WCCR 1260 antenna work

[RadioFixerCLE]

STA was filed in June 2024. Work apparently has started. The last couple of days, the signal has been weaker than normal. According to the STA they may be running NON-D at 2.5kw and 1.5kw at night when they're not running the normal pattern with greatly reduced power.

It's interesting to see how well a 1.5kw signal can reach Cleveland at night all the way from Brecksville. It's subject to a bit of electrical noise, it wavers, but it's definitely there. The STA request letter is attached, from FCCData.org

 

[snowdog88]

STA was filed in June 2024. Work apparently has started. The last couple of days, the signal has been weaker than normal. According to the STA they may be running NON-D at 2.5kw and 1.5kw at night when they're not running the normal pattern with greatly reduced power.

It's interesting to see how well a 1.5kw signal can reach Cleveland at night all the way from Brecksville. It's subject to a bit of electrical noise, it wavers, but it's definitely there. The STA request letter is attached, from FCCData.org

I would say that their non-directional broadcast will not exceed the eastern/western lobes of their licensed directional pattern. That said, it looks like their local daytime non-directional contour just makes it to the shores of Lake Erie and to the center of Downtown Akron.

In 2006 when AM 1260 was upgrading/replacing equipment and feed lines in order to broadcast a HD carrier, I caught them one afternoon switching between what I believe was their non-directional and directional pattern. Their non-directional broadcast was actually louder and clearer, given that I fall right in front of their northeastern null. With that null removed for their non-directional coverage, the signal goes out about another 5 miles in that direction, putting me inside their local contour instead of their distant contour.

 

[RadioFixerCLE]

I would say that their non-directional broadcast will not exceed the eastern/western lobes of their licensed directional pattern. That said, it looks like their local daytime non-directional contour just makes it to the shores of Lake Erie and to the center of Downtown Akron.

In 2006 when AM 1260 was upgrading/replacing equipment and feed lines in order to broadcast a HD carrier, I caught them one afternoon switching between what I believe was their non-directional and directional pattern. Their non-directional broadcast was actually louder and clearer, given that I fall right in front of their northeastern null. With that null removed for their non-directional coverage, the signal goes out about another 5 miles in that direction, putting me inside their local contour instead of their distant contour.

Last night by the time I was slightly north of Newbury Heights on the I-77, it started wavering. By the time I hit the Woodland Avenue area it was getting mashed up by power lines although still listenable if I moved the car to the left lane on the street.

 

[radiofollower]

The biggest problem with AM today is the massive amount of electrical noise.....far greater than anything that I remember from years ago. Even in my car, there is so much electrical noise and random buzzes and interference on even the strongest stations.

 

[skiwest]

I was visiting my brother in Medina a couple weeks ago. When I left, I tried to see which Cleveland AM stations were available. I was on Route 18 near I-71 and it was after sunset (about 9:00 pm), so stations with night patterns were in effect. The only one which was listenable was WTAM.

 

[RadioFixerCLE]

I was visiting my brother in Medina a couple weeks ago. When I left, I tried to see which Cleveland AM stations were available. I was on Route 18 near I-71 and it was after sunset (about 9:00 pm), so stations with night patterns were in effect. The only one which was listenable was WTAM.

You're either behind most of the directional patterns at that location at night, or in a deep null (WKNR).

 

[snowdog88]

Currently, WHKW and WCCR both sound to be on par with not much interference where I'm at, even though I'm well inside WHKW's local contour and either just in (non-directional) or out (licensed daytime pattern) of WCCR's local contour.

That said, WAKR AM 1590 is coming in very weak as of now, as if I'm located out by their distant contour, even though I fall just inside of their local contour. Really no interference, just a very weak and hissy signal.

 

[snowdog88]

Checking right now (10:30 PM), WCCR is coming in for me with some drifting, but otherwise trying to overcome the interfering stations. Most of the time my reception of them is wiped out at night by skywave. It's still trying to stay on par with WHKW, which is a bit more stable.

WAKR isn't even listenable now, despite still being inside of their local contour. Their nighttime pattern throws a bit more coverage out in my direction.

 

[Yabadabado1]

I drive by the WAKR tower site nightly. Right around the tower, great signal, 6.5 miles east, it's breaking up, fading away with another station or stations signal coming in under and sometimes over it [maybe WHLX out of Detroit?] No music, on other stations just talk/sports. I notice that I'm heading towards a slight null but I don't recall it being that bad in the past.

 

[snowdog88]

I drive by the WAKR tower site nightly. Right around the tower, great signal, 6.5 miles east, it's breaking up, fading away with another station or stations signal coming in under and sometimes over it [maybe WHLX out of Detroit?] No music, on other stations just talk/sports. I notice that I'm heading towards a slight null but I don't recall it being that bad in the past.

Not a slight null, but a sharp null east of the transmitter site. Also towards the southwest as well. (Nighttime coverage map)

I'm starting to think that WAKR's broadcast is degrading in the same way as WCCR's, and not traveling as far out as it should. If so, there are probably no plans to repair it, especially seeing that they have a FM repeater as a secondary broadcast.

 

[RadioFixerCLE]

Without speaking to WAKR's engineers, we wouldn't know if either the transmitter or the array is having an issue. Sometimes these things take a while to get repaired, (and sometimes it's depending on a DA specialist engineer's availability).

 

[Yabadabado1]

Without speaking to WAKR's engineers, we wouldn't know if either the transmitter or the array is having an issue. Sometimes these things take a while to get repaired, (and sometimes it's depending on a DA specialist engineer's availability).

There have been several times earlier this year [usually nighttime and sometimes daytime] when I've gone to tune in to WAKR AM and the signal is gone...dead silence...but the FM is working fine, when I'm in the area that the FM signal doesn't start decaying. Probably not many people noticed but old geezers like me that dial across the AM band do.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

There have been several times earlier this year [usually nighttime and sometimes daytime] when I've gone to tune in to WAKR AM and the signal is gone...dead silence...but the FM is working fine, when I'm in the area that the FM signal doesn't start decaying. Probably not many people noticed but old geezers like me that dial across the AM band do.

I'm assuming you mean dead air, not off air.

It looks like the translator and AM are are two different sites and id bet theyre fed with a barix box, comrex briclink or telos Zip/one and likely on the recieve end too.. and something dropped/disconnected at the transmtiter site and didnt reconnect

 

[Yabadabado1]

I'm assuming you mean dead air, not off air.

Probably off as I was able to pick up other stations coming in that normally just fade in and out with whatever atmospheric stuff that causes it. Assuming that if a carrier wave was on I wouldn't have been able to hear the other stations. Now they could have been doing maintenance but seems strange tha,t if they were, no announcements were made. And the AM station and FM translator are at different sites, the FM is on the same tower that their sister station WONE is on. Pretty sure that if you climbed that AM tower a little ways up past the tree line [not that I am recommending that anyone attempt that] you'd be able to see the tower that the FM antenna is on: West Akron to 2268 Canterbury Cir

That tower [owned by American Tower] is pretty tall [840 feet] and very visible at nightime from a large part of the Akron area and since they added a section of tower to the old WDLI tower [now owned by ION TV, I believe] it is also at 840 feet and basically located across the street and just SW of the American Tower site. However, since the WDLI tower is located on a much lower section of land then the American Tower it looks much shorter. Here's the RabbitEars site info on everyone located on the towers: https://www.rabbitears.info/locationmap.php?request=location&id=689
I'm pretty sure there are some government antennas possibly located there [owned by some of the alphabet agencies] that aren't listed. Back in the 80s, I knew a radio engineer [long time dead now] that was out there pretty regularly and he was telling me about them. I don't know if they're still there or not. I do know that talking to some other radio/tower geeks like me that went out there that they were met by a guy carrying a shotgun that told them that they should not attempt to go any further and it would be best if they turned around and left immediately and to never come back. Whether that's still a thing going on there, I don't know. All I know is that none of the stations I worked at around that time had any antennas on that tower.

 

[snowdog88]

...and since they added a section of tower to the old WDLI tower [now owned by ION TV, I believe] it is also at 840 feet and basically located across the street and just SW of the American Tower site.

When did they add another section to that tower? I believe its been the same height ever since it was built back in 2003.

 

[secondchoice]

Probably off as I was able to pick up other stations coming in that normally just fade in and out with whatever atmospheric stuff that causes it. Assuming that if a carrier wave was on I wouldn't have been able to hear the other stations. Now they could have been doing maintenance but seems strange tha,t if they were, no announcements were made. And the AM station and FM translator are at different sites, the FM is on the same tower that their sister station WONE is on. Pretty sure that if you climbed that AM tower a little ways up past the tree line [not that I am recommending that anyone attempt that] you'd be able to see the tower that the FM antenna is on: West Akron to 2268 Canterbury Cir

That tower [owned by American Tower] is pretty tall [840 feet] and very visible at nightime from a large part of the Akron area and since they added a section of tower to the old WDLI tower [now owned by ION TV, I believe] it is also at 840 feet and basically located across the street and just SW of the American Tower site. However, since the WDLI tower is located on a much lower section of land then the American Tower it looks much shorter. Here's the RabbitEars site info on everyone located on the towers: https://www.rabbitears.info/locationmap.php?request=location&id=689
I'm pretty sure there are some government antennas possibly located there [owned by some of the alphabet agencies] that aren't listed. Back in the 80s, I knew a radio engineer [long time dead now] that was out there pretty regularly and he was telling me about them. I don't know if they're still there or not. I do know that talking to some other radio/tower geeks like me that went out there that they were met by a guy carrying a shotgun that told them that they should not attempt to go any further and it would be best if they turned around and left immediately and to never come back. Whether that's still a thing going on there, I don't know. All I know is that none of the stations I worked at around that time had any antennas on that tower.

It's be my experience that if the Federal government actually had armed guards they would be using M16s. There would be a difficult fence to climb around the place and signs advertising jail time was available for climbing it. Most likely it was a private owner's guard to keep folks from stealing stuff.

 

[Yabadabado1]

It's be my experience that if the Federal government actually had armed guards they would be using M16s. There would be a difficult fence to climb around the place and signs advertising jail time was available for climbing it. Most likely it was a private owner's guard to keep folks from stealing stuff.

Don't know, don't care. I wasn't going anyplace that I knew was "off limits" to begin with. Whether it was an armed guard, lots of voltage floating around the equipment and a fence that an Olympic pole vaulter may have had trouble getting over....anything that would make my backside pucker up was not for me.

 

[Yabadabado1]

When did they add another section to that tower? I believe its been the same height ever since it was built back in 2003.

It's been a while, I think a couple of years or more after ION bought it. If you're driving westbound toward it it looks to me like the new section is sort of off kilter [not lining up correctly] with the rest of the tower. Not sure if it's some sort of optical illusion or if it is actually off center. I remember reading something online about them adding a section to it for more height. Maybe someone could find the article, my life span is too short for me to go trying to find it now.

Oh...a side note....as I was driving westbound on 224 and passing WAKRs tower site around 2 AM not nary an aircraft warning light to be seen on the main tower. I thought I had passed it at first and then realized I was still east of the tower site. Don't recall if it was on when I was driving back the opposite way, was trying to avoid the crazy morning rush hour drivers.

 

[snowdog88]

It's been a while, I think a couple of years or more after ION bought it. If you're driving westbound toward it it looks to me like the new section is sort of off kilter [not lining up correctly] with the rest of the tower. Not sure if it's some sort of optical illusion or if it is actually off center. I remember reading something online about them adding a section to it for more height. Maybe someone could find the article, my life span is too short for me to go trying to find it now.

Google Street View all the way back to 2008 shows nothing has changed when it comes to tower height. I think what you're seeing is a top mount extension designed to hold a side mount antenna, as they decided to go with that instead of a proper top mounted antenna. That, to my knowledge, has been in place ever since the tower was built. The antenna has been swapped out 2 times already. First one was for WDLI's RF 39, second one was for WDLI's RF 49, and the 3rd one is for the current WDLI/WVPX RF 22. Why they kept this antenna configuration is beyond me.

Oh...a side note....as I was driving westbound on 224 and passing WAKRs tower site around 2 AM not nary an aircraft warning light to be seen on the main tower. I thought I had passed it at first and then realized I was still east of the tower site. Don't recall if it was on when I was driving back the opposite way, was trying to avoid the crazy morning rush hour drivers.

WCCR doesn't have any nighttime beacons on any of their towers either. I guess they are short enough not to have them.

 

[Yabadabado1]

Google Street View all the way back to 2008 shows nothing has changed when it comes to tower height. I think what you're seeing is a top mount extension designed to hold a side mount antenna, as they decided to go with that instead of a proper top mounted antenna. That, to my knowledge, has been in place ever since the tower was built. The antenna has been swapped out 2 times already. First one was for WDLI's RF 39, second one was for WDLI's RF 49, and the 3rd one is for the current WDLI/WVPX RF 22. Why they kept this antenna configuration is beyond me.


WCCR doesn't have any nighttime beacons on any of their towers either. I guess they are short enough not to have them.

But WAKR has had them...and being fairly close to the Akron Airport...... 2268 Canterbury Cir to Akron Airport .......would be required to have them: According to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), all structures exceeding 200 feet above ground level (AGL) must be appropriately marked with tower lights or tower paint. In addition, the Federal Communications Commission governs monitoring requirements for airport obstruction lights. ....Who knows, maybe they knocked a foot off their tower so they wouldn't have to light it up. Or could have been a power outage or they put smaller wattage bulbs in to cut down on the electric bill. I think think Walmart had a Rollback price on nightlights, maybe they took advantage of that.