WWZN 1510's noncritical-hours day pattern is on

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

Yesterday's FCC actions indicated that Rose City Radio had applied for a
license to cover for WWZN 1510's new noncritical hours day pattern, which
sends a much improved signal over a broad arc to the west-southwest, from
two hours after local sunrise until two hours before local sunset. The
CH-to-nonCH and nonCH-to-CH pattern changes this month occur at 7:15 AM and
6:15 PM. (In December they occur at 9:00 AM and 2:15 PM--which doesn't even
encompass all of Eddie Andelman's midday show.) I tuned in just before 7:15
this morning and caught the first change at about 7:12. Now sports fans in
MetroWest have an alternative to Yellingguysradio-850 at least during part
of the day. If anyone who lives in the Natick-Framingham area (Garrett?) can
confirm improved reception of 1510 at midday, this member of the list's AM
techno-geek contingent would appreciate a report.

The people who work in the office building that sits on top of part of the
WWZN's ground system should appreciate the new pattern as well. Both the day
and CH patterns use the same pair of towers, but in the CH (former day)
pattern, the back tower appears to be the higher-power tower, whereas in the
new day pattern (that is, the nonCH pattern), it appears to be the
lower-power tower. The office building _has_ to be in the near field of that
tower. At one time, one of the tenants in the office building was a company
that designed array processors. How one does that while sitting atop the
ground system of a 50-kW station on 1.51 MHz is a mystery to me.

WWZN can thank the former WNLC 1510 New London CT, which went dark about
four years ago, for the opportunity to improve its day signal.

And, as for WWZN's General Manager, who has twice been quoted in the Globe
in recent months to the effect that WWZN uses some low power at night (in
one article, it was 10 kW; in the next, it was 5 kW), he might want to look
at the instrument which authorizes the changed facilities. It's available in
PDF form at the FCC Web site and provides many specifics about all three
patterns. The GM may not know it, but WWZN is supposed to operate with 50 kW
24 hours a day. If it isn't doing so, it is not operating in accordance with
the terms of its license. In fact, the night-pattern rms field is ever so
slightly higher than the day and CH fields. Now, if I could just figure out
where that night monitor point is--the one where the field strength is not
supposed to exceed 1.74 mV/m. The driving directions sounded as if they lead
to a place in Newton, but I doubt whether there is any point in Newton that
gets such a weak signal. I can easily believe, however, that there are
places in Weston to which WWZN delivers a signal that weak at night.

Perhaps now Rose City's technical people will be able to turn their
attention to WSNR 620 in Newark NJ, which has refiled its application to
move from its "temporary" site in Lyndhurst NJ (right near WLIB) to a site
just a few miles north of the one in Springfield NJ that it lost five or six
years ago. WSNR proposes to construct a seven-tower array and operate with
8500W-D/5000W-N DA-2 (seven towers days; five towers nights). The new site,
which is probably 10 miles west of the Lyndhurst site, should move the area
of severe phase distortion in the very narrow patterns' broad nulls further
west to a less populous area. The station is currently unlistenable in those
nulls.
--
Dan Strassberg, dan.strassberg@att.net
617-558-4205, eFax 707-215-6367