AM Frequency of the Week - 690 kHz

[schmave]

Reflect on this as you consider XEWW's directional system: I once visited a supposedly NARBA conforming Class IV in the Dominican Republic. It was licensed at 1 kw days and 250 watts nights, as were all Class IV's at the time. On the "power cut" button on the rather old RCA transmitter was a bunch of duct tape and, written in MagicMarker, the Spanish equivalent of "Under no circumstance should this button be touched, ever".

That's funny. Love reading those kinds of stories, especially about border blasters and such.
So to build on my earlier question, the signal that got across the salt water to LA was enough to override any possible cancellation issues? Or the signal was enough to push that zone farther north? I do know no matter how much power any AM station has, every station has an area where skywave starts to either jump on/bury the signal or cancel the groundwave.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

Normally, the predicted skywave is fairly consistent. With high conductivity, the fading area is farther away. With less conductivity, the fading area is closer in. It has to do with the relative strength of the ground wave and sky wave. So going across the ocean helps in this way also. The five tower in line night pattern is an endfire design that also may help, reducing high angle radiation. There have to be six towers there according to the database, one off to the side to the line of towers, which along with one of the night towers, is used in the day pattern.

 

[davideduardo]

That's funny. Love reading those kinds of stories, especially about border blasters and such.
So to build on my earlier question, the signal that got across the salt water to LA was enough to override any possible cancellation issues? Or the signal was enough to push that zone farther north? I do know no matter how much power any AM station has, every station has an area where skywave starts to either jump on/bury the signal or cancel the groundwave.

The coastal signal is quite good, but moving inland the high noise levels overcome the signal before any cancellation might. Most of the population is not at the coast, but much farther inland such as the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys and the reception there is pretty much useless.

Of course, since so little of AM's small remaining audience listens at night, cancellation is simply not an issue.

The funny thing is that the studios are located in Burbank, where the signal is barely usable in the daytime and worthless at night.

 

[Pat3]

From Central Mississippi it used to a fairly decent signal from the old WTIX in New Orleans back in their top 40 days. Since katrina its hard to get New Orleans since they never went back to their old pattern/power. occasionally you can hear Birmingham and New Orleans at the same time. I've heard Jacksonville a few times but its rare, unless they are on daytime pattern during a hurricane.

 

[cyberdad]

From Central Mississippi it used to a fairly decent signal from the old WTIX in New Orleans back in their top 40 days. Since katrina its hard to get New Orleans since they never went back to their old pattern/power. occasionally you can hear Birmingham and New Orleans at the same time. I've heard Jacksonville a few times but its rare, unless they are on daytime pattern during a hurricane.

I'll second that. I used to make the run between New Orleans and Jackson 2-3 times a year on business trips. WTIX solid all the way (daytime). By the time I'd get to Jackson....'TIX would be weakening, but still very listenable on a good car radio.

I and several others have noted in other threads how the post-Katrina 690 signal from New Orleans has suffered. For years, our family has vacationed on the beach in the Pensacola-Gulf Shores area. The day signal there (via salt water path) is now back to being somewhat respectable, but nowhere near what it had been. The once-good night signal now mostly just gets lost in the slop.