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Boston Globe Reports on WCRB's Spotty Signal And Limited Playlist

C

Casablanca

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Clea Simon has an article in today's Boston Globe on the new WCRB at 99.5. She writes about the complaints the new owners are receiving about CRB's spotty signal and the limited and repeated playlist.

I have noticed there is a serious deterioration of its signal at night and the bleeding of other stations into its frequency. This should not happen to an FM signal I believe. If it were an AM directional I could understand the change at sunset but not with an FM signal.

The change in format does not bother me as much as static in the signal in the evening just south of Boston. Any techs out there able to explain this. I know the tower in now in Andover but the problems do not occur in the daytime only at night.
 
Hmmmm. Well, FM isn't subject to nighttime skywave reflections like AM is...but that's not to say it can't be affected by the atmosphere. Tropo ducting and also skip can cause stations from near and far to interfere...sometimes override...a local signal. Thing is, ducting & skip typically happen during WARM weather. Usually during the winter those effects disappear. And the nighttime connection isn't really explained by that either...unless something to do with the air cooling even more after dark is coming into play.

It could, in theory, be a problem at the transmitter where the cold at night is adversely affecting it. But if that were the case, you probably would've noticed it BEFORE the format switch; I don't think Nassau has done anything at the tower since they moved WCRB to 99.5, have they?

It could also be a pirate (perhaps a 2nd adjacent pirate) that only broadcasts at night, but that seems a little too great a coincidence. Hmmm...anyone know of a potential source of harmonics from somewhere on the South Shore that could interfere with 99.5 MHz? Is there an AM signal that's a harmonic?
 
Casablanca said:
Clea Simon has an article in today's Boston Globe on the new WCRB at 99.5. She writes about the complaints the new owners are receiving about CRB's spotty signal and the limited and repeated playlist.

I have noticed there is a serious deterioration of its signal at night and the bleeding of other stations into its frequency. This should not happen to an FM signal I believe. If it were an AM directional I could understand the change at sunset but not with an FM signal.

The change in format does not bother me as much as static in the signal in the evening just south of Boston. Any techs out there able to explain this. I know the tower in now in Andover but the problems do not occur in the daytime only at night.
Click to expand...

There shouldn't be any significant change in FM every night. Occasionally there's a little FM skip ("tropo" or e-skip) which can cause some interference to weaker signals, but that's usually a summertime phoenomenon. Are you in the same location at night, listening on the same receiver, as you are in the daytime?

A likely possibility is that I've noticed a pirate station on the adjacent channel 99.7 from somewhere in Boston's inner city (usually playing Gospel music) that may be on the air only at certain times. It has a pretty strong signal, and it certainly could interfere in your location just south of Boston. Perhaps the illegal operator goes to work at a day job on weekdays, and then comes home and operates his "station" in the evenings (I've also heard it on weekend days).

Or, there could be some electrical or computerized device causing interference in your immediate area that is only operating at certain times.

As for their playlist, I don't know much about classical music, but I have noticed hearing some of the same "warhorse" pieces repeated one day after another, like listening to practically any type of commercial music station.
 
Where I work in N. Reading I've had to endure a slightly less solid signal for WKLB at 102.5 but if I were
to be into classical music, I'd be in heaven because the signal is solid as a rock from just a couple towns
away (solid also is WMKK 93.7, coming from Peabody...)
 
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