AM's covering metro-Boston at night

[Dan.Strassberg]

WRCA will be 25 kW-D (five towers) 17 kW-N (four towers). The day
pattern is quite a bit narrower than the night pattern. According to
the pattern plots, the night signal where I live will be a little
stronger than the day signal, notwithstanding the lower night power. I
suspect that WRCA is running both of its new patterns even though
neither one may yet be fully tuned up. Like you, I've read that WRCA
is running with 5 kW but I think it may be running higher power than
that. I could believe it was running the full 25/17 kW but I don't
know that. Based on the fact that the night signal actually seems just
a bit stronger than the day signal, I suspect that whatever powers
WRCA is running are in the 25/17 ratio.

I was well within WRCA's Waltham NIF contour. I am well outside of the
Newton NIF--even when WRCA is at full night power. Although co-channel
interference is quite noticeable, it has not been really objectionable
the past few nights. I suspect that WUNR is running 1.25 kW ND at
night as permitted in its STA for starting up operations from the new
antenna system. Whatever the power and pattern, the current night
signal is completely inadequate. WUNR's night signal is buried to the
point of unintelligibility and almost to the point of inaudibility. I
don't understand why WRCA seems able to run substantially higher power
than WUNR. If I correctly recall WUNR's application, it is supposed to
have a slightly lower NIF than WRCA.

-----
Dan Strassberg (dan.strassberg@att.net)
eFax 1-707-215-6367

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Eli Polonsky" <elipolo@earthlink.net>
To: <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Cc: <markwa1ion@aol.com>
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2008 3:03 PM
Subject: Re: AM's covering metro-Boston at night


>> 1330 (Waltham) is pretty good at night now, just an occasional
>> hint of NYC under - not sure if they'll cut the mustard from
>> Newton.
>
> 1330 moved to the Newton site within the past couple of weeks,
> though I don't think it's at what will eventually be full power.
> I had read that they're now on at 5 kW, but I thought they had
> originally applied for something like 17 kW.
>
> Still, it sounds like it's a major improvement in Boston proper
> from what the Waltham site was, especially in the urban/ethnic
> neighborhoods where much of their programming audience is. The
> Waltham signal was not very strong at night in Boston's urban
> neighborhoods. It also sounds noticeably stronger here in the
> Somerville area.
>
> Driving in the immediate west suburbs, of course it's not as
> strong in Waltham as it was, but it still sounds adequate. I
> don't think they'll lose any listeners that they may have had
> in the west suburbs that they reached before.
>
> EP
>
>
>
>