Re: Back from DX'ing on PEI

[mwaters@wesleyan.edu (Martin J. Waters)]

>At 11:33 PM 7/21/97 +0000, Garrett Wollman wrote:

>><<On Mon, 21 Jul 1997 17:59:59 -0400, mwaters@wesleyan.edu (Martin J.
>Waters) said:
>>
>>> on 730 in North America? Pretty good catch, if it was. Especially with the
>>> 50 kW class B station (French) in Montreal on 730, which is heard in the
>>
>>BZZZT!  CKAC is a class A station.  Perhaps you were thinking of the
>>former 1570, CKLM...
>>
Dan Strassberg wrote:
>
>I don't think so. I believe that CKAC on 730 is a Class B. As far as I know,
>730 is a Mexican clear channel, unlike 940, which is Mexican/Canadian.
>Canadian stations on 730 are all Class Bs, as far as I know. But because the
>status of 940 is different, CBM (while it lasts on AM) is a Class A. the
>late CKLM was also a Class B because 1570 is a Mexican (not
>Mexican/Canadian) clear channel. The Mexican clears are 730, 800 (kind of a
>joke because of PJB) 900, 1050, 1220, and 1570. Mexican/Canadian clears are
>540, 940, and (I think) 990. Canadian clears are 690, 740, 860, and 1580.
>This may not be a complete list; I did it from memory.

        First buzzered / gonged off the stage and then vindicated, all
before I could doublecheck my facts and respond. The wonders of the
internet. But since I was checking this in the middle of the night, I will
say: I have a list from a NRC meeting that shows XEX (100 kW, it turns out)
as the only I-A [or I-B]  / Class A station on our continent on 730. I have
an old Broadcasting yearbook that lists 730 as a Mexican clear channel,
while other channels are listed as Mexican & Canadian clear. And the FCC
database lists CKAC as "Class 2," (now Class B).
        CKAC's great nighttime (actually it starts to come in very well
before sunset) coverage certainly could make you think it is a Class A.
And it's because the channel is still quite clear, although the U.S. now
has flea power stations on it (WACE, Chicopee, Massachusetts, for example).
Also, it's DA-1, so perhaps the Northeast gets a beam of much more than 50
kW. But the old NARBA limits and Mexico's reluctance to allow exceptions
kept that channel clear at night in the United States.
        BTW, the only 250 kW Mexican station I found in glancing through
the list, not entirely thoroughly, was the Mexico City station on 900, the
calls of which are escaping me at the moment.

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End of boston-radio-interest-digest V1 #102
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