Tower visible, station inaudible

[lglavin@lycosmail.com]

In the disappearing Maine AM's thread, one contributor
mentioned that a class IV in Augusta couldn't be heard
even though the tower could be seen.  Was this when 
class IV's were limited to 250 watts at night?  I
remember having a startling tower-visible station-
inaudible experience when I was stationed at McChord
AFB near Tacoma, WA.  On those rare occurrences when
visibility was not impeded by rain and fog, I could
see the AM towers on Vachon Island between Seattle and
Tacoma, home to AM's on 570 (5kw NDA, 710 50kw DA-N,
1000 50kw DA-N and 1090 50kw DA-2).  Some of the
call letters have changed since then, but 1090 was
KING-AM;it turned out that they were VERY directional
at night due to interference from Baja Calaifornia,
Mexico, serving San Diego, CA  and Lethbridge, Alberta
Canada.  At one point on the highway, I could see their 
tower lights at night, but the station faded like the 
Red Sox in September.  And this was and is a 50kw
station.  Neither of the other 1090's could be heard
clearly, but KING just about disappeared its null was
so sharp.  Closer to home, there's a null in the 
WGIN AM 930 Rocherster, NH pattern;  on nights when 
WBEN, Buffalo is strong into New England, I've 
experienced interference on Rt. 125 in Gonic, NH 
even though the top-most tower lights were visible.


Laurence from Methuen

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