• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Carrier Current AM

P

pollitt

It has been 40 years + since I was at WHEN (U of Delaware) and WUVT (Virginia Tech) ... both 640 AM carrier current stations.

I wonder if there are any college carrier current stations anymore ???

SCOTT DAYTON
WKII AM-1070
Port Charlotte FL
 
Scott,

I believe they are few and far between these days.

I know of a carrier current station that's not in a college town, however. There's one
on 1610 AM at Carrabelle, Fla., a small coastal town. The signal covers the whole town.
I believe he's running about 5 watts.

He runs gospel music off an Internet streaming station (someone else's) in the mornings then airs bluegrass the rest of the day. He operates as a daytimer.

Bever met the gentleman myself, but a radio colleague and I were visiting down on the coast one day and he
showed me where the station was located.
 
I know of a carrier current station that's not in a college town, however. There's one
on 1610 AM at Carrabelle, Fla., a small coastal town. The signal covers the whole town.
I believe he's running about 5 watts.
Click to expand...

To nitpick a little, that's not carrier-current. You can legally run a maximum of 100 milliwatts AM into a radiating element (i.e. a whip antenna) of less than 3 meters. That's the max. As you might imagine, even at higher AM frequencies, that's a horribly inefficient radiator and thus the signal is going to be very weak. You can synchronize several of these transmitters together, though...and if you have an excellent ground (like a billboard support frame, for example) that can boost the signal, legally, to a point where it's enough to cover a small town...if your listeners have good radios and are outdoors. "WLOY" at Loyola University (Baltimore) uses these systems and tricks to great effect.

Carrier-current couples the RF output to the AC wiring of a building directly. Typically those units transmit about 20 watts but because the building wiring is the antenna, the signal only goes perhaps 25-50ft, tops. It is literally a building-by-building transmission system, and only really useful on college campuses when you have large, central dorms.

OTOH, more than a few pirates have taken a carrier-current AM transmitter and used an ATU coupled to a TIS-style antenna to make a fine pirate radio station. 20 watts into a TIS antenna (which will fit nicely in a back yard or on the roof of a flat building) will easily cover a 2-3 mile diameter area, even in urban areas.

FWIW, there are some carrier-current AM stations out there still. Some also have radiating-cable FM systems as well. I think WTBU at Boston University and WBTY at Bentley College, as well as WECB at Emerson College. But I can't think of any NEW stations that do carrier-current...not since webcasting became an option 10 years ago. And those stations that DO still have the systems have largely forgotten about them; they run simply because they've always been there, not because anyone's paying attention to them...mostly those stations rely on a webcast to reach listeners.
 
I'm still looking to profile educational stations utilizing carrier current AM for my web site. If you're aware of any of these currently in operation I would appreciate any info you could pass along.
 
Another Carrier Current AM that may still exist is KCLC-AM, based at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, MO. In the late 1990's/early 2000's, there was talk that this station would be used as part of their broadcast production courses.
 
KJUC at the University of California, Santa Barbara, on 770/880 kHz: http://www.kcsb.org/about/

KJUC is used primarily as a training ground for those wishing to have a program on the FM station, KCSB 91.9. Also, since KJUC is not under the
jurisdiction of the FCC, DJ's there can get away with stuff not allowed on broadcast radio....

I think I have a couple of airchecks of the station (then called KCSB-AM) I recorded when I went to school there in the mid-80s. One thing I recall is that the
carrier-current station always had one hell of a nasty hum all the time....
 
I worked at KCSB last year...the KJUC carrier current transmitters haven't worked in years. That's semi-intentional; "KJUC" (or "K-Juice") is a practice station, where DJ's go to practice/intern for several weeks, if not a semester, before they can apply to be KCSB DJ's. They don't want anyone hearing that except the DJ doing it and their reviewer who listens to a recorded CD the DJ makes.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom