[IRCA] Mini-DXpedition in NW OK

[Glenn Hauser <wghauser@xxxxxxxxx>]

The afternoon of July 30 we made an expedition NW from Enid to Great Salt Plains State Park & National Wildlife Refuge, and to fill up on free artesian water nearby. We also found some tasty sandplums on the roadside.

This was also my chance to check out AM and FM on the caradio in midsummer full daytime, how it compares to Enid, and especially explore the coverage are of KGNO 1370 Dodge City KS, which I can`t get daytime in Enid, and led me to suspect they were off the air or with degraded facilities, nominally 5 kW nondirexional.

KGNO became audible around Hillsdale OK not far out of Enid on State 132, and on the way back down US 81 held up till about 5 miles north of Enid, then dropped out completely. Since programming is far-right talk, we aren`t missing anything. Strange, tho, that as I drive around all parts of Enid I can`t get any sign of it on caradio, nor on home rig in daytime. Possibly KCRC 1390 on the N side of Enid is desensitizing receivers 20 kHz away without that being obvious. Close to the site, KCRC does desensitize far more than 40 kHz, but one would think this would not be a factor on the W side where KGNO might make it in.

At GSPSP, bandscan on the shore found 970 with // talk programming to KGWA 960 Enid but a couple seconds behind, at 1954 UT. Can`t be anything but KCFO Tulsa, but the last we knew it was ``Christian Talk Radio`` while KGWA is secular tho right-skewed. Easily found website http://www.kcfo.com/ shows it is now ``Talk You Can Trust``, which is debatable, with the likes of Focus on the Family. 

It`s still plenty Christian, but Mon-Sat at 1-4 pm CDT is Dave Ramsey whose main thrust seems to be financial advice, sort of crossover, so he also fits on KGWA. Coverage map 
http://www.kcfo.com/html/coveragemap.html 
shows KCFO putting a little more signal northward of Enid than into our Garfield County. And KGWA is an obstacle to 970 tho in some parts of town we can pull another gospel huxter past it on 950, Bott`s KJRG Newton KS.

Just trying to find KGWA`s schedule, all searches lead to website of its offspring KOFM, where there is NOTHING about KGWA, even by internal search.

By GSPSP&NWR, KOSU 91.7 signal is losing out, so we have to look elsewhere for NPR, i.e. KMUW 89.1 Wichita. It`s in and out, but hardly clear, as the Enid Oasis Network translator K06CA on 89.1, 250 watts, is still enough to be quite a problem on a nondirexional car antenna. This, its flagship KNYD 90.5 Tulsa and many other relays are licensed to ``Creative Educational Media Corp.,``, another gospel huxter group trying to portray itself as ``educational``, and ``creative`` (codeword for creationism?) to boot!

On 1470 at 1957 UT, ``The Rocket 1470 AM, blast from the past``, and ``mission control forecast`` by YL Dee2 Michaels, hi 91, lo 68 which indicates it is slightly further north and/or west than Enid. Has to be Liberal KS which has good coverage but does not make it on GW to Enid. Googling the slogan is surprisingly unproductive, but I do find it on a cache of the unavailable City of Liberal website, http://www.cityofliberal.com/b_marketing.htm ---

KSMM-AM [sic] 1470 The Rocket
150 Village Plaza
Liberal, KS 67901
Phone: (620) 624-8156
Email: efranz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

So it seems Enid is not the only city with a cohete for a radio station. 1470 is no longer Spanish sports as in NRC 2009 Log, tho their FM is Spanish.

On 1540 at 1959 UT, Mozart`s ``Eine Kleine Nachtmusik`` catches my ear but it has English lyrix I can`t make out. Turns out to be a PSA for http://www.americansforthearts.org --- an undoubtedly worthy cause. 

On the website I don`t find that PSA, just a 3-year old video:
http://www.americansforthearts.org/information_services/video_audio/video/007.asp
Then mentions central Kansas, and ``Talk Radio 1540, KNGL, McPherson``. This one also barely makes it to Enid.

On 600 at 2000 UT, a trace of talk, but some remote T-storm is too much for it. Probably groundwave remnant of KCOL in CO, the station which set off the skywave fiesta on April 20, or possibly WMT in IA. KLTT 670 from CO is of course quite a bit stronger here than in Enid close to the end of its groundwave.

On 1360 at 2112 UT, Catholic talk with a slight echo. In Enid we get one, KAHS El Dorado KS with EWTN, but at GSPSP&NWR, another affiliate, KDJW in Amarillo TX is also incoming. NRC AM Log 2009 says the latter is ``St. Valentine Radio``, 500 watts but with a CP for 6000, while KAHS is ``Holy Spirit Radio``.

1580 at 2304 UT, KOKB Blackwell OK is once again modulationless, setting up we hope for another chance to ID the Saturday morning Spanish underneath (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)


      
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