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1230 KWTX-AM

R

radioguyntx

Guest
Hi,

I was wondering if anyone knows anything about this station, I live about 15 miles away and I listen to it frequently and it fades out alot, other stations bleed through constantly. I don't really know anything about the technical aspect of radio transmission but have always been interested, and would love to learn more about it.

I thought about getting a better antenna to remedy the situation, but I can't really find anything out-of-the-box , and as I stated above, don't really know about engineering or building one. So if anyone would be willing to point me in the direction of a good website to read up on, or help me out I would greatly appreciate it.
 
Here is some info that can sort of point you in the right direction about the tech parameters of the station. It's a 1 KW ND.

http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/info?call=KWTX&service=AM

Have you tried a Select-A-Tenna? It's basically a big coil with a tuning capacitor in a plastic case, which you set near your radio and tune to the station's frequency.

I have one of those, they work pretty well and, no, I have no connection with the company. :)

http://www.selectatenna.com/
 
Unfortunately, 1230 KHz is know as a'graveyard frequency'. That is, there are a lot of small low power (less than 1 KW) on the frequency. A quick search of the FCC data base shows that during the day there are 10 stations on the frequency in Texas alone (7 at night).

So while the radio-locator map may show the potential for good reception (at 15 miles you are at the limit anyway) it does not, and will not, show the interfernce from the other stations operating on the same frequency.

1240 is also a 'graveyard frequency' so there may be interference from those stations as well. Not counting what is listed at 150 KW from Juarez.

So as the previous poster indicated, you may have to work with antenna positioning. Maybe try moving your radio to a window facing the city and see if that helps.
 
K6JHU said:
So while the radio-locator map may show the potential for good reception (at 15 miles you are at the limit anyway) it does not, and will not, show the interfernce from the other stations operating on the same frequency.
Click to expand...
Perhaps I'm showing my ignorance here, but last I knew, the Radio-Locator maps did take co-channel interference into account (though not adjacent-channel interference, at least not that was mentioned on the site itself). Did that change, or am I just mistaken?
 
I have tried to move it around, and it sounds a little better, but it still has alot interference. I live less than 2 miles from 1010 KBBW AM night-time transmitters. I was wondering if that would have anything to do with interference from this station. The tuner I am using is a Sony MHC-GX450 it has a factory AM loop antenna. BTW: most of the noise and interference/bleed-through is at nighttime.
 
Josh C. said:
K6JHU said:
So while the radio-locator map may show the potential for good reception (at 15 miles you are at the limit anyway) it does not, and will not, show the interfernce from the other stations operating on the same frequency.
Click to expand...
Perhaps I'm showing my ignorance here, but last I knew, the Radio-Locator maps did take co-channel interference into account (though not adjacent-channel interference, at least not that was mentioned on the site itself). Did that change, or am I just mistaken?
Click to expand...

As I understand it, the RL maps are groundwave day and night only. No "Interference" per se. They do take into account "Directionality", so in that respect they take interference into account, but I believe each map is base ONLY on the stations charactaristics and does not take into account the RF "Environment".

Clouseau
 
Sorry that's about the most that you can hope for on 1230 at night,regardless of what type of reciever or antenna. Back prior to 1978 all of the graveyard frequencies had to power down to 250 watts at night. 15 miles at night is a good stretch for a kilowatt on 1230.
 
One last quick question: how does a station broadcast with no studio? I have been out near this transmitter location monitoring for other dead spots, and there is the transmitter, but no studio. I mean I understand it works by relay, but im interested in how.. Can anyone enlighten me?
 
radioguyntx said:
One last quick question: how does a station broadcast with no studio? I have been out near this transmitter location monitoring for other dead spots, and there is the transmitter, but no studio. I mean I understand it works by relay, but im interested in how.. Can anyone enlighten me?
Click to expand...

Ok, I'll try this one.

This station is owned by Clear Channel Radio. They most likely have a studio somewhere in town with a lot of other radio stations. According to their website, they are at...

314 West State Highway 6 | Waco, Texas 76712 PHONE 254-776-3900 FAX 254-776-3917

with a few other stations.

15 miles at night in this part of the country isn'
t bad nighttime reception. 1230 in Houston and Corpus both get out pretty well. (Houston is supposed to have just done ground system work, and CC is adjusting modulation and the like.)

1230 is a lttle "Stouter" along the coast lately.

YMMV.

Clouseau
 
radioguyntx said:
One last quick question: how does a station broadcast with no studio? I have been out near this transmitter location monitoring for other dead spots, and there is the transmitter, but no studio. I mean I understand it works by relay, but im interested in how.. Can anyone enlighten me?
Click to expand...

OK, to put it in very simplistic terms:

You have your transmitter at location A and your studio at location B. You then use an STL (studio to transmitter link) to send a signal from studio to transmitter. The STL is basically a small transmitter that sends a signal to a receiver sitting in the transmitter shack.

Alternatively, you can use a special dedicated telephone line to link your studio to your transmitter.
 
clouseau said:
As I understand it, the RL maps are groundwave day and night only. No "Interference" per se. They do take into account "Directionality", so in that respect they take interference into account, but I believe each map is base ONLY on the stations charactaristics and does not take into account the RF "Environment".

Clouseau
Click to expand...
Ah. Thanks for clearing that up for me!
 
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