AM Frequency of the Week - 580 kHz

[RadioDaze]

Durham, North Carolina:

Daytime: nothing

Critical Hours: WKSK, West Jefferson, NC

Nighttime: WCHS, Charleston, WV

[KeyTimes950]

580 would be a fascinating catch in Pittsburgh. 570 is WKBN from Youngstown, especially daytime. 590 is WMBS from Uniontown. Even the harmonic (1160) rules out 580. 1150 is WGBN from New Kensington, 1170 is WWVA in Wheeling.

One starts to get WHP around Breezewood. I'm not sure how far north I'd get WCHS.

[Icangelp]

SW Ohio
580 KHZ

Warning: I am more of a casual DXer, and do little prep prior to tuning the frequencies. When I have time & when the mood hits, I listen. Much of my DX comes during my commute to and from work.

Day
WILL Urbana IL - Weak. Better during winter months.

Sunrise
WGAC Augusta GA

Sunset
WTCM Traverse City MI
WCHS Charleston WV
WKSK W. Jefferson NC

Night
CKWW Windsor ON
WIBW Topeka KS - Up past its non directional bedtime.

[rbrucecarter5]

from Houston - daytime:  XEMU 580 AM, Piedras Negras, CI.  Good test for a radio - to see how well a 5kW regional does from 300 miles away.

[Schroedingers Cat]

You get WTCM well down to Lansing now in the daytime, and I've heard it blare in in Flint and Toledo before sunset.  WTCM fights it out with CKWW in Saginaw Bay City Midland, depending on ground conditions.  CKWW comes in well from Flint South to the Detroit Metro Area.  Before WTCM moved from 1400 to 580, WILL did come in in Western Michigan.  As I recall, in the late 1970s you could get it with a preamp and vertical about 65 miles south from Traverse City. Along with WYLO, WKRC, WIND, WMAM, WKZO, WTAC, WTVN, WTMJ, CFCO, and up the dial. After lightning blew the AT20H in the homemade preamp, I always unhooked the antenna.  WMAQ was actually the SECOND STRONGEST AM, after local WBRN. You could barely get anything but WBRN without a long wire antenna and preamp in the daytime, even in the car.  Because the ground was sandy, as you headed toward Lake Michigan, WIND, WMAQ, and WTMJ really increased rapidly.  People in Muskegon actually listened to WAIT 820 in their cars.

WTCM increased power in about as many steps as CFTR, though no other allotments were moved.  Went from 250/250 to 1000/250 on 1400, then in about 1981 moved to 580 with 2500/500 to 5000/500 to 15000/800 to 35000/1100 to 50000/1100, all with the same four tower parallelogram.  The major lobe is awesome, though the conductivity is really bad.

[DavidEduardo]

WTCM increased power in about as many steps as CFTR, though no other allotments were moved.  Went from 250/250 to 1000/250 on 1400, then in about 1981 moved to 580 with 2500/500 to 5000/500 to 15000/800 to 35000/1100 to 50000/1100, all with the same four tower parallelogram.  The major lobe is awesome, though the conductivity is really bad.

When they were 250 watts, I spent part of the year in northern Lelenau County (south of Northport) and WTCM was a noisy but usable listen days, and seldom listenable at night. Daytime WCCW with 5 KW was a much better signal, of course.

[Schroedingers Cat]

When they were 250 watts, I spent part of the year in northern Lelenau County (south of Northport) and WTCM was a noisy but usable listen days, and seldom listenable at night. Daytime WCCW with 5 KW was a much better signal, of course.

When I was young, my family vacationed on Crystal Lake a few times.  We had a Magnavox AM/SW transistor radio from circa 1960.  Neither WTCM nor WCCW came in that well.  That's where I first found out that WISN had upgraded to 50000 watts, because one morning, it was coming in on the Magnavox.  Somebody had their radio in the window and were playing the baseball game on WTCM.  I was amazed at how clear it was coming in compared to ours.  But 103.5 and 1400 may have coincided on that radio, and they may have had it on the FM simulcast.  We listened to the Detroit Tigers on WJR at night there on the Magnavox.  It wasn't that strong there usually, due to the vertical pattern of the 195 degree tower.  We could get WJR in the daytime on the Delco car radio by extending the telescoping antenna all the way up.  I also remember listening to WDOR 910 from Sturgeon Bay and WDBC 680 from Escanaba there in the daytime.

[Dave]

From Gary, IN, I get WILL both day & night.  At night, they're supposed to be at 100 watts, & not heard in NW Indana, but it comes in clear.  So either there's less interference from other 580's, or WILL isn't powering down at sunset, & staying on 5kw at night.

[Kansas Guy]

In northeast Kansas of course WIBW Topeka is very strong all day, but surprisingly is overwhelmed by Mexican station (XEMU Piedras Negras?) at night. Can still get WIBW if I null out the stronger Mexican signal.  I'm due east of Topeka so I assume WIBW signal is directional north-south or towards the west at night.

[jd]

I'm due east of Topeka so I assume WIBW signal is directional north-south or towards the west at night.

You're right in assuming the signal is directed away from you; the effect is that coverage of Kansas City is greatly reduced at night.  Looks like you're in one of two virtually identical nulls in the WIBW night pattern: http://transition.fcc.gov/ftp/Bureaus/MB/Databases/AM_DA_patterns/613285-77059.pdf

Here in East Texas WIBW is regular catch at night, along with XEMU.