AM Radio North of Boston (Including a Field Trip to a Real Field)

["Laurence Glavin" <lglavin@lycos.com>]

Some observations after a busy Saturday morning:

After posts about WCCM-AM 800 seemingly broadcasting with
daytime facilities all night, I experimented with my radio
that displays relative signal strength.  I disconnected the
long-wire that is also wrapped around the ferrite bar with
the receiver, then viewed the signal strength of WCCM;
it knocked the needle fairly far to the right, about 3.5
out of a possible 4.0...this is the level I get from WEEI-AM 850
with the antenna attached.  This occurred well after sunset
a day or two ago.  This morning (11/10), it also registered
about 3.5, indicating the likelihood that I was getting
the same signal level day and night.  I must add that this
is not a scientific reading, but I can view the relative
up and down movement when WILD-AM 1090 powers up two hours
after sunrise and when WWZN-AM 1510 goes from critical-hours
daytime pattern to night pattern.  I've also noted that WCCM
comes in better than WCAP when I leave work in Waltham 
at 5:00ish in the evening.  Loos suspicious.

Last week, I mentioned that while going coastal (not postal)
to hear LTAR on WJTO, I dropped by the construction job 
at WNBP-AM 1450 in Salisbury, MA (COL Newburyport) and noted
that all the construction seemed completed but the signal
strength didn't seem any better than when the old tower was
in use much earlier.  Today, It appeared that the signal
is alittle bit better than it was last Sunday.  Maybe they weren't yet running at a full 1k then.  The website
(www.wnbp.com) shows pictures of the construction process
but doesn't yet declare it completed.
Also, last Sunday, WMYF-AM 1380 on Portsmouth, NH was very
weak last Sunday;  today it's back to normal.  (Transmitter
work?)
And now the field trip.  Last summer, after WNSH-AM 1570 began broadcasting from Endicott College on Rt 127 in
Beverly, I drove arounfd the roads that circumnavigate the
campus, but did not go on the campus itself because the school
was closed, some gates were down and there was a guard in the guardhouse.  So I decided to wait until school began
in the fall and there would be adults walking and driving 
around the campus anyway.  Today was the day, and I expected
to see a DIRECTIONAL array sort off hidden maybe behind some
trees a la WNNW-AM 1110 in Salem, NH.  Well the WNSH broadcast
facility is well-hidden all right, on the far side of the
soccer field on a rise of land behind the school's power
plant, with a deep ditch around it.  But there's only ONE
tower, about 150-feet high and a little hat on it indicating 
top-loading.  This indicates to me that they're broadcasting with the same output as when they were on South
Hamilton's only skyscraper and transmitting omnidirectionally.
The FCC listing for the station shows an authorization for 
5K directional but mentions nothing about an interim operation like this.  Very curious.

Laurence Glavin
Methuen, MA