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KFIR 720

M

MarioMania

Seems like there still on 10kw at night in Rocklin

Weak, but I can hear it

Ever since KDWN went off, there took over

184 Watts don't get out, Seems like no telling FCC about running Day Power at night
 
MarioMania said:
Seems like there still on 10kw at night in Rocklin

Weak, but I can hear it

Ever since KDWN went off, there took over

184 Watts don't get out, Seems like no telling FCC about running Day Power at night
Click to expand...
That power can easily be heard at your distance to the station. On several occasions, in Ohio, I heard 250 watt KIKI in Hawaii on 830 with 100% readability. AM on an open frequency can be heard well at great distances.
 
Only station that might complain would be 710 KIRO.
Seattle's the #1 reason for KFIR's low night power so even if Las Vegas is deleted no more power for them!
They could add a second tower and a little null to the north to get more power.
 
This is the first I've heard KDWN is off the air.

I went to both Hawaii SDRs to see if I could maybe hear WGN but it's nothing but static.

It's one of the worst nights for AM reception I've ever heard. Even KFI was barely audible.

I know it's the peak of the summer season where AM DXing isn't so great but I've still heard WBBM behind KKOH at times on those receivers in the summer.
 
KFIR is weak, and fades in and out, but has pretty much been a nightly presence in Oakland (California) since KDWN downgraded. Now that KDWN is gone altogether, it has a mostly clear channel, even at low nighttime class D power. Worst annoyance here is a little spillover from KFIA (710) which has a big nighttime lobe in this direction, albeit with 1 kw.
 
@Mark Roberts
(Terrific avatar there, pal. Is that of your own radio? It evokes memories of a GE AM radio I had as a kid -- identical to the one atop the fridge in the Happy Days Cunningham kitchen.
Those little tube-rigs could pull in some nice DX at night. And just by sight one even learned to gauge frequency determintion on such imprecise dial graphics.
Looks as though the AM band is set to KGO, lol.)
 
Thanks! It's the dial of a Zenith Royal 51 AM/FM radio from the early to mid 1960s. Solid-state, American-made. The hinge for the FM antenna is like nothing I've seen anywhere else. It appears to be spring-loaded with detents, enabling the antenna to easily be positioned at different angles. There is no screw like there is for recent radios. It's a fairly decent performer for its time.

zenith-royal51-front.jpeg
 
I heard KFIR on one of the SDRs from east of Seattle Sunday night. I heard Bill Cunningham's voice and wondered if WGN was making it out that far, but then came the KFIR ID at 10 p.m. Pacific/1 a.m. Eastern for me.
It was definitely listenable but not strong. Occasionally it would fade behind KIRO slop.
This is a station I'm not familiar with, so I wasn't aware that it would essentially block WGN in the Northwest.
 
schmave said:
I heard KFIR on one of the SDRs from east of Seattle Sunday night. I heard Bill Cunningham's voice and wondered if WGN was making it out that far, but then came the KFIR ID at 10 p.m. Pacific/1 a.m. Eastern for me.
It was definitely listenable but not strong. Occasionally it would fade behind KIRO slop.
This is a station I'm not familiar with, so I wasn't aware that it would essentially block WGN in the Northwest.
Click to expand...
Until one gets far enough away from the Seattle-Tacoma metro, the station that blocks WGN isn't KFIR, which I've only definitely heard once or twice, but KIRO itself, which is a splashmaster. Not complaining -- they're local, and radio is a business, the station's been around forever, the programming's OK, and they employ a lot of people. But 720 and 700 are mostly toast in my section of South King County maybe 20 mi SE of Seattle, thanks to those 50KW at night. One can look at the RadioLocater and the effect of the night pattern is pretty accurate.

Of course, with many portables having 1 khz bandwidths available, it's probably more possible if you get 70-100 away from the transmitter. But KFIR wouldn't be that much of an issue if you're using a good portable with a directional antenna. At least in my estimation.

I've been able to log KDWN maybe a handful of times since the 1990s. KFIR maybe once or twice. 700 is hard to DX, KXLX Spokane comes in rarely through the splash and there's a station in Oregon I used to hear periodically. And the new one in Calgary? I think I logged that one. But it was tough sledding.

Other parts of the NW, yeah, 720 KFIR might be an issue, depending on which way you have your radio oriented -- but whenever I've DXed from Eastern WA, the big Midwest flamethrowers are more accessible -- depending on DX conditions, of course. I used to hear the big Chicago stations in the late 1980s when in Eastern WA, and I believe I once heard a NYC station -- can't recall which, and the log is shoved away in a closet somewhere. But I believe I heard one on my GE Superadio I.

No chance of that here, west of the Cascades, unless a) you're using a Beverage or similar highly directional longwire, b) conditions are awesome, and/or c) both. And Chicago stations only come in when conditions are good. Both of the more heard ones in this location are near locals, which doesn't help.
 
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