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AM 1550

S

secondchoice

I have a question about 1550. I realize that there a some ownership issues, but why doesn’t somebody buy and up grade the signal? There is nothing north of them on 1550 for a couple of hundred miles. I think their COL was Smyrna so moving the COL is possible. If someone found a city on the north side of 285 and put the nulls to protect Huntsville and possibly Augusta, they could have a better daytime signal than WGST. I think 1550 is a Canadian Channel at night but I understand that a lot of AM stations up there are getting FM’s for their AM license, so sometime in the future this station could be a “powerhouse”. Someone could lease farmland, and should use freestanding towers. I personally have seen what a bush hog does to guy wires. If you use quarter wave sticks you might not even have to light the towers. I know it isn’t as easy as just starting a tread, but WSB needs a little completion just to keep the AM band viable in Atlanta. If you could cover Cobb, Fulton, DeKalb, and Gwinnett 24 / 7 this could be a big-time deal. Three of the top eight stations in Chicago are AMs. There is lots of FM completion. The FMs go far with no mountains and very tall buildings for their antennas. If you program correctly there is money to be made in AM. I suggest CBS could pull this off with its All News Format could give WSB a jolt. Sorry but WGST would be toast! How many millions would a “completive” AM signal in the #7 market be worth?
 
An upgrade would be impossible with Georgia stations in Vienna, Augusta, Huntsville, along with a few in Tennessee, North & South Carolina, and Florida cities also on 1550. WLOR in Huntsville is a 50,000 watt daytime station. There are approximately 60 other stations in the USA on 1550.
 
I've suggested someone going north or NW of the metro area and throwing a directional signal south/eastward. Problem is, in many cases there are a lot of Florida stations that have to be protected--it's easy to throw up a signal and crowd the dial when you have water on two sides.

I looked at that with WGST and there are TWO 640s in Florida alone.

Does anyone know the status of the move of the 680 signal in NC that requires WCNN to put in the hard null to the NE?
 
jabba17 said:
I've suggested someone going north or NW of the metro area and throwing a directional signal south/eastward. Problem is, in many cases there are a lot of Florida stations that have to be protected--it's easy to throw up a signal and crowd the dial when you have water on two sides.

I looked at that with WGST and there are TWO 640s in Florida alone.

Does anyone know the status of the move of the 680 signal in NC that requires WCNN to put in the hard null to the NE?
Click to expand...

What move are you talking about? The station is WPTF in Raleigh, which is 50,000 watts, non-directional day and directional (to the southeast) at night. I haven't heard of any move.
 
He's talking about 680 in Sylva, N.C. - that's Art Sutton's station. Maybe Art will see this and give an update - I think it is moving to a lower dial position and increasing to 4300 watts - I think it's going to 540 Khz.
It will be a huge Western Carolina signal and may possibly clear the way for 680 in Atlanta to go ND daytime.
But it is only mildly directional anyway - it won't be noticeable to anyone but it will simplify the Atlanta operation somewhat. There's still that critical night pattern with 8 towers.......
 
Not to mention high on the dial like 1550 is, even at 50kw it wouldn't have an impressive signal, with ground conductivity so wretched in the area,
 
taylorengineer said:
He's talking about 680 in Sylva, N.C. - that's Art Sutton's station. Maybe Art will see this and give an update - I think it is moving to a lower dial position and increasing to 4300 watts - I think it's going to 540 Khz.
It will be a huge Western Carolina signal and may possibly clear the way for 680 in Atlanta to go ND daytime.
But it is only mildly directional anyway - it won't be noticeable to anyone but it will simplify the Atlanta operation somewhat. There's still that critical night pattern with 8 towers.......
Click to expand...
I was actually referring to WCNN's night signal. You are right, the day signal isn't that directional.
 
Firebird said:
An upgrade would be impossible with Georgia stations in Vienna, Augusta, Huntsville, along with a few in Tennessee, North & South Carolina, and Florida cities also on 1550. WLOR in Huntsville is a 50,000 watt daytime station. There are approximately 60 other stations in the USA on 1550.
Click to expand...
I know it has been done in the past with WFLI Lookout Mt. (Chattanooga) http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WFLI&service=AM&status=L&hours=D and WAPI Birmingham AL http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WAPI&service=AM&status=L&hours=D on 1070 which has a much better ground wave. I Know WFLI was on the air in the early seventies before deregulation back when the FCC still cared about AM interference.
 
secondchoice said:
I realize that there a some ownership issues
Click to expand...

Who are/is the current owners of 1550?

I noticed radio-locator is showing them as "off the air" but I am still able to pick them up. Any new info on what the owner/s plan to do with this station? It doesn't look like they are trying to make any money with it. It sounds like someone plugged their Ipod up to the transmitter.
 
Nimbusflux said:
secondchoice said:
I realize that there a some ownership issues
Click to expand...

Who are/is the current owners of 1550?

I noticed radio-locator is showing them as "off the air" but I am still able to pick them up. Any new info on what the owner/s plan to do with this station? It doesn't look like they are trying to make any money with it. It sounds like someone plugged their Ipod up to the transmitter.
Click to expand...
Probably just keeping it on the air so they don't lose their license.
 
Someone is giving time and tempature live on the air. Not sure if it is automated, but someone has to be getting real time temperature to broadcast it live.
 
I was driving uo 400 yesterday and it was blasting in my car, I have to say the music is great, too bad the signal is so bad where I live in VA Highland.
 
I was just looking at the FCC web site and at one time this station had 500 watts in a Southeastern pattern. Why did they give up nighttime coverage of ATL? Their daytime pattern looks like there is a lope headed northeast. I think that why WPGY in Ellijay moved from 1560 to 1580 and took a power cut. I heard the station in Pickens County today. Just about as good as WGST interference wise.
 
I heard Smyrna's 1550 frequently around sunrise and sunset in Ohio in the winter during their Spanish days, no doubt like Atlanta residents heard 1530 from Cinncinati.
 
secondchoice said:
I was just looking at the FCC web site and at one time this station had 500 watts in a Southeastern pattern. Why did they give up nighttime coverage of ATL? Their daytime pattern looks like there is a lope headed northeast. I think that why WPGY in Ellijay moved from 1560 to 1580 and took a power cut. I heard the station in Pickens County today. Just about as good as WGST interference wise.
Click to expand...

Probably because it would be too expensive or maybe not possible to create an acceptable night pattern from the current site. The night signal was not great - the interference on 1550 is pretty heavy.
Is it just me or does oldies sound better on a well engineered AM stations?? 1550 sounds good - I was in Cumming on Thursday and Brent is correct - it booms into that neck of the woods. I really enjoyed the listening although I wonder why they decided to spend money on a "time and temp" device.....
 
I really like the music they are playing. It's kind of an odd variety of stuff but better than some of the programming you get here in ATL. I would like to see them try make some money with it.

I've driven from Snellville all the way to Kennesaw and north of there and can pick them up loud and clear. Whenever I head in to town, the reception gets really bad. Almost every power line gives the audio a jolt.
 
taylorengineer said:
Is it just me or does oldies sound better on a well engineered AM stations??
Click to expand...

It's not just you. Music does sound better on AM when engineered right, AND the receiver is capable
of full fidelity. There's just not that many hifi AM receivers out there anymore.
Seems like the new ones that have decent low-end response have NO upper-end response, and those that
(due to cheapness) have good high frequency response, have very poor low-end response.
It's all due to economies of manufacturing, even if the cheapening makes the (AM section)of the radio next to useless.

I'd been thinking of moving my AM pt 15 to 1550, as the oldies station out of missouri is a lot weaker than the
sports yap out of Omaha is on 1620. At night, this could mean considerably more coverage for me.
(Like one more block).
 
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