Re: WQEW

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

At 10:00 AM 4/27/98 -0400, you wrote:
>
>Howdy Folks:
>     The reason that WQEW has that "shortwave sound", better known as 
>"selective fading" is that 1560 IS on the bottom limit of the shortwave 
>spectrum (or the top of the MW spectrum, if you like).

Pete: I grew up in New York City, about 380 air miles from Buffalo. What was
then WKBW (now WWKB) was a nightly catch, and my guess is that 80% of the
time the signal exceeded 25 mV/m. One _dynamite_ skywave signal, and one for
which the station is legendary! WKBW/WWKB is on 1520, just 2.56% lower in
frequency than WQEW. Yet reception of WWKB in New York (at least at my QTH
in the northwest Bronx) was (and I believe continues to be) nearly fade
free--certainly as fade-free as WHAM or WBBR are here in Boston. So,
although I know that short wave is prone to selective fades and WQEW is high
in the AM band, I don't really buy the high frequency as the whole reason
for WQEW's fading.

Someday, I hope that the New York Times strikes a deal with Bloomberg to
diplex WQEW from WBBR's array in the Meadowlands. For one thing, such a move
would restore the programming to the transmitter site from which it
originated for so many years (a nice historical touch, don't you think?)
Secondly, transmitting from a site with good soil conductivity should
dramatically improve WQEW's signal in the New York area.

Unfortunately, at the moment, such a move is technically impossible because
of WJDM-1530. Also, WBBR's tall tower is 179 degrees at 1130, making it much
too tall for 1560, but WBBR's other three towers (and WQEW uses only three
towers at night and two by day) are 101 degrees at 1130. That would make
them 139 degrees at 1560, which is a tad short for a Class A station, but I
bet the coverage would still be better than is is from that rock garden in
Queens.

- -------------------------------
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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