Interesting long distance radio experience

[ImageJPEG]

So while traveling in central Iowa on highway 20 I was picking up a radio station with the call sign of KPRR. The frequency was 102.1 FM. I looked into it and it turns out that the station comes from El Paso, TX. I found this amazing.

[Bombero]

Hey..

I remember back in the day before FM radio was popular...Here in Albuquerque, the AM music radio stations would shut down at midnight.

A turn of the dial...and we'd be listening to Wolfman Jack on 92.5 KOMA FM out of Oklahoma City.

50,000-watt signal and the relatively few rock-n-roll radio stations across the plains. KOMA was the main station in the US for hit music.

Bombero

[MDYoungblood]

WCAO Radio , "six "OH" radio", (the loud "OH" is a Baltimore thing, (600 hz) on the AM dial was the big broadcaster in Baltimore. It had a beam array of 4 vertical towers 100ft tall, a reflector, the driver, and 2 directors for it's antenna system, was pointed down the Chesapeake Bay and in the early days the maritime ships would uses it's signal to navigate to the mouth of the Bay and up to Baltimore. It was heard as far south as beaches of South Carolina. Just a little bit of Baltimore trivia.
One of the other things was when the local TV stations would shut down at night I could pick up WABC in New York and sometimes WGN in Chicago, now that was interesting.

3's

Greg

[CowboyCody]

If you are interested in cool history, you should read about WLW in the 1930's. They built a 500,000 watt AM transmitter, it is a crazy piece of history!

[Savoirfaire]

Thank you for mentioning this as I posted on July 20, 2013 the following.



Check out the link below for 500,000 watts of enchanting history.




[Please login or register to view this link] ... ransmitter



73, Frank

-- Wednesday, 28 May 2014, 7:06 AM --

Above link did not work and I could not update it.



[Please login or register to view this link]


73, Frank

[Buzzweiser]

WLW had to build 3 towers to block their signal going into Canada, mainly Toronto. Their signal was so strong they got numerous complaints from stations all over North America. They used their 50,000 watt transmitter as the driver. The 500KW was a class C transmitter. Later the stations owner P. Crosley applied for a permit to operate at 750KW but was denied. I went to a gathering down there last year and got to take a tour of the old transmitter site. What a beast.

[Grinder74]

I was looking at the WLW antenna tower when I visited my grandparents grave. It is a site.

[Big blue]

I was looking at the WLW antenna tower when I visited my grandparents grave. It is a site.

Chris: I agree on the WLW tower. I used to live near Voice of America Park and would frequent the area where the tower is located. Often wonder if it would ever fall, what might it fall on? Quite huge!

[silvereagle1]

I used to listen to WLW when I was a kid growing up in southern ky. When I lived in Alabama I actually heard WLW broadcasting the REDS ball game when they were in the World Series in 1990. not crystal clear but it was typical AM broadcast with the fading in and out.

[fourbyfour]

The "Nation Station"! I listened to Reds games with my dad when I was younger. Other than the games, loved the segments where callers would call in with sports questions trying to stump the broadcasters - rarely did the succeed! Then there was Truckin' Bozo (Dale Sommers), loved that show!

[CowboyCody]

I had forgot about that "nations station" thing, I think they had reports from all over the country. If I remember right even Great Britain. There were reports of singing rain gutters and such from people within close range. I heard rumors that they fired it up right before y2k in case the government needed to communicate with it, but who knows if there is any truth to it.

[fourbyfour]

I just read the wiki, it says "After sundown, the 50 kW signal can be heard across much of the eastern half of the United States and Canada, and as far west as Denver, Colorado. In 1985 overnight host Dale Sommers received a call from Hawaii on his overnight program. It is believed WLW can be heard, regularly, in at least 38 U.S. states at night and the station refers to this in some advertising."

that's some power!

[bluemeanie]

Several years ago was working around the house and was listening to a FM station. My little crappy radio was wandering on its tuning as it always does with a marginal station. I tuned to another louder station and they were playing great music. I listened for about an hour not paying attention to commercials or talk. Then heard a station ID. Was an FM station out of the LA area here in western CO. Not very common but if conditions are just right guess you can have skip at those freqs too.