• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Post your latest DX

Something interesting on FM for a change.

I was getting bored of AM since not much is going on this time of day (about 7:30-7:45 Pacific), so I thought I'd try FM.

Sure enough, I'm hearing a station playing jazz on 90.7 that isn't KALX (it's bubbling under and surfaces periodically). I'm guessing it's KFSR, since they apparently play this kind of music, but won't know 100% unless I hear an ID. EDIT: It's not KFSR!

EDIT #2: This is weird! Apparently it's KCSM, which is confusing because that's on 91.1. What's going on? Do they have any translators on 90.7?

c
 
Last edited:
cc333 said:
Something interesting on FM for a change.

I was getting bored of AM since not much is going on this time of day (about 7:30-7:45 Pacific), so I thought I'd try FM.

Sure enough, I'm hearing a station playing jazz on 90.7 that isn't KALX (it's bubbling under and surfaces periodically). I'm guessing it's KFSR, since they apparently play this kind of music, but won't know 100% unless I hear an ID. EDIT: It's not KFSR!

EDIT #2: This is weird! Apparently it's KCSM, which is confusing because that's on 91.1. What's going on? Do they have any translators on 90.7?

c
Click to expand...
K214CS Sonoma - 4 watts but 600+ meters above average terrain. Looks like it's at or near the KRCB-TV transmitting site which is northwest of Sonoma.

Pretty good catch, I'd say!
 
cc333 said:
Something interesting on FM for a change.

I was getting bored of AM since not much is going on this time of day (about 7:30-7:45 Pacific), so I thought I'd try FM.

Sure enough, I'm hearing a station playing jazz on 90.7 that isn't KALX (it's bubbling under and surfaces periodically). I'm guessing it's KFSR, since they apparently play this kind of music, but won't know 100% unless I hear an ID. EDIT: It's not KFSR!

EDIT #2: This is weird! Apparently it's KCSM, which is confusing because that's on 91.1. What's going on? Do they have any translators on 90.7?

c
Click to expand...
@cc333 @Mark Roberts

K214CS Sonoma a translator on 90.7

Heres my reception of KCSm from wyoming 4 years ago seconds before the top of hour
 
Last edited:
4 watts at 1990ft HAAT, so it sounds like 400 watts. Nice catch by the way!
 
Wow, 4 watts?! Impressive! It faded to KALX a few times, but it was quite clear otherwise. I would not have guessed that what I heard was only 4 watts transmitting from a tower almost 50 miles away!

What could have accounted for this? Sporadic-E? Tropo?

c
 
cc333 said:
I'll say! Thank you!! This is pretty good for someone just starting out. Beginner's luck?

c
Click to expand...
DXing is part preparation and part luck. From the Chicago area, I once caught a sign off of a low-power CBC station on channel 5 from a little town in Saskatchewan after local WMAQ sign off. Clear as a bell at just the right moment. I was ready for it, but if I’m on any other channel, I never see it. So luck, but I’m also set up for it, so prepared as well.
A low-power FM is the same. Nice catch!
 
The best way to prepare for FM DX

Tune your radio to the lowest ,first open channel and leave it there.

When i was working from home in the summer of 2018 id leave my FM DX Radio on 88.3 and the second i heard anything start bubbling up, id check it and tune around a bit
 
The middle FM button on the last few car radios I owned (including the 'new' 2008 Chrysler, :cool: have been set to 94.7.
Both here (inland) and back on Long Island (coastal), I'd punch it up on occsion. If Country WDSD Dover DE was on top in either locale, that meant 'trope'.
If they're not atop, that means no trope, and so I'm left with other car communications. There is this old one we've been using for a while, called 'conversation', hi.
I'm nowhere near being the FM DXer many of you folks are, so WDSD 94.7 is my sole link to FM DX.
 
Beginner's luck... Then there's Murphy's Law. No Es at all yesterday out west yet local 100.9 was off the air for hours and is on very low power today. There's no tropo possibilities on that channel, so no dice there (all other 100.9s within 200 mi are translators).
There was an Es opening in 2021 however, living in Ellensburg, where the KATS translator on 94.3 went off in the middle of it (probably had interference from another 94.5 Es signal). I was able to catch a 170 watt KHYM translator in Ulysses KS that would have never been possible with the translator on the air.
 
crainbebo said:
Beginner's luck... Then there's Murphy's Law. No Es at all yesterday out west yet local 100.9 was off the air for hours and is on very low power today. There's no tropo possibilities on that channel, so no dice there (all other 100.9s within 200 mi are translators).
There was an Es opening in 2021 however, living in Ellensburg, where the KATS translator on 94.3 went off in the middle of it (probably had interference from another 94.5 Es signal). I was able to catch a 170 watt KHYM translator in Ulysses KS that would have never been possible with the translator on the air.
Click to expand...

au contraire.. or whatever the saying is.. lol. when in laramie, I heard a Portland OR (100.3) station on the same frequency as a laramie transmitter
 
A big honkin' solar flare (pardon the technical terms) erupted a couple of hours ago, which means conditions on AM and SW are likely be become auroral in the next few hours, and Northern Lights are likely later in the week. It's big enough that satellites could be affected as well.
 
tvnut said:
A big honkin' solar flare (pardon the technical terms) erupted a couple of hours ago, which means conditions on AM and SW are likely be become auroral in the next few hours, and Northern Lights are likely later in the week. It's big enough that satellites could be affected as well.
Click to expand...
Wow! After the "fizzle" last week. perhaps we're in for some fun DXing the AM band to see what turns up from points south.
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
au contraire.. or whatever the saying is.. lol. when in laramie, I heard a Portland OR (100.3) station on the same frequency as a laramie transmitter
Click to expand...
Simply the FM Capture effect. If you lucky and get a real strong opening local stuff can be replaced.

IF you have a decent antenna even stronger local stuff can be replaced.
 
tvnut said:
A big honkin' solar flare (pardon the technical terms) erupted a couple of hours ago, which means conditions on AM and SW are likely be become auroral in the next few hours, and Northern Lights are likely later in the week. It's big enough that satellites could be affected as well.
Click to expand...
I heard about this on KCBS (AM!) this morning. It'll be interesting to see what happens.

So far, other than KYNO coming in weaker than usual (in some spots, it comes in almost like a local (with occasional but short-lived fadeouts) after about 8:30 PM Pacific), everything seems fairly typical on AM tonight.

I'll check it in a couple hours and see what happens.

c
 
OK, things are starting to change.

I'm hearing Kenny Roger's The Gambler on 570. No station in CA plays that kind of music as far as I can tell. Shoot, I just heard a jingle, but I couldn't make it out. It sounded like an America's Best Music jingle, like the ones that used to air on KVIN and KABL, so I'm guessing so far that this station airs an oldies-like format. I've already confirmed that it isn't KWML via stream, so it's a puzzle.

Tonight's going to be interesting I think....

c
 
OK, I figured it out. It's KCFJ out of Alturas, CA.

Not as interesting as I thought, but still somewhat interesting because I don't usually receive it from here.

c
 
tvnut said:
A big honkin' solar flare (pardon the technical terms) erupted a couple of hours ago, which means conditions on AM and SW are likely be become auroral in the next few hours, and Northern Lights are likely later in the week. It's big enough that satellites could be affected as well.
Click to expand...

cyberdad said:
Wow! After the "fizzle" last week. perhaps we're in for some fun DXing the AM band to see what turns up from points south.
Click to expand...

I really wish people would stop championing solar flares.. it absolutely decimates and destroys reception up here.. make AM and HF utterly and completely useless.. even 50kw AM's 250 miles away are inaudible.

From what im reading on the solar forecast, it'll be a decent solar storm, but nothing huge.

also, i dont know where people keep saying itll affect satellites. We've had some BIG solar storms and I've never had problems with my any of my many satellite dishes up here (NPR, AKPM, ViaSat and Starlink)
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
also, i dont know where people keep saying itll affect satellites.
Click to expand...
I have a feeling this was more important back when much satellite communication was analog-based.

I remember back sometime during 1998 - 2000 when I was watching something on DirecTV (I think it was St. Elsewhere on TV Land), when suddenly the signal faded to analog-like static, then after a few seconds it cut to some muzak and a display card apologizing for the interruption. Apparently the link between our dish and DirecTV's satellite was mostly unaffected, but the backhaul link that fed it was apparently analog, and was severely disrupted by a severe geomagnetic storm caused by a particularly severe solar flare.

That being said, I checked the AM band again about an hour ago, and it seems to be mostly dead. All the regular DX stations are mostly absent or extremely faint.

I'll check again, but I have a feeling it won't be such an interesting night after all.

c
 


Back
Top Bottom