Re: WNFT-1150 AM

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

>ME <ebradio@flash.net> wrote:
>I am wondering...why is AM 1150's signal so poor?
<snip>
>I know that their signal was never something to write home
>about, but when compared to 1260 AM or 1090 AM, man what a terrible signal
>outside the city.  For example, at best, they were faint on the South Shore
>around Plymouth while WPZE and WILD were much better.  Up North, around
>Salem, MA, the same scenario, 1090 AM bombed in while 1260 was damn decent,
>1150 was barely listenable.
<snip>

>And Dan Strasberg replied:
<snip>
>The signal on the North Shore is not great because the array was designed to
>protect CHSJ, St Johns NB, which was on 1150 for years. I would expect WPZE
>to put a better signal into Plymouth during the day because the WPZE TX is
>in Milton, which is much closer to Plymouth. WPZE is ND during the day but
>directionalized to the north at night, so at night I would expect WNFT to
>have the better signal on the South Shore. Better doesn't mean good however.
>On most nights, co-channel interference probably becomes objectionable at
>about the Quincy-Braintree line. As for WILD, its location in Malden is
>great for reception on the South Shore and Cape Cod. The path to Plymouth is
>over, or very close to salt water all the way.
<snip discussion of past overmodulation by 1150 and more recent corrections
to that>

        Dan said the WNFT signal basically is aimed south-southeast --
which means it goes over the city and out to sea. Over land, it really has
a rather narrow area of strength. WILD and WPZE, in contrast, both are 5 kw
non-DA in the daytime and, along with WROL, have pretty decent signals. At
night, WPZE clearly has a much better signal overall than WNFT. On the
South Shore at night, WPZE is better. I'm becoming an expert on where WPZE
can be heard, thanks to my 10 and 8 year olds. At my mother's house in
Scituate, I'm lucky. While on the car radios, WPZE gets nasty co-channel
skywave interference at night, it comes in surprisingly well on one
particular radio in the house -- a cheap old tuner in an all-in-one stereo
with a turntable on top.
        BTW, can anyone confirm that WILD runs its 1 kW critical-hours
power for two hours after sunrise and two hours before sunset? I can never
seem to hear the change. Must be that I need to adjust my radio . . .

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