Re: XETRA

["Dan Strassberg" <dan.strassberg@att.net>]

Well, I remember the XETRA legal from _many_ years earlier (1951) in the
station's beautiful music days (if I recall, the positioner was "beautiful
music over Los Angeles). A sultry female voice with no attempt to cover the
ID would say: "Echay ae tae eray ahh, Teewhana, Baha Caleeforrnya."

I also recall seeing a coverage map of the US portion of XeTRA's coverage
area. In those days, XeTRA ran 50 kW-U and I don't know whether it was DA-1
or DA-2. Current facilities are 77 kW-D/50 kW-N DA-2 and I'm pretty sure
that the new COL is Plaja Rosarita (which, as far as I know, has always been
the COL of XERB/XePRS 1090 <don't know current calls>). Isn't Rosarita Beach
further from the US border than Tijuana is? I have the impression that the
old 50-kW-U pattern(s?) favored the US more than the new ones do. The new
patterns very definitely put the main lobe over Mexico and the signals
toward the US, while still substantial, are also subtantially weaker than
the signal to the southeast.

Anyhow, in the 50s, XeTRA claimed to put a 25 mV/m signal into downtown LA.
The signal was still 25 mV/m at the water's edge quite a few miles north of
LA and was at least 2.5 mV/m over the entire LA metro, which didn't reach as
far inland back then as it does now. Interference to the 710 station in LA
(then KMPC, now KDIS--I believe) was very substantial. The LA 710 runs 50
kW-D/10 kW-N DA-N into quarter-wave towers at a site in the San Fernando
Valley north of LA. The night pattern protects KIRO and WOR.

XERB 1090 has a classic three-tower broadside figure eight pattern at night,
with the null aimed right at Baltimore (and hence also at Little Rock, which
is half way to Baltimore on a line between Tijuana and Baltimore). XERB is
ND days for reasons I can only guess at. At night, the radiation maxima are
90 degrees from the nulls and lie pretty much right along the coast. If the
station used a detuned variant of its night pattern during the day it would
waste subtantially less of its signal over the ocean and would put a
significantly stronger signal into LA, undoubtedly driving CBS/Infinity
totally wild because of the increase in normally prohibited daytime overlap
with KNX. The broadside nature of the array would also enable tailoring of
the coverage inland to more-or-less match the current ND day coverage along
the line of the nighttime null to the east-northeast.

--
Dan Strassberg, dan.strassberg@att.net
617-558-4205, eFax 707-215-6367

----- Original Message -----
From: Mark Casey <map@map.com>
To: BRI Submit <boston-radio-interest@khavrinen.lcs.mit.edu>;
<umar@nerodia.wcrb.com>
Sent: Thursday, September 06, 2001 11:11 PM
Subject: Re: XETRA


>
> Rob heard just about the same ID that XETRA had when I was in SoCal in
1982.
> It was definately "X-E-T-R-A, Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico" at that
time, barely
> audible under some music or intentionally placed noise.
>
> The interesting part was the "Non-Legal" ID, which they ran several times
an hour. It went
> like this:
>
> "It's 71 degrees in Los Angeles, 72 degrees in Hollywood and at the Mighty
Six Ninedey"
> It was ALWAYS the same temp in Hollywood and at the station.
> Given the coastal locations, even over 100 miles apart, that might be
possible sometimes,
> but......every time?
>
> Of course the average person thought the station was in Hollywood.
>
> Also interesting is that they did not often mention San Diego, where they
have a killer
> signal, and where they target audience now.
>
> As I remember , they were playing an oldies format at the time.
>
> XETRA has a great signal in the LA coastal area days, good at night, and
still great in
> most of Orange County, even at night, but it gets hit with the usual
computers & etc
> noise, once you get inland more than 10-20 miles or north & east of
LA(where most of the
> 80's & 90's expansion has taken place in So Cal)
>
>
> Mark Casey  K1MAP  Hampden, MA
> map@map.com
>
>
> > In December, 1983, I was driving across the Mojave Desert on I-40
> > westbound,
>
> With a decent car radio, you can still get them well almost all the way to
Vegas on I-15.
>
>  listening to one of the only receivable AM stations (there were
> > none on FM) when the top of the hour rolled around and I heard:
> >
> > ...(drum roll with something being mumbled under it)... THE MIGHTY
> > SIX-NINETY!!!
> >
> > That got my curiosity aroused; the station gave out no clues as to its
> > location other than references to "southern California" in commercials,
so
> > I listened very carefully to the next top-of-hour ID. I was able to make
> > out -- just barely -- "equis ay tay erray ah, Baja California, Mexico".
> >
> >
> > Rob Landry
> > umar@nerodia.wcrb.com
> >
> >
>
>