we have a pretty good am station i wake up to every morning on my alarm.
this morning it would not come in, and while fumbling looking for non static. i came across
am 1120 out of st louis.
i am in sioux falls SD. google maps puts me at 627 miles from there
so a straight no road shot would still be about 600 miles

dosent this seem kind of far for me to be picking it up??

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No. AM signals will bounce off of the Ionosphere.

Back when I worked at WTBX/WKKQ before WKKQ turned into Talk Radio (WNMT), I worked the FM side, and when 7PM rolled around, we were required to turn our transmitter power down to 1/4 power for the AM side.

Occasionally, we'd get tapes in the mail from our station being recorded in France, Russia, we even had one come in from Japan one day.
No static, perfectly clear recordings of WKKQ..

I later moved to KOZY/KMFY in Grand Rapids, MN and worked the AM side exclusively, with the exception of news/weather for the FM side. FM was automated satellite feed.

KOZY (AM) would have the same issues. Transmitter logs were required hourly, and we'd turn the transmit power down at night.

One of the coolest things we did at WTBX, we took several fluorescent lights out to the tower, planted them in the ground... They'd glow with no electricity.

That's probably not unexpected. There are some powerful AM stations that can be heard across many states at night. KMOX in St. Louis and WLS and WBBM here in Chicago are sometimes heard from, say, Pennsylvania to the Rocky Mountains.

More unusual is to get distant FM stations. Occasionally in the summer I've picked up FM stations from Panama City Florida, Rapid City SD and someplace in North Carolina, all crystal clear on my car radio here in the Chicago area. Usually when it happens, there's a lot of distant stuff heard all at once, then they fade away and are gone.

quote Originally posted by Synthesis: One of the coolest things we did at WTBX, we took several fluorescent lights out to the tower, planted them in the ground... They'd glow with no electricity.

On a side note. We used to do the same thing with florescent bulbs and power lines. They glow pretty good.

I wonder why they wouldn't use something like that along highways. Isn't it just "wasted" energy that they are using?

Sorry about the OT. he started it

Brad

quote Originally posted by css9450: That's probably not unexpected. There are some powerful AM stations that can be heard across many states at night. KMOX in St. Louis and WLS and WBBM here in Chicago are sometimes heard from, say, Pennsylvania to the Rocky Mountains. More unusual is to get distant FM stations. Occasionally in the summer I've picked up FM stations from Panama City Florida, Rapid City SD and someplace in North Carolina, all crystal clear on my car radio here in the Chicago area. Usually when it happens, there's a lot of distant stuff heard all at once, then they fade away and are gone.

Last night while running down the interstate, I had the CB Radio turned on, and I was picking up a Radio Check on channel 19 from South Florida.

As a teenager in Atlanta when Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis, Chuck Berry and a skinny little teenager named Ricky Nelson were getting started, the 2 Rock 'n Roll stations in Atlanta cut their power at dusk and we couldn't hear them just 25 miles away. We used to search to find a Nashville station with a program sponsored by Royal Crown Hair Cream or WLS in Chicago, or I think it was KIMM in Denver. There was a WCKY, but I don't remember where it was. Sometimes we could even get WBZ in Boston.

While I was stationed in Sinop, Turkey in the mid 60's, I often listened to WSB back here in Atlanta, or the pirate stations off the British coast. But, I wasn't using an ordinary table top radio and antenna, either.

Look for WSB 750 AM. They used to be a "clear channel" station, meaning that there were no other stations on their frequency. They din't have to turn down their power at night, and could be heard all over the world.

Better yet, go here...
http://www.ac6v.com/clearam.htm#USA

You might be able to pick up more than you think.

quote Originally posted by fierofool: There was a WCKY, but I don't remember where it was.

Cincinnati.... That's a station from my childhood! Don't remember what format they were however, I just liked how the call letters stood for Cincinnati and Kentucky.

Wolfman Jack was heard all over the country, broadcasting from "Del Rio Texas"--actually, from right accross the river in Acuna Mexico I believe-- on 100,000 watts (as often advertised)--probably more than that in reality, but I here in Texas frequently listen to AM stations all from all over the midwest, including Chicago and Saint Louis.

CB radio--When I was in Guantanamo Bay Cuba, the CB operators often "talked skip' to all over the USA.

Similar to others experiences, as a kid, I used to listen to WLS in Chicago every night. At that point in my life, I lived near Wichita, KS. Then I got into CB and again, similar experiences. But, while in S. Korea. we had an aircraft equipped with HF radio and used to call home all the time. HF is a very reliable skip signal. Of course, it was radio to radio to telephone but, Aunt May and Deputy Barney kept the phone lines open, they knew it was an important call.

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Ron
"While you cannot control the length of your life, you can control the width and depth." Live life to it's fullest, you may not see tomorrow.

Grew up listening to WLS from the St. Louis area. KMOX never came in good enough (and I was only 1 hour away)

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Are stations still required to change their 'patterns' at night? I know as a kid i would be able to pick up different things in the evenings than i could in the day ( i was out in the country back then ). Real annoying when you were listing to a program and it was time to switch.. *poof* it was gone.

quote Originally posted by Synthesis: No. AM signals will bounce off of the Ionosphere.

Correct. Skywave propagation is especially good at night and in the winter. That's why many AM stations are required to reduce power at sunset and/or switch their antenna arrays to alter the directional pattern of their signal (i.e. change the direction that most of that 50 KW is pointed).

50 KW "clear-channel" AM stations like KOMA in Oklahoma City (1520 KHz) used to blanket half the country at night. KOMA remained at 50 KW after dark but was required to alter their antenna pattern to aim most of their signal north and west. In the late 1950s KOMA was one of the first radio stations in the U.S. to go to an all rock-and-roll "top 40" format, and at night their teen audience extended all the way to Los Angeles in the west (right along legendary Route 66) and into Canada to the north. KOMA was the only "top 40" station that could be received in many rural areas, and probably half of their advertisers were located more than 500 miles from the station. Having grown up in Oklahoma City I was rather surprised when I went to college and discovered that KOMA was well known to at least half of my classmtes, even though they were from all over the country.

quote One of the coolest things we did at WTBX, we took several fluorescent lights out to the tower, planted them in the ground... They'd glow with no electricity.

In the 1950s, KOMA's transmitter south of Oklahoma City was still surrounded by rural farmland, but in the early 1960s a new housing development was built up starting only about 1/4 mile north of their three-antenna array. Many of the new houses had fluorescent lighting installed in the kitchen. The houses were far enough away that the fluorescent lamps didn't light up spontaneously, but once they were lighted you couldn't turn them off without physically removing the lamps from their fixtures.

[This message has been edited by Marvin McInnis (edited 10-07-2011).]

quote Originally posted by Raydar: Look for WSB 750 AM. They used to be a "clear channel" station, meaning that there were no other stations on their frequency. They din't have to turn down their power at night, and could be heard all over the world. Better yet, go here... http://www.ac6v.com/clearam.htm#USA You might be able to pick up more than you think.

After dark till dawn, I can get WSB Atlanta, WWL 870 New Orleans & WSM 650 Nashville almost every night up here in MI -along with AM stations in New York, Boston, Pittsburgh, Chicago.

I can pick up my fav AM station just about anywhere in Ohio. 2 of them are strong enough to use for aircraft navigation. I use them to get to Columbus. There listed on air charts as ADF channels. (over the Air Direction Finder). I dont think power is that regulated, some are much stronger than others. Some of them I cant get on the other side of town.

When I was a kid (17), I was able to pick up Little Rock Arkansas from Winnipeg, Manitoba on my car radio when driving home from work late at night.

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quote Originally posted by fierosound: When I was a kid (17), I was able to pick up Little Rock Arkansas from Winnipeg, Manitoba on my car radio when driving home from work late at night.

If it's a good signal, the receiver doesn't care what/where it is.

We occasionally used to shoot "skip" on the CB radio with only 5 watts of power.

We used to hear skip signals from all over the world, on the CB in the car.
Many years ago, my dad was on the Sunshine Skyway over Tampa Bay, and asked for some "local traffic info". Someone from California, thinking he was local, answered him.

I work at an AM station here in Sioux City.

If for whatever reason we fail to change patterns overnight, we are assured of getting postcards from Russia or Norway or South Africa or wherever..

Am Goes everywhere.

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I had a friend that said he could here a radio station from Mexico through a light bulb.

Wow, this brings back memories.

When I was a kid, I used to "DX" AM stations on a clock radio at night. I kept a log of all the distant stations I'd picked up. Some of the more distant stations I can remember were KTWO (somewhere in Wyoming), KOA Denver, WWL New Orleans (you could probably get that station on the moon), and once or twice got stations from Kentucky and Chicago area.

quote Originally posted by deceler8: I work at an AM station here in Sioux City. If for whatever reason we fail to change patterns overnight, we are assured of getting postcards from Russia or Norway or South Africa or wherever..

... or from the FCC. I've seen one of those before ... but it wasn't as a result of something I personally did or failed to do. There were persistent rumors in the radio/TV industry that the KOMA transmitter was often cranked up to more than 60 KW at night to increase their coverage area, and thus increase their sales revenue.

[This message has been edited by Marvin McInnis (edited 10-08-2011).]

quote Originally posted by Wichita: I had a friend that said he could here a radio station from Mexico through a light bulb.

I used to live less than a quarter mile from WSB. I could listen to Braves games (or anything else they were broadcasting) on the phone.

I haven't checked in a while, but here I can usually pick up stations from Chicago and Cuba at night pretty easily.

quote Originally posted by fierobear: Wow, this brings back memories. When I was a kid, I used to "DX" AM stations on a clock radio at night. I kept a log of all the distant stations I'd picked up. Some of the more distant stations I can remember were KTWO (somewhere in Wyoming), KOA Denver, WWL New Orleans (you could probably get that station on the moon), and once or twice got stations from Kentucky and Chicago area.

I had forgotten all about doing something like that when i was perhaps 5 or 6. I had an old portable that i took apart and ran wire in a loop on my ceiling, from corner to corner.. Changing its shape would let me get different stations and thought it was amazing ( was just learning about radio back then.. )

Ah the memories of a child where even simple electromagnetic waves were like magic. I remember trying to wind my own motors and magnets to 'electrify' some of my toys, and to make my slot cars go faster and hold to the track better.

[This message has been edited by User00013170 (edited 10-08-2011).]

wow this is cool i never knew much about AM, only that it usually is talk radio, and twangy country
now that i am getting older i am starting to like talk radio, but not the country

quote Originally posted by $Rich$: wow this is cool i never knew much about AM, only that it usually is talk radio, and twangy country now that i am getting older i am starting to like talk radio, but not the country

So you are too young to remember the days before FM then

quote Originally posted by User00013170: So you are too young to remember the days before FM then

Anybody else remember the first experiments at stereo broadcasting in the middle 1950s? Usually it was an FM station broadcasting one channel and an AM station broadcasting the other channel. Of course, this required two radios, and the participating stations had a devil of a time matching the two channels closely enough to achieve decent stereo imaging. Recordings of ping-pong games were particularly popular program material. It was never two FM stations or two AM stations. Part of that was for competitive reasons, and part was because nobody back then had more than one FM radio in the house.

It was years before the FM stereo standard was adopted by the FCC and stations began broadcasting the analog difference signal on their 38 KHz subcarrier.

[This message has been edited by Marvin McInnis (edited 10-08-2011).]

When I was little, my brother and I strung an antenna wire from the backyard to the front yard, between trees. We could pick up all sorts of am radio stations. However while driving I can barely pick up am radio signals with in a 30 miles of the stations. I, too listened to WLS, Chicago from upste NY, even on small transistor radios.

quote Originally posted by User00013170: So you are too young to remember the days before FM then

Yeeaaaaaaappppp!

born in 79

In the 60's, being the only Braves fan in Illinois, my brother used to listen to the Atlanta Braves station in Springfield on a very cheap radio with an internal antennae. When that wasn't clear enough, he'd go out to my mom's 56 Buick and listen-he had to be careful to limit it so the car would still crank over in the morning. Some mornings, my mom wished he was a Cardinals fan like the other 99% of Spfld.

I never really had interesting AM radio experiences until I had a Carver TX-9 car radio. Wow, hundreds of stations are out there. I picked up a Kansas AM station on a regular basis at night and Bakersfield, CA during the day. For a change, I could get all the collage radio stations in the bay area clearly. It was stolen.
I would buy another Carver TX-9 in a second. It is a tuner only, you have to provide your own amplifier. Have never had this experience with many radios tried.

When I installed the Monsoon CD radio in my Formula, I was surprized to hear an AM station from Atlanta GA. (over 550 miles away !)

http://mapq.st/qj2j9T

When I was a kid my parents had a 62 Ford Galaxie wagon with an AM radio in it.

That AM radio traveled only about 90,000 miles.

quote Originally posted by CoolBlue87GT: When I installed the Monsoon CD radio in my Formula, I was surprized to hear an AM station from Atlanta GA. (over 550 miles away !) http://mapq.st/qj2j9T

That was probably WSB 750.
50 KW "clear channel".

Many knows most AM stations switch power/Watts at sunset and sunrise but don't know stations also switch Omni to directional antennas...
Hi watts & Omni for day
Low watts & Directional at night
Even if station doesn't cut power, they will change to directional antenna array at night.

If you are in an area where stations directional antennas are set then likely can receive station much farther away.

Why? Short answer... FCC rules to avoid markets from getting bleed thru.

example: WHEN 62 in Syracuse, NY. (I think it off the air now but one I can remember...)
5 Kw Omni in day time
1 Kw Directional, set in N-S direction, at night. Suck for driving on thruway but great on I81 or rt11.

How to check? Need to read FCC license for station in question...Tell day and night watts and Night Direction antennas setup.
see http://transition.fcc.gov/mb/audio/amq.html for FCC AM broadcast license but its not easy to read... look for "Electric Field Strength pattern plot" pdf link at bottom (Example: WHEN night map of output plot. )

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[This message has been edited by theogre (edited 10-09-2011).]

quote Originally posted by phonedawgz: When I was a kid my parents had a 62 Ford Galaxie wagon with an AM radio in it. That AM radio traveled only about 90,000 miles.

That's better than my mom's 56 Buick Special!