Re: Martha's Vineyard DX

[Dan Strassberg <dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net>]

At 04:04 PM 7/17/97 +0000, you wrote:
>A vacation wouldn't be a vacation without a little DXing...
>
>The following are out-of-area signals heard during _daytime_ hours last
>weekend from Vineyard Haven:
>(partial list)
>*700 ? "Country 700" Canadian (NS) CHSJ St Johns NB 25 kW-D/10 kW-N DA-N
(about to go bye-bye for FM)
>710 WOR NYC
>*740 ? Long Island (Country, simulcasting FM) WGSM, Huntington 25 kW DA-D
(six towers--aimed southeast)
>760 WVNE Leicester (the FCC database shows 25 kW-D/8.6 kW-CH ND, but I've
never been able to confirm that WVNE uses different facilities CH)
>770 WABC NYC
>820 WNYC NYC (10 kW-D/1 kW-N DA-2; diplexed with WMCA)
>880 WCBS NYC
>1010 WINS NYC
>1050 WEVD NYC
>1130 WBBR NYC (50 kW DA-N)
>1190 WLIB NYC
>1250 WARE Ware
>1660 WJDM Elizabeth (now supposedly transmitting from the site of WKDM 1380
in Lyndhurst--or Secaucus--or Carlstadt--during the day, but still
transmitting from Elizabeth at night)
>(the "Saltwater Path Theory" proves itself again!)
>
>Didn't bother with much DX at night, WMAQ (670 Chicago) had a great signal,
>though. WNFT (1150) also had a better signal than its latest simulcast
>partner WEEI (850). I was surprised that I couldn't hear WQEW (1560) during
>the day while all the other big NYCs were booming in...

The reason you could pick up the others is the salt water path. All of the
other NYC AMs you listed save for WFAN and WCBS have their TXs in NJ. And
although the signals must cross over Manhattan, where the soil conductivity
is abysmal, and a very small piece of the north shore of Queens and Nassau,
where it's also horrendous, nearly the entire path is over salt water. WFAN
and WCBS are on City Island just east of the Bronx. So, for them, I think
the path is 100% salt water. For the others, Manhattan is only a couple of
miles wide and the portions of Queens and Nassau that are of significance
are dotted with salt water inlets, so the attenuation is probably not bad.
But WQEW is another story. Its TX is in northern Queens. To get to the
Vinyard and the Cape, the signal must traverse a _lot_ of Long Island. At
1560, it doesn't take too much of that rocky Long Island soil to drop even a
50-kW signal (in this case, effectively a good deal more than 50-kW) into
the mud.
>
>*Could someone tell me which stations these may be? Currently I have no www
>access (I'm using a borrowed machine), and am unable to check the various
>databases. Thanks...
>
I've added comments on the stations I figure you might not have stats for; I
assume that you know the others.

- -------------------------------
Dan Strassberg (Note: Address is CASE SENSITIVE!)
ALL _LOWER_ CASE!!!--> dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net
(617) 558-4205; Fax (617) 928-4205

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