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When I was in Portales, NM, I picked up a KTNN 660, a 50K Navajo Nation station in Window Rock, AZ 400 miles west on a cheap AAA battery sport hand transistor, under clear skies.
In Akron, Ohio, I can get St. Louis, Philly, Chicago, Detroit, Cinci, on a clock radio with fade in-out...
One of my best "daylight" pick ups was driving out of the mountains west of Denver. Between about Idaho Springs and Golden I had great reception on (IIRC) 570 in Dallas. I thought that's what I had but since it was a syndicated show I thought it might be someone closer rebroadcasting it in the same time slot.
Then I got a time hack and station ID and it was Dallas. About the time the sun got higher, I got lower and by the time I got to Castle Rock on I25 it was gone.
I've gotten farther away during darkness but this was pretty good for daylight.
There are still lots of 50kW stations in the USA. The real "blowtorch" stations were the 'border radio' stations like XERF in Cuidad Acuna, where I first heard Wolfman Jack. I think it was a 250kW station. At any rate, it was very strong!
One time in the army at Fort Campbell, KY I watched two Majors getting into a 5 minute verbal pissing match on the radio over who was going to be allowed to use an artillery range, basically over who's turn it was. Mind you, this was on an old fasioned 2w PRC-77 FM radio that had like a 10km range (and it felt like half the time the darn things would'nt let you talk to someone across the street let alone 10 klicks away).
Turns out the other Major was in Fort Bliss, outside El Paso TX! Both Majors had booked "Range 1"(or whatever the designation was) at their respective bases for the same time of day. The range control operated on the same frequency on both installations as well. So when both officers were calling their range controls to go hot at the same time they thought the other was trying to "steal" their range time.
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While living on Long Island, I've picked up a station as far as the Outer Banks, NC. Some nights I happen to pick up stations in VA and MD. These are FM too.
While in my car, my FM extreme range is right around 100 miles. Here in my home, the band is so congested that it's almost impossible to find a clear frequency to look to DX.
OC Investor2: Great story! What frequency did the PRC-77s use?
With a regular, commercially available shortwave radio you can pick up exceedingly distant AM stations. I am in New York State and just now was listening to Radio Nigeria (which actually does broadcast from Nigeria). The other night, I heard a ham radio operator located in the middle of Siberia (north of Kyrgyzstan). No special antenna required.
On the regular AM band, I can get high power AM stations from Toronto and Chicago at night. For some reason, New York City stations do not come in too well.
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