1550 WZUM

[sparks]

Does the 4 watt Signal make to the Studio on Penn Ave?

On a good day, going down hill, I can hear the 4 watt signal on my car in the parking lot. On those very rare occasions when the band is dead, I can hear the 4 watt signal on McKnight Road. This only happened once for me since 2004.

Driving home after work in the winter, I can hear the signal from the building's parking lot, through Morning Side, and I finally lose it as I drive across the 62nd Street Bridge. At no time is the signal level something a listener would put up with. If I cross at the Highland Park Bridge and go north on route 28 for a few miles, the signal improves a little.

 

[hypwr]

Would it sound as bad as all the In Band Over Channels hash that we are blessed with now? <VBG> Or the ground wave cancellation I hear on KDKA in the late evenings now, twenty miles away from the city, to the North?

KDKA has to put up with the digital hash from WBZ which wipes out some of their primary coverage area. Also, with all the other QRM they're having a tough time at some locales even in the daytime. For example, on Poplar Stree in Green Tree between Mansfield Ave. and Noblestown Road, it is almost impossible to listen to AM. WJAS is wiped out and KD barely gets through.

 

[PHIL Z]

Does the 4 watt Signal make to the Studio on Penn Ave?

On a good day, going down hill, I can hear the 4 watt signal on my car in the parking lot. On those very rare occasions when the band is dead, I can hear the 4 watt signal on McKnight Road. This only happened once for me since 2004.

Driving home after work in the winter, I can hear the signal from the building's parking lot, through Morning Side, and I finally lose it as I drive across the 62nd Street Bridge. At no time is the signal level something a listener would put up with. If I cross at the Highland Park Bridge and go north on route 28 for a few miles, the signal improves a little.

Yes I Do love and Listen to AM Radio. My Radio is Currently on 1550, Too Bad CBEF Took over The CBE 1550 Slot in Windsor. When CBE was Off in the Winter Your 4 Watts Had A Chance. Keep Up the Good Work.

 

[PHIL Z]

On Sunday 8/19 we Drove to Indiana Pa. Via rt 380/286 Listening to WZUM 1550 All the Way up. We did Encounter Electrical Interference When Passing some Farms. 1 mile East of the Indiana Townline. [Our Stop ] Still listening.

 

[sparks]

On Sunday 8/19 we Drove to Indiana Pa. Via rt 380/286 Listening to WZUM 1550 All the Way up. We did Encounter Electrical Interference When Passing some Farms. 1 mile East of the Indiana Townline. [Our Stop ] Still listening.

Thanks for the signal report.

The family drove to DC on Friday via the Turnpike. We listened to WZUM from the Route8/Butler Turnpike entrance to mile post 100 in Somerset County. Not much electrical noise given how far away we were from any population centers. The signal would get a little noisy once we hit Somerset County line. It started to fade quickly as we went down the hill to the town of Somerset.

 

[PHIL Z]

Maybe It's the Above 1500 and Turnpike? Working at WPSL 1510 with 250 Watts the Signal was Strong on the Turnpike To and Through Summerset, With Very Little Electrial Interference.

 

[cingram]

WZUM got a very nice (and totally unsolicited) endorsement from Bill Neal, sportswriter for the Pittsburgh Courier, in his "Overtime" column. Thanks, Bill, for listening!

http://www.newpittsburghcourieronline.com/index.php/sports/16479-overtime-8-21

C.

 

[RadioAmateur]

Classic Motown is a nice change from a lot of the formats out there. My wife and I had it on today while swimming in our pool in West Mifflin. Best of luck with the new venture. 73's

 

[corporateradiosucks]

No, it's just because Somerset sucks the life out of anything awesome that tries to cross its path.

Can we get a little Minnie Riperton and Phoebe Snow please?

Oh, and sometimes at night the signal just goes dead for like 10 seconds and then comes back - is that due to the low power?

 

[FightingIrish]

The online stream could really benefit with a lower bitrate AAC+ stream. It's friendlier to smartphones and, on their end, uses far less bandwidth (i.e. they could do a 32-48K AAC+ stream that sounds just as good or better than your 128K mp3 stream).

I'm currently seeking out a decent R&B oldies station stream to replace the departed WDAS, which I think did an excellent job.

 

[sparks]

Can we get a little Minnie Riperton and Phoebe Snow please?

Oh, and sometimes at night the signal just goes dead for like 10 seconds and then comes back - is that due to the low power?

This is an odd way to make a request but I guess if it works then it was worth it. Lovin' You by Minnie Riperton was added to the library. I see it is scheduled to play about 5 after midnight. It will show up again. Phoebe Snow has not been added at this time.

I don't know about the 10 second outage. We might be having trouble with the T1 line. I know the storm beat up the transmitter today. We need to do a few repairs.

 

[sparks]

The online stream could really benefit with a lower bitrate AAC+ stream. It's friendlier to smartphones and, on their end, uses far less bandwidth (i.e. they could do a 32-48K AAC+ stream that sounds just as good or better than your 128K mp3 stream).

An AAC+ stream is on the wish list. We are using an icecast streaming server and it will distribute an AAC+ stream. I need to build the encoder. There is no schedule for when this will be finished. I will post when it is up.

I use the 128K MP3 stream on my iPhone all of the time. I have AT&T and they offer LTE in Pittsburgh. We do have an unpublished 32K MP3 stream. http://stream.1550wzum.com:8000/wzum32 is the URL. You can really hear the MP3 compression artifacts. It isn't worth using unless you really have a bandwidth issue.

 

[billyg]

I use the 128K MP3 stream on my iPhone all of the time. I have AT&T and they offer LTE in Pittsburgh. We do have an unpublished 32K MP3 stream. http://stream.1550wzum.com:8000/wzum32 is the URL. You can really hear the MP3 compression artifacts. It isn't worth using unless you really have a bandwidth issue.

It doesn't sound great on Winamp. Until you go AAC+, I suggest streaming in mono on the 32K stream. BTW greetings from Texas, I just discovered your station via this thread, and the presentation sounds great. VERY good mix of R&B Oldies!

 

[sparks]

It doesn't sound great on Winamp. Until you go AAC+, I suggest streaming in mono on the 32K stream. BTW greetings from Texas, I just discovered your station via this thread, and the presentation sounds great. VERY good mix of R&B Oldies!

The 32K stream doesn't sound good using any player. Stick to the 128K stereo MP3 stream. Thanks for the comments.

ttp://stream.1550wzum.com:8000/wzum

 

[cingram]

Welcome to October! This month, WZUM will be operating with its daytime power from 7:30 a.m. to 6:45 p.m. daily. We are severely restricted by the FCC as to how much power we can radiate at night, because of Canadian and other stations on the same frequency.

If you have any trouble hearing the WZUM signal, or if you live outside the Greater Pittsburgh area, you can find us on iTunes Radio, on the TuneIn app, and at 1550wzum.com, where we stream 24 hours a day in stereo!

Clarke

 

[sparks]

We are severely restricted by the FCC as to how much power we can radiate at night, because of Canadian and other stations on the same frequency.

The nice thing about the stream is its stereo. Our BE transmitter has an AM stereo module but I doubt there are any AM stereo radios out there. I guess it will stay in storage.

 

[cingram]

The nice thing about the stream is its stereo. Our BE transmitter has an AM stereo module but I doubt there are any AM stereo radios out there. I guess it will stay in storage.

I have several AM Stereo receivers - two of which are still in use (in mono) because they sound good - but no one seems to be broadcating in AM Stereo any more. A good GE Superadio III, in wideband mode, also makes AM radio sound pretty keen, especially if you're close to the transmitter. Sometimes people say "AM radio doesn't sound good," but it's the receivers that don't sound very good.

C.

 

[xm41]

I have several AM Stereo receivers - two of which are still in use (in mono) because they sound good - but no one seems to be broadcating in AM Stereo any more. A good GE Superadio III, in wideband mode, also makes AM radio sound pretty keen, especially if you're close to the transmitter. Sometimes people say "AM radio doesn't sound good," but it's the receivers that don't sound very good.

C.

I've been telling people for years that the quality of today's AM tuners are shit. A friend used to be an engineer at KQV back in the 70's. He played me a tape on a good stereo system made off air from around that time. It sounded damn good. For a casual listen you would be hard pressed to tell it was AM radio. Sadly the ship has sailed. Even with a good tuner today most AM signals sound bad. AM HD is a total failure. Even good HD AM signals don't come close to the sound of a well engineered analog AM on a good tuner.

Another friend likes to design and build low power transmitters and fool around on the AM and FM bands. He often talks about wanting to set up a low power AM just for fun to see how well he can make it. He's done pirate FM on several occasions but for some reason his heart is in AM radio. Sadly I tell him it's just not worth it. AM is a dying horse. It currently still has some use but it's getting sickly and it's only a matter of time.

 

[RadioEngnr]

The nice thing about the stream is its stereo. Our BE transmitter has an AM stereo module but I doubt there are any AM stereo radios out there. I guess it will stay in storage.

If you have an HD Radio receiver it will decode CQUAM AM-Stereo, AM transmitters are now limited to 10 kHz audio bandwidth and the HD receivers reverse the Left and Right channels in decoding C-QUAM stereo.

 

[sparks]

AM is a dying horse. It currently still has some use but it's getting sickly and it's only a matter of time.

Who knows what will happen to AM stations. There are a lot of people enjoying our little AM station based on the number of comments, e-mails, and phone calls we receive. We have been involved with 1550 since 2004. It would be very safe to say we received more listener comments in September than the entire time prior to July the 4th 2013 when 1550 WZUM was born.

It would be nice if the FCC stopped talking about helping AM stations and really did something. I would love to see a FM Translator window open just for AM daytimers or AMs with flea power night signals.