1570 CKMW goes dark

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1570 CKMW goes dark

Postby Shawndx » Sat Aug 31, 2013 4:52 am

1570 CKMW MB Winkler They pulled the plug on the AM Transmitter at 10:00 local time. This was about two weeks ahead of when their 90 day simulcast on 88.9 FM would have expired. Now off air on AM and only heard on 88.9 FM. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jHH-P9S6DQ There is a short video of them going dark.
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Re: 1570 CKMW goes dark

Postby Toomas Losin » Sat Aug 31, 2013 10:56 am

Shawndx wrote:1570 CKMW MB Winkler They pulled the plug on the AM Transmitter at 10:00 local time.

It's nice to see some effort was put in to mark the occasion; that video was nice to see. It's the end of an era.

CKMW 1570 was what I like to call the "easiest furthest" Canadian DX station that can be heard in the Lower Mainland, for its level of "easy". At 1800 km it was often audible without doing anything special other than pointing the antenna to the east. That doesn't mean it was crystal-clear, one still had to hope that conditions would allow hearing an ID but one didn't usually have to wait a long time. At a similar distance, CBW can also be heard but it has CKNW 980 next to it on the dial here so it's not as easy.

It was fun to listen to CKMW during those rarer events when it was coming in strongly and one could forget it was a DX station: Listening to the music, excited that it was coming all the way from Manitoba, all while planning what other stations to try to hear given the good conditions to the east.

The loss of CKMW as an indicator of good propagation is sad but KSTP 1500 in St. Paul is only slightly further away and is also reasonably easy to hear. The rub is that KSTP is an ESPN station so its programming is unlistenable to this non-sports fan and there's only the briefest window for a station ID at the top of each hour.

This does open up 1570 somewhat. I had found it was possible to go to bed listening to CKMW, with XERF or KCVR possibly making themselves known too, and then waking up with KUAU Hawaii if sunrise conditions permitted. It will be interesting to see what fills this hole: Will KUAU be heard in the late evenings? Can one catch WMVX when it switches to day power? Or maybe some other low-powered station will be a surprise.
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Re: 1570 CKMW goes dark

Postby jon » Sat Aug 31, 2013 1:03 pm

Until they reversed themselves, the CRTC would have us believe that slop from 1550, once they move to Point Roberts, would kill any chance of listening to 1570 all the way to Nanaimo. We'll probably never know, but this whole thing has me wondering if Canada has given up our right to any future use of 1570 on the West Coast.

With CKMW gone, and XERF seemingly happy to stay at 100,000 watts, I could see 1570 being a pretty good frequency for an AM station anywhere in Western Canada, with 50,000 watts and a decent pattern.

But one source says there is an FCC Construction Permit for a 50,000 watt station just West of Astoria, Oregon, on 1570.
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Re: 1570 CKMW goes dark

Postby Toomas Losin » Sat Aug 31, 2013 3:21 pm

jon wrote:Until they reversed themselves, the CRTC would have us believe that slop from 1550, once they move to Point Roberts, would kill any chance of listening to 1570 all the way to Nanaimo. We'll probably never know, but this whole thing has me wondering if Canada has given up our right to any future use of 1570 on the West Coast.


Playing with my new Tecsun PL-390 suggests that Nanaimo on 1570 might be usable after KRPI moves to Point Roberts, at least during the day, with the right power level. Second-adjacent interference from the current 50 kW locals is non-existent or low enough that enough energy on 1570 might overcome interference from 1550. Yes, it could be a battle of transmitter power.

However, testing with my car radio (which has poor selectivity) suggests that there would be second-adjacent interference problems moving away from Nanaimo as the signal weakens or if one is in a radio shadow.

If KRPI's modulation ever became excessive then that would wipe out 1570. I'm not sure that all of the locals are keeping their modulation legal, as sometimes there is splatter that is abnormally far from the assigned frequency.

However, being usable doesn't mean that this frequency isn't compromised by uncertainties about 1550. Canada removing its objection to KRPI's move has that cost.

jon wrote:With CKMW gone, and XERF seemingly happy to stay at 100,000 watts, I could see 1570 being a pretty good frequency for an AM station anywhere in Western Canada, with 50,000 watts and a decent pattern.


I doubt XERF is running 100 kW continually. If it were it should be audible more often than it is. XEPRS 1090 and XEPE 1700 are heard much more often, although they may have some directivity this way.

jon wrote:But one source says there is an FCC Construction Permit for a 50,000 watt station just West of Astoria, Oregon, on 1570.


I don't see one on the FCC web site. There's one in Millwood, WA whose north-pointing pattern scared me until I learned that Millwood is near Spokane.

I'm dreading KRPI's move or any new additions to 1570 because the area around 1570 has some nice trans-Pacific stations and is quiet. The FCC's database suggests that this quiet is because stations were protecting CHUB 1570 and CKMW 1570; very nice for 1566 and 1575 kHz. So 50 kW locally on 1550 makes me very nervous. This week I twice heard something on 1548; the signal was too weak to identify the language, other than it was not likely to be English, but this was only possible when the voice on 1550 paused between words and sentences. This probably won't work after KRPI's move.

So if anyone has been wanting to DX this area of the band then don't delay!
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Re: 1570 CKMW goes dark

Postby jon » Sat Aug 31, 2013 4:50 pm

Toomas Losin wrote:
jon wrote:But one source says there is an FCC Construction Permit for a 50,000 watt station just West of Astoria, Oregon, on 1570.


I don't see one on the FCC web site. There's one in Millwood, WA whose north-pointing pattern scared me until I learned that Millwood is near Spokane.

Here is the only place that I've seen it mentioned:
http://www.amlogbook.com/freq/freq.htm#1570
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Re: 1570 CKMW goes dark

Postby Toomas Losin » Sat Aug 31, 2013 6:01 pm

Hmm, that source lists it as Facility ID 122586 but the FCC's AM Query page finds nothing for that ID. I hope that means it's stale and will never happen!
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Re: 1570 CKMW goes dark

Postby Toomas Losin » Sun Sep 01, 2013 1:33 pm

Toomas Losin wrote:I had found it was possible to go to bed listening to CKMW, with XERF or KCVR possibly making themselves known too, and then waking up with KUAU Hawaii if sunrise conditions permitted. It will be interesting to see what fills this hole: Will KUAU be heard in the late evenings? Can one catch WMVX when it switches to day power? Or maybe some other low-powered station will be a surprise.

To answer my own rhetorical question: Last night in the hour before midnight PDT one could hear preaching and Spanish on 1570 but both were at a level that can best be described as "teasing". Presumably these were KUAU and XERF, so both Hawaii and México showed up in the space left by CKMW.
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Re: 1570 CKMW goes dark

Postby Boombox » Fri Sep 13, 2013 2:47 am

I live in W. WA, and most of what I hear on 1570 is XERF (usually with ranchero oldies and low key Spanish speaking announcers) and KCVR, Lodi, California (ESPN Deportes, sports talk in Spanish). But often KCVR isn't propagating north from California, for some reason. When CKMW was still on the air I would hear them with fairly good signals about half the time. It was always interesting to hear the winter weather reports ('drifting snow across the highway', 'high of minus 5', etc).

The other stations that far north and east that are 'dependable' here are CBK 540, CJWW-600 in Saskatoon (heard with decent signals maybe half the time) and CBW-990 (although CBW is weak). Sometimes the station in Prince Albert comes in well (CKBI-900) and the station in Rosetown SK (CJYM-1330) often has good signals with a nice mix of classic rock.

I've never heard Hawaii on 1570, but one night in 2012 I heard a religious program coming in weakly from the SE, which may have been a station in Missouri... no ID, though... never heard that one since.

PS., XERF may end up going off the air -- Mexico recently released a list of AMers who are to migrate to FM, and I think XERF is one of them.
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Re: 1570 CKMW goes dark

Postby jon » Fri Sep 13, 2013 9:08 am

Boombox wrote:I've never heard Hawaii on 1570

From another thread, I have to ask, have you ever heard recently anyone ID as "News/Talk 1570"?
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Re: 1570 CKMW goes dark

Postby Toomas Losin » Fri Sep 13, 2013 6:12 pm

Since CKMW went dark, I believe that KUAU has been heard almost every evening but it's generally weaker than CKMW was. Sometimes it's in the form of barely heard preaching that fades up from nothing, although Wednesday night/Thursday morning was a nice exception as KUAU was often dominant for many minutes at a time.

Boombox wrote:I've never heard Hawaii on 1570, but one night in 2012 I heard a religious program coming in weakly from the SE, which may have been a station in Missouri... no ID, though... never heard that one since.

A search says that KPIO 1570 is a religious station in Colorado. It might be heard if it's running its day power of 7 kW instead of the nightly 18W.
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Re: 1570 CKMW goes dark

Postby Boombox » Sat Sep 14, 2013 4:00 am

jon wrote:
Boombox wrote:I've never heard Hawaii on 1570

From another thread, I have to ask, have you ever heard recently anyone ID as "News/Talk 1570"?


No -- just XERF, ESPN Deportes (KCVR), and CKMW until it went off the air. If CKMW used that slogan, I don't recall (don't have the logbook handy) but I know I heard that station numerous times.

I may be somewhat restricted by local terrain -- it blocks a lot of signals from the North and South, which is why Hawaii doesn't make it here, as its bearing has a huge southern component.
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Re: 1570 CKMW goes dark

Postby Shawndx » Sat Sep 14, 2013 11:33 am

The only NewsTalk 1570 I know of is WNDA New Albany IN

So far a few new ones logged on 1570 here now that CKMW gone:
KQWC
KLEX
KBCV
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