Which Old School 50Kw clear blowtorch do you think has the best overall signal?

[frankberry]

I was incorrect. WDAE's STA was in effect until April 8, 2016. 11.2kW days 11kW nights.
The records do not indicate that they have requested another renewal of the STA but I'm betting that the paperwork has not been posted as yet.

 

[Ai4i]

"On January 14, 2000 at precisely 6:20 PM, the WDAE calls were moved to 620 kHz..."

One night back in the late 60's or early 70's, maybe it was a Sunday night / Monday morning,
I could not understand why WDAE sounded so different than just a few nights previous.
The entire format and sound were totally different.
I eventually figured out why but it had me really freaked out for a while.
Someone, tell me what the reason was.

 

[charlestondxman]

WDAE 1250 was a MOR station for a long time before it became standards in the 80s, then sports in the 90s, from what I have read.

I still sometimes get WHNZ, even under our local WTMA at night.

 

[frankberry]

One night back in the late 60's or early 70's, maybe it was a Sunday night / Monday morning,
I could not understand why WDAE sounded so different than just a few nights previous.
The entire format and sound were totally different.
I eventually figured out why but it had me really freaked out for a while.
Someone, tell me what the reason was.

I'm guessing that it was a tape being played at the transmitter site (for some reason).

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

Sometimes, stations who did DX tests would play a tape like that, which might have an older set of music and even an old format. Seems like they could also use full Daytime facilities for it during the experimental period. So you might be more likely to hear it also than normal facilities.

 

[frankberry]

That was back when the station had a full time engineering staff (at the studio and at the transmitter). They occasionally did transmitter maintenance on Sunday nights.

 

[davideduardo]

That was back when the station had a full time engineering staff (at the studio and at the transmitter). They occasionally did transmitter maintenance on Sunday nights.

And many an engineer, myself included, had a reel of tape or a box of 45's that we used for testing because a) we liked them and b) we knew what they sounded like and could use them as a standard for adjustments. That music went hand-in-hand with the NAB test tape or test disk with the Top Ten Tones for equipment calibration.

 

[frankberry]

Me too, David!

 

[rfry]

And many an engineer, myself included, had a reel of tape or a box of 45's that we used for testing ...

In the mid 1960s, WJR, Detroit often broadcast a 1/2-hour or so of classical music following transmitter tests/adjustments during an "experimental period," using a 15 ips Ampex r-r tape deck at the transmitter site.

Those short broadcasts often generated many hundreds of responses from listeners in the eastern 2/3 of the US and Canada -- especially when classical pipe organ recordings were broadcast.

RF (WJR staff engr in those days)

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

Somewhere I have a cassette tape I made off the radio of the tape that WTRX used during DX tests and "experimental period" tests. They had a jingle that they played between songs. I remember "Sooner Or Later" by The Grass Roots and "Love You Inside Out" by The Bee Gees being on that tape or another they used during such tests. They ran a similar tape during DA proofs right before they went to Sports.

I also remember that WWJ would sign off at 1:00 AM I believe on Monday mornings. KLIK 950 Jefferson City, MO would be right there. Looking at their 500 watt Night pattern, they would almost have to have been on 5 kW ND Day facilities during the experimental period. They ran AT40 during that time period. It was always there as soon as WWJ signed off.

 

[davideduardo]

Somewhere I have a cassette tape I made off the radio of the tape that WTRX used during DX tests and "experimental period" tests. They had a jingle that they played between songs. I remember "Sooner Or Later" by The Grass Roots and "Love You Inside Out" by The Bee Gees being on that tape or another they used during such tests. They ran a similar tape during DA proofs right before they went to Sports.

I had a selection of songs that had specific purposes... some were highly processed (by that day's standards) and were good to make the peak limiting effective but not destructive. Others had broader dynamic range, used to check the AGC settings so that we would not lose loudness when one of those played. A couple of "Wall of Sound" songs were useful, too. And some were just ones we had a good memory of that we could use to spot if anything was off.

On a few occasions, I was even able to spot soft modulator tubes from the subtle changes in those songs even when the current readings were not that far out of balance and apparent movement on a pair of tubes. You knew you were developing an unhealthy friendship with the transmitter at that point.

 

[davideduardo]

Those short broadcasts often generated many hundreds of responses from listeners in the eastern 2/3 of the US and Canada -- especially when classical pipe organ recordings were broadcast.

The only thing better to attract the DXers would have been marches and Morse Code IDs.

 

[Ai4i]

OK, a couple days have gone by and I am surprised that no one has figured it out.
Having two stations on the same frequency with call letters that sound identical when said quickly can be confusing.
A DXer friend of mine actually had to tell me what was going on.
So, the answer is that I had been listening to Pittsburgh's WTAE, also on 1250!

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

The only restriction I see for "experimental period" programming tests is for daytime only stations, and the generalized restrictions if there was an interference complaint. KLIK may have coordinated the tests to only occur during the WWJ silent period on Monday mornings. Otherwise, I doubt if a 125 uV/m 10% skywave interfering with a Class III-A would be nearly always heard. I was at the edge of the 2.5 mV/m WWJ Nighttime groundwave contour.

Another confusing set of cochannel call letters familiar to many around these parts during critical hours was WEAW 1330 Evanston, IL and WELW 1330 Willoughby, OH.

 

[Ai4i]

Another confusing set of cochannel call letters familiar to many around these parts during critical hours was WEAW 1330 Evanston, IL and WELW 1330 Willoughby, OH.

We could have a thread on this, cochannel stations with similar sounding call letters.

 

[Ai4i]

I had a selection of songs that had specific purposes...

Here is one that will always bring the worst out of any heavily processed, or even moderately processed station.

 

[frankberry]

Here is one that will always bring the worst out of any heavily processed, or even moderately processed station.

Agreed. That song just does not play well with processing.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

What years did they use that, rfry? I seem to vaguely remember the pipe organ music passing by 760 during Monday morning DXing. Since I was in WJR's predicted 5 mV/m contour, I didn't stop to listen. I probably thought it was a regular late Night show they did. WJR was the 5th strongest groundwave at Night, and WWJ was the 6th strongest groundwave at Night where I was at.

 

[Ai4i]

Agreed. That song just does not play well with processing.

Or a s/n ratio of less than ∞...a digital song from an analogue era.

 

[cyberdad]

Another confusing set of cochannel call letters familiar to many around these parts during critical hours was WEAW 1330 Evanston, IL and WELW 1330 Willoughby, OH.

And to this day Evanston's 1330/WKTA at my location all day long mixes with 1330/WNTA from Rockford, IL. Maybe we can lead off ai4a's proposed new thread with that one!