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WHJA Gospel 890 Laurel, MS

P

Pat3

Guest
WHJA Laurel, MS Black Gospel. 10,000 watts daytime only has been broadcasting at night and can be heard under WLS and whatever that other pest is thats in Spanish. WHJA was one of those stations that was donated by clear channel after the transmitter gave up the ghost several years ago. after being off the air for quite some time it returned to the air several months ago. If they are not careful they may run afoul of the FCC.
 
Thanks for the info, Pat. I'm going to have to listen for that one. WLS is a local for me, but I'm more than 50 miles from their stick, so their signal isn't nearly as overwhelming as the other Chicago 50kw non-directionals. I've heard Spanish underneath them a few times before.
 
Do you get any of the multipath scrambling sound of the signals of the Chicago 50kw stations where you are at night?

I remember WABC would always start to sound like that at night when we got down around Exit 7 on the NJ Turnpike driving south from visiting north Jersey which was around 50 miles.
 
In the early 90s, this station was News/Talk and it would make it in under WLS (which could be nulled) just after their sunrise in the winter. You'd hear a Mississippi caller to WLS talk shows sometimes; I kind of figured they were listeners to 890 in MS by day.
 
hawaiigar said:
Do you get any of the multipath scrambling sound of the signals of the Chicago 50kw stations where you are at night?

I remember WABC would always start to sound like that at night when we got down around Exit 7 on the NJ Turnpike driving south from visiting north Jersey which was around 50 miles.
Click to expand...

That phenomenon at that distance is called "skywave cancellation" and is caused by the phase difference in receiving the fringe groundwave along with enough skywave for phase cancellation to occur. It happens to every station, but most stations do not have any protection at night of their fringe groundwave coverage areas so there is generally interference from other co-channel stations.

This condition is why most of the big clear channel stations try to use 5/8 wavelength towers, as they minimize high angle radiation so the skywave comes down farther away. 1/2 wave is second best, and anything below that will have highly compromised grounwave very close in.

When KFI was on a "short" tower while rebuilding the one that was hit by an airplane a few years ago, the cancellation zone was as close in as 60 miles from the transmitter. Normally, it is over 100 miles out.
 
When I lived 80 miles from New York near Philadelphia, WNBC, WABC, and WCBS often had some big time skywave cancellation at night.

WOR, not so much but it still happened.

During the dead of winter, I'd sometimes start to hear some of that scrambling sound of the signal as early as 2:30 in the afternoon.
 
Regarding WLS, I live about 40 air miles from their stick and I've never heard the cancellation here. However, one night in the 70s I was driving to St Louis and around Rantoul, Il
WLS was unlistenable for a time until I got closer to St Louis.
Regarding the station in Laurel, Ms it seems that more & more stations do not care about powering down or signing off at night. Does the FCC just not bother anymore about enforcement of these rules? Does it come down to a station like WLS filing a complaint before the FCC even bothers to care about this?
 
Just checked from Houston - WLS is pretty solid, not as much as a few days ago. Spanish language station underneath, I can null WLS and get the Spanish language station clear - nothing else underneath. Where is that Spanish language coming from?
 
I caught WHJA once. It was on my car radio while I was driving home in S.A. last Dec. 15 at 6:39 p.m. They IDed with "Gospel 890" and "The station that lifts you up" and then played a Fred Hammond song. I assumed that the station had gone 24 hours or was having a delayed sign-off.
 
I live around 90 miles north of Laurel, MS and can get a weak signal from WHJA during the day. But the last several nights its been left on the air and it's been loud. They are 10,000 watts. WLS used to come in good back in the 70's and 80's but in recent years it's been wiped out by the spanish station. By turning the radio you can sometimes get WLS but normally the Spanish station is louder. I was able to get WHJA fairly loud by nulling out WLS and the other station. Most of the time the Spanish station drowns out everything.
 
I'm reminded of one of Steven Wright's lines.
'I was pulled over by a cop, who told me "Do you know you were doing 80 miles an hour in a 35 mile-an-hour zone"?'
And I told him, 'That's okay. I don't plan to be out that long'.


@ OP Pat, and others ....

It's often stamped in red that non-knowledge of the law is not a waiver for a violation. But with a lot of new ownership (and local management) now being far removed from the strict Ben F Waple and Dave Popkin days of the FCC .... equally removed from the AM DXing days where nothing got by AM DXers ..... further removed from rules by which actual FCC licenses were required ..... further isolated from having a rulebook chief engineer in the vicinity to issue memos : is it quite possible that a few of these stations (and even some outright pirates) aren't aware that they're in violation?

I didn't think so, lol. So when the Friendly Candy Company is apprised of things like this, it won;t make any difference.

In the meantime, I don;t give a flying one. It's good DX.
 
As DE mentioned, the phenomena normally happens much farther out than either of you guys live, and the FCC web site lists WLS's tower as being 189.3° tall. I would add that stations higher on the dial have it worse, for two reasons: 1) their groundwaves are more attenuated, and 2) they enjoy (or suffer from) stronger skywaves.
 
I tried 890 for each of the last two nights. First with the SRF37 Walkman and then with the SuperradioII. Result each time was all WLS. Conditions "in the neighborhood" did not seem to be an issue. CJBC, WWL, and WCBS were all blasting!
 
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