Dallas folks: I'm picking up KRLD 1080 radio... in Colorado!

[Writer]

Last year my family gave me a 1944 GE AM radio for my birthday. It's beautiful. There's a bit of noise but it works very well. I have the middle band button pushed and believe it or not, 800 miles away, I'm picking up KRLD-AM from Dallas. I know AM waves stretch, and especially with these older radios, but I'm boggled by this!

Anyone from Dallas, or anyone with a familiarity of AM radio, know how this is possible?

[EstimatedProphet]

1. Depends on upper atmospheric conditions

Sometimes the ionosphere is more reflective than on average, and signals will skip over it for a long distance. AM is the most common, but other kinds will too. I remember a heatwave in the summer of 1980 in MO where I picked up TV signals from Baton Rouge LA!

[Writer]

2. The odd thing is that I can't get Boulder radio now.

I sometimes listen to the Boulder AAR station, but the frequency is very noisy this evening. But Dallas? Loud and clear! :shrug:

[EstimatedProphet]

3. Yeah, weird, ain't it?

Something must be up in the ionosphere tonight...

[sendero]

4. I'm a radio fanatic..

... from way back. RF energy is a mysterious thing.

At higher frequencies, it gets even more wierd, with stuff like "troposperic ducting" where a radio signal will follow a narrow path in the atmosphere and pop out hundreds of miles away.

But I have to tell ya, KRLD is nothing special :) I live here in big D :)

[Writer]

5. Here's something else strange: the radio was sent from Dallas!

Maybe it's a message from God, who OBVIOUSLY lives in Dallas ;)

I grew up in Dallas myself. KRLD is just another forum for propagandistic talk radio.

[sendero]

6. Maybe..

.... there was some RF that got stuck in it!!!!!!

Yeah, Dallas has a few (very few) pluses, but radio here is not one of them :(

I don't think God lives here, but plastic jesus might!

[Writer]

7. There are so many large, commercial Christian churches...

Plastic Jesus? Yup. ;)

[CatholicEdHead]

8. There is a big, wet weather system moving through the plains

which is probably ducting the waves.

I have also had times where I could not pick up all but the strongest local stations and get them from way down in Missouri and Oklahoma before. Usually Chicago is my limit for long range AM.

[liberaltrucker]

9. KRLD is a 24-hour clear channel(not Clear Channel) station

So's KOA in Denver. I can pick KOA up at night anywhere
west of Illinois.

[libnnc]

10. I'm a radio nutter too

I think my record here in NC for AM reception is either San Antonio or Boston (comes in really clear every night) Buffalo, St. Louis, Ft Wayne, and Cincinnati. I listen to NYC and Chicago all the time.

This is the radio I use.