CHAM - Hamilton, ON heard in the U.S.! 22/6/2012

[Chanter]

I'm finally getting a clue and posting this here.  Oops?   I've since sent a reception report to the station and heard back that, because of limits in place set to avoid drowning out U.S. stations, CHAM shouldn't have been heard here.  That's a real shame, IMO, and seems a bit unfair.  ... I'll stay off my soapbox and just post my log.  The engineer who answered my message was quite nice about things, and verified my report besides. 

Heard in Madison, Wisconsin: 
820, CHAM Hamilton, Ontario, 0514-0520.  Country music at tune-in, then a clear spoken station ID including location information, before back into music.  Good signal, trading places with WBAP in Dallas. 

No offense to anyone in Dallas-Fort Worth, but I'd rather have the Canadian signal! 

[zackers]

No matter how much power an AM station is running, if you wait long enough, fading will take out all but the local stations for a bit and allow other weaker signals to come through. That one looks like a nice catch! Where are you located?

[Chanter]

Located squarely in the heart of Madison, WI.  I love it when I'm able to pull in previously unknown Canadian stations... well, stations in general, but Canadians especially.  Call me a slightly (cough!) biased DXer.  I just wish I had better luck hearing Mexican stations as well.  Alas, not yet.  And someday, *some*day, I'd love to get a transoceanic or a Central or South American/Caribbean.  ... Such is the story of American DXers all over the nation, I imagine.  

Fading really can be responsible for some spectacular catches.  I've gotten multiple Ontarians that way, not to mention one Nebraskan, an odd Missouri local and a Montreal-based multicultural that's now a favorite of mine.  The only problem is, things always tend to fade out when you're trying to get an ID...! 

[cmradio]

...but I'd rather have the Canadian signal!  

So Chanter, what's with US stations today? KISM in Bellingham, WA and KWJZ in Seattle used to even rank in the Nielsen BDS for Canada, they were so popular in Vancouver. They even carried Canuck advertising. Now they are just withered husks and KISM just rebroadcasts syndicated VH-1 programs

Peace!

[Chanter]

I only wish I knew.  I well admit to looking at things through glasses so rose-colored they're practically sprouting petals, but I'd swear that the rampant syndication of squawk radio programming isn't quite so prevalent north of the border. 

I'm perfectly open to having my pretty rosy bubble burst by a Canadian forumite with more of a clue than I, but I may wince anyway! 

[cmradio]

As a Canadian forumite, I don't have to burst your bubble.... as much as I bitch about Vancouver radio, all I have to do is listen to 5 minutes of Clear Channel down south and my mood is rosy for another month with our stations again

Peace!

[BDM]

With rare exceptions in the US, there are plenty of Canadian BCB stations that play rock in one format or another Sorry but when listening to the BCB I find myself tuning into the Canadian stations 90% of the time.

[Pigmeat]

Try for St. Kitts on 555 khz. when the static season wears down,if there's nothing loud and local in your area on 550 or 560. Many of the Cuban MW's are an easy catch east of the Mississippi in all but the noisiest months.

A simple directional tabletop loop antenna will help tremendously. Kaito/Tecsun has a MW loop for about 30 bucks that I own and recommend highly. You'll see it on the product scroll at the bottom of board index page. I caught St. Kitts on that thing using a Grundig G-5 in mid-August last summer.

It's about 9 inches tall and has a built in base. You can take it anywhere.

[Chanter]

Re: Canadian stations: I knew it!   Well, I rather hoped I knew it, but I'm still warm and fuzzy having what I suspected confirmed. 

Re: a directional tabletop loop usable in a confined space: Oooooooh!  I am most definitely checking this out now, and thank you!  The idea of hearing Saint Kitt's or Cuban stations has me all starry-eyed.  If anything, I can cart the radio to the living room and stand the loop in the window... heh, now I'm imagining a loop antenna poking out from amid the basil plant that's already there!    At the moment all I get on 550-560 is an ESPN affiliate via... somewhere, not certain of ID.  Probably others as well, but I don't tend to tune that far down the dial as I know there won't generally be much.  I might well have my mind changed! 

Now I'm imagining beaming westward and trying for Californians/West Coast U.S. locals and Canadians... hmmmmm!  Not to mention the prospect of Mexican stations further south... oh I'm in trouble now.  Trouble! *geeking out happily* 

Thank you for this, seriously. *goes poking around links* 

[cmradio]

N. Mexico is a regular for me. Don't know how to ID since my Spanish sucks and they talk SO FAST!

Peace!

[Chanter]

If you ever need a hand with an ID of one of those, I'm passable at Spanish.  I'd be happy to have a listen to a top of the hour audio clip or some such, the better to ID. 

[cmradio]

Thank you!