Yesterday a medical appt in Victoria offered plenty of "bandscan" time both in the city and at S.S. Island and Swartz Bay ferry terminals. With fog prevalent, ground-wave signal extension on FM was notably enhanced. While shielded by Mt Tolmie from CJSU 89.7 "Sun-FM" I tried to hear KXIR 89.9 the new fulltime repeater of KSER 90.7 but was disappointed instead by reception of KGHP in Gig Harbor, in the clear with no sign of other signals in the background. Perhaps Bongwater, who regularly travels through Skagit Co. has an answer or someone else who can tell me if KXIR is on??
The power increase on volunteer community station KSQM 91.5 Sequim makes this quite listenable driving around Victoria for those who enjoy MOYL/Adult Standards from the 40's 50's & 60's. It used to disappear or fade travelling the hilly terrain of the city, but no longer. Considering KSQM serves listeners 65+ I'm guessing this station has been discovered by a few of Victoria's retirement age listeners. Yesterday, they even had an hour of vintage country! Throughout the day we flipped our SUV radio between this and Classic Country KXA 1520 which also has city-grade coverage of Victoria. There was a real mess at 91.9 + 92.1 CBU-FM. From Isle View beach in Saanich just across from San Juan Island, I'm guessing KSJU 91.9 or KPTZ 91.9 were part of this noise and can't imagine how listeners in the islands or Port Townsend can receive these without severe interference from CBU 92.1
Travelling on the open-air deck ferry mid-morning at winter solstice offers a chance to see how much AM DX there is at that time of day when the AM band is supposed to theoretically have no DX. Usual KFBK 1530 pounded in and 810 was a noisy mix of KTBI and KGO. KFI 640 CBR 1010 KGA 1510 KFSG 1690 Roseville, CA also loud and 1090 a noisy mix of KFNQ Seattle and XEPRS