KQRR 1520, Oregon City downgraded their signal and changed transmitter sites on Monday. The signal is now 5,000 W Day and 42 W Night from an omni-directional tower on the Columbia. The decrease in KQRR skywave has helped the KKXA night signal substantially. The nighttime interference free contour for KKXA has decreased from 44 mV/m to 7 mV/m. If some of you happen to tune in and remember where you used to hear skywave interference on KKXA, we’d welcome new reports. I’m sure there will be some who make jokes about AM and no listeners, but those were the same comments people made when we put KKXA on the air, and even when we had a smaller night coverage area, the station performed even better than we expected. It made me laugh when people said KKXA wouldn’t cover Everett at night.
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
KKXA Listening Reports
- Thread starter Andrew Skotdal
- Start date
@Andrew Skotdal
I have put away the AM DX gear for the spring and summer but KKXA was heard here every night some 1500 miles away.. often mixing with KQRR. Here's some audio of the two stations mixing then swapping back and forth
HEre's how KKXA sounded one day fairly alone on the channel: KKXA-AM 1520 Snohomish, WA Thu Jan 13, 2022 1038pm Ak time
Used a CCrane Skywave and a tunable loop
I have put away the AM DX gear for the spring and summer but KKXA was heard here every night some 1500 miles away.. often mixing with KQRR. Here's some audio of the two stations mixing then swapping back and forth
KKXA-AM 1520 Snohomish, WA KQRR-AM 1520 Oregon City, OR 811pm AK Time
MediaFire is a simple to use free service that lets you put all your photos, documents, music, and video in a single place so you can access them anywhere and share them everywhere.
www.mediafire.com
HEre's how KKXA sounded one day fairly alone on the channel: KKXA-AM 1520 Snohomish, WA Thu Jan 13, 2022 1038pm Ak time
Used a CCrane Skywave and a tunable loop
Glad to hear that some of that annoying interference is going away. The way I look at it, AM isn’t dead when there’s still something worth listening to. Thank you for keeping up the original programming!
I remember, about 10 years ago, being absolutely astonished at the numbers that KKXA got (I was able to see the non-public numbers). Especially with (1) a new signal, (2) a music format on AM, and (3) a Snohomish County focused signal.
Of note, it was running in HD. I was unable to drill down to analog vs HD, but it was very interesting.
I'm probably too close to the Columbia to get KKXA, but wow, 42 W at night? That's a huge downgrade for that signal. I guess most of that station's listeners are listening on 93.5. I'll have to check when the sun sets tonight, but from what I remember, their sister 1150 which runs 47 W night was quite difficult to get when I last did a bandscan at night.
OK, four things: The Oaks Park tower is not on the Columbia River but rather the Willamette. The former is nowhere near Oregon City but I digress. They applied to move on February 8th and the application is still shown as pending. I live a half mile from their 50KW site and expected to say it's coming in like gangbusters but they appear to be off the air. On the FCC site, AM Query shows KQRR on 1520 and KXET on 1130 but CDBS has it reversed and on FCCdata.org, if you put in "KQRR", it goes to KXET and vice versa! There's something wrong with FCC.gov, so I can't access "Application Search". The query section has also been deadly slow for quite sometime, reminiscent of dial-up but far worse!
Bob, 1150 lost its transmitter site several years ago and is temporarily operating with TIS equipment at their studio while waiting to diplex with KBPS, which itself is in the process of relocating its antenna but was slowed down by the pandemic. 47 watts is a distant memory, let alone 5KW daytime. Also, I don't think there is a translator for 1520. I believe it's being used by 1150! Side note: I worked there for 22 years!
Bob, 1150 lost its transmitter site several years ago and is temporarily operating with TIS equipment at their studio while waiting to diplex with KBPS, which itself is in the process of relocating its antenna but was slowed down by the pandemic. 47 watts is a distant memory, let alone 5KW daytime. Also, I don't think there is a translator for 1520. I believe it's being used by 1150! Side note: I worked there for 22 years!
Last edited:
Skywave interference in Everett? Kidding!
The listener called Andy, and they're thrilled!
Are you still running that station in HD mode? Any thoughts of going MA3 with it?
Not that you can share them, but are you still able to see the numbers?!
There it is: fond memories of the KJR-A signal in the middle of winter when the Sonics were playing….whoosh-whoosh, whoosh-whoosh, Vin Baker shoots!…whoosh-whoosh, whoosh-whoosh…one in the cake, two in the…whoosh-whoosh, whoosh-whoosh. (Too bad citizens of Everett had to miss some key Calabro moments!)
That’s a joke! Kelly made a joke! Don’t tell @Red Plume because he seemed to think there were AT LEAST two listeners, Kelly. And, I’m number three, of course.
The Nautel HD exporters and exciters for both XR-50’s and both XR-12’s ALL died within two weeks of each other. Eight pieces of gear transitioned to boat anchors at the same time because they were consumer grade garbage. Our Hermitian symmetry for both stations turned out to be better than expected post-tune, and the answer is “yes,” but it will happen when we install new 50kW NX transmitters with adaptive correction (or the equivalent), and automotive receiver penetration gets higher than 30%. The measured MA3 coverage from the NAB Labs testing we did in 2014 was seriously impressive everywhere but in the Seattle core for obvious reasons. We had perfect, stereo fidelity with no drops from Lacey to just south of Bellingham.
I didn't hear that one but I heard KRKO clear as a bell on my driveway in Portland, when they were testing the signal.
I think most (if not all) of the Russian programming was religious, if that makes any difference. There are a few Russian (and I think possibly some Ukrainian) broadcasts on brokered radio here in the Seattle area and I think most of them are religious also.
Unfortunately I do not have access to them anymore.
KRKO is quite listenable here 1500 miles away .... better then KKXA.... well before KQRR went away
Sure, unfortunately since GatesAir got out of the AM TX biz, other than some lower power transmitters from BE, Nautel is about the only AM transmitter provider anymore.
What most people don't realize, is the main reason stations who were pioneers with AM-HD, stopped because of exactly what you mentioned; prototype HD exporters, and especially exciters with spinning hard drives inside, failing. The manufacturers didn't have any replacement parts nor support for first generation gear, so most stations who hadn't stockpiled spares, just turned it off. I remember seeing a prototype BE exciter built from a cheap IBM (Lenovo) workstation. Guess that I'm not surprised that Nautel went a similar direction with their HD transmission gear.
Adaptive precorrection is the way to go. DTV and FM exciters has been doing it successfully for years. I'd imagine it would work best for AM, only if full digital (MA3).
It definitely is impressive. In driving around DC and Maryland listening to WWFD in full MA3 mode, the main issue I can see being a problem, is the significant cliff effect when going under overpasses, near noisy hybrid transit busses, or high tension power lines. You just get into the music and enjoying the significant audio quality with no noise, then poof! Audio gone for what could be several seconds. Major tune-out factor.
So, can the night pattern be let out a little with KQRR gone?
(Daytime non-directional now.)
KOKC's 0.5 mV/m is being pulled in a little with shorter towers.
Adjacent channel KGA is no longer a Class A.
KFBK still there.
(Daytime non-directional now.)
KOKC's 0.5 mV/m is being pulled in a little with shorter towers.
Adjacent channel KGA is no longer a Class A.
KFBK still there.
Doesn't the buffer cover it?
If anyone else would know, it'd be Stephen lockwood
They also have to protect KOMAWhat buffer? Michael Buffer?
- Status