Shipshewana, IN FM Bandscan 7/20

[48125er]

Forgot to upload this, but did a bandscan in Shipshewana, Indiana in my 2013 Ford. Surprisingly no Chicago stations pulled up, not even 92.3 WPWX
WVPE-88.1 Elkhart, IN 31MI
WCXK-FM 88.3 Kalamazoo- 51MI
WGNC-88.5 FM Constantine 15MI
WQKV 88.7 FM Warsaw, IN 40MI
WSND 88.9 FM Notre Dame, IN 33MI
WBOI 89.1 Fort Wayne, IN 44MI
WGNB 89.3 Holland 95MI
WOFR 89.5 Schoolcraft 40MI
WSPB 89.7 Battle Creek 63MI
WYBV 89.9 Wakarusa, IN 19MI
WYBA 90.1 Coldwater 37MI
WBCL 90.3 Fort Wayne 44MI
WKAR 90.5 Lansing 115MI
WAUS 90.7 FM Berrien Springs 44MI
WCFG 90.9 Battle Creek 63MI
WGCS 91.1 FM Goshen 16MI
WCSG 91.3 Grand Rapids 81MI
WVAV 91.5 Vicksburg, MI 25MI
WETL 91.7 South Bend 34MI
WQKO 91.9 Howe, IN 11MI
WHPD 92.1 Dowagiac 33MI
WZUU 92.5 Mattawan 40MI
WVYN 92.7 Saugatuck 95MI
WNDV 92.9 South Bend 33MI
WBTU 93.3 Kendallville, IN 40MI
WBCT 93.7 Grand Rapids 66MI
WDDK 94.1 Jackson, MI 90MI
WZOC 94.3 Plymouth, IN 36MI
WKLQ 94.5 Holland 90MI
WCVM 94.7 Bronson, MI 17MI
WAJI 95.1 Ft Wayne, IN 44MI
WTRC 95.3 Niles 34MI
WAWK 95.5 Kendallville, IN 22MI
WRDI 95.7 Nappanee, IN 30MI
WLKM 95.9 Three Rivers 15MI
WMAX 96.1 Archbold, OH 74MI
WXKE 96.3 Churubusco, IN 44MI
WZOX 96.5 Portage, MI 44MI
WUFN 96.7 Albion 75MI
WHPZ 96.9 Bremen, IN 29MI
WRCI 97.1 Three Rivers 17MI
WMEE 97.3 Fort Wayne 43MI
WYTZ 97.5 Bridgman 70MI
WYXX 97.7 Goshen, IN 18MI
WGRD 97.9 Grand Rapids 81MI
WDFM 98.1 Defiance, OH 60MI
WCXT 98.3 Hartford, MI 65MI
WNWN 98.5 Coldwater 39MI
WASK 98.7 Lafayette, IN 140MI
WBYR 98.9 Woodburn, IN 72MI
WSMK 99.1 Buchanan 37MI
WBET 99.3 Sturgis 10MI
WBET 99.7 Athens 12MI
WQLQ 99.9 Benton Harbor 44mi
WLKI 100.3 Angola, IN 29MI
WBYT 100.7 Elkhart, IN 32MI
WQXC 100.9 Otsego 50MI
WIOE 101.1 South Valley, IN 43MI
WBFX 101.3 Grand Rapids 100MI
WNSN 101.5 South Bend 33MI
WLDE 101.7 Ft Wayne 45MI
WTRC 101.9 Elkhart, IN 19MI
WMUK 102.1 Kalamazoo 51MI
WGBJ 102.3 Auburn, IN 31MI
WKHM 102.5 Hillsdale 70MI
WAOR 102.7 Ligonier, IN 17MI
WYHA 102.9 Grand Rapids 100MI
WHME 103.1 South Bend, IN 33MI
WKFR 103.3 Battle Creek 48MI
WAWC 103.5 Syracuse, IN 21MI
WCSY 103.7 South Haven 80MI
WRBR 103.9 South Bend 29MI
WVFR 104.1 Grand Rapids 66MI
WIOE 104.3 Warsaw, IN 40MI
WJJK 104.5 Noblesville, IN 130MI
WFRN 104.7 Elkhart, IN 20MI
WBXX 104.9 Battle Creek 39MI
WQHK 105.1 Huntertown, IN 43MI
WTHD 105.5 LaGrange, IN 12MI
WSRW 105.7 Grand Rapids 66MI
WJOT 105.9 Huntington, IN 58MI
WJXQ 106.1 Charlotte, MI 90MI
WRDF 106.3 Columbia City, IN 37MI
WVFM 106.5 Kalamazoo 55MI
WFGA 106.7 Hicksville, OH 41MI
WRCI 106.9 Sturgis 12MI
WRSW 107.3 Warsaw, IN 34MI
WRKR 107.7 Portage 33MI

[Ben Zonia]

What kind of receiver were you using?

Is there something blocking the signals to the West toward Chicago like a wall, hill, or in a steel building?

I subleased an apartment in Ann Arbor one Summer in the 1970s, near the Gandy Dancer. I was on the North side, on the third floor. All over Ann Arbor, you would get what is now WQQO on 105.5. With my Sony Portable, on the balcony, I received WWCK-FM 105.5. Both stations were 3000 watts equivalent at the time. Art Vuolo was amazed when I told him.

[audiophile]

Barn Metal?

[CurlyHoward]

I'm not all that surprised no Chicago stations show up in Shipshewana, except possibly during tropo. I've lived in Toledo with family in Chicagoland since 2005 and, making that drive plenty of times down the Indiana Toll Road, Chicago FM stations are usually pretty much unlistenably fading out around South Bend.

AM of course is a different matter, or was before car makers stopped putting good AM receivers in cars. 670, 720, 780, 890 and 1000 all pretty much stayed strong until about the Indiana-Ohio state line and were still listenable east of there, though there'd be some groundwave/skywave cancellation at night.

[CurlyHoward]

also, 96.1 from Archbold's call letters are WMTR.

[Ben Zonia]

I plugged in Shipshewana, IN into FMFool, and nothing from near Chicago came up. It might be because the signal path does not cross Lake Michigan much where there could be a temperature inversion effect. That would show as tropo on FMFool. The vast majority of Chicago Area FM stations are relatively low ERP, so once you get past the hills and earth curvature, they're pretty much gone. Beginning around 101 miles from Chicago, there were also some cochannel 3000 watt Class As dropped in near there under Docket 80-90, which started coming on the air in the late 1980s.

[TC Talks]

What kind of receiver were you using?

Is there something blocking the signals to the West toward Chicago like a wall, hill, or in a steel building?

I subleased an apartment in Ann Arbor one Summer in the 1970s, near the Gandy Dancer. I was on the North side.

High Street?

[Ben Zonia]

What kind of receiver were you using?

Is there something blocking the signals to the West toward Chicago like a wall, hill, or in a steel building?

I subleased an apartment in Ann Arbor one Summer in the 1970s, near the Gandy Dancer. I was on the North side.

High Street?

Every street in Ann Arbor is High Street.

Near where Fuller, Depot, State, and High come together. I'll plug the address into FMFool. There are so many more stations now than there were then, so I don't know if either 105.5 will show up. In BFH, could you get WTAC 600 or WWCK 105.5? The reason I ask is that Bill Prady lived there, the creator of Dharma and Greg, and there was a character on the show named Peter Cavanuagh, who had been at both stations. WWCK boomed in in Waterford around that time. I wondered if that was where he got the name.

[48125er]

Usually in South Bend and Elkhart I can pick up at least WPWX

[cckadlec]

Usually in South Bend and Elkhart I can pick up at least WPWX

A lot harder to pick them up in SW MI and the South Bend area now since 92.1 turned on their IBOC a few years back.

There are plenty of stations in NE Indiana and adjacent regions that are co-channel with the major FMs in Chicago.

Chicago is also roughly 120 miles from his listening spot as the crow flies.

I totally agree with this. I used to work out of South Bend and would always have the problem that local stations there were either on the same frequency or adjacent frequencies to Chicago stations. It wasn't that Chicago wouldn't be receivable there, but that other stations were standing in the way of it. But if you go up toward I-94, you can hear Chicago for quite a way east. Having lived in Kalamazoo, before all the translators and garbage on the air, I could hear numerous Chicago stations 24/7. Of course, Shipshewana is another 35 miles east or so, so anything you'd hear in South Bend is just further degraded. With all the crap on the dial now, you're more likely to hear Chicago regularly in Ludington, Manistee, and Sleeping Bear Dunes than in South Bend or Northern Indiana in general (and they're very regular signals in all three of those places).