WNNW at sunset (Was Re: WNNW/WCCM)

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

>Mark Watson wrote:
>As I write this at 8:49PM this date,WNNW(1110)Salem NH is still on the
>air,well past their sign off time.Local sunset sign-off/drop power/change
>pattern time here is 7:30PM,yet I have a hunch WNNW is still at their full
>5KW DA day power,as they are coming in better than they do during the day,I
>can't even hear WBT under them,and where I am in Lowell is in the null of
>their DA pattern.
<snip>
>I believe WNNW has 500 watts DA post sunset,but even with that,shouldn't they
>be gone by Charlotte local sunset,8:00 or 8:15?Or are they going by"
>Canadian sunset" rules,like the Canadian station on 1110?

        I've spent a lot of time monitoring 1110 around sunset since last
November, and I've found that WNNW signs off on time at least some nights.
Others, however, have posted here previously about it staying on late. I've
never heard WNNW, that I was sure of, staying on late. But, where I am in
Conn., the infamous CKTY, Sarnia, Ontario, was the major interfering signal
to WBT until recently (more on that below). The WNNW signoff is in English
and I've come to believe that it then plays the SSB (actually, several different
versions in rotation (!)). The multiple signals coming in at that time
make it difficult to be sure (there's also the station in East Providence
signing
off. It's also Spanish language.)
        I was listening last night, same as Mark, and around 7:33 EDT I
heard what I took to be WNNW drop way off. Then I heard the SSB around
7:36. I thought it was WNNW signing off. But now I think I probably heard
WNNW cutting back to its PSSA power (which someone once posted here as
being 500 watts). If it was signing off then, it actually would have been
doing it early. Maybe the SSB was WPMT, East Providence (once WHIM), which
at that time would have been signing off without using any PSSA, if it has
one. In other
words, I think the April FCC sunset time for these stations is 7:30 p.m.
Sunset at Charlotte should be calculated as 8 p.m., and WNNW should then
go off. I have heard it on numerous occasions signing off in English and
playing the SSB at the correct time this past winter.
        As to the Canadian station, I cannot pass up a chance to point out
again <while grinning> that thanks to yours truly it has stopped leaving
its day
power and pattern on all night. I complained to the FCC in December and it
took the case to the Canadians and in late January CKTY started cutting
from 10 kW to 1 kW and switching on towers 4 through 9, as it is supposed to
do. <Still grinning>. In the early evening, it can still sound like it's
trashing WBT because as we move toward June 22, sunset at Sarnia is later
than at Charlotte. This month, WBT changes pattern at 8 p.m. (getting
stronger toward New England), while Sarnia's power cut time is 8:15, based
on the math I did from the sunrise-sunset tables I have. So, tune in to
hear CKTY cut power. Personally, I find it an exciting moment <more
grinning>.

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