I've heard WVHF at my location a couple of times. Around sunrise. I should have included that in my OP. Anyway, I wouldn't say it was booming, but it was comfortably on top of whatever might have been left of WRVA, WVEL and KXRB. KXRB being the more common sunrise visitor.
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AM Frequency of the Week: 1140
- Thread starter cyberdad
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I would imagine you could hear it in between WVHF sign on between Racine and the Illinois State Line before WISN goes to Day Power. WISN 10 kW Night Pattern is on the order of 30 watts in those directions, and is the subject of frequent listener complaints, especially when Sunset is 4:30 PM CST in November and 4:15 PM CST in December.
WISN daytime splatter at my location is significant, but not insurmountable. Offhand, I don't remember if WISN was on day pattern/power when I heard WVHF, but even if WISN was at 50kw, I could have easily nulled it.
As for the WISN night signal, it's invisible here 98% of the time. I lived for a year (1976-77) in Lake Geneva, WI, about 25 miles north of here. At that location, WISN at night was audible, but not really listenable. As it is, my brother lives about 12 miles southeast of the WISN stick (or should I say "farm"). and the night signal at his house is only fair, at best. When I drive back home, I lose it within about ten minutes.
My SIL lives within view of the WTMJ and WISN tower lights on the second floor when the leaves are off the trees, near the Sylvania Airport (C89). I suggested that she try to listen on WLS.
I lived in Racine, Wisconsin near Lake Michigan for (3) years. At night, WISN was a "phasey mess" at my location. Essentially, unlistenable. The 50 kW Chicago stations were very strong there. At the time, WTMJ was still at 5 kW from their Brookfield, Wisconsin tower site. They were listenable with some signals underneath.
Bob
At my location in the near north Chicago suburbs at night WTMJ is not great, but listenable. WISN at night is gone.
The old array parameters are at this link. I don't currently have access to either the program I wrote to display the pattern, or the Radiosoft AMR DOS based Software. As I recall, it was kind of a bell shaped pattern. There was a small lobe to the East and one to the West, and the major lobe to the North. The East lobe served Milwaukee better from that location than typical three tower in line patterns would have.
"A phasey mess" is a good description of what WISN sounds like where my brother lives in Salem,WI (as I described previously).
As for WTMJ, I've never seen a nighttime coverage map for their 5kw site off of I-94 near Brookfield, but SC's description of the pattern makes sense. The western lobe would have done a nice job of covering Madison, and also explains why WTMJ was an easy nighttime catch where I was in Iowa during my college days. And, if anything, WTMJ at 5kw was probably slightly stronger at my home location day and night than the current setup. I don't remember what WTMJ's current effective night power is directed at my location, but I believe it is less than a killowatt. In fact, I seem to remember that it's even less than what WAUK sends here on 540 (with a favorable pattern).
This is the WAAM 1600 Day Pattern. It's similar, but the minor lobes of the old WTMJ Night Array were much smaller. The nulls on either side of the major lobe were also shallow. But the WAAM Day Array is a "Flat Parallelogram", not three unequally spaced inline towers.
am_pattern.php
am_pattern.php
Nothing in the daytime. Nighttime is all WRVA. It's one of the most consistent east coast signals for me, along with KYW and WBZ (and WBZ ain't what it used to be.) I wish the NYC stations were that reliable around here. Once in a while, rarely, I hear something underneath WRVA and I think it's always been KXRB (formerly KSOO) from Sioux Falls.
Thanks. Pretty much what I pictured from your previous post. I've seen a few of those "bell" patterns, but I don't think they're all that common.
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