Re: Doin' the Montreal Shuffle

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

>Garrett Wollman wrote:
<snip>
>940: proposed as modified CKVL, to operate 50 kW DA-2 from Ste-Catherine.
>        (2 towers; RMS field 1.9 V/m)

        I noticed this several weeks ago. IMO, it makes no sense. The
signal as outlined would appear to be way inferior to the present operation
on 940. The RMS field is below the U.S. standard for Class A stations and
just plain awfully low for a station in major market. It also looks
suspiciously like numbers that are a hybrid of what's on 940 now and what's
on 850 now. Maybe it's one of those place-holder international
notifications that doesn't really represent a planned or approved or
proposed operation?
        The 690 listing you mentioned raises the same question -- why go to
a DA operation? And, again, the listed RMS field is pitiful. That's
currently an old I-A non-DA assignment, right? I suppose the answer could
be to put a better signal over an area where they want it, like WBZ, but I
had not heard that the Montreal CBC AMs had the same bad-signal issue as
the Toronto stations.
        Or, I wonder, is Canada working up a policy of breaking down those
clear channels further, now that the CBC doesn't want them -- in other
words, making Montreal a Class B and planning to put other B assignments
elsewhere on 690? The old treaties didn't really allow that (if they didn't
use the clear channel for a Class I/now A assignment, it could be
reassigned to another country). But I don't know what the current agreement
says.
        On the 850/940 situation, I believe Dan Strassberg had some
interesting info. and thoughts. I don't know if I saved his message then,
so perhaps he'll chime in. I believe he said that one of the issues is
whether they would give an English language assignment (940) to a French
station. Also, I believe Dan said that the owners of CKVL/850 have proposed
some sort of bilingual operation on one of the Montreal frequencies.
        I do know that if 850 actually goes silent, even temporarily, WEEI
benefits, even if the Canadians continue to reserve the assignment.
Hey--WEEI would no longer be a bilingual station at night in some parts of
metro Boston <g>. Although perhaps the Montreal station in the 1200s (???)
would move down the dial, as I think that assignment must be inferior to
850. If 850 went silent for good, and if Canada eventually relinquished the
assignment,  that would be very good for WEEI.  I'm not sure that WEEI
could improve its pattern, though. I think that WEEI might be locked into
not increasing radiation toward Denver, even though it must be that it
protects KOA way past the current standard for Class A stations. And then
there's the issue of the various smaller 850 stations in the East, like the
ones in Pa., and the higher-powered one in Cleveland.

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Have you patronized the skywave signal of an AM Class A station today?

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