Re: 'RKO changes

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

And WROW, which had a dynamite signal when you lived in Albany must have an
even better daytime signal now. Many years ago (but later than 1956, when I
left the Capital District) WROW lost its original transmitter site in
Glenmont to the New York Thruway. The towers at the original site were 300'
high (adequate at 590, but not wonderful). Thanks to the excellend soil
conductivity in the Hudson Valley, however, WROW was easily listenable by
day well south of Kingston and well north of the town of Lake George.

What I didn't realize until recently is that the current site, which is a
few miles west of the old one and perhaps also a bit further north,
replicates the layout and patterns of the old site but uses significantly
taller towers (I think they may even be 500' tall). I haven't confirmed it
through listening, but WROW's day signal must be significantly better than
it was in the mid 50s, which would explain Adam's reception report from the
Connecticut Valley.

To compensate for the improved efficiency without causing interference to
co-channel stations, especially in Canada, WROW had to reduce its night
power to keep the signal strength the same as it was with the shorter
towers. Because the site move occurred before the days of "pick a power, any
power," the night power is still listed as 1 kW. However, the rms
inverse-distance field per kW at 1 km is substantially lower at night than
by day, indicating that a radiation-limiting resistor was inserted between
the transmitter and the antenna to reduce the effective power to something
in the neighborhood of 600 or 700 watts or else that the power was reduced
and the FCC just considered the lower power to be a small value of 1000 (as
in pi = 3 for small circles).

----- Original Message -----
From: A. Joseph Ross <lawyer@attorneyross.com>
To: <Patriotsrule417@prodigy.net>
Cc: <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Saturday, December 15, 2001 2:42 AM
Subject: RE: 'RKO changes


> On 14 Dec 2001 at 16:55, Patriotsrule417@prodigy.net wrote:
>
> > I get WROW-AM on 590..
>
> That's in Albany.  I remember listening to it when I lived in Albany back
> in the 1950s.  It was the ABC affiliate (on which I listened to Big Jon
> and Sparkie and Space Patrol), then it became the CBS affiliate (on which
> I listened to Jack Benny and Our Miss Brooks).
>
> --
> A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                           617.367.0468
>  15 Court Square, Suite 210                 lawyer@attorneyross.com
> Boston, MA 02108-2503                    http://www.attorneyross.com
>
>