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AM Frequency of the week: 1030

cyberdad

cyberdad

Moderator
Staff member
We already covered some of this ground last week in the 1020 thread. But let's go on the record on a dedicated stand-alone basis. So....here in the far northwest suburbs of Chicago....

Days: WNVR 10kw (or is it something different), aimed right at me from about thee miles away. The result is the measurably strongest AM signal here.

Nights: WNVR drops to 120 watts. (If they're on at all). On top of that, the night pattern puts me right in the null. If I aim the radio (or antenna) right at the WNVR site, its alone and listenable. Turn the radio 90 degrees, and WNVR vanishes and WBZ takes over. I've also heard WCTS from the Twin Cities a couple of times. Presumably on day pattern. Which is 50kw, but still doesn't favor me.

Retro: Before WNVR came on, I used to be able to hear KCTA from time to time around sunrise.

Other Location: KCTA is generally the only Texas station audible daytime at our beach vacation location near Pensacola. VERY weak, but I've been able to positively ID it.

Finally, as a teenager in 1964, one of my best DX catches was WBZ one evening on a GE clock radio in a hotel at Flagstaff, Arizona. I was astonished, but the signal was solid and I got several positive IDs.
 
In the near north Chicago suburbs: daytime-WNVR has a good signal. I can partially null it, but there isn't anything else there in the daytime. Before WNVR I could also hear KCTA early mornings. At night WBZ is strong. In fact it has always been the best east coast signal at my location.

Retro: In the 1960s WBZ was one of my regular stops at night for Top 40 music. "Juicy" Brucie Bradley was a good listen.
 
From the far SW suburbs of Kansas City:

Daytime KCWJ - Blue Springs, MO - 5kW - Directional, the pattern "appears" to protect 50kW WHO in Des Moines on 1040 kHz.

Critical Hours: KCWJ

Nighttime: KCWJ reduces power to 500 watts and by late at night is easily overpowered by WBZ. WBZ puts out a great nighttime signal as I am located 1,263 miles from their transmitter in Hull, MA.

Bob
 
DXBob said:
From the far SW suburbs of Kansas City:

Daytime KCWJ - Blue Springs, MO - 5kW - Directional, the pattern "appears" to protect 50kW WHO in Des Moines on 1040 kHz.

Critical Hours: KCWJ

Nighttime: KCWJ reduces power to 500 watts and by late at night is easily overpowered by WBZ. WBZ puts out a great nighttime signal as I am located 1,263 miles from their transmitter in Hull, MA.

Bob
Click to expand...

I'm almost certain you're right about KCWJ protecting WHO with their pattern, but there's also the 1020 in Omaha. I'm not sure if they'd also be entitled to protection. And for that matter, I'm not sure whether it was the KC or Omaha station which came on first. At any rate, WHO had a very listenable 24/7 signal throughout the Kansas City metro before the local 1030 came on.

I forget the call letters, but when 1030 came on in Kansas City it was Oldies. 1980s or early '90s, IIRC On my business trips to KC, most of my customers were in your neck of the woods on the Kansas side. I used to stay in Lenexa. The day signal there was pretty good. I think they may have only been running a killowatt, but I'm not sure. At night, it was weaker, but still listenable, with WBZ often audible underneath.
 
cyberdad said:
I'm almost certain you're right about KCWJ protecting WHO with their pattern, but there's also the 1020 in Omaha. I'm not sure if they'd also be entitled to protection. And for that matter, I'm not sure whether it was the KC or Omaha station which came on first. At any rate, WHO had a very listenable 24/7 signal throughout the Kansas City metro before the local 1030 came on.

I forget the call letters, but when 1030 came on in Kansas City it was Oldies. 1980s or early '90s, IIRC On my business trips to KC, most of my customers were in your neck of the woods on the Kansas side. I used to stay in Lenexa. The day signal there was pretty good. I think they may have only been running a killowatt, but I'm not sure. At night, it was weaker, but still listenable, with WBZ often audible underneath.
Click to expand...

KCWJ appears to protect WHO both day and night. I can hear WHO during the day but there is splatter from KCWJ and yes, they were 1kW days until a few years ago. As an aside, WHO is all but unlistenable here at night. I must be in their cancellation zone.

Bob
 
East Tennessee (Knoxville/Sevierville): Daytime: Nada
Sunset: WNVR is a regular visitor with its ethnic programming. KCTA at times
Night: WBZ

Retro/other: Ohio. For a short time, there was a 1030 in Union City, Ohio/Indiana with 180 watts of raw, savage power which could still get out at times. WNVR paid the owners to take WBNN off the air in order to expand their own coverage.
I have caught WBZ at high noon in Fairborn, Ohio on a winter day. WTHQ (or predecessor WBGS), is a station I've heard in Dayton's south suburbs.
 
Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:

Daytime: WNVR with good signal
Nightime: WBZ

DX/RETRO: According to my log book, WNVR first came on the air on March 1st, 1988 with a 0.5kW single tower located next to pet cemetery in Vernon Hill, IL. It was only a mile and a half away from where I used to work. They moved to their current site near Crystal lake around 2003. They kept changing their power throughout the years. Currently their licensed for 10kW daytime and if I am not mistaken they have a CP to raise it to 25kW. As noted by others their daytime signal is good, but at night they disappear letting WBZ rule the frequency. Despite WBZ dominating the frequency at night I managed to heard few other stations including KCTA (Corpus Cristi, TX), KTWO (Casper, WY), KFAY (Farmington, AR), WQSE (White Bluff, TN), WCTS (Maplewood, MN), WGSF (Memphis, TN), WWBG (Indian Head, MD), WNOW (Mint Hill, NC), WEBS (Calhoun, GA) and XEQR (Mexico City).
 
Reynoldsburg, Ohio ...
* Daytime: Nothing
* Nighttime: Always WBZ, sometimes as the strongest 50K on the dial. That directional west pattern makes it a blaster here, much as many others have reported across this part of the country.
Even with their easterly null, I find it impressive how well it gets out up the Maine coast as heard on the SDR in Rockport.
 
Mason City, IA-
Daytime: Weak signal from WCTS/Maplewood, MN (Twin Cities)
Nighttime: Generally nothing, though I have pulled in WBZ further east (around the Postville area)

Central KS-
Daytime: Decent signal from KCWJ/Blue Springs, MO (east side of KC)
Nighttime: Hard to pull in ‘BZ here, ao mostly splatter
 
Same here.
WBZ provided wall to wall coverage of the Andover gas explosions. Kind of interesting here since the Colonial pipelines runs right thru the middle of my town.
 
Schamve most likely is spot-on vis-a-vis that WBZ pattern. Like WWL 870, WBZ sends it all *inland*, away from pre-heating all that seafood. Both WWL and WBZ do that night and day.

When I lived in Philly for a year or so, nearing sunset, I once heard WBZ on Route 1 -- 'The Boulevard' -- LOUDER than Philly's KYW! Now, KYW traditionally pulls it in from the northeast and NYC's co-protective 1050. But that same KYW null is how that Natick MA station on 1060 in metro Boston got licensed.
But still .... WBZ louder on the car radio than KYW in Philly proper?!?

One or two sunsets here in NE PA (100 miles NNW of Philly) I got that 1030 station from near the Capital District. They're logged as WNTL.
 
Steve, you're right that WBZ sends their signal inland, but they can still be heard on several European SDRs in the winter.
WBZ has always had a very good signal here in the Chicago area at night. The link below demonstrates what WBZ sounded like in the Chicago area on a Sunday night/Monday morning signoff in 1963. When I recorded this there was some fading, but usually the signal is stronger.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/81uvcvrwy6uuhdx/wbz.mp3?dl=0
 
Actually, my first *ever* DX was on 1030. As a little kid, I had bought an old Magnavox tube clock radio at a garage sale. Staying up later than I should have, I was dialing around and stumbled across KTWO, Casper WY. I wrote to the station and received a reception confirmation, as well as a later flood of stuff from the preacher that I had heard, including cassette tapes. From then on, I was fascinated with radio, and it led me to pick it up as a hobby (CB and then Ham radio) as well as getting into broadcast engineering. Been doing that for nearly 36 years now... What was I thinking? :cool:

df



cyberdad said:
We already covered some of this ground last week in the 1020 thread. But let's go on the record on a dedicated stand-alone basis. So....here in the far northwest suburbs of Chicago....

Days: WNVR 10kw (or is it something different), aimed right at me from about thee miles away. The result is the measurably strongest AM signal here.

Nights: WNVR drops to 120 watts. (If they're on at all). On top of that, the night pattern puts me right in the null. If I aim the radio (or antenna) right at the WNVR site, its alone and listenable. Turn the radio 90 degrees, and WNVR vanishes and WBZ takes over. I've also heard WCTS from the Twin Cities a couple of times. Presumably on day pattern. Which is 50kw, but still doesn't favor me.

Retro: Before WNVR came on, I used to be able to hear KCTA from time to time around sunrise.

Other Location: KCTA is generally the only Texas station audible daytime at our beach vacation location near Pensacola. VERY weak, but I've been able to positively ID it.

Finally, as a teenager in 1964, one of my best DX catches was WBZ one evening on a GE clock radio in a hotel at Flagstaff, Arizona. I was astonished, but the signal was solid and I got several positive IDs.
Click to expand...
 
jammerdave said:
Actually, my first *ever* DX was on 1030.
df
Click to expand...

Me too. 1030 and WBZ. Bruce Bradley and Dick Summer. Top 40 from Boston. How cool is that for my 14-year old self. The radio I was using? Belonged to my grandparents who purchased it in 1937. There's a picture of it just to the left of this post. The actual radio is sitting in my garage.

What was I thinking?
 
ksradiogeek said:
Mason City, IA-
Daytime: Weak signal from WCTS/Maplewood, MN (Twin Cities)
Nighttime: Generally nothing, though I have pulled in WBZ further east (around the Postville area)

Central KS-
Daytime: Decent signal from KCWJ/Blue Springs, MO (east side of KC)
Nighttime: Hard to pull in ‘BZ here, ao mostly splatter
Click to expand...

Actually to add to that, I’ve pulled in a weak KTWO at night before in Kansas.
 
Here in NW WA state, days we have a weak KMAS (Shelton, WA 10kW days) and at night it is pretty much KTWO (Casper WY) all the time. As a kid my first DX experience was with KTWO and KBOI, outside of the two Bay area giants (KGO and KNBR) that used to come in like locals. I am guessing as a kid I didn't think of Oregon or BC as "distant" since my family would regularly drive to both places in a day. CA, ID and WY would be pretty exotic to a kid as it seemed to take "days" to get there on vacation. Just how kids think.
 
In west Houston, KCTA puts in a local quality signal. After they're off for the night, it's a mix between KFAY Fayetteville, AR, WBZ, and an unID SS, maybe XEQR. Back when XEQR was 50kw at night, they boomed into Tulsa (in the 70s), but now with lower power, I haven't IDed them.

In the spring of 2017 on vacation on the west coast of Costa Rica, WBZ was the strongest US station I could hear.
 
Days..Nothing

Nights..KTWO out of Casper, Wyoming. Pretty good signal, with the occasional fade, allowing other closer stations to step in.
 
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