BBC on 97.1

[48125er]

this morning, driving thru Rockford, I heard BBC radio of all things on 97.1, I got a bit of chicago stations and randomly Kiss 105.9 from Detroit of all things.

Any idea of what it could be, the signal didnt last long.

[Turkeytop]

I'm thinking it could be a NPR station. They sometimes carry BBC programs. The Tampa NPR carries BBC all night long from 11:00 PM to 5:00 AM.

[Ben Zonia]

Sporadic E, now usually called E Skip, is near peak this time of year.

List of NPR stations. I don't see a station in Florida on 97.1 though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NPR_stations

KPSD Faith, SD is NPR on 97.1. SD is a frequent area for Sporadic E.

Used to hear KKLS-FM Rapid City on 93.9 near there, now KKMK.

[Turkeytop]

Sporadic E, now usually called E Skip, is near peak this time of year.

List of NPR stations. I don't see a station in Florida on 97.1 though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NPR_stations

KPSD Faith, SD is NPR on 97.1. SD is a frequent area for Sporadic E.

Used to hear KKLS-FM Rapid City on 93.9 near there, now KKMK.

The station to which I referred in Florida is WUSF 89.7 in Tampa. I didn't mean to suggest that was the one referred to in the original post here. Just pointing out that BBC programs are sometimes available on NPR.

[Ben Zonia]

I had to do a lot of research to come up with that. There were only 2 stations on 97.1 listed for NPR. The other one was in Alaska.

Both Florida and South Dakota are common in Michigan on Sporadic E. One of the first TV stations I saw on E skip was WESH TV 2 Daytona Beach, FL. I saw it on the screen and thought "WESH" isn't a word, so it must be the call letters. Looked it up in WRTH or in the Broadcasting Yearbook.

[48125er]

Last time I got e skip was Tampa bay before that was Austin and San Antonio area stations, I did get a bunch of Rocky Mountain stations back in 2012.

[Turkeytop]

The 97.1 station may be a CBC Radio 1 affiliate. Their network airs BBC programs in the wee hours of the morning.

It is also possible you heard someone with a modulator using it to stream smartphone app audio to their FM receiver in an old car.

Ben is also correct that you may have briefly heard KPSD-FM from South Dakota.

I use a C Crane, low power FM transmitter to broadcast the audio from SXM around my house and outdoor property. I've illegally modified it to boost the output power and it has a range of about a half block in our neighbourhood.

[bmw]

Now just replace that antenna with a longer one (like from an old pair of rabbit ears) and set it to 1/4" wavelength (at 90.1 FM that would be about 31 inches or 79 cm) and you'll boost that range to close to a half a mile (close to a km).

[Turkeytop]

Our nextdoor neighbour mentioned to me that he sometimes gets this radio station with nice music on 90.1, but it often goes off the air unexpectedly.

[zoomer69]

KPSD-FM is a blowtorch, with 100,000 watts at 1500 feet. It's a SD public radio station, and carries the BBC World Service. It would make sense that this is the station you were picking up.

The population that KPSD-FM covers with at least a marginal signal is surprisingly tiny; despite possessing a monster signal, it only covers about 40,000 residents. SDPR is burning 2.5 watts per resident on broadcasting over KPSD-FM. If we give them a 5 share (there's not that many stations to listen to there), that means SDPR is using 50 watts per listener to reach them, or 14,400 watts per month, for a cost of $5.60 per listener *just* in electricity.

Compared this with another example, WUOM 91.7 in Ann Arbor. It has similar power at 93,000 watts (but at half the height of KPSD). With that signal, it covers much of SE Michigan, roughly about 6 million residents. Looking at ratings numbers, roughly 120,000 people are listening to WUOM at any given time, costing the University of Michigan .775 watts per listener, or about 7 cents of electricity per listener per month.

It's at least a mildly interesting snapshot of one of the difference between running a public radio station in a suburban to urban region v.s. a profoundly rural area.

[cckadlec]

this morning, driving thru Rockford, I heard BBC radio of all things on 97.1, I got a bit of chicago stations and randomly Kiss 105.9 from Detroit of all things.

Any idea of what it could be, the signal didnt last long.

There are a few possibilities for this.

First, if you are driving, there is a high probability of car transmitters being received, especially if it's a brief signal from a passing car.

Second, that morning was the tail end of the big tropo opening of the day before that was hanging over Lake Michigan bringing in a ton of lake tropo. The opening had moved east by the early morning hours, setting up a good chance of hearing 97.1 Owen Sound. But keep in mind that this is NOT CBC Radio 1. It's CBC Music. They don't play BBC content like on 98.7, which plays BBC content for a half hour at 3:30am, but no more than that. Other CBCs play some later on in the morning, but Owen Sound is a repeater of Toronto, which does not. There may have been a promo for BBC at some point, and you can usually listen to each day's show to hear what was what if you recall the specific time you heard it. Furthermore, keep in mind that "BBC" sounds extremely similar to "CBC".

Third, there was an Es opening that started just before noon with the cloud positioned at a point that would bring in MS and AL at that time, if anything was making it here. The MUF wasn't all that high though and honestly, there isn't much on 97.1 that would match that around those endpoints. It was not an active Es day at all, so I wouldn't put much faith in this being Es.

Frankly, I'd bet you had CBC Music, and if you disagree due to some certainty that it was indeed "BBC," then it's almost surely a car transmitter.

I'll attach a map of the late morning (11am) Tr conditions that day. Conditions over the lake to the west suddenly tanked around 1am and inland conditions spiked to the east, lasting until sunrise and beyond. Honestly, I turn the radio off with inland stuff usually, but I do recall checking around 11am and it was pretty darn dead at my location, 30 miles to your northwest.

[k8jd]

I see there is a 97.1, WDRV in Chicago . 8.3 K ERP at 1100 ft, maybe hearable in Rckford, but Rock music format not likely to rebroadcast BBC ! Nothing in Milwaukee, Sure must be distant ducting, too widespread in area to manualy search, for me!
I have not heard much FMDX since I took down my Yagi antenna !

[k8jd]

Reread this thread, the SD station sounds like a good suspect.
Now if only praire dogs and antelope had FM radios........

[cckadlec]

Reread this thread, the SD station sounds like a good suspect.
Now if only praire dogs and antelope had FM radios........

Yes, but there was no Es in that direction on that day that I'm aware of. I just checked the loggers and plenty of activity from around 1pm onward between S ON and FL. Other paths still show a cloud to our south and zero activity to the west of that for that day. Quite unlikely (but not impossible). Then, of course, I haven't checked the schedule but assuming others already did to confirm that they're running BBC at that hour. Which is very unlikely (usually early in the morning instead). But if the schedule checks out, I wouldn't argue it.

And yes, WDRV is a regular here in Fremont, pretty much 24/7. Rockford, a bit less so. More likely to hear Detroit there, which comes in now and then (every few days) here.