Re: 1060/1200

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

>Dan Strassberg wrote:
<snip>
>If, indeed, the 1060 upgrade is actually being built, it
>might mean the end of WKOX's proposed 50-kW DA-N
>operation. It's impossible to tell from the FCC site,
>but it appears that the WKOX upgrade would necessitate
>the removal of the two existing tall towers at the Mt
>Wayte Ave site. 1060 will use those towers if its
>upgrade is built. WKOX would use three shorter ones
>whose location is so close to the two existing towers
>that it appears unlikely that they could be constructed
>without first removing at least one of the tall towers.
>
>Of course, WKOX might apply for a modification of its CP
>to specify 50 kW DA-D, 10 kW ND-CH, 1 kW DA-N, using its
>current day facilities during critical hours and making
>no change in its night operation, but increasing to 50
>kW during non-critical daytime hours. This would involve
>the construction of no new towers and would give WKOX
>greatly improved daytime coverage, albeit only for five
>hours a day during December.

        IMO, the best opportunity anyone has for creating a new major
fulltime AM signal for the Boston market is with the WKOX CP or some
modification of it. I'll put aside the question of why bother, so I can
back sooner to my workshop where I'm developing an improved buggy whip <g>.
        1200 is a much better frequency to develop than 1060. It seems
unlikely that the FCC will trash the clear channels enough to allow a major
operation on 1060 at night in Boston. In addition, the WKOX transmitter
site is about as good as it gets--just about due west of the market in a
situation where you have to aim the signal to the east.
        The existing CP for WKOX, according to the FCC website, would have
the peak of the signal aimed due east day and night and the null in about
the same direction day and night--a big null from just about due south
around all through the west up to almost due north. The very big difference
is that in the daytime even the deepest part of the null would get a little
more signal than it does from the current 10 kW non-DA daytime signal. At
night, virtually nothing would go out to the west. The good news is that at
night the signal to the east would be increased compared to the daytime to
an ERP somewhere up around 150 kW, which would help to overcome all the
interfering skywaves on 1200.
        A way to improve the WKOX CP, IMO, would be to keep the two
existing tall towers and add to them as necessary (the CP calls for two
towers daytime and three towers nighttime). The FCC data seems to suggest
that the CP provides for their replacement. No tower height is shown for
the current operation, but we know they're very tall and the daytime non-DA
RMS is a very high 432--indicative of something around half-wave towers.
The CP specifies electrical height of 85.6 degrees, and the
latitude-longitude is very slightly different. It seems significantly more
costly to demolish two large towers and build three new ones than to add to
what you have. However, maybe they did it that way because they need to
shorten the towers to cut down skywave interference to some other
station(s).