Opposite coast DX targets

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Opposite coast DX targets

Postby Toomas Losin » Thu Feb 06, 2014 9:07 pm

Has anyone compiled a list of coastal or near-coastal stations with patterns like WWL's and WBZ's which point inwards? Beginning DXers interested in their opposite coasts could use such a list. Or would that be spoon-feeding them too much info, depriving someone of the joy of research? :-)
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Re: Opposite coast DX targets

Postby jon » Fri Feb 07, 2014 4:59 pm

Intriguing thought. As you'll see, a very short list. And even many of these are a stretch.

Using NRC's pattern book, there are some surprising ones.
WLNO-1060 New Orleans is only 5000 watts at night, but a tight directional lobe pushes at least 20,000 watts at Vancouver and all points in between.
Likewise, 5KW WDMG-860 Douglas, Georgia has four in-line towers with almost all their power going Due West. To move to a one tower operation, they have a Construction Permit to go low power non-directional at night, so I am not sure of their current status.
50 KW WRVA-1140 Richmond, Virginia, has a fairly tight figure 8 pattern to the NW and SE.
5KW WJBO-1150 Baton Rouge, Louisiana has a narrow E-W pattern.
5KW WODT-1280 New Orleans, Louisiana has its major night pattern lobe in a fairly tight lobe just slightly North of West.
5KW WLTG-1430 Panama City, Florida with an extremely tight Figure 8 pattern to the East and West
5KW KLFE-1590 Seattle has an odd night pattern shape that sends equal amounts of power East and West, with the Eastern lobe slightly South of due East

Having stared at over a 100 pattern maps by frequency, I must say that there are sure a lot of stations that dump almost all of their signal into the ocean.
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Re: Opposite coast DX targets

Postby Toomas Losin » Fri Feb 07, 2014 7:42 pm

It is indeed a very short list: There are no others, at least not in the US or Canada; I didn't look at México.

I dug through the patterns on the FCC site and found no others that satisfied the criteria, namely having a 50 kW pattern that was designed to keep energy away from the ocean while being broad enough inwards to be suitable for DX anywhere on the opposite coast.

It's interesting to consider the roughly triangular shape of the continent with Alaska, Newfoundland, and the Mexican state of Chiapas as the points. Perhaps the idea of "opposite coast DX" needs a better definition. I'm thinking of those West Coast stations with a lobe pointing towards Alaska. The distance is comparable to an East-West ocean to ocean path but is not to the opposite coast; for Alaska the opposite coast is quite far away. In that model Vancouver would have two opposite coasts, Arctic and Atlantic, with either being the most interesting depending on ones DX goals. I find it interesting but the lack of inward-pointing stations on whatever one considers an opposite coast makes it academic.

However, like your search, mine found some interesting patterns. Many east-coasters (and some west) do indeed dump power over the ocean — Europe and Africa must love it!
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Re: Opposite coast DX targets

Postby jon » Fri Feb 07, 2014 8:07 pm

I've always found it interesting what U.S. signals do well into New Zealand. It is often 5KW West Coast U.S. stations that dominate a given frequency. Usually the patterns that "ocean dump" in that direction.
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Re: Opposite coast DX targets

Postby jon » Sat Feb 08, 2014 7:39 pm

Not quite coastal, at least from a coastal state (Texas, on the Gulf of Mexico), but here is an interesting DX test that might have a chance if you are far enough from CHMB-1320 to avoid slop and not within Rosetown's (Sask.) mostly Northern directional pattern:

KCKM 1330 Monahans, TX will be conducting a DX Test on Saturday, March 22, 2014 from 0100 to
0130 ELT (Midnight-0030 CLT). The test will be at full daytime power of 12,000 watts using a nondirectional
pattern into a five-eighths wave tower. The test will consist mainly of Morse Code, sweep
tones and sound effects known to cut through the mud. There will be a few voice announcements
spread out throughout the 30-minute test.
Reports sent via E-mail are preferred, but will accept reports submitted via snail mail. If you send an
E-mail, please send MP3 attachments only; WAV files would be too big.
E-mail reports are to be sent to bob@kckm1330.com
Snail mail reports can be sent with a CD or cassette cued up to the best part of the reception. The
mailing address is:
KCKM AM 1330
Attention: Bob Souza, Owner and General Manager
P.O. Box 990
Monahans, TX 79756
Bob has said a verification post card will be sent. A single stamp is encouraged to help defray the cost
of postage. Bob didn’t ask for that, but it will be a kind gesture.
If there are any questions or any information left out, Paul will be glad to take your E-mail directly at
walkerbroadcasting@gmail.com
(This DX test was arranged by Paul Walker.)
from IRCA DX Monitor
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Re: Opposite coast DX targets

Postby Eldon-Mr.CFAY » Sun Feb 09, 2014 11:17 am

Greetings,
Yes that might well be worth trying for KCKM 1330 in Texas. It sounds like a good dx test. I have heard quite a few over the years particularly back in the 70s and 80s! I got a few verified too. One which I really liked getting from Greater Vancouver was KRCO 690 Prineville, Oregon which I heard on a dx test when CBU was off. With CBU 690 Vancouver dominating the frequency most of the time it was great to receive KRCO and get them verified while CBU was off. Not sure if Jon heard them but I liked that dx a lot. Generally speaking I try for a lot of non-directional stations for dxing like graveyarders and daytimers on the AM Band. Have tried for a few high power or medium power directional stations as well over the years too. KRCO 690 was heard in November 1969 and got the letter verification in Dec. 1969. Did you hear that one Jon or verify it?

Speaking of DX tests I am curious out of all your verifications about how many would be from DX tests Jon? or Toomas as well? Mine would be less than 10 per cent of the total. Mainly because some of the dx test stations I tried for I never heard. KLAD 960 Klamath Falls, Oregon was another dx test I did hear and get verified too.

I kind of regret not trying for more of them over the years as there were some great opportunities ... This one from Monahans , Texas is an interesting one which I have known about for close to a month now and definitely worth a try. In Langley 1320 Vancouver is not that strong a signal at night so its very possible that one might hear it there. All going well and I get out of this extreme antarctica with snow almost every day I will be out there to try for it. Might be possible to hear it in Southern Ontario or Cobourg area too. Quite a few stations in the east on 1330 though. By the way I noticed WROW 590 Albany, New York (Magic 590) blasting in last night with little fading and 60s and 70s Oldies format and lots of station Ids. Oldies 5-90 and Magic 590.... It was in the 590 Toronto null after I was listening to the Leafs/Canucks game. I know Spokane 590 comes in well out in Greater Vancouver but you might want to try for WROW out west anyway. The signal seems strong towards the west/northwest in this direction.

Take care everyone, best of dxing to you!!!

Eldon
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Re: Opposite coast DX targets

Postby jon » Sun Feb 09, 2014 12:12 pm

Most of my DX Test verifications were duplicates. In other words, I had already verified the station previously, but felt I should show my appreciation to the Engineer by telling him that I heard the station during its test.

KRCO would be an exception. I verified the same DX test that you did, Eldon, on November 17th, 1969, just before 1:30 a.m. Which means that I had not heard them previously.

Part of the problem was that there were not a lot of DX tests during the years that I DX'ed. And many of the ones that were arranged were in the East and not possible to hear from Vancouver.

Of the ones I arranged, KAPS-1470 Mount Vernon was the one I remember the best, and was quite successful, and I became friends with the Chief Engineer and his wife. KARI-550 Blaine was also one I remember well, and my least successful, mainly because they had been 24/7 in the recent past, and many considered them a pest.

Back to KRCO: the problem on 690 wasn't just getting CBU off the air, but also XETRA (Tijuana). XETRA had (has?) such a killer signal, they could have been heard 24/7 in Vancouver most of the year had CBU not been on the same frequency.
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Re: Opposite coast DX targets

Postby Eldon-Mr.CFAY » Sun Feb 09, 2014 3:46 pm

Greetings!
Very interesting Jon and thanks very much for the follow-up info. on the DX tests including KRCO. I would agree with you quite a few of the dx tests back then were in the east and hard to hear in Greater Vancouver. The KAPS one is interesting. I do not think I heard it. Do you remember when that was? However I did get KAPS 1470 verified and much later KAPS 660 when they went to the new 660 khz. frequency and fulltime. By the way Jon when KAPS went to 660 they were using a unique short tower antenna system that they go into detail about in the verification letter. The 660 KAPS verification letter I have is for October 4, 1990. In it they verified my report and go on to talk about the new PARAN ANTENNA SYSTEM CONSISTING OF 4 120 Foot Towers instead of one 320 ft. tower. They go on to say its a non-directional system that is brand new to the USA at the time (1990). They told me on 660 khz. AM they are non-directional both day and night with 10,000 watts Day and 1000 watts night. The verification letter was signed by James (Jim) Keane President and Owner!!! For the older 1470 khz reception Rick Knapp verified my report and he was the Operations Manager and Program Director at the time. That was for a Oct. 1, 1970 report in which I heard KAPS AT 2:25 pm TO 2:55 pm on that Fall 1970 afternoon. KAPS OF COURSE WAS A 500 watt DAYTIME ONLY STATION THEN. He indicated that daytime reports on 1470 were rare, I guess reports closer to sunset or sunrise times were more common since they were a daytimer. He also said they had a shield of signal to the north with not much radiated power, perhaps only 50 watts because they were protecting a NON-EXISTENT CANADIAN STATION AT THE TIME. To quote Rick "Apparently At One Time there had been an application for 1470 in the Vancouver area!""" So that must have been sometime in the 60s I would assume!!! Before CJVB 1470 Days. As we all know CJVB 1470 came on the air much later than 1970 in Vancouver started by Dutch Broadcaster Jan Van Bruchem! So that is quite interesting too.

Jon I remember you telling me about the chief engineer of KAPS who I believe was Dave Hebert, whether he was working at KAPS in fall of 1970 I do not know. I know radiofan and Jim visited KAPS in the 1960s. I also visited them several times in the 1970s I believe but later in that decade. Friendly station. I think I also visited them sometime in 1990 or so as well when my Dad and I drove down to MT. Vernon. I might have visited them at some point with RadioFan too...

By the way Jon much later I wrote to KENE 1490 Toppenish, Washington, should have sent them a dx report too as I had heard them several times and logged a brief report too. However I wrote to KENE for a music chart and coverage map, could have been around 1988. Actually it was Oct. 1, 1987 I got the letter and survey from them. It was included in the letter and was from Rick Knapp who had left KAPS long before and bought KENE and was the owner/General Manager. At the time they played hits of the 60s/70s/and 80s. Their slogan was "Apple Pie Radio" .... Since that time KENE has been sold and is still on the air but now called KYNR 1490 and owned by the Yakima Nations Native Group. They broadcast all local native and country music programming complete with drum chants etc.. Quite interesting to listen to on this graveyard frequency!!! I never did actually verify KENE or KYNR yet but should have.

Do you know if Chief Engineer Dave Hebert is still alive Jon? He sounded like an interesting guy and I am sorry I never met him. Owner Jim Keane and his wife were nice people and really tried to program KAPS for a lot of local news and local event info. for Mt. Vernon. By the way KAPS 660 and KBRC 1430 Mt. Vernon, Washington are commonly owned and have been since maybe 1995 or so. Jim Keane and Family bought KBRC quite a few years ago, it had been under different ownership and independently owned before that time. I have them verified by a home-brew station QSL Card that was sent to me back around 1967 some time.

Anyway interesting looking back at the history of some of the radio stations in the Northwest and dxing them.

Take care everyone, 73s Eldon
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Re: Opposite coast DX targets

Postby Eldon-Mr.CFAY » Sun Feb 09, 2014 5:13 pm

Greetings,
Regarding the Paran Antenna system that KAPS 660 is using it is non-directional and uses 4 towers with a square wire system criss crossed and the actual radiating elements. Apparently the towers support this array. More information about all this can be gotten by googling Paran Antenna System and KAPS 660. Patrick Griffith and Scott Fybush both have photos. Scott visted and took photos for his 2007 Transmitter Site Tower Calender and goes into some detail about this. Dxer Patrick Griffith also does. Apparently KAPS is still unique in using this short tower antenna system and even though the signal gets out well it appears not to be duplicated by other USA am stations except one in Hawaii. It is non-directional even though someone in the FCC database listed it as directional but apparently it is not a true directional antenna. There is not a lot of information available about this PARAN antenna system but apparently USA military has used it on Medium Wave applications in places. Just thought I would pass this on. Scott's 2007 calender trip to the Pacific Northwest also has photos of 1340 Anacortes which was known as KLKI at the time (now the Whale and KWLE) and KWBD/KJTT 1110 Oak Harbor. The trip was made in 2006 for the 2007 annual AM radio station calender Scott Fybush prints each year, well worth getting if you are a dxer and like transmitter site photos and some studio photos too. I found it interesting the Oak Harbor station and how Scott had a bit ofa wild goose chase finding the 1110 AM antenna west of the Oak Harbor guarded by cattle! Also at the time the KWDB studios in Oak Harbor were in a big old warehouse with a giant Computers written on the side, did not see any call letter on the building but a white school bus next to the building had KWDB 1110 on it. They were oldies with local news in 2006 , had not switched to conservative talk yet or been bought by Satnam much later with the current South Asian format. By the way when Radiofan and I visited KJTT 1110 , gosh over 20 years ago now we found the studios not in th 2006 Fybush location but in a smaller ground level building studio location near downtown Oak Harbor. If I remember correctly the 7/11 Store was nearby too. When we visited they gave us a tour and were fairly friendly. Got some business cards etc.. I think I got the coverage map from them at that time. That was definitely way back , before 1994 or so!!!

Just thought I would add the additional information about the Skagit County area radio stations.

Take care everyone, 73s Eldon
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Re: Opposite coast DX targets

Postby Toomas Losin » Sun Feb 09, 2014 7:15 pm

Eldon-Mr.CFAY wrote:Speaking of DX tests I am curious out of all your verifications about how many would be from DX tests Jon? or Toomas as well?


Zero. I haven't heard too many DX tests, only a couple, and they weren't anything dramatic. I tend to miss most of them.

This test on 1330 might make it through the S-4 splatter from 1320 but it'll be competing with what might be KKPZ Portland which owns the frequency right now.
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Re: Opposite coast DX targets

Postby Toomas Losin » Sun Feb 09, 2014 7:16 pm

jon wrote:Back to KRCO: the problem on 690 wasn't just getting CBU off the air, but also XETRA (Tijuana). XETRA had (has?) such a killer signal, they could have been heard 24/7 in Vancouver most of the year had CBU not been on the same frequency.


When CBU was intermittent a couple of weeks ago I had the nice opportunity of hearing XEWW (it's no longer XETRA (sigh!)) at national anthem time followed by a fully legal ID. If propagation doesn't favour México then there is room for something else to be heard if CBU were off-air.
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Re: Opposite coast DX targets

Postby Toomas Losin » Sun Feb 09, 2014 7:53 pm

Toomas Losin wrote:This test on 1330 might make it through the S-4 splatter from 1320 but it'll be competing with what might be KKPZ Portland which owns the frequency right now.

Sorry, it's KXXJ Juneau that owns 1330 right now, branding themselves as "KXJ".

Never logged them before. Perhaps there's an Alaskan opening tonight.
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Re: Opposite coast DX targets

Postby Eldon-Mr.CFAY » Mon Feb 10, 2014 12:13 pm

Greetings Everyone.
Thanks Toomas for the additional information. I noticed there is another dx test schedules for Feb. 22, 2014 from Midnight to 1 AM Eastern Time. Its for WFNY 1440 khz. in Gloversville, New York ... Thats near Schenectady and Albany, New York. WFNY is an independently owned AM station with a local variety format. They will broadcast rock, morse code and station Ids. during the test. Power is 5000 watts day and 500 watts night normally.

So you might want to give that one a shot!

Just recently I have become more interested in DX Tests from AM stations over the years than before. Been a AM DXer for many years I went through all my verifications and found I have only 4 AM stations verified by DX Tests. I thought it was more but thats it. I tried to hear a few more and did over the years but those are the ones verified. Got a real nice verification many moons ago from chief engineer of KOMW 680 Omak, Washington for a dx test they did. KOMW 680 Omak, WASH. is still a daytime only station and on the air.

Heres a question for you, I have seen a lot of dx tests that were and continue to happen in the USA with AM stations but I CANNOT REMEMBER ANY CANADIAN AM RADIO STATION EVER DOING A DX TEST IN THE PAST 40 YEARS!!! Has there been any? Perhaps you would have the answer to that one Jon. Also I am compiling a list of radio stations on AM that have done DX tests since the early 60s as well. Back in the 1990s even WHVW 950 Hyde Park, New York owned by Pirate Joe Ferraro did one with Allan Weiner been the chief engineer at the time verifying reports. WHVW is a 500 watt AM station days and 60 watts nights.

Another interesting one that a good radio friend of mine heard on the Oregon Coast was WQMA 1520 from Marks, Missississippi which was a 250 watt Daytimer that did a night DX test. That station is no longer on the air and went dark several years ago. It had been on the air for quite a few years before. Apparently from my research the First AM DX test was done in the year 1933 in the USA so they have been happening for a long time now, certainly before many of us were born!

Anyway thought I would just add to that. By the way Toomas I got 1330 Portland, Oregon verified as KPOK and KPOJ back in the early 70s or late 60s. Never heard that one from Alaska yet but that is a good catch, however sounds like its become a bit of a dx pest to you!!! Anyway I hope you can hear the DX test in March from Monahans, Texas, good luck with that Toomas!!!

Take care everyone, and good dxing!!!

73s Eldon
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Re: Opposite coast DX targets

Postby Toomas Losin » Mon Feb 10, 2014 1:54 pm

Listening to 1330 is very annoying because of the continual sharp scratching static sounds from 1320 poking beyond 1330 whenever music plays or other audio peaks; over modulation maybe? A phaser might cut that, or maybe I need to play with varying the resistor in the Pennant antenna to see how well that can move the null.

KXXJ owned 1330 while I sat next to the radio but the recording shows that it does fade and for a while was weaker than the splatter from 1320. It was variable though, as it came back to dominance soon after. The NOAA web site does show some disturbances in the ionosphere yesterday. The FCC site says 10 kW day and 3 kW night, non-directional.

Before the TOH ID at 0300 UTC I heard "on Juneau's newest station, 1330 KXJ, you'll find Juneau's greatest hits". I'm guessing that statement is deliberately misleading (relating to a format change?) because the FCC shows that its been KXXJ since 2011 and had other calls going back to 2006.

CW from that WFNY test on 1440 may be audible in the Lower Mainland if it uses the non-directional day pattern; the night pattern doesn't point inwards but Eastern Canada would hear it. The pests will likely be CKJR Wetaskiwin and KMED Medford.
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Re: Opposite coast DX targets

Postby jon » Sun Mar 16, 2014 8:09 am

Last night, I was prepping for next Friday night's DX test on 1330 from Texas. It is clear that Rosetown, Saskatchewan, certainly dominates the frequency here in Edmonton. The TERK loop gives me enough of a Null possibility that I could hear another station almost half the time last night, likely from Witchita, Kansas, based on the type of Talk format heard.

If conditions aren't horrible next Friday night, I can see a fairly good chance of hearing 10,000 watts non-directional from Texas in the Rosetown Null. Especially given their use of morse code and odd tones to cut through everything else.

What I really learned though is that my move 3 miles SSW from my old location really has changed my CFRN interference, reducing it significantly. Before I was Due East of the transmitter, at the edge of the Lobe of the Night Pattern. Now, I'm almost in a Null. Their pattern is symmetrical, so I benefit from the second Null that mirrors the one to protect 1260 in San Francisco.
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