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AM Frequency of the week: 740
- Thread starter cyberdad
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Here in Wood Dale, IL in the near NW suburb of Chicago:
Daytime: usually noting, but did hear WRPQ and WVLN during daytime in the past
Nighttime: CFZM dominant. This frequency has always been dominated by Toronto. CBL in the past, CFZM now.
DX/Retro: others heard in the past include KTRH (Houston, TX), KRMG (Tulsa, OK), KVOX (Fargo, ND), WSVQ (Harrogate, TN), WCWY (Tullahoma, TN), CBX (Edmonton, AB) and two foreign ones that are no longer active on 740: Radio Liberacion, Cuba and Radio Maracaibo, Venezuela.
Daytime: usually noting, but did hear WRPQ and WVLN during daytime in the past
Nighttime: CFZM dominant. This frequency has always been dominated by Toronto. CBL in the past, CFZM now.
DX/Retro: others heard in the past include KTRH (Houston, TX), KRMG (Tulsa, OK), KVOX (Fargo, ND), WSVQ (Harrogate, TN), WCWY (Tullahoma, TN), CBX (Edmonton, AB) and two foreign ones that are no longer active on 740: Radio Liberacion, Cuba and Radio Maracaibo, Venezuela.
Can't say I'm surprised! Even though that major lobe points southwest, they still send a ton of juice toward Central America.
(I've also wondered if there's some point in Mexico where KTRH and KCBS just clobber the heck out of each other.)
I've said it in other posts, but I wish I'd had the chance to take a drive around the backside of KTRH's night pattern when I lived in the Houston area. With all the juice they send over the Houston area and beyond, their nulls have to be pretty interesting as well. I know I have zero prayer of ever catching KTRH in central Ohio given that their very deep null toward Toronto is pointed directly at me.
Judging by the maps generated by fccdata.org, it looks like eastern Sonora is a good candidate for some overlap between the two. Far southeastern Arizona and the bootheel of New Mexico might get in on the action from time to time, too.
Same here - I was busy working for KTRH in those days! - probably anywhere between Killeen and Bryan would yield interesting results.
The nighttime null is really sharp, so just driving around Dayton (the transmitter site) at night could be interesting as well.
When I was in Albuquerque last month I should have tried for it, now that KDAZ has moved from 730 to 700, and has reduced power, opening up a nice 70 kHz gap at night. But I had a lot going on that would be totally boring to relate.
KATK in Carlsbad, NM squeezes in between the KTRH and KCBS skywave coverages with 500 watts nondirectional at night. So a trip to Roswell at night could be interesting as long as you watch out for strange lights in the sky. (joke)
In my first hometown in central Missouri, nighttimes were a mix of CBL (as it then was) and KRMG from Tulsa. Farther east, in St. Charles County, CBL dominated.
I could usually pick up a weak signal from CFZM daytime between Cleveland and Akron on a good car radio. South of there, WNOP would start to surface.
Going west of Toronto on the 401 freeway, CFZM daytime good is generally audible until the outskirts of Windsor-Detroit. Ground conductivity to the east and north isn't as good, but CFZM daytime is listenable most of the way to either Ottawa or Montreal before CKAC splatter trashes it.
Here in NEPA, poster anwar's WJFP is a faint but steady one.
Other side of the day it's Toronto; terrific signal
In between at sunset, taped were IDs from WRNR WV and WMBL from NC.
Both SSS and once for a few days at NIGHT, WNYH Long Island was logged. They were the 5th station I've heard here in PA from my former train-village, water-tower andd catchbasin digs.
The retro stuff from Queens re-reads like an old survey scroll in this thread.......
KCBS (once) ..... Orlando .....The Big Bam .... SC, VA, Nfld and Venezuela.
@Mark Roberts
Back in Queens (near JFK Airport) I did catch KRMG one overnight on that goofy bowtie night pattern. But I never heard your KTRH. A pal of mine four blocks west of me and a better DXer, heard KTRH but never KRMG !
Other side of the day it's Toronto; terrific signal
In between at sunset, taped were IDs from WRNR WV and WMBL from NC.
Both SSS and once for a few days at NIGHT, WNYH Long Island was logged. They were the 5th station I've heard here in PA from my former train-village, water-tower andd catchbasin digs.
The retro stuff from Queens re-reads like an old survey scroll in this thread.......
KCBS (once) ..... Orlando .....The Big Bam .... SC, VA, Nfld and Venezuela.
@Mark Roberts
Back in Queens (near JFK Airport) I did catch KRMG one overnight on that goofy bowtie night pattern. But I never heard your KTRH. A pal of mine four blocks west of me and a better DXer, heard KTRH but never KRMG !
I was able to drive by the tower farm one afternoon in June 2009 when I was killing time between assignments in Baytown. Unfortunately I was not able to drive back behind the pattern, where the change in signal probably is noticeable even in the daytime.
I imagine the Dayton and Liberty areas suffer from a badly degraded signal at night. That's the area I'd like to check out.
Even the lobe they send east toward New Orleans and Florida, one which has to be less than 50K ERP considering the juice they send elsewhere, is fairly potent 500+ miles out. It's definitely a signal made interesting by all it must protect in several directions.
KTRH always had a strong signal into southern Mexico as I heard it there years ago.
DFW, Texas
Daytime: Spillover from local 730-KKDA.
Nights: Mostly a low rumble with KTRH Houston most frequently heard, although, not a strong signal. Quite often, CFZM Toronto can be heard on top with Zoomer format, when northern conditions prevail. Also have heard XEQN Torreón Coah. matching web stream in the mix.
Rare, less often heard: KRMG Tulsa, only heard at sunrise or sunset, not a regular. KCMC Texarkana heard once overnight with sports format. WMSP Montgomery AL heard once at sunrise with sports talk. KCBS San Francisco heard once at 0630 local time with news/talk, very weak.
Daytime: Spillover from local 730-KKDA.
Nights: Mostly a low rumble with KTRH Houston most frequently heard, although, not a strong signal. Quite often, CFZM Toronto can be heard on top with Zoomer format, when northern conditions prevail. Also have heard XEQN Torreón Coah. matching web stream in the mix.
Rare, less often heard: KRMG Tulsa, only heard at sunrise or sunset, not a regular. KCMC Texarkana heard once overnight with sports format. WMSP Montgomery AL heard once at sunrise with sports talk. KCBS San Francisco heard once at 0630 local time with news/talk, very weak.
In Charleston, SC it is usually splatter daytime from WLTQ, unless you live near the coast where you can get WYGM off the water path.
Toronto comes in at night especially in the fall and winter. I have heard KRMG here along with a couple others.
Toronto comes in at night especially in the fall and winter. I have heard KRMG here along with a couple others.
I forgot all about WMSP. Before they went down to 10kw day power, I used to hear them with a weak signal on the coast. That was as WBAM. On my more recent visits, I haven't heard them during daytime as WMSP. I have no specific memory of hearing them at night, but I have heardd sports under KTRH, thinking I had WGYM, but I suppose it could hve been WMSP.
From NW San Antonio:
Day: It's KTRH in Houston with a moderate signal.
Night: KTRH has a stronger signal but with regular groundwave/skywave cancellation. Aiming N/S I often hear a weak XEQN "Radio Fórmula" in Torreón underneath. Mostly in winter I'll sometimes hear weak bits of KVOR in Colorado Springs or KCBS in San Francisco underneath if I aim NW/SE.
Sunrise: XEQN is stronger. In winter KCBS often shows up with a listenable signal.
DX/Retro: One-time loggings include news/talk KRMG in Tulsa and XEKV in Villahermosa.
Still hoping to log KCMC in Texarkana and Zoomer in Toronto one day. KTRH makes it tough.
Day: It's KTRH in Houston with a moderate signal.
Night: KTRH has a stronger signal but with regular groundwave/skywave cancellation. Aiming N/S I often hear a weak XEQN "Radio Fórmula" in Torreón underneath. Mostly in winter I'll sometimes hear weak bits of KVOR in Colorado Springs or KCBS in San Francisco underneath if I aim NW/SE.
Sunrise: XEQN is stronger. In winter KCBS often shows up with a listenable signal.
DX/Retro: One-time loggings include news/talk KRMG in Tulsa and XEKV in Villahermosa.
Still hoping to log KCMC in Texarkana and Zoomer in Toronto one day. KTRH makes it tough.
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The next time you hear the Radio Fórmula station, check the webstreams for XEQN and XECAQ at mwlist.org. Both are Radio Fórmula branded, but their broadcasts are often not the same, and they'll sometimes mention their location (Torreón or Quintana Roo, respectively) with the R. Fórmula ID.
I've been in Livingston TN and Crockett TN but for such short times and was so busy I didn't think to check out much AM. Seems the night pattern for KTRH would be non-existent both places.
It would be tough but you might have a chance in the winter, since average local sunset at Houston is never any sooner than 5:15 pm and even that is only in December. Summer would be impossible since the latest average local sunset, per the FCC's online calculator, is 7:30 pm.
Remember, there are 3 separate Radio Fórmula networks,
"RADIOFÓRMULA
Cuenta con tres Cadenas nacionales con más de cien emisoras que transmiten su programación a la República Mexicana y a las principales plazas de habla hispana de los Estados Unidos y en radio satelital Sirius XM canal 156 con 26 millones de suscriptores."
So not all Formulas are the same.
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