CJLO 1690 About to start testing

[mimo]

The ground conductivity seems to be faily decent.  West of us is a valley and Ottawa is surrounded by farmland which helps the conductivity as it's not all rock like it is north of here.  Signals seem to come from west and east without much coming from the south during the day, except for 4 1000 watt AM's that come from just over the New York Border.  We can hear 2 stations from Vermont.  Mostly it's the Montreal stations that fill out our dial with respectable signals.  Everything else is quite weak.  Kingston's former AM's put moderate at best signals into town, especially the former oldies 960.  There's nothing to be heard north of town, and it becomes all rock up there anyway with precious little soil.  I wish we had that midwest ground conductivity up here.

[cyberdad]

Thanks....

You've pretty much confirmed what I've observed....essentially decent conductivity in the Ottawa and St. Lawrence River valleys.  The notable exception to the Montreal signals making it into Montreal that I remember was CFCF. 

More than a few times in the nineties, I'd finish a business appointment in Montreal, hop in the car, tune in a ballgame and head for Ottawa.  With 10kw on 600, you'd think it would be an "easy listen".  But a rather severe pattern meant the signal didn't get very far up the 417 into Ontario.  Of course, CFCF was always clearly audible in Quebec City (where my daughter attended Laval for a year).

I'll be in both Ottawa and Montreal soon, and curious to hear how well CJLO manages to do with their killowatt.

[mimo]

If it helps any, their transmitter is in Lachine, right smack in the middle of the island, on the south shore.

[cyberdad]

If it helps any, their transmitter is in Lachine, right smack in the middle of the island, on the south shore.

Thanks again.  I know right were Lachine is.  Used to call on a customer there, so I'm somewhat familiar with the area you're talking about.

[mimo]

As of 8 this morning, the easy listening/oldies music they had been tested with has been replaced with their official programming.  What people had been able to hear on the webstream since 2003 is now on the air at 1690.  It's nice to hear new music on AM again.

[theradiokid]

Awesome!  Awesome!  Awesome!  Awesome!  I know what I'll be trying to DX through the skywave tonight...

--The Radio Kid
(AKA Oswego Jeremy, as nicknamed by George of the Radio Racket.)
My email:  JHANLON001@twcny.rr.com.

[cyberdad]

Just back from a business trip that included a swing through Ottawa and Montreal....

First night of my trip was actually spent in Kitchner-Waterloo.  In th hotel on my Sony fm walkman,  I tried 1690 around 10pm, and found the usual mess.  WVON on top more often than not.  There was some music in there...probably CJLO, but I never caught an ID, so I'm not sure.

A couple of mornings later, I drove up Highway 7 from Toronto (actually Belleville).  I tried 1690 on the car radio just outside of Perth at about 8:30am and heard a couple of talk stations, but CJLO on top.  I presume everything I heard was skywave.   Later in Ottawa (Hunt Club Road) around 11am I tuned 1690 and found CJLO there, but very weak.  Barely audible with multiple dead spots.

Later in the afternoon, driving to Montreal on the 417, CJLO became listenable right around Casselman.  Signal was still rather puny the rest of the way in, and didn't trip my scan button until exactly the merge of atoroutes 40/540....only about five or ten minutes west of the island.  (CFRA and CIWW also were still tripping the scan button at this point).

[mimo]

I noticed for most of this week, the signal wasn't as go0d as it had been during the test, but today it was like something clicked.  I've had a rock solid signal in my downtown location, the occasional quick fade and then it would be back.  It was definitely more than listenable today, and for a half hour this morning at 9, it was almost local strength.  The conditions for AM have been less than favourable this week, but today it was as it should be for October.  CHTO in Toronto has been a real pest lately at night.

[mimo]

As of 1 pm they have officially launched, with a 1 hour special.  First "official" song was "Left Of The Dial" by the Replacements, a song about college radio that they found Ironic as they're on the far right of the AM dial

[cyberdad]

I was in southwest Ontario last night.  At no time did CJLO seperate itself from the slop on 1690, at least per my fm walkman.