Re: WCAP/WTRY (was: WSRO/let's be civil.../community radio...)

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

>Doug Broda wrote:
>As far as I know, WTRY (AM) has been required to use the same strength and
>pattern from the same towers forever. (Or at least for many years.) Directional
>nights 5kw from 3 towers, 5kw non-directional days. My recollection is that the
>night pattern is weaker to the east, though I'm not 100% sure of that. The
>towers are in the Town of Niskayuna, Schenectady County, NY -- barely
>inside the
>eastern town line, just off Route 7.
>>At least to a local listener, there's been no recent change in night strength
>audible to the naked ear, including in the eastern end of the market area,
>though I know that can be quite deceiving. :)

        When I drove from Williamstown to Albany one night a year or two
ago, it sounded just like your description -- WTRY had a very bad signal
until I got very close to Troy. But the National Radio Club night pattern
book actually shows that its major lobe, which is very broad, has a center
that is aimed just south of due east, with a much smaller lobe opposite
that -- just north of due west. The deepest points of the nulls are to just
east of due north (Quebec City) and just west of due south (Washington,
D.C.). So, it should be giving WCAP vicious skywave interference, according
to this, although, as you say, the WTRY operation has not changed in many
years and pre-dates WCAP's nighttime power. WCAP has a severe null
everywhere to the west and just about due north (Quebec City).

        Someone else posted about WWRC in Washington. (Actually, I believe
the calls have just been or are about to be changed in one of these
frequency / format swaps; WWRC is going / has gone to the 570/Bethesda, and
I think those calls, WTEM (all-sports) are going on 980.) My understanding
is that when WWRC got its daytime power increase from 5 kW to 50 kW,
everything about its nighttime operation stayed the same. It's DA-2 and
based on my efforts to DX it in Connecticut just before its local sunset,
its day pattern may be aimed in another direction. It doesn't come up very
strongly, even though its sunset is a little later than here and there's a
good path that's nearly all in darkness.

        If WCAP seems to get more interference at night now, IMO, it's
probably because of two other types of changes. WSUB/980, Groton,
Connecticut, a former daytimer, now has non-DA nighttime light-bulb power
(72 watts), And CBV, Quebec City, which was 5 kW DA-1 in 1976 now is 50 kW,
DA-1 (same pattern, maybe?). I don't know when CBV got its power increase,
but there's been a lot of that since the treaties were renegotiated in the
1980s. On the other side of the ledger, the NRC log lists CBV as holding a
C.P. to go to FM -- although perhaps another station there will take over
980.

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