Re: WTIC (AM) anniversary broadcast

[dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net]

I wonder how long synchronized operation continued. I 
have a feeling that it pretty much ended by 1935. For 
sure, it was over in 1941, because I've heard nothing 
about synchronized stations after NARBA (other than 
WLLH, WBZ/WBZA, WOL-1450, WINX-1340, KOB/KKOB, WBT, 
KIPA, and a handful of other "experimental" setups that 
are currently in use for null fill-in and extension of 
night coverage). Moreover, all of the cases I've cited 
involve synchronous TX's transmitting the same program.

Synchronous operation must be pretty unsatisfactory if 
the stations carry different programs and either 
delivers a substantial skywave within the groundwave 
service of the other. My guess is that a listener 
perceives no difference from what is heard without 
synchronization. Of course, in 1931, crystal-oscillator 
technology was not what it has been for the last 50 
years, so it may have been easier to synchronize two 
stations than to keep them within one or two hertz of 
the nominal frequency.

Also, quite possibly, in 1931, there was a less than 
complete appreciation of MW skywave propagation.

> "A long-hoped-for accomplishment in the broadcasting structure of this
> country, that of an economy of wavelengths through two or more chain
> stations operated in the same channel without interference, will become
> a working reality on Monday when WTIC at Hartford begins transmitting
> with WEAF and WBAL at Baltimore starts dual sending with WJZ, according
> to the National Broadcasting Company.