Acceptable registrations in the queue through March 16 at 11:00a ET have now been activated. Enjoy! -M.W.

Terms of Use have been amended effective October 6, 2019. Make sure you are aware of the new rules! Please visit this thread for details: https://www.mibuzzboard.com/phpBB3/view ... 16&t=48619

FM power in different areas

The technical side of broadcasting. Think IBOC is a sham? Talk about it here! How about HDTV? Post DX reports here as well.
ftballfan
Posts: 872
Joined: Thu Sep 17, 2009 6:38 pm

Re: FM power in different areas

Post by ftballfan » Fri May 19, 2023 8:26 pm

96.9 the Drive can be picked up somewhat often in the Manistee and Ludington areas.



User avatar
MWmetalhead
Site Admin
Posts: 11786
Joined: Sun Oct 31, 2004 11:23 am

Re: FM power in different areas

Post by MWmetalhead » Sun May 21, 2023 1:28 pm

BTW the translator in Michigan City (95.1 W236BD) sounds completely terrible. MWMetalHead would have a fit!!
Very true! The fact it is blocking WIIL would be enough by itself to make me very unhappy.

I am surprised Alpha Media did not challenge the translator near downtown Chicago that uses 95.1. Perhaps the radiation pattern of W236CF is actually true to form and does not interfere much if at all with WIIL in northern Cook County; I am unsure.

I seldom had good luck picking up WIIL reliably in downtown Chicago and the south side even prior to the Chicago-based 95.1 translators coming into existence. Usually, any signal from WIIL would be met with severe "picket fencing."



User avatar
Ben Zonia
Posts: 2125
Joined: Sat Jun 03, 2006 10:35 pm
Location: Honor

Re: FM power in different areas

Post by Ben Zonia » Sun May 21, 2023 1:45 pm

ftballfan wrote:
Fri May 19, 2023 8:26 pm
96.9 the Drive can be picked up somewhat often in the Manistee and Ludington areas.
That's why they need to let out the WLAV-FM 96.9 pattern now that WLAW-FM 97.5 is now almost fully spaced. The panel antenna has three panels per bay pointing NW, NE, and SE approximately. There are no panels toward WWDV. By increasing the power to the NW Bay panels, and adjusting the phases and power distribution in the other panels, you might be able to get WLAV-FM better there, maybe tweaking the panel orientation, and other shallow nulls in the major lobe might be increased in the process.


"I had a job for a while as an announcer at WWV but I finally quit, because I couldn't stand the hours."

-Author Unknown

paul8539
Posts: 1108
Joined: Fri Dec 10, 2004 5:20 pm

Re: FM power in different areas

Post by paul8539 » Sun Jun 04, 2023 9:11 pm

ZenithCKLW:

316 is SQRT(10)*100. 100KW was the max power for VHF-LOW, so the FCC set the max power for VHF-HI at 316.



User avatar
MWmetalhead
Site Admin
Posts: 11786
Joined: Sun Oct 31, 2004 11:23 am

Re: FM power in different areas

Post by MWmetalhead » Tue Jun 06, 2023 6:58 am

WLAV isn't meant to be heard in Manistee and Ludington, and why would the station undertake so much expense & effort for something that wouldn't add one penny of ad revenue? Sounds like a good way to throw money down the drain for a company that is already navigating financially choppy waters.

Heck, I remember Sheboygan's WXER regularly overpowering WSNX near Ludington State Park years ago. The physics of Lake Michigan are tough to overcome.

If Cumulus engineering were to undertake any signal enhancement project, it would make more sense to try to improve WHTS's signal in & around downtown Grand Rapids and on the lower west side, where reception is terrible compared to WLAV.



User avatar
Ben Zonia
Posts: 2125
Joined: Sat Jun 03, 2006 10:35 pm
Location: Honor

Re: FM power in different areas

Post by Ben Zonia » Thu Jun 08, 2023 2:47 pm

MWmetalhead wrote:
Tue Jun 06, 2023 6:58 am
WLAV isn't meant to be heard in Manistee and Ludington, and why would the station undertake so much expense & effort for something that wouldn't add one penny of ad revenue? Sounds like a good way to throw money down the drain for a company that is already navigating financially choppy waters.

Heck, I remember Sheboygan's WXER regularly overpowering WSNX near Ludington State Park years ago. The physics of Lake Michigan are tough to overcome.

If Cumulus engineering were to undertake any signal enhancement project, it would make more sense to try to improve WHTS's signal in & around downtown Grand Rapids and on the lower west side, where reception is terrible compared to WLAV.
A typical Class B station could be heard all over the state in the heyday of nearly unduplicated frequencies, unless there was an adjacent station in some areas.

In the case of WLAV's panel antenna, there would be no need for new panels, just redistributing power and phasing of the ones they have. I asked a man who manufactures FM DAs whether this is commonly done and he said that doing this was one of the biggest advantages of a panel antenna. The thing to realize is that nulls affect the whole pattern, not just the intended direction, including shallow nulls in the major lobe to the East and NE, reducing ERP by a third or more in some directions toward their COL and nearby incorporated townships, and weird effects on the Horizontal Polarization to Vertical Polarization ratio in some directions, which might be possible to improve by removing the null toward the NW. Now I know that it's Cumulus, but all of the big groups are in trouble to one degree or another because of paying off large amounts of interest debt in the age of revenue decline.

Unless WHTS could acquire a fill in translator for the West side of the Grand River, the only other thing that might work is a booster with a very narrow figure 8 pattern, directed up and down the shadow areas on the West side of the Grand River. WHTS has to be 46 miles from WSRW, so unless they changed the rules drastically, they can't really move in.

https://www.rabbitears.info/contour.php ... beb7&map=Y


"I had a job for a while as an announcer at WWV but I finally quit, because I couldn't stand the hours."

-Author Unknown

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic