Quote:
Originally Posted by markallen
I'll never forget a "radio reception" experience I had as a teen. It was 1974, and one summer night I was driving back to the farm in my dad's new Ford pickup, returning from a wedding I'd attended. There was a terrific thunderstorm going on right on top of me, thundering and lightning non-stop. As the truck only had an AM radio, I was trying to tune in some of the local stations to get weather reports, but the static was so bad, it was basically worthless.
Suddenly, at one point on the dial the static was completely gone, and a station came in clear and strong. I listened for a little while, and while I don't remember the call letters, I do remember for certain that it was out of Albuquerque, New Mexico. I was driving in central North Dakota.
I still live here, and often listen to AM at night. I routinely pick up Chicago stations (WGN, WBBM, WLS), Salt Lake City (KSL?), Denver (KOA) and sometimes WBAP out of TX, to name a few. Usually reception is better in winter, maybe because of snow on the ground?
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That was very probably 770 KOB. Albuquerque (at least as far as I know; I've been away from NM for 11 years now) only has one 50KW station. I used to tune them in with local like strength in the early 70s on a no-name multiband SS receiver I carried with me on family vacations in Mexico - a good 800+ miles from the transmitter site. Later (1990 or so) while on graveyard duty at that very same station, I got a (satellite) telephone call from a guy who turned out to be the radio operator on a luxury yacht listening to KOB while sailing on the South China Sea!
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My most distant catch on AM with no external antenna was on one of those POS AM/FM turntable/cassette all in one units I had as a kid (about 1975). I was in Albuquerque at the time. I don't recall the call letters but I DO recall the station ID saying Regina Saskatchewan Canada. It was during the Christmas break at about 2AM with the weather outside being overcast and about 10 below zero F. The signal was extremely faint but acceptably free of atmospheric noise and interference from closer stations. I looked for them the next night and I couldn't find them again. Ahh... the caprices of the ionosphere!
Back in 1987, I was working for a news-talk station (1580 KZIA; now off the air). One morning while preparing to leave (I did graveyards), the secretary handed me a package with a lot of foreign stamps on it. She said, "I don't know who else to give this to; This is from Finland." Rather puzzled, I took the package to the production room and opened the package. In it, I found a tape, a reception report, and a rather plaintive letter from a Finnish DXer who had attempted to get a verification from the station for several years(!). The cassette he sent was faint but clear and contained one of the drop-ins we used as a program rejoiner which said "The Power of Information... K Z I A Albuquerque!". I didn't have to do the time conversion between where he was and where we were to know that we only used that particular drop-in during the night time hours in Albuquerque...hours when KZIA's transmitter power was reduced from 10KW to FORTY-SEVEN watts!
I hand-made a QSL for the poor fellow and made it a point to note that his catch was on a station operating at near QRP levels (at least for MW) and he had a great deal to brag about to his buddies in his local DX club.