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WMT 600, KROS 1340 & KFXN 690 All Lose A Tower

SomeRadioGuy

SomeRadioGuy

SomeRadioGuy said:
WMT and KROS are off air as of this writing, 10pm mountain Tues. Aug 11th.

WMT is utilizing its FM sister stations for continuing information.

KROS lost its FM translator too as it was on the tower as well

KFXN lost the center tower of its 3 tower array. It's on air, asking the FCC and will get 120 Watts non directional. The east most tower houses non co owned KQGO 96.3 which is unaffected


http://www.northpine.com/blog/2020/08/11/downed-towers-affect-several-am-stations-in-iowa-minnesota/
Click to expand...


Someone says they heard WMT on air Wednesday morning.
 
STA 5 kW Nondirectional Day, <= 1250 Watts Nondirectional Night. Due to the Night DA pattern, the signal to most areas to the East should be about the same. The signal in areas to the West and Southwest should be much less at Night. Maybe some of you could even hear WMT at 5 kW DA-N when KOGO San Diego signed off for maintenance. The signal toward WREC Memphis will be much stronger.

https://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/w...xt=25&appn=101819873&formid=911&fac_num=73593

Licensed WMT Night Pattern.

https://www.fccdata.org/am_pattern.php?antid=107595
 
Schroedingers Cat said:
STA 5 kW Nondirectional Day, <= 1250 Watts Nondirectional Night. Due to the Night DA pattern, the signal to most areas to the East should be about the same. The signal in areas to the West and Southwest should be much less at Night. Maybe some of you could even hear WMT at 5 kW DA-N when KOGO San Diego signed off for maintenance. The signal toward WREC Memphis will be much stronger.

https://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/w...xt=25&appn=101819873&formid=911&fac_num=73593

Licensed WMT Night Pattern.

https://www.fccdata.org/am_pattern.php?antid=107595
Click to expand...

Maybe I'll check at night and listen to what shows up on 600. May not be much different in the Chicago area.
 
Here is the highest reported wind gust from this weather event:

1255 PM TSTM WND GST 1 S MIDWAY 42.09N 91.70W
08/10/2020 M112 MPH LINN IA EMERGENCY MNGR

Bob
 
They already granted KFXN 690 the STA for 120 watts Daytime and 4 watts Nighttime. Not sure why it wasn't just 1 watt Nighttime, since they are licensed to operate at 4 watts DA at Night. Two towers of the three are presently unusable according to the application, due to the collapse and other issues.
 
Schroedingers Cat said:
They already granted KFXN 690 the STA for 120 watts Daytime and 4 watts Nighttime. Not sure why it wasn't just 1 watt Nighttime, since they are licensed to operate at 4 watts DA at Night. Two towers of the three are presently unusable according to the application, due to the collapse and other issues.
Click to expand...

As I write this a little after 9:40 CDT, I just completed a tour of three midwest SDRs to get a feel for how well WMT is getting out with the STA. Here's what I encountered....

Gary, IN; WMT on top of 600, but not by much. Multiple signals audible in the background.

Peoria, IL; WMT comfortably on top. Signal stronger than on the Gary SDR.

Warrenton, MO (about 50 miles west of St. Louis.) WREC solid on top. WMT well in the background with frequent fading.

I'll check out 600 later on radios here at my home location. I'm not sure if I'll get a truly accurate read given that I am getting a moderate level of noise on the lower end of the AM band. I can null it, but in so doing I'm also nulling WMT. I've got three cable boxes, which seem to be the culprit. Normally, WMT is most likely to rise to the top of 600 here at night, but not by much and not always.
 
Update....

Checked 600 this morning at 4:00am at my home location. WMT present and slightly stronger than usual. Signal was no better than fair, but it was listenable and steady. Normally, during hours of darkness, WMT barely rises above the slop and is subject to fading.

Sidebar point #1....

KROS from Clinton, IA was mentioned earlier in this thread as having its tower collapse during this week's storms. KROS is 1kw fulltime on 1340. I've never heard them before at my location, although for a graveyard channel station, they have a pretty good signal in an area of good ground conductivity. What I heard this morning before sunrise was Clinton's other AM station, KCLN on 1390. On top of the channel with WGRB (Chicago) nulled. KCLN's fulltime pattern is a north-soouth figure eight. 1kw day, 91 watts night. I've never heard them here, either. So I'm wondering if they're running 1kw day power due to the storms' aftermath. Perhaps even on day pattern.

Sidebar point (and veer) #2....,

While I was tuning around the low end of the dial after checking out WMT, I eventually wound up at 680 and was greeted by CFTR breaking through the WSCR splatter. First time for that one, also. I won't even venture a guess as to what might have been going on with that!
 
cyberdad said:
While I was tuning around the low end of the dial after checking out WMT, I eventually wound up at 680 and was greeted by CFTR breaking through the WSCR splatter. First time for that one, also. I won't even venture a guess as to what might have been going on with that!
Click to expand...

I have heard CFTR in the Chicago area before, but not in a long time.
 
Just to finish this off, I checked WMT in the car at about 9:30 this morning. WMT sounded "normal". Weak, but solidly listenable. "Business as usual". So whatever is going on with the storm damage, it apparently is having no effect whatsoever on the day signal. At least not at my location.
 
cyberdad said:
Just to finish this off, I checked WMT in the car at about 9:30 this morning. WMT sounded "normal". Weak, but solidly listenable. "Business as usual". So whatever is going on with the storm damage, it apparently is having no effect whatsoever on the day signal. At least not at my location.
Click to expand...



no it didnt.. the tower that went kaboom was a night tower
 
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