WSRO

[Dan.Strassberg@worldnet.att.net]

After an absence of several months, WSRO was once again 
present on my Super Radio III yesterday. I think the 
signal is noticeably weaker than it was from the old 
Fitchburg St site, but I suspect that WSRO is probably 
back to running 5 kW ND-D as it did from the old site. 
The new site in Hudson is further west than was the old 
site and the new tower is only 97' high but is top 
loaded, whereas the old towers, which were of 
conventional design, were about 50% higher--a full 
quarter wave at 1470. Therefore. the new antenna is less 
efficient than the old one. Both the location and the 
reduced efficiency explain the poorer signal. Since 
there is no directional array yet, the night signal is 
at very low power and is completely inaudible where I 
live.

Based on listening that I did on two recent trips to the 
Marlboro area, I suspect that WSRO had been running 
between 300 and 400W from its new site. This is the 
equivalent power in the deepest null of the proposed new 
7 kW day pattern. I think that this proposal most likely 
resulted from a misinterpretation of FCC rules. WSRO's 5 
kW DA-N operation from Fitchburg St produced prohibited 
overlap with WBET during the day. Because that overlap 
existed for so long, I believe it is allowed to continue 
from WSRO's new site. At least WSRO's 0.5 mV/m daytime 
contour should be permitted to come as close to WBET as 
would have been permitted had the Fitchburg St facility 
been designed in compliance with the rules that existed 
at the time.

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