AM Frequency of the week: 650

Far northwest suburban Chicago area.....

Days: Blank....except for some noise from WSCR (670) iboc.

Night: WSM has one of the best nightwave skywave signals at this location. Easily strong enough to break through the hash from WSCR's noisemaker. The only other thing on 650 here at night that I can recall is WNMT from Hibbing, MN several years ago when they were on 10kw ND day power at night.

Other Location: As I posted recently in another thread, a couple of Januarys ago, I heard WSM via daytime skywave at our beach location in the Pensacola area.

Retro: I tried repeatedly to null WSM at night here at my home location to see if I could snag KORL from Honolulu. I thought it would be the easiest Hawaiian station to snag here, Maybe that was true, but I personally never heard it,

Pretty much the same here in the near north Chicago suburbs: 650 brings nothing during the day and a strong WSM at night. I can't remember ever hearing anything else.

Day: No signals as yet detected. I am 474 miles from the WSM transmitter site. Sometime, I hope catch a signal from WSM on a cold winter day.

Critical Hours: WSM. In the late afternoon, WSM comes in before the sun sets here, especially in winter.

Night: A strong and quite listenable, WSM. Occasionally, they fade out. No other signals detected here in east central Kansas.

Bob

The Valley of the Jolly Green Giant (Le Sueur, MN)

daytime-nothing
nightime-WSM (now with the sun down at 4:30ish I listen to it on my way home around 7:00pm)

Interesting a couple weeks ago I was driving into work around 5:45am (this is before the clocks got turned back) and instead of WSM had CKOM Saskatoon, Saskatchewan clear

Different story here on the west coast.
Usually 650 is blank daytime, but with a great antenna, a very weak CISL Vancouver BC (200+ miles) can be received with sports, and in the dead of winter, sometimes KSTE Rancho Cordova CA (News/Talk).

Nighttime is a mix of KSTE, CKOM Saskatoon SK (News/Talk), and KMTI Manti UT (Country). KGAB Orchard Valley WY (News/Talk) is rare, CISL is actually quite rare at night - usually heard at sunrise/sunset. WSM Nashville TN (Classic Country) has been heard a couple of times at night but they too are rare.

Only 650 I really need is WNMT Nashwauk, MN (News/Talk), in the Iron Range near Duluth. However, with CKOM so strong to the east pre-sunrise, I doubt I'll ever have a chance to hear them.

^ Same here in Columbus. WSM always has one of the best skywave signals at night. Usually much stronger than WFAN right next door.

From SE Arizona tonight, I have XETNT in Los Mochis, IDed because they keep saying "Sinaloa," and KMTI in Manti, UT, with a Country Music countdown, but they didn't stay in for long after my sunset. Distance to each is about 400 miles, but XETNT is owning this channel, about one hour after my sunset. The Gray Line terminator is about to pass Los Mochis and me, so maybe something else will have a chance.

Orange County, TX Days - KIKK Houston, nights WSM.

Retro: On KIKK, cleaning house from the effects of Harvey last year, came across 3 KIKKUP TRUCK bumper stickers. Brings back good memories, Gilley's, Nesadel Club.

crainbebo said:

Different story here on the west coast.
Usually 650 is blank daytime, but with a great antenna, a very weak CISL Vancouver BC (200+ miles) can be received with sports, and in the dead of winter....

....CISL is actually quite rare at night - usually heard at sunrise/sunset.

Click to expand...

In the days during the last decade when I was going to Seattle 2-3 times every year, CISL was oldies, and present there night/day. Usually with a fair signal. Assisted, no doubt, with a path that was partially salt water. You don't have to go very far south of Sea-Tac airport on I-5 before you'd lose it.

What was weird was that there was (and still is) a 10KW station on 660 midway between the two cities...KAPS. (R-L either overstates KAPS coverage area, or they were/are operating on an STA). Driving from Vancouver to Seattle during the day, you'd loose CISL south of Bellingham. Then you'd get it back by the time you got to Everett.

Daytime - KPRP Honolulu Weak but audible.

Nighttime - KPRP Very strong most of the time.

I can sometimes hear something in the background at night but it's never strong enough in comparison to KPRP to get any ID.


I was wondering if anyone on the west coast has ever heard KPRP at night, as it would be very easy to identify from their format.

I caught KORL in California just before local (San Francisco) sunrise in the late 70s.

Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: these days nothing but WSCR IBOC hash just 5 miles away from me.
Nightime: solid WSM

DX/RETRO: the limited DX catches on this frequency are WKKQ now WNMT (Nashwauk, MN), CKOM (Saskatoon, SK) and La Voz de Centro America from San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Also Radio Nacional, El Salvador with reportedly 100kW on the split frequency of 655 khz back in 1983.

DavidEduardo said:

WSM used to sign off Sunday at midnight for maintenance, and that left 650 clear unless the Colombian was on late. Pretty easy catch from my Cleveland location and my first of about 10 Hawaiian catches.

Click to expand...

By the time I started trying for KORL in earnest in the fall of 1965, what I remember was the midnight signoff, but with the carrier still on. Then there'd be a continuous audio tone. Sort of like the radio version of a TV test pattern. I don't know if that remained on all night, but hearing the tone was usually enough to either send me to another channel or directly to bed!

From west Houston, daytimes are local daytimer KIKK with sports talk, nights all WSM. In more auroral conditions will occasionally hear weak Spanish language underneath, presume Cuba but maybe Colombia (or one of the lower powered Mexicans).

Nothing daytime, WSM all night, every night. Exceptions: early morning critical hours. Have heard WNMT Nashwauk, MN, and KGAB Cheyenne, WY.

Daytime in NW San Antonio is a weak KIKK.

At sunset WSM starts to come up and has a fairly strong signal by the time KIKK signs off. As night goes on, XETNT mixes in with WSM, and they take turns dominating. I used to hear XEEJ in Puerto Vallarta popping in sometimes, but I guess it's another FM migrant because there's no sign of it any more.

Aiming NW/SE I can sometimes hear a faint station playing regional Mexican music, but I haven't been able to match its stream to any Mexico or Cuba stations. Maybe Colombia?

From that same direction I recently logged a new one, CKOM, which is one of my best AM catches at 1,609 miles. The times I've heard it, the signal has been very weak, but it has strengthened enough a few times for me to hear an ID.

Days:::KSTE ( strong )

Nights::At least 3 stations can be heard...I hear country, Spanish, and Talk

Country is KMTI out of Utah ( goes in and out )

Spanish???? Please help me with this one.

Talk:::KSTE...Local, but weak

From Baldwin County, Alabama, it's nothing during the day but slop from first adjacent WXQW on 660.

Nights, it's all WSM with the best skywave signal of any AM I hear regularly. A few times I've been able to null WSM out and pick up Radio Progreso out of Ciego de Avila in central Cuba, confirmed by matching it up with the shortwave relay of that station.