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TREASURE TROVE OF OLD MICHIGAN COVERAGE MAPS

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Ben Zonia
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TREASURE TROVE OF OLD MICHIGAN COVERAGE MAPS

Post by Ben Zonia » Sat Feb 19, 2022 3:15 pm



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Turkeytop
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Re: TREASURE TROVE OF OLD MICHIGAN COVERAGE MAPS

Post by Turkeytop » Sat Feb 19, 2022 3:45 pm

Great stuff. Thanks for posting.


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Ben Zonia
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Re: TREASURE TROVE OF OLD MICHIGAN COVERAGE MAPS

Post by Ben Zonia » Sat Feb 19, 2022 4:12 pm

Here you go. Believable CKLW. No CHLO 680 that extends into Michigan though. No CFCO, unfortunately. CKJD 1250 though.

https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-O ... ge-Map.pdf


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Re: TREASURE TROVE OF OLD MICHIGAN COVERAGE MAPS

Post by paul8539 » Sun Feb 20, 2022 1:09 am

These are almost all AM and some FM maps. So are there any old TV coverage maps.



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Ben Zonia
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Re: TREASURE TROVE OF OLD MICHIGAN COVERAGE MAPS

Post by Ben Zonia » Sun Feb 20, 2022 1:56 am

paul8539 wrote:
Sun Feb 20, 2022 1:09 am
These are almost all AM and some FM maps. So are there any old TV coverage maps.
WZZM-TV may be the only one in Michigan. For some reason, it is not searchable by call letters. You can search something like "Rapids", which ends up with quite a few Western Michigan Maps.

There are more for other states. Replace "MI" with other two letter state codes in the web address. There are also the TV Directories on World Radio History.


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k8jd
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Re: TREASURE TROVE OF OLD MICHIGAN COVERAGE MAPS

Post by k8jd » Mon Feb 21, 2022 6:19 pm

Had fun flipping thru those pages, I saved a copy of WOPA AM/FM coverage maps from my time there in the control room !



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Re: TREASURE TROVE OF OLD MICHIGAN COVERAGE MAPS

Post by paul8539 » Thu Feb 24, 2022 1:15 am

I still remember seeing some map in old Television Factbooks. As I recall, they also told how many in each county could receive the signal. There were come counties on the west coast that could receive Milwaukee and Green Bay.



WC8KCY
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Re: TREASURE TROVE OF OLD MICHIGAN COVERAGE MAPS

Post by WC8KCY » Wed Mar 02, 2022 12:32 pm

Great stuff!

The coverage map for WTIQ Manistique was just a bit optimistic.

Awesome to see CKCY included in the Ontario collection. There's no mention of CJWA, so the map must be from before 1976.



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Re: TREASURE TROVE OF OLD MICHIGAN COVERAGE MAPS

Post by innate-in-you » Sat Apr 23, 2022 12:47 pm

paul8539 wrote:
Sun Feb 20, 2022 1:09 am
These are almost all AM and some FM maps. So are there any old TV coverage maps.
Try americanradiohistory.com and open Television Factbook.



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Re: TREASURE TROVE OF OLD MICHIGAN COVERAGE MAPS

Post by SolarMax » Thu Apr 28, 2022 3:31 pm

innate-in-you wrote:
Sat Apr 23, 2022 12:47 pm
Try americanradiohistory.com and open Television Factbook.
FYI, americanradiohistory.com redirects to the site's newer name, worldradiohistory.com



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MWmetalhead
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Re: TREASURE TROVE OF OLD MICHIGAN COVERAGE MAPS

Post by MWmetalhead » Thu Apr 28, 2022 8:43 pm

Cracks me up how many of these stations exaggerated their coverage or used contour strengths indicative of extreme fringe reception.



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Ben Zonia
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Re: TREASURE TROVE OF OLD MICHIGAN COVERAGE MAPS

Post by Ben Zonia » Thu Apr 28, 2022 9:33 pm

MWmetalhead wrote:
Thu Apr 28, 2022 8:43 pm
Cracks me up how many of these stations exaggerated their coverage or used contour strengths indicative of extreme fringe reception.
Measured conductivity is much less than M-3 in much of Michigan. They normally use M-3 to generate the coverage maps. Many stations used Kear and Kennedy as consultants, and the maps usually had the 0.5 and 0.1 mV/m contours. Unless there was no cochannel or adjacent interference, RF or electrical noise, you couldn't hear it well if at all. You can listen to 0.05 mV/m signals on rural expressways on a good Delco radio.


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Re: TREASURE TROVE OF OLD MICHIGAN COVERAGE MAPS

Post by MWmetalhead » Sat Apr 30, 2022 7:14 am

I noticed WJR's map was actually one of the more honest ones from the bunch. Their Ontario coverage was exaggerated, but the Michigan and Ohio coverage it depicted was practically spot-on.



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Ben Zonia
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Re: TREASURE TROVE OF OLD MICHIGAN COVERAGE MAPS

Post by Ben Zonia » Sat Apr 30, 2022 8:44 am

Some of those, WKMH/WKNR 1310, and WEXL 1340 were two, showed more accurate contours in NW Oakland County. Some of those were because of close adjacent channels, and some were measured because the stations were demonstrating that there was no overlap with multiple stations owned by Knorr and Booth Broadcasting in Michigan and Ohio. I found documents online showing that Knorr's WKMF/WFNT 1470 and Booth's WBBC/WTRX 1330 used measured conductivity with Booth's WSGW 790 station in the Tri Cities, and it seems like WSAM 1400 was owned by Knorr at one time. They sold one of the stations and it was no longer an issue when most increased to 5000 watts in the late 1950s and early 1960s. I think there was some question about WKMF 1470 and a proposed unbuilt 5000 watt upgrade of WIOS 1480 overlap when John Carroll (earlier of WKMH/WKNR) was contemplating buying WIOS 1480, but Beck Ross came along and bought WKMF, and the Carrolls moved to Tawas, where the next generations of the family are to this day.

In the early days of radio, the Class I-As and I-Bs usually measured their ground wave signals accurately for sales and promotion, and WJR 760 was one. I talked to one of the engineers many years ago that went all around MI and OH to do it. Other measured DA proofs were done in the late 1930s to 1950s for Class IIIs increasing Day and/or Night power to 5000 watts with DAs. WWJ 920/950 and WXYZ 1240/1270 were two likely ones measured. Those measurements were used to construct the M-3 Maps, but all the 250 watt Class IVs were rarely measured, and hence a lack of data in outstate Michigan.


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