Once in a while I will look for distant AM radio stations late in the evening. When the sun goes down, AM radio signals can reflect or refract off of the ionosphere and be picked up at long distances. Last night I received WSB in Atlanta Georgia which is 800 miles from this part of PA. I have gotten French speaking Canada, and WLS in Chicago among others. It’s a cheap and readily available pastime, especially if you are having difficulty sleeping.
I remember doing that, many years ago when I lived in Idaho. At night, our local radio station shut down for the night at 10 PM, so I had to find other channels, and sometimes picked up stations from as far away as California, and I think that I might have sometimes gotten one from Chicago also. Sometimes, when we went fishing, we made a campfire, cooked the fish and potatoes over the campfire, and fished until late at night. It was one of the things that i really enjoyed, and this was one of the main times that I looked for the long-range AM signals with my little portable radio that we always took along with us on fishing trips.
What the Hell happened to AM radio? I also grew up in the mountains of southeastern Idaho. We listened to the station in Salt Lake Utah, two hundred miles away. During the 70s I remember listening to AM radio as we drove across the country. During the two summers I spent on a lookout (10,000 ft), I could get stations from the world.
The only reason AM is still around is Rush Limbaugh. AM radio was declining and near extinction when he went on the air in New York, and the ratings for AM stations carrying his program rose dramatically. Soon others got onto AM talk radio and is has come back a bit. FM does music much better, but it has a much shorter range, so requires more power to transmit to even distant coverage areas in various localities and is blocked by mountains much more that AM. Growing up in PA, we could get AM stations from Boston, New York, Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis, and occasionally from Atlanta and New Orleans.
Vintage broadcast AM radio is one of my loves. It was the reason I became a degreed and licensed broadcast engineer. Over the years with various receivers, I have logged in hundreds of AM broadcast stations worldwide. 530-1700 KC. My best success was with a resonant long wire antenna rather than a built-in. Many of these clear channel stations run 50,000 watts and some reduce to 10K at night if mandated by the FCC. Most old small-town stations were 1000 watts day and reduced to 250 at night. Other 5,000-watt day stations were reduced to 1000 watts at night. It was exciting to pick up a 1000 watt station on the east coast. More exciting was the 250 watt, but it was generally covered up by the 1000 watt stations on the same frequency or 10 KC apart. The reason for this is at the broadcast frequencies, daytime limits the range because of the ground wave, but at night ionosphere refractions occur. The ionosphere absorbs the signal in the daytime making it possible to receive the ground wave only. The thing is with most receivers they are unable to separate a loud clear channel station 10k-50k from your local station 10 KC up or down frequency even though you are tuned in to your local stations' frequency. This is why, especially at night, you hear a jumble of stations all on one tuning. One of my favorite stations growing up that I could even get on a crystal set was a border blaster in Mexico XERF with 250,000 watts.
North America AM radio stations with at least 50,000 watts nighttime broadcast power (Class A and B). Frequency Call Sign Location 540 kHz CBK Watrous, Saskatchewan, CA CBT Grand Falls, Newfoundland, CA XEWA San Luis Potosí, MX 580 kHz KMJ Fresno, CA 630 kHz XEFB Monterrey, MX 640 kHz CBN St. John's, Newfoundland, CA KFI Los Angeles, CA 650 kHz KENI Anchorage, AK WSM Nashville, TN 660 kHz CFFR Calgary, Alberta, CA KTNN Window Rock, AZ WFAN New York, NY 670 kHz KBOI Boise, ID WSCR Chicago, IL 680 kHz KNBR San Francisco, CA WPTF Raleigh, NC WRKO Boston, MA 690 kHz XETRA Tijuana, MX 700 kHz WLW Cincinnati, OH 710 kHz KIRO Seattle, WA WAQI Miami, FL WOR New York, NY 720 kHz WGN Chicago, IL KDWN Las Vegas, NV 730 kHz CKAC Montreal, Quebec CA XEX Mexico City, MX 740 kHz CFZM Toronto, Ontario, CA KCBS San Francisco, CA KTRH Houston, TX CBX Edmonton, Alberta, CA 750 kHz KFQD Anchorage, AK WSB Atlanta, GA 760 kHz WJR Detroit, MI KFMB San Diego, CA 770 kHz KKOB Albuquerque, NM WABC New York, NY 780 kHz WBBM Chicago, IL KKOH Reno, NV 790 kHz CFCW Camrose, Alberta, CA 800 kHz XEROK Ciudad Juárez, MX CKLW Windsor, Ontario, CA 810 kHz KGO San Francisco, CA WKVM San Juan, Puerto Rico WGY Schenectady, NY 820 kHz WBAP Ft Worth-Dallas, TX 830 kHz WCCO Minneapolis, MN 840 kHz WHAS Louisville, KY 850 kHz KICY Nome, AK KOA Denver, CO WEEI Boston, MA XETQ Ixhuatlancillo, Veracruz, MX 860 kHz CJBC Toronto, Ontario, CA 870 khz WWL New Orleans, LA 880 kHz WCBS New York, NY KRVN Lexington, NE 890 kHz WLS Chicago, IL 900 kHz XEW Mexico City, MX 940 kHz XEQ Mexico City, MX 950 kHz KJR Seattle, WA WWJ Detroit, MI 960 kHz CFAC Calgary, Alberta, CA 970 kHz XERFR Mexico City, MX 990 kHz XET Monterrey, MX 1000 kHz KOMO Seattle, WA WMVP Chicago, IL XEOY Mexico City, MX Frequency Call Sign Location Frequency Call Sign Location 1010 kHz CBR Calgary, Alberta, CA CFRB Toronto, Ontario, CA WINS New York, NY 1020 kHz KDKA Pittsburgh, PA KCKN Roswell, NM KTNQ Los Angeles, CA 1030 kHz KTWO Casper, WY WBZ Boston, MA 1040 kHz WHO Des Moines, IA 1050 kHz XEG Monterrey, Nuevo León, MX 1060 kHz KYW Philadelphia, PA XEEP Mexico City, MX 1070 kHz KNX Los Angeles, CA 1080 kHz KRLD Dallas, TX WTIC Hartford, CT 1090 kHz KAAY Little Rock, AR KFNQ Seattle, WA WBAL Baltimore, MD XEPRS Rancho del Mar, Rosarito, Baja California, MX 1100 kHz WTAM Cleveland, OH KFAX San Francisco, CA 1110 kHz WBT Charlotte, NC KFAB Omaha, NE XERED Mexico City, MX 1120 kHz KMOX Saint Louis, MO KPNW Eugene, OR 1130 kHz CKWX Vancouver, British Columbia, CA KWKH Shreveport, LA WBBR New York, NY 1140 kHz WRVA Richmond, VA KHTK Sacramento, CA XEMR Monterrey, Nuevo León, MX 1150 kHz KEIB Burbank, CA (44,000 watts nighttime) 1160 kHz KSL Salt Lake City, UT 1170 kHz KFAQ Tulsa, OK WWVA Wheeling, WV 1180 kHz WHAM Rochester, NY 1190 kHz KEX Portland, OR 1200 kHz WOAI San Antonio, TX 1210 kHz WPHT Philadelphia, PA 1220 kHz XEB Mexico City, D.F., MX 1320 kHz CHMB Vancouver, British Columbia, CA 1410 kHz CFTE Vancouver, British Columbia, CA 1500 kHz KSTP St. Paul-Minneapolis WFED Washington, DC 1510 kHz WLAC Nashville, TN WWZN Boston, MA 1520 kHz KOKC Oklahoma City, OK WWKB Buffalo, NY 1530 kHz KFBK Sacramento, CA WCKY Cincinnati, OH 1540 kHz KXEL Waterloo, IA ZNS-1 Nassau, Bahamas 1550 kHz CBEF Windsor, Ontario, CA XERUV Xalapa, Veracruz, MX 1560 kHz WQEW New York, NY 1570 kHz XERF Acuña, Coahuila, MX 1580 kHz CKDO Oshawa, Ontario, CA KMIK Phoenix, AZ XEDM Hermosillo, Sonora, MX .
I recall waiting until evening to listen to an AM station broadcasting out of Indianapolis when I was a kid here in Virginia. Heck, I may have picked it up on an old crystal set I had. I still have an old floor radio I used to listen to the BBC on. I've not fired it up in years.
If you do fire it up, use a socket with dimmer control on it (or a variac transformer). The old electrolytes may need reforming. Bring up the voltage very slow over 10 minutes or more.