CHIN has received approval to move their AM station to 900 AM. They will be simulcasting on both 1540 and 900 for one year. CHIN lost their former tower site due to the City of Toronto expanding their water treatment plant.
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CHIN AM Toronto approved to move to 900
- Thread starter RadioGuy1864
- Start date
AM 900 is the former CHML Hamilton, a talk station that shut down Aug. 14, 2024. The plug was pulled only a few hours after Corus announced it was taking the station silent because it was losing money. It had been on the air since 1927.
Even though CHML broadcast at 50,000 watts and was often heard in the NYC area at night, 900 AM is a Mexican clear channel frequency for XEW, at one time the most powerful radio station in North America. To protect XEW, CHML used an eight tower array to pump out those 50,000 watts. I assume the towers are still standing and CHIN will just take them over, similar to how CFZM took over the 50,000 watt clear channel facilities that were once 740 CBL, until it moved to the FM band.
CHIN 1540 broadcasts mostly in Italian, with some other languages on weekends.
Even though CHML broadcast at 50,000 watts and was often heard in the NYC area at night, 900 AM is a Mexican clear channel frequency for XEW, at one time the most powerful radio station in North America. To protect XEW, CHML used an eight tower array to pump out those 50,000 watts. I assume the towers are still standing and CHIN will just take them over, similar to how CFZM took over the 50,000 watt clear channel facilities that were once 740 CBL, until it moved to the FM band.
CHIN 1540 broadcasts mostly in Italian, with some other languages on weekends.
You assume incorrectly in this case. The CHML tower site was sold and the towers razed almost immediately after the station shut down.
CHIN's 900 signal will come from a single 85-foot Valcom whip antenna on top of a parking garage in North York, with only a few hundred watts.
There's no way it will ever be worth the huge expense of rebuilding a DA to run 900 at 50 kW again.
CHIN's 900 signal will come from a single 85-foot Valcom whip antenna on top of a parking garage in North York, with only a few hundred watts.
There's no way it will ever be worth the huge expense of rebuilding a DA to run 900 at 50 kW again.
As the antenna expert, what is your feeling about such a Valcom vs., let's say, a quarter wave vertical at the same power?
And... do you know of any station that has used multiple Valcom antennas in a directional array? With the ability to calculate antenna parameters on a computer vs. manually, I'd imagine that one could design a Valcom-based directional system using fractions of a wavelength separations that would even fit on the roof of a warehouse or other large commercial building.
It's been about a quarter century since I had any interest in any AM station, so I have not followed the newer antenna concepts. I am just wondering if alternative antennas are an option for stations that must retain their AM in order to sustain a translator.
Following up on David's post above, would the new Valcom K1 antenna be worthwhile considering? It would basically double their power, going from 425 watts to 1K daytime. I'm not even related to an engineer, so I don't know if such a power increase would result in a significant increase in coverage on 900.
Plans for 10/5 U4 with a 2 or 3 tower array on the North Shore of Lake Ontario eventually. The last I knew the FCC wouldn't allow the Valcom to be used for a DA. Don't know about Canada. Don't know why you couldn't use 200 foot towers since so many cell towers like that are being built. Not very efficient though.
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