It looks like the pattern must have always reduced the directional field to the North and South compared to 50000 watts, at least after they first increased power 50000 watts, and concentrated the power into the East and West during the daytime to increase the signal on the Coasts. I'm surprised that they moved that many times, as an array for 540 takes taller towers and a lot of land. Many parallelogram type arrays have a larger dimension of over a quarter of a mile including the ground system, so you have to have 40 acres at the very least, and 80 or 160 acres are used on some arrays. CHML 900 has an array that stretches about a half mile without the ground system, and that's not even really low on the dial. Sometimes they will sell off corners of the property. One I know of started with 80 acres and ended up with 72 acres before they moved. Just one more reason to not have rules that artificially favor broadside arrays over endfire arrays.
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WFLF 540 In SE Michigan
- Thread starter Schroedingers Cat
- Start date
It looks like the pattern must have always reduced the directional field to the North and South compared to 50000 watts, at least after they first increased power 50000 watts, and concentrated the power into the East and West during the daytime to increase the signal on the Coasts. I'm surprised that they moved that many times, as an array for 540 takes taller towers and a lot of land. Many parallelogram type arrays have a larger dimension of over a quarter of a mile including the ground system, so you have to have 40 acres at the very least, and 80 or 160 acres are used on some arrays. CHML 900 has an array that stretches about a half mile without the ground system, and that's not even really low on the dial. Sometimes they will sell off corners of the property. One I know of started with 80 acres and ended up with 72 acres before they moved. Just one more reason to not have rules that artificially favor broadside arrays over endfire arrays.
The four-tower WGTO array and ground system occupied 53 acres.
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rbrucecarter5
Guest
Confirmed! Houston daytime with a ten foot loop and GE SR-3. It is winter, that probably helped. I won't be impressed unless I can do it in the middle of summer. It is ROUGH - balancing that loop "just so" to null that 540 in Dallas. The loop is very heavy and wanted to fall over. I was very lucky to get an ID at all. And I had to do it outside away from all RF noise sources inside my house. It was COLD!
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rbrucecarter5
Guest
Who says DX'ing isn't a physical activity?
Or dangerous! That ten foot loop was actually formed from 6 pieces of wood, not 4 - so I could get a cross in the middle which made lifting it easier. If that thing had fallen on me, it would have given me a pretty good whack wherever it hit! I have some gate hinges, I may make it permanent if I come up with a good solution to rotate it around the corner of the house. A varactor solves the remote tuning problem, but I have to run it off of a battery. That antenna is amazing, I get full local signal level on the meter off of things like WBAP, 250 miles away. Every frequency has something on it - even if it is weak. I can't wait to work the split frequencies!
I remember when my grand father used to drive me to Brandon, he just left it on 540. It came in that good on the factory stereo in a 07 saturn vue. He loved talk radio and that is what he mostly listened to.
This is an older thread , but personal to me. Having relatives in Tampa we used to go down there most Summers. I recall WGTO in the mid 70s when Mike McCoy was there. That signal was incredible! On I-75 it was booming just south of Valdosta! We would immediately turn to 540 when crossing the state line. Many memories when the studio was just next to the Cyprus Gardens ski show. I recall they had the "rock" Jam jingles package then. Great times.
When I made my trip to Florida for First Phone Wonder School, I stayed in Macon one night and had to check out WGTO, which was Country by then. I saw the studio building at Cypress Gardens when i visited with family a few years later. How many other stations in the country broadcast from a theme park?
Correct me if I'm wrong....but wasn't WGTO 50,000 watts DAY and 250 watts NIGHT at one point early on?
Seems I recall that entry in an old White's Radio Log (!!!)
Call it "Ancient Modulation" if you like......but 50kw at 540 still ain't too shabby!!
My little Part 15 (Ramsey) unit at 570 gets out nearly a mile....with a 10' piece of wire for an antenna!!
Seems I recall that entry in an old White's Radio Log (!!!)
Call it "Ancient Modulation" if you like......but 50kw at 540 still ain't too shabby!!
My little Part 15 (Ramsey) unit at 570 gets out nearly a mile....with a 10' piece of wire for an antenna!!
I think it was 50,000 day and 1000 nights, also reduced during critical hours. (I've seen a former WGTO jock post that in the winter, only the midday show had a full 50,000 watts for the entire shift.) Apparently the 1000 watts were only strong in one Orlando neighborhood.
I remember in the 1960s when WGTO was a 50kw daytimer.
I remember that as well. In fact I think they still were a daytimer in the early 70s.
NARBA had many restrictions to Canada and Mexico. They're found in the 1960 NAB Engineering Handbook at this link, on Pages 1-9 to 1-12. Basically, there were none or almost no full-time stations in the US on 540 and other frequencies except as described in the referenced footnotes.
These combined to preclude full-time stations in the Contiguous US 48 States on these frequencies. The 5 uV/m groundwave restrictions and 25 uV/m 10% Skywave restrictions, in addition to mileage restrictions close to the Canadian and Mexican border, precluded stations regardless of interfering contours. The combined Canada and Mexico restrictions left only small slices where 540 was allowed. WYLO Jackson, WI was one of the first new stations allowed, beginning in 1964, but with just 250 watts protecting the Canadian border.
So until revisions were made, WGTO was a Daytime restricted station. Then they allowed 250 watts and then increasingly more power.
These combined to preclude full-time stations in the Contiguous US 48 States on these frequencies. The 5 uV/m groundwave restrictions and 25 uV/m 10% Skywave restrictions, in addition to mileage restrictions close to the Canadian and Mexican border, precluded stations regardless of interfering contours. The combined Canada and Mexico restrictions left only small slices where 540 was allowed. WYLO Jackson, WI was one of the first new stations allowed, beginning in 1964, but with just 250 watts protecting the Canadian border.
So until revisions were made, WGTO was a Daytime restricted station. Then they allowed 250 watts and then increasingly more power.
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Before WYLO came on I could hear KWMT during the day in the Chicago area.
I remember hearing WDAK on 540 at night a couple of times at my college location in Iowa during the late '60s on nights when CBK was off. With the channel being nearly empty, WDAK's 500 watts was enough to make the hop. Apparently, they were one of the aforementioned exceptions.
Also, wasn't KFMB in San Diego operating fulltime on 540 sometime during or around the 1960s? Can't get much closer to the Mexican border that.
Yes, I think they were on 550 first then 540 before moving to 760.
Yes, it was on 540 and I heard it in Ecuador and got a nice verification from them. But to enter into full NARBA compliance it had to move to 760 by making exceptions to domestic protection rules .
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