Acceptable registrations in the queue through March 16 at 11:00a ET have now been activated. Enjoy! -M.W.

Terms of Use have been amended effective October 6, 2019. Make sure you are aware of the new rules! Please visit this thread for details: https://www.mibuzzboard.com/phpBB3/view ... 16&t=48619

The Big Opening To The East

The technical side of broadcasting. Think IBOC is a sham? Talk about it here! How about HDTV? Post DX reports here as well.
cckadlec
Posts: 308
Joined: Tue Sep 02, 2008 10:43 pm
Location: Fremont, Mich. / Seoul, Korea
Contact:

The Big Opening To The East

Post by cckadlec » Sun Sep 13, 2020 2:49 pm

Here's a summary of tropo happenings in Fremont from the afternoon of Sept. 11th into the morning of the following day.

A duct broke open into Pennsylvania on Friday afternoon, in which Star 104 was received steadily. After a nap, I awoke later in the night to find the first big eastern opening since December 28th, when much the same stations were received with similar strength, as is often repeated with these openings to the east.

Detroit, at around 165 miles, was in like local the majority of the night with some newly-heard translators in Mid-Michigan wandering in strongly. The entire Cleveland market was heard and stable for hours on end with the big Mansfield stations back in, and the typical London and southwest Ontario monster signals (CHYM, CFCA, etc.) solid for the extent of the opening. My 12-mile local WHTS - my second strongest local - was pummeled all night by CFCA and WYHT as has been the case in the past. The two big 110kw Buffalo stations - Star 102.5 and WDCX - were in strong for many hours during the morning, but added The Edge on 103.3, newly heard.

Much like the end of an Es opening, the duct went long to give me 504-mile WFRY Watertown before everything started to fall apart, though the two big Buffalo ones were still in when I went to bed at 8 am. I had the fortune of being on the far west end of the tropo with signals totally quiet to my west, thus able to reach to the furthest eastern extent in Watertown as opposed to being in the middle of the tropo.

For those who enjoy listening to DX while working on other things, a one-hour audio compilation of this event, in order by frequency, can be found here.

Equipment: portable Grundig G8 Traveler II Digital

Notable Stations Received

92.3 CJOS ON Owen Sound / The Dock / 9.4kw / 15dBµ, mono (257 mi.)
92.3 WKRK OH Cleveland Hts. / The Fan / 40kw / 20dBµ, mono (267 mi.)
93.1 WZAK OH Cleveland / Urban AC / 27.5kw / 15dBµ, mono (267 mi.)
93.3 W227DO MI Lansing / Easy 93-3 / 125w / 15dBµ, mono (88 mi.)
93.5 CBCL ON London / CBC R. 1 / 100kw / 20dBµ, mono (233 mi.)
93.5 WBCM MI Boyne City / KLT The Rock Sta. / 14kw / 25dBµ, mono (137 mi.)
94.3 CKSY ON Chatham / Adult Contemp. / 50kw / 30dBµ, stereo (206 mi.)
95.1 CKUE ON Chatham / Cool FM / 42kw / 30dBµ, stereo (206 mi.)
95.1 WVXG OH Mt. Gilead / 95X / 6kw / 15dBµ, mono (256 mi.)
95.5 WFHM OH Cleveland / The Fish / 31kw / 25dBµ, mono (267 mi.)
95.7 WCMB MI Oscoda / CMU Public R. / 25kw / 20dBµ, mono (145 mi.)
95.9 CFPL ON London / FM96 / 300kw / 35dBµ, stereo (238 mi.)
96.5 WAKS OH Akron / KISS-FM / 31kw / 20dBµ, mono (267 mi.)
96.7 CHYM ON Kitchener / Adult Contemp. / 80kw / 30dBµ, stereo (266 mi.)
97.5 CIQM ON London / Virgin Radio / 50kw / 25dBµ, mono (233 mi.)
97.5 WFRY NY Watertown / Froggy 97 / 97kw / 15dBµ, mono (504 mi.)
97.9 WIHC MI Newberry / Strong Tower R. / 50kw / 10dBµ, mono (209 mi.)
98.1 CKLO ON London / Cl. Rock 98-1 / 40kw / 30dBµ, mono (244 mi.)
99.3 CJBC-4 ON London / Ici Première Tor. / 22.5kw / 15dBµ, m. (233 mi.)
99.5 WDCX NY Buffalo / Christian / 110kw / 20dBµ, mono (366 mi.)
99.5 WGAR OH Cleveland / Country / 50kw / 30dBµ, stereo (260 mi.)
99.9 CFGX ON Sarnia / The Fox / 50kw / 20dBµ, mono (183 mi.)
100.7 WMMS OH Cleveland / Rock / 34kw / 10dBµ, mono (262 mi.)
101.3 CKOT ON Tillsonburg / Easy 101-3 / 26kw / 30dBµ, stereo (258 mi.)
101.3 WNCO OH Ashland / Country / 50kw / 20dBµ, mono (258 mi.)
102.5 WTSS NY Buffalo / Star 102.5 / 110kw / 20dBµ, mono (373 mi.)
102.7 WCPZ OH Sandusky / Mix 102.7 / 12kw / 10dBµ, mono (217 mi.)
103.1 CFHK ON St. Thomas / Fresh Radio / 50kw / 15dBµ, mono (245 mi.)
103.3 WCRF OH Cleveland / Moody Radio / 25.5kw / 15dBµ, mono (265 mi.)
103.3 WEDG NY Buffalo / The Edge / 49kw / 7dBµ, mono (359 mi.)
103.7 WRTS PA Erie / Star 104 / 50kw / 15dBµ, mono (318 mi.)

104.1 WQAL OH Cleveland / Q104 / 12kw / 20dBµ, mono (260 mi.)
104.3 CJQM ON Sault Ste. Marie / Country 104-3 / 100kw / 10dBµ, m. (228 mi.)
104.3 WVCN MI Baraga / VCY America / 100kw / 20dBµ, mono (250 mi.)
104.5 WILZ MI Saginaw / Wheelz 104.5 / 2.9kw / 25dBµ, mono (101 mi.)
105.1 W286DC MI East Lansing / NewsTalk AM 870 / 250w / 20dBµ, mono (94 mi.)
105.3 CFCA ON Kitchener / Virgin Radio / 100kw / 30dBµ, mono (266 mi.)
105.3 WYHT OH Mansfield / Y105 / 50kw / 25dBµ, mono (256 mi.)
105.7 WMJI OH Cleveland / Majic 105.7 / 23.9kw / 25dBµ, mono (260 mi.)
106.1 CIMJ ON Guelph / Magic 106 / 50kw / 15dBµ, mono (285 mi.)
106.1 WVNO OH Mansfield / Mix 106 / 40kw / 25dBµ, stereo (253 mi.)
106.5 CIXK ON Owen Sound / Mix 106.5 / 28kw / 20dBµ, mono (257 mi.)
106.5 WHLK OH Cleveland / The Lake / 11.5kw / 15dBµ, mono (259 mi.)
107.3 WNWV OH Elyria / jenY / 20kw / 10dBµ, mono (252 mi.)
107.9 WENZ OH Cleveland / Z 107.9 / 16kw / 25dBµ, mono (275 mi.)

Local Stations Interfered

93.1 WMPA MI Ferrysburg / Cl. Rock 93.1 / 6kw (33 mi.)
95.7 WLHT MI Grand Rapids / The Mix / 40kw (33 mi.)
97.9 WGRD MI Grand Rapids / 97-9 GRD / 13kw (50 mi.)
99.3 WJQK MI Zeeland / Joy 99.3 / 4.7kw (46 mi.)
101.3 WBFX MI Grand Rapids / The Brew / 50kw (42 mi.)
104.1 WVGR MI Grand Rapids / Michigan R. / 96kw (61 mi.)
104.5 WSNX MI Muskegon / CHR / 32kw (20 mi.)
105.3 WHTS MI Coopersville / Hot FM / 20kw (12 mi.)
105.7 WSRW MI Grand Rapids / Star 105.7 / 265kw (61 mi.)
106.5 WVFM MI Kalamazoo / FM 106.5 / 33kw (73 mi.)
107.3 WTNR MI Greenville / Thunder Country / 50kw (44 mi.)
107.9 WMUS MI Muskegon / The Moose / 15kw (25 mi.)

[ Once again, linked images are not showing up on this board, despite correct URLs. To see the images, right-click the broken image and tell it to open in a new tab. ]

The tropo forecast, in my opinion, far underestimated this event...

Image

... but the maps in real-time certainly didn't underestimate it and were quite accurate.

Image


[ Radio and weather geeks, beware! Coastal tropo studies, the 3-hr. Seoul AM Radio Listening Guide, 6-hr. 500 Top-of-Hour IDs, and Chinese FM at www.chriskadlec.comTuner: Grundig G8 • Location: Fremont, Mich. ]

User avatar
MWmetalhead
Site Admin
Posts: 11873
Joined: Sun Oct 31, 2004 11:23 am

Re: The Big Opening To The East

Post by MWmetalhead » Sun Sep 13, 2020 5:37 pm

During late afternoon Friday, I was picking up 93.5 CBCL from London on seek in Royal Oak, MI. 94.3. CKSY was also trying to overcome a local co-channel translator and succeeded at times.

If I were much closer to the water (i.e. the Detroit River or Lake St. Clair), I bet I would've found many more unusual stations with good signal strength.

Some of those grabs are extremely impressive!!



CK-722
Posts: 1284
Joined: Sun Dec 16, 2018 3:53 pm

Re: The Big Opening To The East

Post by CK-722 » Mon Sep 14, 2020 1:07 am

I remember hearing WRCK 107.3 Utica, NY (now EMF WKVU) back in the early 1980s in an earlier opening like this at a similar time of year. I remember mentioning it to Peter Cavanaugh, and he said that they had tried to get the call letters on WWCK-FM, but I think the Utica station got them first. Cavanaugh had worked at the station as WTLB. Not long before, WRCK was on 94.7 in Chicago, in between its many incarnations as WLS-FM on 94.7.


Is THAT where they got the idea for the 486-SX?

Same (x, y, z), different (t)

Your bullet missed my trial balloon.

RTN Price. Not guaranteed. As of 12:30, 157.71 Down 0.22.

Artificial Intelligence is a Child that needs a Parent to guide it through.

ftballfan
Posts: 875
Joined: Thu Sep 17, 2009 6:38 pm

Re: The Big Opening To The East

Post by ftballfan » Mon Sep 14, 2020 9:05 am

In Grand Rapids (visiting my sister), I had a lot of stations in to the north/northeast (most of the big ones in the northern LP, several Detroit stations, four Cleveland stations, CKSY/CHYM). My highlights had to be getting 96.9 WWCM mixing with WLAV and managing to get around several translators (92.9, 93.3, 94.9, 99.9)



cckadlec
Posts: 308
Joined: Tue Sep 02, 2008 10:43 pm
Location: Fremont, Mich. / Seoul, Korea
Contact:

Re: The Big Opening To The East

Post by cckadlec » Mon Sep 14, 2020 9:35 am

ftballfan wrote:
Mon Sep 14, 2020 9:05 am
In Grand Rapids (visiting my sister), I had a lot of stations in to the north/northeast (most of the big ones in the northern LP, several Detroit stations, four Cleveland stations, CKSY/CHYM). My highlights had to be getting 96.9 WWCM mixing with WLAV and managing to get around several translators (92.9, 93.3, 94.9, 99.9)
A friend shared with me your Facebook post in the DX group (the one that I left in protest over admin issues, since I post exclusively in the better group now :razz ). I was wondering why you had so little (long-distance) DX as compared to me, imagining it was probably an elevation issue or just poor location. Of course, GR being in a valley, it isn't exactly suitable for a lot of those signals I was hearing. Were you listening all night or just at certain hours?


[ Radio and weather geeks, beware! Coastal tropo studies, the 3-hr. Seoul AM Radio Listening Guide, 6-hr. 500 Top-of-Hour IDs, and Chinese FM at www.chriskadlec.comTuner: Grundig G8 • Location: Fremont, Mich. ]

ftballfan
Posts: 875
Joined: Thu Sep 17, 2009 6:38 pm

Re: The Big Opening To The East

Post by ftballfan » Tue Sep 15, 2020 9:01 am

cckadlec wrote:
Mon Sep 14, 2020 9:35 am
ftballfan wrote:
Mon Sep 14, 2020 9:05 am
In Grand Rapids (visiting my sister), I had a lot of stations in to the north/northeast (most of the big ones in the northern LP, several Detroit stations, four Cleveland stations, CKSY/CHYM). My highlights had to be getting 96.9 WWCM mixing with WLAV and managing to get around several translators (92.9, 93.3, 94.9, 99.9)
A friend shared with me your Facebook post in the DX group (the one that I left in protest over admin issues, since I post exclusively in the better group now :razz ). I was wondering why you had so little (long-distance) DX as compared to me, imagining it was probably an elevation issue or just poor location. Of course, GR being in a valley, it isn't exactly suitable for a lot of those signals I was hearing. Were you listening all night or just at certain hours?
I was listening mostly from 9pm-11:30pm, then roughly 12:30am-2am. Just before I went to sleep, I managed to get WKZC (instead of WMMQ, which usually causes grief to the translator near the airport) around W235BN



Post Reply Previous topicNext topic