1017 said:

you need a pic of you behind the console at KZOK

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Trying to reach out to my connections over there to see if that can happen.

Alki or Golden Gardens Park area should be great for getting stations from BC. Just like up north in Edmonds (at least for me), those Bellingham and Victoria signals are so much stronger than Seattle due to blocked terrain. Several years ago on the Edmonds beaches (and Yost Park) I often had some interesting propagation way up into the Sunshine Coast. 104.7 Sechelt (350 watts repeating Mountain FM in Squamish), and 91.7 CKAY Gibsons come to mind. But the latter was prior to KXOT going back on the air - it was during the off period between 'KUOW2' and the TVW simulcast.

seattlesarchiebunker said:

If you can deal with the seediness of it (pot shops, low-end bars, and “working girls”,) I’d probably go along Aurora through North Seattle up through Shoreline to Edmonds. Hwy 99 is basically at the top of a ridge in North Seattle. You get a lot of stuff from around the sound the closer you go to the west. You’re also at about 400 feet elevation by that point which allows a lot more of the LPFMs closer to downtown that shouldn’t come in according to a coverage map will magically appear north of Greenwood area.

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Pot shops and low end bars aren't seedy, They're the spice of life.

That said, you shouldn't worry too much about the girls. Oh yes, they'll see you in your car and they might approach you with an offer for "a good time". But once you start talking about LPFM power levels, distance, Canadian co-channel interference and religious stations in Chehalis, they'll disappear. Quickly.