RE: WGSR (Was: 89.3 pirate goes ID-crazy)

[EM1 GITCHIER <RGITSCHIER@doyle.navy.mil>]

The owner has secured a 99 year lease with a local farmer in Orange
Park/Doctor's Inlet, west of the St. John's River. Not awful far from WOKV
690's daytime 50kw tower. Zoning? I don't know about that. It's hard to talk
with him, there doesn't seem to be a lot of trust, etc between MI and the
front office in Fernandina. Anyhow the land lease is contingent on the
upgrade application being approved. RJM Communications owns the transmitter
site (marsh) and studio building outright in Fernandina Beach. The signal
does well from just south of the VA/NC line to almost West Palm Beach, at
sea from my travels in the Navy. In the daytime I can even hear the 30 watt
xmtr in Charleston, SC with barefoot radios, such as my Sony cheapo boom box
and Radio Shack DX-398. 

Dan, with your mathematical prowess, did you see any numbers on the
patterns? What does it look like? The owner is too lazy to send me any
copies of the engineering study. I know that the night countour is figuring
that XERF 1570 is using 250kw at night (laugh...) I'm curious about WQOP
1600 being essentially in Jacksonville (Atlantic Beach) and a third adjacent
in the same county. I don't know if they have to null power to the Atlantic
Beach 5kw NDA station on 1600. They appear to be running about t 2.5kw out
of 5kw. I stopped by for a visit/look-see/offer of services and the gent
there seemed leery of me looking at the TX until after talking about 40
minutes I waltzed over to the xmtr room a few steps away from where we were
talking, and a quick glance on the power meter seemed to be about 2.
something on their harris five. They're living hand to mouth as a catholic
lay ministry... didn't even have stationery, poor folks. Queen of Peace
Radio is the monniker.

Peace!

Ron Gitschier, USN
Ex: WLLH 1978/Lowell, MA native

-----Original Message-----
From: dan.strassberg@att.net [mailto:dan.strassberg@att.net]
Subject: RE: WGSR (Was: 89.3 pirate goes ID-crazy)

Well, a 50 kW station that served J'ville could be 
attractive to the major groups. OTOH, although I know 
almost nothing about J'ville radio, I assume that, like 
most FL markets, it's WAY over radioed. If whoever 
acquires the station has deep enough pockets, the big 
problem with the upgrade will be finding and acquiring a 
suitable Tx site, and getting the construction approved 
by the local zoning authorities and tree huggers. 
Considering that the station would probably require a 
site very near the coast to get decent coverage, and 
considering the hurricane risk along Florida's Atlantic 
coast, the construction could also be quite costly. 

The idea of changing the COL to a community south of 
J'ville sounds right. Since the night pattern would have 
to protect Mexico, a Tx in a coastal location south of 
the major population center would probably cover the 
city quite adequately.