What I Heard at Night in Jamesville, Virginia

[Gregg.]

A vacation on the DelMarVa peninsula, just north of the Norfolk-Virginia Beach area. I scanned the Class A frequencies after dark one night...

640 - Hash
650 - WSM Nashville, so-so
660 - Spanish was stronger than WFAN NYC, which surprised me.
670 - WSCR Chicago with Spanish in background
680 - WPTF Raleigh, so-so (In the daytime, 680 is WCBM Baltimore)
690 - Spanish fighting with English religious music.
700 - WLW Cincinnati, strong
710 - Spanish only. Didn't hear WOR NYC
720 - WGN Chicago with "Tell Me Something Good" by Rufus in background.
730 - Spanish
740 - CFZM Toronto, so-so
750 - WSB Atlanta, fairly strong
760 - WJR Detroit, fairly strong
770 - WABC NYC, fairly strong
780 - WBBM Chicago, strongest of the five Chicago Class As
790 - Radio Reloj, so-so
800 - Hash
810 - Hash
820 - Hash
830 - Hash
840 - WHAS Louisville, so-so
850 - Hash (WTAR Norfolk is 25,000 watts at night but I really couldn't hear it, 50 miles away.)
860 - Hash. Surprised I heard no CJBC Toronto even though CFZM was identifiable.
870 - WWL New Orleans, strong, and one of the most distant catches.
880 - WCBS NYC, strong (If it's on the same tower as WFAN, why was this so much better?)
890 - WLS Chicago plus Spanish
900 - Hash
940 - WMAZ Macon, strong. This was a surprise. It's 50,000 watts non-directional days, 10,000 watts directional nights. Did someone forget to change to night power and pattern?
950 - Radio Reloj, faint
990 - Hash
1000 - WMVP Chicago, so-so
1010 - WINS NYC, so-so
1020 - KDKA Pittsburgh, weak
1030 - Spanish, no WBZ
1040 - Spanish with a little WHO Des Moines coming in
1050 - Spanish
1060 - Soft piano music with a little KYW Philadelphia coming in.
1070 - Hash
1080 - WTIC Hartford fighting with hash
1090 - WBAL Baltimore, so-so, stronger in daytime
1100 - WTAM Cleveland, weak
1110 - WBT Charlotte, strong
1120 - KMOX St. Louis, surprisingly strong
1130 - WBBR NYC, weak with Spanish
1140 - WRVA Richmond, weaker than I'd expect for only 150 miles away
1160 - Music was playing, not KSL Salt Lake City
1170 - WWVA Wheeling, fairly good
1180 - Hash
1190 - Hash
1200 - Hash (St. Louis and New Orleans were good but no WOAI San Antonio heard)
1210 - WPHT Philadelphia, weak
1220 - WHKW Cleveland, good
1500 - WFED Washington, surprisingly weak for 150 miles away
1510 - WLAC Nashville, "Coast to Coast AM" fighting with Religious music. (WLAC, a 50,000 watt clear channel station, identifies itself as "98.3 and 1510 WLAC." It puts the 250 watt translator dial position first.)
1520 - WWKB Buffalo, fair
1530 - WCKY Cincinnati, fair
1540 - Hash
1550 - Hash
1560 - Hash (WFME NYC is off the air)
1570 - Mix of Gospel Music and Spanish. Maybe the Spanish is XERF Ciudad Acuna?
1580 - Faint Oldies, could it be CKDO Oshawa?


.

 

[kenglish]

Back around 1974, I got WMAZ 940 really well one night, in the barracks at Pax River, Maryland.
I talked to Billy Sowell, their CE, and he felt that there had been a multi-hop propogation, that took the signal all the way around "the back way"....which would have been over a lot of water.
Oh, well. It was nice to hear my old home town station that one time!

 

[schmave]

Interesting. Nice post ... I've never visited that area but hope to.
Might you have been in WRVA's cancellation zone? I've had trouble picking it up in suburban D.C. at night.
No WBZ is the one that really surprises me. It's a blaster every night in Ohio.

 

[Gregg.]

I guess that cancellation zone is a barrier to hearing stations about 150 miles away. Too far for the ground signal, too close for the skywave. The Class A stations that were about 100 - 150 miles away were audible but underwhelming... WBAL 1090, WRVA 1140, WFED 1500.

And I suppose the Spanish I was hearing under or over WFAN 660, WSCR 670, WOR 710, WLS 890, WBZ 1030 and WBBR 1130, was likely Cuban. It's really amazing how Cuba, about 750 miles away, causes so much interference at times with AM listening on the East Coast and Southern U.S.

You wonder why Cuba is spending so much on electricity for all these AM stations. I suppose on 710, they're trying to block WAQI, a Miami Spanish language talk station. And I can understand trying to block Radio Martí on 1180. I couldn't hear anything of note on 1180, not Spanish, not WHAM Rochester. But why keep the electric bill so high on English-language talk frequencies?

 

[bgfred]

Very interesting scan. I grew up in western VA and lived in Hampton Roads for a while...
850 has always been a flaky signal in eastern VA, great in some places, bad in others, with odd tone and interference at times, maybe even more so after they jacked up the power back in the 90's so not so shocked you didn't hear it.
1020 does anyone, anywhere get really good skywave from KDKA? I never have....
1140 WRVA has a pretty strong NW/SE directional pattern, could never hear it well in western VA so not really that shocked it was weak there.
1510 here in Nashville, you'd be surprised how good 98.3fm reception is, and how bad 1510 is for daytime local use!

Thanks for your post, always nice to visit "home"!

 

[cyberdad]

1510 here in Nashville, you'd be surprised how good 98.3fm reception is, and how bad 1510 is for daytime local recception.

I I was going to say the same thing. Even 50kw non-directional in an area with generally poor ground conductivity and high dial position doesn't get out all that well during daytime.

As for Gregg's original post, I presume the 1060 you were hearing might have been XEEP from Mexico city. It's a non-commercial educational and cultural station run by a major university. I've heard it multiple times at various places in the south and southeast. Usually with classical or sometimes folk music. On a night with a clear signal, it's actually a good listen,.,

 

[rfry]

Even 50kw non-directional in an area with generally poor ground conductivity and high dial position doesn't get out all that well during daytime.

Below is a graphic supporting your comment ...

 

[bigic]

You wonder why Cuba is spending so much on electricity for all these AM stations. I suppose on 710, they're trying to block WAQI, a Miami Spanish language talk station. And I can understand trying to block Radio Martí on 1180. I couldn't hear anything of note on 1180, not Spanish, not WHAM Rochester. But why keep the electric bill so high on English-language talk frequencies?

They probably aren't intentionally blocking English-language talk stations, but as Cuba is not a member of international radio agreements, it also doesn't protect them from interference. And they're running with so much power partly because the stations are also targeting the US and Central America as propaganda stations.

 

[DavidEduardo]

They probably aren't intentionally blocking English-language talk stations, but as Cuba is not a member of international radio agreements, it also doesn't protect them from interference. And they're running with so much power partly because the stations are also targeting the US and Central America as propaganda stations.

Except for possibly one, all Cuban medium wave stations are for domestic service and have programming targeting Cubans in Cuba.

Essentially every frequency used in Cuba today (nearly every AM frequency has one to up to 13 Cuban stations) is also used in Central America multiple times, and is definitely used in Venezuela and Colombia as well as the Dominican Republic. Of course, every channel is used many times over in the US.

When the Chinese rebuilt all the Cuban AMs recently, all the old 300 kw, 120 kw and 60 kw Czech transmitters were retired. There are three 200 kw stations, neither of which seems to be at full power, and one is part of over 20 transmitters on 1180 blocking Radio Martí. After that, none is over 50 kw. There are 8 50 kw transmitters, half on 710 intended to block WAQI. There are a couple of 25 kw stations and all the rest, totally nearly 200, are from 10 kw down.

 

[gr8oldies]

I guess that cancellation zone is a barrier to hearing stations about 150 miles away. Too far for the ground signal, too close for the skywave. The Class A stations that were about 100 - 150 miles away were audible but underwhelming... WBAL 1090, WRVA 1140, WFED 1500.

And I suppose the Spanish I was hearing under or over WFAN 660, WSCR 670, WOR 710, WLS 890, WBZ 1030 and WBBR 1130, was likely Cuban. It's really amazing how Cuba, about 750 miles away, causes so much interference at times with AM listening on the East Coast and Southern U.S.

You wonder why Cuba is spending so much on electricity for all these AM stations. I suppose on 710, they're trying to block WAQI, a Miami Spanish language talk station. And I can understand trying to block Radio Martí on 1180. I couldn't hear anything of note on 1180, not Spanish, not WHAM Rochester. But why keep the electric bill so high on English-language talk frequencies?

I only see a single 12kW Progreso outlet on 660, nothing on 1030, and there is a strong station on 890 (I'm skeptical of it actually running 200kW). In the 80s Cuba purposely blasted high power on US clear and regional frequencies. That got expensive to do without the USSR's money, but sometimes when the US would PO the Castro government, they'd crank those transmitters back up. There was an interview with Arnie Coro where he said they jammed the Spanish signals because Cubans were on ration books, and the Miami stations would be talking about plentiful food. He was complaining about US stations in general not being directional to exclude Cuba. This even came up when relations were normalized under President Obama. Under NARBA, Cuba only got 640 as a clear.

 

[gr8oldies]

I I was going to say the same thing. Even 50kw non-directional in an area with generally poor ground conductivity and high dial position doesn't get out all that well during daytime.

As for Gregg's original post, I presume the 1060 you were hearing might have been XEEP from Mexico city. It's a non-commercial educational and cultural station run by a major university. I've heard it multiple times at various places in the south and southeast. Usually with classical or sometimes folk music. On a night with a clear signal, it's actually a good listen,.,

Stations like WLAC and WCKY may be able to be loudly heard in the Bahamas, but that mighty 50,000 watts has difficulty reaching its home market, and at night, skywave/groundwave cancellation can be very close in.

 

[DavidEduardo]

You wonder why Cuba is spending so much on electricity for all these AM stations. I suppose on 710, they're trying to block WAQI, a Miami Spanish language talk station. And I can understand trying to block Radio Martí on 1180. I couldn't hear anything of note on 1180, not Spanish, not WHAM Rochester. But why keep the electric bill so high on English-language talk frequencies?

Cuba is 700 miles long, kind of like California. CA has 254 AM stations, while Cuba has just about 200. Of those 200, about 20 are used to block 710 and 1160.

They likely don't worry about the "electric bill" as all the stations are run by the government, including 4 national networks and a whole bunch of regional nets and lots of local stations. The Greater Antilles has generally low ground conductivity, so even the higher power stations don't cover more than local areas around the city they are allocated to.

The other 160 stations are used to serve the local Cuban population.

 

[cyberdad]

Below is a graphic supporting your comment ...

View attachment 1872

Thanks, Rich. great chart! My real world experience is from several nights I've spent in Clarksville, TN, which is about 45 miles northwest of downtown Nashville. Although the ground conductivity in the area may be a tad better than what is depicted, WLAC daytime performs just about exactly as projected. Sp does WSM.

 

[gar hi]

Gregg, how was your reception of the 50 kw NYC stations in Jamesville during the day?

The time I took an alternate route back to Florida from New Jersey, I heard WFAN and WCBS while on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel in the early afternoon.

​

 

[bgfred]

Thanks, Rich. great chart! My real world experience is from several nights I've spent in Clarksville, TN, which is about 45 miles northwest of downtown Nashville. Although the ground conductivity in the area may be a tad better than what is depicted, WLAC daytime performs just about exactly as projected. Sp does WSM.

Below is a graphic supporting your comment ...

View attachment 1872

Yes, thanks rfry... I understood this conceptually but had never seen it charted, shape of the curve is quite interesting.

 

[radioman148]

Gregg, how was your reception of the 50 kw NYC stations in Jamesville during the day?

The time I took an alternate route back to Florida from New Jersey, I heard WFAN and WCBS while on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel in the early aftern

Gregg, how was your reception of the 50 kw NYC stations in Jamesville during the day?

The time I took an alternate route back to Florida from New Jersey, I heard WFAN and WCBS while on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel in the early afternoon.

​

Gar, what time of the years was that?

 

[cyberdad]

Except for possibly one, all Cuban medium wave stations are for domestic service and have programming targeting Cubans in Cuba.

I've always presumed that was basically the case for the past three or four decades, with the exception of 710 and 1180. But my guess is that blocking a few U.S, stations might be regarded as some sort of "fringe benefit". At least in some circles.

That wasn't always the case, however, Back during the earlier days of the Castro regime, I recall the Cubans were relaying English Language programming of R. Moscow on 600khz, to mention at least one channel. Didn't they also have an operation called R. Dixie broadcasting in English to southeastern U.S?

 

[gr8oldies]

Gregg, how was your reception of the 50 kw NYC stations in Jamesville during the day?

The time I took an alternate route back to Florida from New Jersey, I heard WFAN and WCBS while on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel in the early afternoon.

​

I also was on the Chesepeake Bay Bridge Tunnel in 1981, weak but steady reception of both WABC and WCBS.This was May 1981.

 

[gr8oldies]

I've always presumed that was basically the case for the past three or four decades, with the exception of 710 and 1180. But my guess is that blocking a few U.S, stations might be regarded as some sort of "fringe benefit". At least in some circles.

That wasn't always the case, however, Back during the earlier days of the Castro regime, I recall the Cubans were relaying English Language programming of R. Moscow on 600khz, to mention at least one channel. Didn't they also have an operation called R. Dixie broadcasting in English to southeastern U.S?

I remember the Radio Moscow relays on 600, starting at 3pm (I was in Sarasota for some of that time, the rest of the day was one of the regular Cuban networks. I had heard about Radio Free Dixie, which I believe was targeted to blacks in the South, but that was before I was listening. One thing I remember from Radio Havana Cuba on shortwave was their relay of The Voice of Vietnam, which consisted of the VoV open that one would hear early mornings U.S. on 10040, but RHC announcers reading a script telexed from VoV (despite what we heard on the news every single day and night, there was no such thing as "Radio Hanoi".)