In western Mississauga and Oakville WJJL has a fairly reliable daytime signal. I have heard them at night on my Sony-2010.

As a point of clarity, the 106.9 translator is not a new signal. It's been on the air for years, rebroadcasting a religious network from Delaware. It just changed owners and primary stations.

I've heard a NC station via tropo from atop the Scarborough Bluffs. I've also heard translators from across the lake on first adjacents to Toronto locals. W295BW106.9 Grand Island wouldn't be easy. I won't be dedicating week-in-and-week out mobile trips there in hopes of hearing it. I'm even willing to say that I do not expect to hear it - it would be a very good DX catch, in my opinion. But its reception at a site like the Bluffs is nowhere near impossible. A radio running on the channel, aimed more or less that way and skirting CILQ could pull that off. The way to do it would be to record the channel (106.9) recognizing the right conditions (strong enhancement out that way to 100 miles or so) and using something like Audacity to quickly spot enhanced signal strength. WKZA Lakewood (Jamestown NY area) and WSYR-2 Solvay (Syracuse area) are the most likely candidates on 106.9 from the Bluffs. Moreso, maybe, is Ottawa. But a dedicated effort or the luck of good timing could pull it off.

Addendum:

Jul 8 Tr 2012 (TO – Bluffs)
0045 W207BG     89.3 NY Grand Island    Reach Radio Top 10 Countdown, gm, NJ ad

 

Last edited by Saul (Yesterday 10:35 pm)

Saul wrote:

I've heard a NC station via tropo from atop the Scarborough Bluffs. I've also heard translators from across the lake on first adjacents to Toronto locals. W295BW106.9 Grand Island wouldn't be easy. I won't be dedicating week-in-and-week out mobile trips there in hopes of hearing it. I'm even willing to say that I do not expect to hear it - it would be a very good DX catch, in my opinion. But its reception at a site like the Bluffs is nowhere near impossible. A radio running on the channel, aimed more or less that way and skirting CILQ could pull that off. The way to do it would be to record the channel (106.9) recognizing the right conditions (strong enhancement out that way to 100 miles or so) and using something like Audacity to quickly spot enhanced signal strength. WKZA Lakewood (Jamestown NY area) and WSYR-2 Solvay (Syracuse area) are the most likely candidates on 106.9 from the Bluffs. Moreso, maybe, is Ottawa. But a dedicated effort or the luck of good timing could pull it off.

Addendum:

Jul 8 Tr 2012 (TO – Bluffs)
0045 W207BG     89.3 NY Grand Island    Reach Radio Top 10 Countdown, gm, NJ ad

 

I have never been to the Scarborough Bluffs. Where are they? I should bring my Qodosen DX-286 there to see what it can do.

mace wrote:

Saul wrote:

I've heard a NC station via tropo from atop the Scarborough Bluffs. I've also heard translators from across the lake on first adjacents to Toronto locals. W295BW106.9 Grand Island wouldn't be easy. I won't be dedicating week-in-and-week out mobile trips there in hopes of hearing it. I'm even willing to say that I do not expect to hear it - it would be a very good DX catch, in my opinion. But its reception at a site like the Bluffs is nowhere near impossible. A radio running on the channel, aimed more or less that way and skirting CILQ could pull that off. The way to do it would be to record the channel (106.9) recognizing the right conditions (strong enhancement out that way to 100 miles or so) and using something like Audacity to quickly spot enhanced signal strength. WKZA Lakewood (Jamestown NY area) and WSYR-2 Solvay (Syracuse area) are the most likely candidates on 106.9 from the Bluffs. Moreso, maybe, is Ottawa. But a dedicated effort or the luck of good timing could pull it off.

Addendum:

Jul 8 Tr 2012 (TO – Bluffs)
0045 W207BG     89.3 NY Grand Island    Reach Radio Top 10 Countdown, gm, NJ ad

 

I have never been to the Scarborough Bluffs. Where are they? I should bring my Qodosen DX-286 there to see what it can do.

The Bluffs were my old teenage stomping ground. Many times we climbed right down to the lake from the bluffs and did a lot of stupid and dangerous things and once in a while I would take my portable radio and if memory serves me correctly was not aware of DX opportunities and stuck to strong FM signals.
 

Saul wrote:

I've heard from a couple sources that there are actually safe ways and places to ascend and descend. I felt it was necessary to insert that caveat in my post because it's an open forum here and it's simply beyond stupid to venture out close to an actual cliff's edge. I've also never tried any of the routes, which involve gradual slopes rather than cliffs or steep slopes.

I was at the bottom of the cliff there last fall with someone from a younger generation than mine who decided without telling me to follow a trail and ended up calling me from the top. He told me the trail he took was a bit steep in places but not dangerous. It was close to dark by the time we met back, up top (I had the car). And the individual doesn't live in Canada or visit very often. So if my knees are willing I'll try to replicate that trek this spring/summer/fall. I don't know the immediate terrain there very well in a detailed kind of way, but I've spent a lifetime hiking and have a very well trained gut understanding when something is potentially unsafe.

Might even take a small portable radio. Having height like that immediately to one side and open space on the other can do wonders fopr signal chasing because the back side gets seriously if not completely attenuated. I have one wooded area near my Kawarthas site that at one cliffside spot always gets Montreal listenable on FM but blocks Barrie/Orillia. (Best tropo catch there is coastal New Brunswick).

Saul, my teenage excursions down the bluffs were generally from the Guildwood Village area and yes we took the generally safer inclines but some were still dangerous and you know what they say about the folly of youth.

My top three most dangerous memories about the bluffs.

1. Riding a moped and falling off near the edge.
2. Walking with my friends in mid frozen winter on the ice at the lake. Was frozen and it was a very cold winter but the ice could have broken and I might not be here to tell the tale today.
3. When Bluffers park was being built and the road down was not finished. I went with two friends in a dune buggy drive down the road and we were trekking along on the unfinished base and each took a turn hanging on the back and standing. Had anyone of us falen off the back of the dune buggy  things could have been serious.

The poratable radio went with me on numerous excursions throughout east Scarborough but was not along for the 3 above mis-adventutes. I do vagely recall listening to WCMF Rochester at the top of the bluffs and I definteley recall Don Shaffer playing Fields of People by the Move on CHUM FM.

Last edited by Fitz (Today 12:31 pm)