Re: WPTR's signal?

[dan.strassberg@att.net]

WPTR's pattern, which is used day and night--the station 
is DA-1, has one broad major lobe centered somewhere 
near 45 degrees. The nulls are roughly at 180 degrees 
(protects ZNS-1) and 270 degrees (protects KXEL). On 
paper, the signal at 120 degrees, which ought to line up 
pretty well with Springfield, is close to the maximum. 
The maximum is quite high; the towers are 206 degrees, 
if I recall, and are far apart (around 140 degrees, I 
believe) which makes for a wide pattern. There is a 
small lobe behind the array at around 225 degrees.

However, the signal in Albany is surprisingly bad. When 
WPTR signed on in 1947 or 1948, it was 10 kW and didn't 
come close to meeting the requirement for signal 
strength in Albany, the COL. At the time, stations were 
required to deliver 25 mV/m to the "principal business 
district" of the COL. Even after the increase to 50 kW 
shortly after the original sign on, the engineers had to 
pick the spots where they measured field strength to 
show compliance with this requirement. Meanwhile, in 
downtown Schenectady, which is no closer to the TX than 
downtown Albany is, the signal strength was greater than 
75 mV/m. Apparently, there is an area of extremely poor 
conductivity between downtown Albany and the site in 
Colonie. That's why the signal isn't great on the other 
side of Albany, say in E Greenbush. If Springfiled is on 
the extension of a line from the TX through downtown 
Albany, this phenomenon partly explains a poor signal in 
Springfield. But I agree that the 53-year-old ground 
system almost surely is in bad need of maintenance.
 
> I've been in Springfield about 20 years myself, and I always attributed
> it to my guess that Springfield was not in a major lobe of the night
> pattern... but I may be wrong about that.  (Springfield is little south
> of Albany.)  I'll bet Dan could straighten that point out.
> 
> Of course, it may also be due to the deterioration of WPTR's ground
> system, which probably hasn't been maintained since the Nixon
> Administration.