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anyone notice KOMO AM signal weak lately?
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KOMO-FM sounds LOUDER than the other Olympia stations in North Seattle. But with the extreme audio processing they use, I wouldn't ever say it sounds "better." I find it fatiguing.
The 3 tower array does get out of phase once or twice a year. The powerhouse station on 1000 Khz in Mexico often comes in over the top of KOMO - in Oregon and California. The new power increase for the station near San Diego doesn't help. But the folks in Bullhead City, AZ still seem to listen to KOMO at night.
It's time to look at a major re-engineering of KOMO's towers and pattern. They should only have to protect Chicago and the Mexican border.
It's time to look at a major re-engineering of KOMO's towers and pattern. They should only have to protect Chicago and the Mexican border.
I sometimes listen to KOMO-AM on my bedroom stereo. The unit has not been moved, but the reception on AM-1000 had deteriorated significantly when I listened a few days ago. Seems OK in the car, but I haven't had that kind of issue with them in the house before, and I'm in the "inner suburbs," just a short shot up the Sound from their transmitter site. So it sounds like something must still be going on with their transmitter. Any news??
I have to say, I do not rely on the KOMO FM signal in many places. The only place in fact tha I get a clear signal of KOMO is downtown Seattle +/- 3 miles and in the some of the south end near Tacoma. I travel between Tacoma & Everett - West Seattle & Issaquah - on a regular basis. The AM signal has always sounded clear as an AM signal can anywhere in the perimeter mentioned.
Indeed, I found a heavy hiss covering up the audio on KOMO AM the other day when I tried in on the home boombox I use all the time, at my place between Shoreline-Edmonds. I haven't tried it lately, just been sampling them on the car radio, where they sound fine. But at home the other day, KOMO sounded like it needed me to re-orient the way the receiver sits another 90 degrees, which I would only expect to have to do for a weak or distant signal station, and which I have never had to do before for 50kw KOMO.
I'll try to remember checking it again to see if there's an improvement this week. I only noted it after reading comments about the signal on this site, and was surprised to confirm a heavy hiss covering up the audio where it had always come in as clear as anything before. Seemed like the hiss beat back the signal and make it weak. Had to turn the volume up to twice as high as the other stations, if I wanted to endure the noise level mixed in with their weakened signal.
I did not find hiss and reception changes to other stations on that receiver, so it's not me, it's them, as far as I can determine. Of course, the Seattle City Light and Snohomish County power lines are overloaded with interference when driving on the arterial streets around here, especially around traffic signals, or on the power lines that follow Fircrest and part of 100th St in Edmonds.
I also get some strange signal interplay during the daytime from the nearby KCIS tower, which seems to put KVI on top of CBU on AM690 around my neighborhood, and it also put a loud heterodyne-type whine on the AM1090 signal during the day, when I used to listen to it when it was KPTK. It went away after sunset, when that tower site shuts off. I don't know if the folks at Crista have anything to do with mucking things up for KOMO, but I do feel their tower does some strange stuff at several other spots on the AM dial, and not just as expedted at AM 1260. Doesn't help improve their ratings any, or convince the neighborhood to vote Republican, if there's anything like that behind it.
I'll try to remember checking it again to see if there's an improvement this week. I only noted it after reading comments about the signal on this site, and was surprised to confirm a heavy hiss covering up the audio where it had always come in as clear as anything before. Seemed like the hiss beat back the signal and make it weak. Had to turn the volume up to twice as high as the other stations, if I wanted to endure the noise level mixed in with their weakened signal.
I did not find hiss and reception changes to other stations on that receiver, so it's not me, it's them, as far as I can determine. Of course, the Seattle City Light and Snohomish County power lines are overloaded with interference when driving on the arterial streets around here, especially around traffic signals, or on the power lines that follow Fircrest and part of 100th St in Edmonds.
I also get some strange signal interplay during the daytime from the nearby KCIS tower, which seems to put KVI on top of CBU on AM690 around my neighborhood, and it also put a loud heterodyne-type whine on the AM1090 signal during the day, when I used to listen to it when it was KPTK. It went away after sunset, when that tower site shuts off. I don't know if the folks at Crista have anything to do with mucking things up for KOMO, but I do feel their tower does some strange stuff at several other spots on the AM dial, and not just as expedted at AM 1260. Doesn't help improve their ratings any, or convince the neighborhood to vote Republican, if there's anything like that behind it.
I remember looking for radios at Woolworth's in the old Aurora Village mall and virtually NOTHING else came in but 105.3 and 630. Both stations overloaded those cheap tuners.
I think 105.3 was once (HOLY CRAP!) 240,000 watts at one time. But they scaled back to 115,000 watts (which - STILL - wreaked ENOUGH havoc with even the BEST radios in South Snohomish/North King Counties) until they finally got off the Crista campus and that grandfathered power level and a lowly 54,000 watts on Cougar today......
When did they drop from 240,000 watts to 115,000?
I think 105.3 was once (HOLY CRAP!) 240,000 watts at one time. But they scaled back to 115,000 watts (which - STILL - wreaked ENOUGH havoc with even the BEST radios in South Snohomish/North King Counties) until they finally got off the Crista campus and that grandfathered power level and a lowly 54,000 watts on Cougar today......
When did they drop from 240,000 watts to 115,000?
When they had that power, they were transmitting from the KCIS (then KGDN) day tower on the Crista campus. For FM, it doesn't seem all that high. Now, if you could have done that from Cougar or W. Tiger... !!!
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