WQLN-FM comes in fairly well in the southern part of the Niagara Peninsula.  I enjoyed listening to 'Think', which is an NPR program produced in Dallas by KERA.

mace wrote:

RadioActive wrote:

Not sure how many in the London area can get or listen to WQLN-FM from Erie, Pa., but if you have a favourite show on that publicly funded station, things are about to change. It's all due to the U.S. government cutting funding for the Corporation For Public Broadcasting. 

"These radio programming changes will save WQLN more than $45,000 a year."

WQLN Radio will make a schedule change. What shows will be cut

Article is behind a paywall for me, other than the first paragragh.

Thank for letting me know. It was free for me originally, but the paywall is there now. 

Try this instead. 

The only Erie stations I have ever received in Toronto were 103.7 and 98.9 which was usually mixed with Rochester.

I am able to pick up WQLN sporadically especially during tropo. The one Erie signal that comes in best for me is the Wolf at 93.9. I can get this even during the winter. Star 103.7 is probably the second semi-regular but last summer I noticed that the frequency was more often taken by CFBU from St. Catharines. Another tropo regular from Erie is The Rocket 104,9

Easily Amused wrote:

Seeing your coordinates for mobile listening I am reminded of regional road 20 (formerly Ontario 20) just west of Fonthill. From that area near E.L. Crossley Secondary School, you can see across both Lakes Erie and Ontario. I wonder how DXing is in that area.

Actually, the key is to avoid more than one good direction at a time. Selective blockage is as important as selective vista. There's a hiking (and ATV etc) trail near my Kawarthas site with decent enough height to the east but literally riding the base of a cliff to the west. I've had deep into Quebec and even New Brunswick by tropo from there all while fully or mostly rid of signals from Toronto, Parry Sound, etc. It's all Ottawa on 103.3, with little or no Parry Sound or Buffalo. Whereas at my site a half mile away it's the other way around. I had Grand Anse NB once there with Toronto minimized. Chicoutimi and Quebec City several times, same idea. It's so thickly forested, in fact, that the forest somewhat blocks south, too, so if there is DX eastwards to be had, it can easily override Rochester...

I do much the same at my Snowball area side. One place I park faces ne though nw. Another has some n-nw must is mostly west and a bit sw (managed Hope AR on 104.9 there once by tropo). In each spot there I get stuff directly overriding Toronto stations. Racine WI and Terre Haute in on 100.7, being among my most distant, for instance. Danville IL 99.1, Ownesboro KY 92.5, and lots from MI and OH... Likewise, the Scarborough Bluffs favour south and southeast over north and west. Even the CN Tower gets dinged a bit for yielding adjacents...

At the place you describe, I'b be looking for ways to block one of the two lakes but favouring the other. I'd be somewhat towards the top, but experimenting with sides... basically playing with the topography.

Last edited by Saul (February 10, 2026 2:47 pm)

Easily Amused wrote:

Thank you for your thoughts on the subject. I can see where the enhanced reception area isn't necessarily a good thing.

It's the same even with an outdoor or indoor antenna. The notion behind DXing is to reduce the signals you hear all the time or at least those you've heard before, and find ways to draw new ones. Some DXers get pretty sophisticated, for instance combining two antennas by means of a phaser system to reduce even nearby powerhouses just enough to allow more distant or weaker stations to make it through. I've never tried that. I'm not terribly technically inclined - I'm just about the last person in any DX club to tackle a DIY electronics project. For example, I've had people recommend chokers to cut out interference from any array of sources. But I'm not completely clear on how these even work, so when I read up on different chokers for different areas of the broadcast spectrum, I have to first get past the part where my eyes glaze over and I can start to think about what I might actually do, and thus what to buy. I mean, I know they can clamp down on coax or a line, but beyond that... Then there's the matter of specialized tools. Even something relatively simple such as replacing a broken adaptor with a new one is a challenge because I don't have the tool to 'crimp' the coaxial cable and fit the adaptor on snugly so it doesn't break or come loose (as one just did). Software defined radios (SDRs) are another tricvk in the DXer's book. Imagine recording the entire AM or FM band at one time, even for relatively short segments - say for the top of the hour station ID. Instead of live listening, these DXers at their convenience hear everything that could be heard at, say, 0700, and can even play around with multiple different radio settings to optimize the sound and clarity etc. My effort with an ELAD cost me the money spent on a new PC that somehow didn't work well with the ELAD I purchased. So we stumble along, get new ideas, try new things, fail a few times, eventually succeed at some things... It took me *years* to figure out I could work with hills to optimize directionality.

I guess it's like a game...or like fishing. Try a different lure, a different depth, different kind of underwater terrain, new technology like fish finders, or a new, gentler way to reeling fish in to tire them out.
 

Last edited by Saul (February 10, 2026 4:21 pm)

RadioActive wrote:

I'm curious - which band do you like to DX the most? I'm assuming FM is more challenging and the "gets" can be amazing on a good tropo day. But those are far and few between and AM is generally easier. Do you have a preference?

I like both bands. They're completely different. But only when the propagation is good. I generally don't listen beyond a very casual check unless I know conditions are good or if there's an 'opening' or very strong potential.

Too many other things to do.

I rarely bother with AM unless there's an actual aurora going on, or there's other evidence that time spent will be worthwhile. That can include reports from others, or a look at the geomagnetic indices, etc.

For FM, same. During the Es season I have three to five radios running and recording when there's evidence of an e-skip opening either in progress or reaching the FM band. I similarly record meteor scatter but mainly during the big decent meteor showers. Same with tropo. If the forecast maps or real time maps look good, etc. I do sometimes check the band randomly but it doesn't take long to know if it's yea or nay. Likewise, using Audacity I can go through long recordings very quickly without wasting much time.

The only time I listen casually other than this is, say for FM, when there's nothing else to do (a rarity) or I just want some down time. I'll put on a channel, AM usually, and - say - read a book or nap in a comfy chair. The best time I ever chose for a nap, I had the radio on 90.9 and was quickly woken up by Spanish. I knew there were reports of Dxers getting stuff on low-band TV to the Caribbean but never imagined it reaching FM. So i decided to half pay attention and set radios on to record while my DX session was brought to you by the letter Z. That was the only time I've had Dominican republic FM via Es (followed by Colombia). I'd never heard Latin America or the Caribbean before, outside of Mexico.

AM and FM are completely different animals...
 

I was in Turkey Point last summer and I got a chance to listen to almost all of the Erie PA stations. Popular ones like 91.3 WQLN-FM, 93.9 The Wolf, 97.9 WXTA and Star 104 (103.7). I also got to listen to the rare ones that not often heard in Ontario. They are: Happi 92.7, 94.7 BOB-FM, Classy 100 (99.9) and Rocket 105 (104.9). It was pretty cool to catch almost all of them. But if I missed one let me know.

Erie has a great oldies station at 88.5. WMCE is owned by LECOM (Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine), but it doesn't sound like a college station. It's professionally programmed with a great variety of stuff from the '60s to the '80s. It's only 750 watts but it comes in clearly across the lake from Selkirk to Turkey Point. Or - just listen here: http://ice24.securenetsystems.net/WMCEFM