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Avenue 950 moving to 1550?
- Thread starter stereolane
- Start date
Re: Avenue 950 moving to 1550? (WCPT-AM 820)
I agree if what you're referring to is the Elmhurst site, though for me the daytime signal is not too shabby. I'm certain the ground plane for what I believe is their tower, the old WXRT tower on Belmont in Chicago, is not that great. How could it be, all surrounded by concrete and asphalt? AM stations that use radials buried in the ground are still more effective than any "screen" that can be stretched across the top of a building. The near-field results will be the same but the real difference is in the signal 20, 30, 50 miles away! Whatever possessed them to put that night TX site so far away? It probably was a combination of "NIMBY" and the high price of land! When 820 was in Elmhurst, and they attempted night operation, the signal was horrible, even though it was closer in to the population center. But they had a 4-tower inline array that produced a "pencil beam" signal - if you weren't directly in its path you got a horrible rocking of the two signals between WBAP's powerful skywave and WAIT's signal. Now, they have a 4-tower array that is 2 towers in parallel to each other, which produces a softer "cardioid" pattern, but the site is too far away from the population center with the power output they are allowed to use at night, so WBAP's skywave signal just 'leapfrogs' right over WCPT's signal.
cyberdad said:
I agree if what you're referring to is the Elmhurst site, though for me the daytime signal is not too shabby. I'm certain the ground plane for what I believe is their tower, the old WXRT tower on Belmont in Chicago, is not that great. How could it be, all surrounded by concrete and asphalt? AM stations that use radials buried in the ground are still more effective than any "screen" that can be stretched across the top of a building. The near-field results will be the same but the real difference is in the signal 20, 30, 50 miles away! Whatever possessed them to put that night TX site so far away? It probably was a combination of "NIMBY" and the high price of land! When 820 was in Elmhurst, and they attempted night operation, the signal was horrible, even though it was closer in to the population center. But they had a 4-tower inline array that produced a "pencil beam" signal - if you weren't directly in its path you got a horrible rocking of the two signals between WBAP's powerful skywave and WAIT's signal. Now, they have a 4-tower array that is 2 towers in parallel to each other, which produces a softer "cardioid" pattern, but the site is too far away from the population center with the power output they are allowed to use at night, so WBAP's skywave signal just 'leapfrogs' right over WCPT's signal.
Re: Avenue 950 moving to 1550? (WCPT-AM 820)
WCPT's night pattern is pretty much of a teardrop--not a cardioid. They use six towers at night, not four. The night power is 1.5 kW, which is a bit more than they used to run at night from Elmhurst. The new night site is southwest of Chicago and the radiation maximum is to the north-northeast of the site. I'm a thousand miles away, so I can't listen, but I've heard that, notwithstanding WBAP's big skywave, WCPT's night signal is not bad on most nights in most of the City of Chicago.
stormy01 said:
WCPT's night pattern is pretty much of a teardrop--not a cardioid. They use six towers at night, not four. The night power is 1.5 kW, which is a bit more than they used to run at night from Elmhurst. The new night site is southwest of Chicago and the radiation maximum is to the north-northeast of the site. I'm a thousand miles away, so I can't listen, but I've heard that, notwithstanding WBAP's big skywave, WCPT's night signal is not bad on most nights in most of the City of Chicago.
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