Now official, Celts to 98.5

[Scott Fybush]

On 9/27/2013 2:07 PM, Bob Nelson wrote:
> That's true, WFPB 1170 Orleans is a daytimer with a pretty weird pattern as
> seen in the illustration on radio-locator.

Oy. Bob, you're killing me. :)

WFPB does not have a "pretty weird pattern." Radio-Locator doesn't show 
patterns. As has been explained here and elsewhere more times than I can 
count, R-L shows an approximation of *coverage*, which is determined by 
the combination of the pattern radiated by the station and the effect 
that ground (and in this case water) conductivity has on the 
transmission of that radiated signal.

If you want to see what a station's radiated *pattern* actually looks 
like, go to FCCInfo.com. When you do that for WFPB's day signal, you'll 
see a very, very simple two-tower cardioid pattern with the null at 
about 300 degrees and the bulk of the signal aimed south and east. I 
assume that when the Orleans station was designed, the only protection 
it had to provide was toward 1150 in Boston, and that's exactly where 
the null goes.

Like any other station located immediately adjacent to a large body of 
salt water, WFPB's *coverage* (unlike its pattern) is indeed 
goofy-looking. But that's true even of stations with non-directional 
"patterns": take a look at R-L's "coverage" map of WBUR 1240 and you can 
see where the signal goes over salt water as opposed to over the 
non-conductive sandbar of Cape Cod itself. Other similar effects can be 
seen on the non-DA signals of WJDA, WESX and WMVX.