WJIB

[markwa1ion@aol.com]

First of all, the only way things are learned is to present ideas to 
others and let the comments, critiques, etc. fly where they may.  I 
think that's how talkshows work.

As far as a DA protecting Toronto-740, I can see from Dan's comments 
that interference on that channel must be a lot more stringently 
controlled than on 810, for instance, where WGY-NY and CJVA-NB are both 
throwing quite a bit of power at each other.  That may be more a case 
of CJVA's array being out of whack.  The two stations are in an even 
dogfight here (between them) and surely must interfere with each other 
in areas of normal listenership.  800 must also be less restrictive 
since Lawrence's night ND would seem to be putting more than 40 W 
towards the co-channel Montreal, Quebec City, and Windsor channel 
occupants.  Let's not even talk about 1260 which is a royal mess of New 
Brunswick fighting it out with WMKI as close to Boston as the 
Burlington Mall.  Things can't be too good on the channel a few miles 
out of Fredericton either.  So maybe WJIB has to stay put on 740 in 
Cambridge with 5 watts at night - or move to 750 with the same flea 
power but a whole lot less interference ?

The 750 (or even 720) scheme for a southeastward beaming Boston area 
station of a kW or more may have had some possibility if the NH (720) 
and ME (750) allotments didn't go on the books.  This might have been 
workable from somewhere in the vicinity of 680's Burlington site.  
There are some suitably swampy areas along the Shawsheen River near the 
Middlesex Turnpike and Route 3A (Bedford/Billerica).  Regarding 
Canadians on 750, I think the Ontario station (Timmins) may be silent, 
just leaving Newfoundland: approximate distance 900 miles.  Seeing that 
Newfoundlanders had used 680 and 850 once - with a fair amount of 
Boston RF heading at them (plus metro-Montreal also for a while on 850 
as well), it would seem that the interference from a 1 kW or 5 kW 
station located here wouldn't be a major concern.  It's quite likely 
that Atlanta or, for that matter, Caracas would interfere as much.  The 
Bangor station, being 200 miles closer (and running big power), would 
definitely have to pull in its pattern to the northeast to protect 
Newfoundland, just as it would have to pull in to the southwest to 
protect Atlanta.

I think it's good to mull over all the possibilities (including perhaps 
the far-fetched ones) and bring forth the CONSTRUCTIVE and FRIENDLY 
criticisms of the peer-review process.  There are participants of all 
expertise levels on this list.  Chances are good that we can all learn 
things by reading the various discussions.  Some might choose to laugh 
at things they think are nutty ideas, but I'd think that a measured and 
well-structured critical response, as one would receive from a good 
professor, would be preferable.

Mark Connelly - Billerica, MA

-----Original Message-----
From: dan.strassberg@att.net
To: boston-radio-interest@rolinin.bostonradio.org; markwa1ion@aol.com
Sent: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 4:16 PM
Subject: Re: WJIB

The 1 kW part is patent nonsense! 740 on Long Island has a four-tower 
more-or-less in-line array that protects Toronto from daytime skywave. 
The station runs either 25 kW or 20 kW days (depending on whether the 
CP to slightly modify the pattern and reduce power by 20% is or isn't 
on the air). The night power using the day pattern is 40W or maybe 
50W. With a two-tower array designed for 740 (as opposed to a diplex 
into some existing towers), WJIB might get as much as 50W nights. The 
signal could be the equivalent to 100W ND in front of the pattern. I 
estimate that WJIB's NIF is about 65 mV/m, however. So the signal 
would not cover much acreage. And the site, northwest of Cambridge, 
would place the coverage in a less densely populated area than the 
current 5W ND night operation. That's assuming that land were 
available, which it isn't at either of the two sites (WTTT/WAZN or 
WWZN). If you publish your daydreams, you open yourself up to some 
serious critiques, and this idea has so many flaws that I just can't 
take it seriously. 
 
As for 750, there's an app for the Bangor area that seems almost ready 
to be granted if it hasn't yet been granted. 50 kW-D/10 kW-N DA-N 
using four towers to produce a teardrop pattern aimed 
southeast--protecting WSB and at least one Canadian. This will become 
Maine's premiere AM facility from a technical standpoint. A partner in 
the applicant company is a well-known broadcast consulting engineer. 
There is at least one Canadian to protect to the north and/or east of 
Bangor. Even if there were no Bangor application, the Canadian station 
or stations would rule out 750 in the Boston area with a pattern aimed 
northeast. Once again, if you don't want people to laugh, study the 
situation before you make such proposals. 
 
----- 
Dan Strassberg (dan.strassberg@att.net) 
eFax 1-707-215-6367 
 
----- Original Message ----- From: <markwa1ion@aol.com> 
To: <boston-radio-interest@rolinin.bostonradio.org> 
Sent: Friday, January 26, 2007 1:49 PM 
Subject: Re: WJIB 
 
>A two-stick array (nulling towards Toronto) for 740 might allow up to 
>1 kW to be run at night from a transmitter site placed at / near / 
>between the present 1150 (Lexington) and 1510 (Waltham) sites. 
> 
> This would poke a decent lobe into the Allston-Brighton sections of 
> Boston and its streetcar western suburbs (Arlington, Belmont, 
> Cambridge, Somerville, Watertown, parts of Newton / Brookline) to 
> override Toronto much of the time (certainly better than the 
> existing 5 watts night power can). That's a decent number of people 
> with money to spend. 
> 
> Or, with WHEB long gone from 750, why not a bigger power (5 kW or 
> more ?) operation on that lower-interference frequency, with 
> suitable nulling towards Leicester (760) and Atlanta (750) ? A site 
> in the Newton or Waltham area (or co-located at 850 in Needham, also 
> a decent site) might do the trick. Much farther west would mean 
> poorer Boston coverage and more difficulty with/for WVNE-760. 
> 
> On the downside, WJIB morphing into something with much better 
> coverage would probably wind up making it some crummy format instead 
> of Bob Bittner's delightful and unique present-day offerings. 
> 
> For its little 250 watts, WJIB gets out pretty well during the day. 
> I heard it with no problem at midday on a car radio from Clark's 
> Harbour, Nova Scotia: something like 250-300 miles. On Cape Cod it 
> does OK except along the southern and western sides where it takes 
> quite a beating from the Huntington, LI, NY station. 
> 
> Mark Connelly - Billerica, MA 
> 
> << 
> I've forgotten what the calls of what is now WJIB were before Bob 
> owned the station, but whatever the calls were, the station held a 
> CP 
> for 2.5 kW-D from what is now the WAMG/WBIX-N array in Ashland. With 
> those tall towers 2.5 kW would have produced quite a signal and the 
> pattern was quite narrow to the east, protecting WVNE. In fact, with 
> a 
> separate night pattern, Class B operation might have been possible, 
> although the CoL would probably have had to be changed to Sherborn 
> because given WJIB's NIF, which I estimate to be around 65 mV/m, and 
> the low power that might have been granted, Needham is just too far 
> away. But it would have been a losing proposition. The initial cost 
> would have been very high (maybe $1 million) and the ongoing costs 
> for 
> the lease of the Tx site would have been a killer for a small 
> station. 
> Moreover, the site--way west of the center of the market--would have 
> canceled out most of the gains from the higher power. If 250W were 
> possible at night (and that seems optimistic to me--but with the 
> tall 
> towers, the station wouldn't have needed that much power to be a 
> Class 
> B--just an RMS of 140.85 mV/m), the population served would still be 
> less than that served by 5W from Fresh Pond Circle. 
> 
> ----- 
> Dan Strassberg (dan.strassberg@att.net) 
> eFax 1-707-215-6367 
>>> 
> 
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