This was a hobby of mine when I was in high school. I would listen to the AM dial at night and log which stations I could receive at a certain frequency. I know I had a station from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico on there. I also had New York City, Denver, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Chicago, and various stations in Canada, some in French (I don’t speak French, so they’re tough to identify.)
What I like to do now is take a small radio with me on vacation and see if I can find Minneapolis stations. I can almost always find WCCO (830)–it’s often as clear as local stations. Sometimes, I can also hear KSTP (1500) but it’s not as interesting…they play Coast-to-Coast AM, while 'CCO plays local programming/talk even overnight.
Just in case you didn’t know, the frequency of the signal is a major factor in how far you can receive. This is why shortwave travels easily around the world, but AM radio is typically only a few hundred miles in daytime.
So my receiving Switzerland in Missouri is no big deal at shortwave frequencies, but getting Denver on AM is.
Radio signals will bounce between the ground and layers of the atmostphere, but only some frequency ranges. Higher than 30Mhz or 10 Meters, this skip is rare. The bounce can be multiple times, although the signal quality degrades.
And day or night makes a difference, too, as the atmospheric layers are at different heights above the earth.
Another factor is due to station licensing, at least in the US. Some AM radio frequencies have been traditionally reserved for “clear channel” stations, and either they have no other stations on the same frequency, or if they do during the day, they go off at night. This extends the effective range of these major stations.
Power is also a factor. Some countries limit the maximum power, which cuts the range. I don’t know if this is still the case, but when I was in radio, the max US power was 50,000 watts for AM, but Mexican stations like XERB just across the border could transmit at 250,000 watts and carry a lot farther.
I grew up (well, spent the first 15 years of my life, at any rate) in central New Jersey. I was very into trying to get broadcasts from radio stations from as far away as possible. (What can I say? I was a weird kid.) I used to mess with “enhancing” my radio’s antenna with wire and metal pipes. One day, during a really bad thunderstorm, I managed to get a radio station from Monreal. I thought that was pretty cool!
I keep hearing that San Francisco’s KNBR 680AM (the Giants’ flagship station) is some kind of ridiculous supercharged station, but I can’t even get it in Santa Cruz.
Uh, Sam, anyone with a call sign like that was a ham operating shortwave, not Citizens Band (though during the 70s CB craze not a few folks ran their rigs through power amps and blasted the feathers off of chickens within a several mile radius).
I’m in Wichita. KSL or whatever it was in Salt Lake City is the station furthest west I’ve heard. I know I’ve picked up KDKA Pittsburgh, and maybe WCBS New York. Probably heard about all of the clear channels between the mountains that weren’t subject to local adjacent channel interference (Chicago, Des Moines, Cincinnati, Memphis, Atlanta, New Orleans, St. Louis, Denver, Dallas/Ft. Worth, etc.). WLS Chicago was reliable enough most evenings that a few folks I knew listened regularly.
I’ve encountered some FM/TV E-band skip, but nothing memorable. (Also listened to the local public radio station on TV channel 6 [the frequencies are adjacent], but so what?)
One evening I listened to an American ham chat up folks in the Soviet Union. Viva detente.
Sounds like hype. I don’t think any American AM has been licensed for more than 50,000 watts since Imus was a baby.
KANU-FM Lawrence (University of Kansas) used to operate at more than 100,000 watts effective radiated power (the FM maximum) through some sort of “experimental” license. I don’t know if they still do or not.
It’s possible to pick up New Zealand radio in Sydney late at night sometimes on the AM band. I wouldn’t call it an audiophile’s dream, but you can hear it. Kinda.
While driving across central Yucatan (Mexico) one overcast evening, I once picked up a low-on-the-dial FM station out of somewhere in Louisiana, loud and clear, for at least an hour.
On shortwave, I’ve gotten Radio Havana from Cuba and Radio Hanoi through a repeater somewhere in Eastern Canada. I’m also reasonably sure I got Kol Yisroel from Israel, but that was during the day when the signal was lousy.
When I lived in suburban Los Angeles, I’d get XTRA, an AM border blaster out of (IIRC) Tijuana. When I lived in the city side of the Hollywood Hills, I got an FM rock station out of San Diego whose studio was in Kearny Mesa. Surprisingly, I got that one fairly regularly, probably because of the fact that I was on top of a mountain.
You are confusing two different kinds of power measurement. The FCC specified plate input power for its maximum of 50K (AM radio). Obviously, “plate” was a tube designation and I don’t know how they describe it nowadays, but if you have a very efficient antenna and feed system, you can increase the effective radiated power by a large factor. You can’t compare oranges to apples, however.
You do realize (see a previous post of mine) that getting Cuba or Isreal on shortwave is no big deal, but getting San Diego from LA on AM is probably a greater feat? Shortwave = distance, like around the world with ease. AM radio = a few hundred miles typical, 1000 miles sometimes.
So if someone says, “I got radio Katanga (Africa) last night from St. Louis!” I’d ask what frequency they were listening on before getting excited about the distance.
I’m in the Youngstown, Ohio area, and at night, I can get an all French station (around 860 AM, I think.) I know It’s Canadian, but I’m not sure where it originates. I can also hear 770 AM out of New York quite well.
I know they’re not a big deal. I’d be surprised if I couldn’t get Radio Havana.
And I got San Diego from LA on FM, not AM. I’m sure the location of my house had a lot to do with it; it was on top of the mountain, so nothing was blocking the signal. I wonder if radio waves bounce off of smog?
The AM station was no big deal, either. XTRA is a border-blaster station on the Mexican side of the border. It broadcasts at 77,500 watts during the day and 50,000 at night.
But the question was simply “What far-off radio signals have you picked up?” And I answered.
Living in a country with no land borders, I know little of such things, but is “Border blasting” common on the US/Mexican border? How about in Europe and elsewhere?
I suppose though anyone with a TV or a radio can hear some really old shit.
