November FM DX

[Marcus]

93.7 WQGR from Northeast Ohio is a new one for me. I'm also getting 103.7 from Erie, although CHOK on 103.9 interferes with it. 92.5 Kiss FM and 104.7 WIOT from Toledo are there too. The London stations are also much stronger than usual. This is using a Sangean HDT-20 Tuner and a cheap amplified antenna on a fifth floor balcony facing SSW. I plan to get a better antenna soon.

[Ben Zonia]

The warm weather more characteristic of early September may result in temperature inversions. Without a good directional tuned FM antenna, it's hard to separate all the new stations, translators, IBOC side bands, etc. Here's a good guide for good FM antennas, including some DIY ones. Here are all kinds of modeling and measuring on each antenna. For best results, the antenna needs to be at least 20 feet above ground, on a rotator or mounted so that it can be turned manually.

http://ham-radio.com/k6sti/

[CurlyHoward]

In my car radio today in Maumee, Ohio right outside of Toledo, 96.1 which is usually pretty strong WMTR from Archbold, OH was briefly overpowered by WQLK from Richmond, IN, identifying itself as "Kicks 96" while playing Lady A(ntebellum). 170 miles away.

[k8jd]

Here near the "City" there are repeater and LPFM signals filling all the breaks between full power stations and hard to hear any DX.

[Ben Zonia]

With a top of the line FM antenna and a very selective FM Tuner such as the McIntosh MR-80, you used to be able to hear stations regularly on first adjacent frequencies within 15 to 20 miles from a strong local signal. But that was before IB(L)OC(K) sidebands, which are not entirely on channel, and block signals on first adjacent channels. For example, when WDRQ 93.1 was 20 kW nondirectional from the WJBK-TV 2 tower, and WKJF-FM 92.9 was 100 kW from the WWTV 9 tower, from about 15 miles away from WDRQ you could hear WKJF-FM, 157 miles away, with a dipole in the attic oriented away from WDRQ, with a good to excellent selectivity FM tuner, with 25 dB to 60 dB first adjacent channel selectivity. Now with CFCO-1-FM 92.9 Chatham, WLMI 92.9 Grand Ledge, and WJZQ 92.9 Cadillac moved further away, at lower elevation than the Dighton tower, and IBOC on WDRQ 93.1, it is next to impossible to hear with anything other than a specially designed antenna to null all the cochannel stations and IBOC sidebands.

I suspect that WQLK 96.1 Kicks 96 just got a new transmitter.