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

[Douglas Broda <dougbroda@mindspring.com>]

That is weird. It has seemed weakest to the East for as long as I can recall, and I
have lived in the Albany area for 21 years.

The stations on 980 that may need to be protected are the ones you mention: CBV
Quebec City (which is switching over to FM, and the license for 980 is still up in
the air for the time after transition, as I understand), WCAP, WSUB Groton (as you
say, lightbulb power at night), WWRC/WTEM Washington (I just got back from a NASCAR
race in Virginia last week, and the formats have switched, though I don't know if
the calls have). Also co-channel are CFPL London Ontario (DA-2, 10kw days, 5kw
nights) and CKRU Petersborough Ontario (DA-2, 10kw days, 7.5kw nights).

Adjacent-channel nights on 990, omitting lightbulbs,  are WCDZ Rochester NY (DA-2,
5kw days, 2.5kw nights); WZZD Philadelphia (DA-2, 50kw days, 10kw nights), CHTX/CKGM
(not sure which are the current calls, though I think it's the former) Montreal
(DA-2, 50kw days and nights).

Adjacent-channel nights on 970, omitting lightbulbs, are WZAN Portland ME (DA-N,
5kw); WWDJ Hackensack NJ (DA-2, 5kw); WNED Buffalo (DA-1, 5kw); CBZ Fredericton, New
Brunswick (DA-N, 10kw); CKCH Hull, Quebec (DA-2, 10kw days, 5kw nights).

That would all suggest -- if I understand all this technostuff, which I don't --
that the greatest needs for protection would be north and northeast (to Montreal and
Quebec), with geography and the other stations' patterns playing into the protection
needed for the co-channel and adjacent-channel stations that exist in all other
directions.

Is it possible that WTRY has been using a non-permitted pattern this long, or that
there are other factors at work? BTW, WTRY is typically audibly weaker nights 15
miles east of the towers -- in West Sand Lake, Rensselaer County, which is on this
side of the Berkshires -- than it is 15 miles west of the towers, on the Thruway
west of Schenectady.

BTW, we do occassionally get bleed at nights over WTRY in the Capital District, and
the bleed is inevitably Canadian -- CBV.

Martin J. Waters wrote:

>         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.

 --
Douglas J. Broda
Broda and Burnett
Attorneys at Law
80 Ferry Street
Troy, New York 12180
(518) 272-0580
Fax: (518) 272-0381
dougbroda@mindspring.com

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