Daytime salt water DX question

[radioman148]

Yeah but I don't know if it would come in like a local there. We can only speculate.

 

[dx1ng]

Does anyone recall the range of WLNG back when they had the 1600 kHz signal? Their tx site wasn't too far from where we're talking about. I seem to recall that it wasn't all that impressive, but I also don't remember the wattage that they were alotted. You could pick them up weakly in Westerly, RI and along the CT coast but they had a much shorter range than 92.1 did/does.

WLNG had an amazing signal for 500 watts at the 1600 spot on the dial. I lived a mile or so from the Connecticut coast, about 55 miles from WLNG's tower, and they were in loud and clear, burying then-5000-watt WWRL in New York City 50 miles or so away. (WWRL was directional, and nulled the CT coast, but then salt water also helped them and all the New York City signals.) Travelling toward New York City on I-95, WLNG would dominate WWRL until around the New Rochelle tolls (about 85 miles). In the other direction, WLNG was mixed with Boston's WUNR on the south shore of Cape Cod... 100 miles or so from WLNG. I'm pretty sure I heard 'LNG on the Delaware - Maryland coast too. Remember, with typical poor ground conductivity in the North East, a station with 500 watts at 1600 would normally cover about 5.5 miles to the 2 mv/m contour (red on the radio-locator maps), and 10.5 miles to the 0.5 (purple) contour.

 

[radioman148]

Does anyone recall the range of WLNG back when they had the 1600 kHz signal? Their tx site wasn't too far from where we're talking about. I seem to recall that it wasn't all that impressive, but I also don't remember the wattage that they were alotted. You could pick them up weakly in Westerly, RI and along the CT coast but they had a much shorter range than 92.1 did/does.

WLNG had an amazing signal for 500 watts at the 1600 spot on the dial. I lived a mile or so from the Connecticut coast, about 55 miles from WLNG's tower, and they were in loud and clear, burying then-5000-watt WWRL in New York City 50 miles or so away. (WWRL was directional, and nulled the CT coast, but then salt water also helped them and all the New York City signals.) Travelling toward New York City on I-95, WLNG would dominate WWRL until around the New Rochelle tolls (about 85 miles). In the other direction, WLNG was mixed with Boston's WUNR on the south shore of Cape Cod... 100 miles or so from WLNG. I'm pretty sure I heard 'LNG on the Delaware - Maryland coast too. Remember, with typical poor ground conductivity in the North East, a station with 500 watts at 1600 would normally cover about 5.5 miles to the 2 mv/m contour (red on the radio-locator maps), and 10.5 miles to the 0.5 (purple) contour.

Salt water is a wonderful thing for radio signals.

 

[trusty]

I remember reading that WCBS tower had a salt water ground. I think the same is true for WIOD Miami.

In Miami, WQAM/560 had a great signal for 5kw. Low freq. + tower in the intercoastal waterway. HERE is a pic of its old tower and another pic HERE between the MacArthur and Venetian Causeways. Now, THAT's a salt water ground.

 

[radioman148]

I remember reading that WCBS tower had a salt water ground. I think the same is true for WIOD Miami.

In Miami, WQAM/560 had a great signal for 5kw. Low freq. + tower in the intercoastal waterway. HERE is a pic of its old tower and another pic HERE between the MacArthur and Venetian Causeways. Now, THAT's a salt water ground.

Where is their tower now & why did they move it?

 

[gar hi]

I remember being a fan of WQAM for the time I was on vacation with my family down in Miami from when I lived up north back in 1973. They had good top 40. When we got back home, I was frustrated not being able to get a shot at DXing for it because 56 WFIL was a local. I'll bet a 1kw ND nighttime signal could be heard at that distance if the frequency was not taken up by other stations. I had the same problem attempting to hear WIOD up there because of WIP on the same frequency. Years later when I was in college up in Bethlehem, Pa, there was a night where I got WIOD along side a weak signal from WIP.

 

[radioman148]

I remember being a fan of WQAM for the time I was on vacation with my family down in Miami from when I lived up north back in 1973. They had good top 40. When we got back home, I was frustrated not being able to get a shot at DXing for it because 56 WFIL was a local. I'll bet a 1kw ND nighttime signal could be heard at that distance if the frequency was not taken up by other stations. I had the same problem attempting to hear WIOD up there because of WIP on the same frequency. Years later when I was in college up in Bethlehem, Pa, there was a night where I got WIOD along side a weak signal from WIP.

I can't get the exact location of WQAM's tower, but judging by "radio locator" it does appear that they are still on or very close to the water.

http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WQAM&service=AM&status=L&hours=D

 

[trusty]

I remember reading that WCBS tower had a salt water ground. I think the same is true for WIOD Miami.

In Miami, WQAM/560 had a great signal for 5kw. Low freq. + tower in the intercoastal waterway. HERE is a pic of its old tower and another pic HERE between the MacArthur and Venetian Causeways. Now, THAT's a salt water ground.

Where is their tower now & why did they move it?

Found this on a blog:
"That's the old WQAM, 560 AM tower. WQAM was the first station in Miami. Because of the buildings in the area blocking their signal, they moved to a new tower on Virginia Key. I think the old tower can still be used as their backup site."

and another one on old Radio-Info blog:
"WQAM is in Virginia Key, diplexed with WKAT, on one tower."

HERE are more pics of the old "water" tower. They are still ND.

 

[stormy01]

Re: Daytime salt water DX question (WQAM transmitter site)

This map from the FCC database might help: original search: http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/amq.html enter callsign (call letters), click on submit data, select power (day, critical hours, night - remember some stations have different sites for D/CH/N), then click on area map, *not* local map (usually that's not good, it's usually "oversimplified") but try it anyway just to be sure)

This is the map for WQAM:

http://tiger.census.gov/cgi-bin/map...IES,&off=streets,GRID,shorelin&ht=0.5&wid=0.5

Or try maps.google.com....enter the coordinates in this format...25 44 36 N 80 09 14 W (in other words, remove the
degrees [°] minutes ['] and seconds ["] symbols from the FCC database when entering the coordinates in maps.google.com...you'll see a photo of the the tower and surrounding environs...

 

[radioman148]

I remember reading that WCBS tower had a salt water ground. I think the same is true for WIOD Miami.

In Miami, WQAM/560 had a great signal for 5kw. Low freq. + tower in the intercoastal waterway. HERE is a pic of its old tower and another pic HERE between the MacArthur and Venetian Causeways. Now, THAT's a salt water ground.

Where is their tower now & why did they move it?

Found this on a blog:
"That's the old WQAM, 560 AM tower. WQAM was the first station in Miami. Because of the buildings in the area blocking their signal, they moved to a new tower on Virginia Key. I think the old tower can still be used as their backup site."

and another one on old Radio-Info blog:
"WQAM is in Virginia Key, diplexed with WKAT, on one tower."

HERE are more pics of the old "water" tower. They are still ND.

Thanks for the info. That's what you call real salt water ground.

 

[radioman148]

Re: Daytime salt water DX question (WQAM transmitter site)

This map from the FCC database might help: original search: http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/amq.html enter callsign (call letters), click on submit data, select power (day, critical hours, night - remember some stations have different sites for D/CH/N), then click on area map, *not* local map (usually that's not good, it's usually "oversimplified") but try it anyway just to be sure)

This is the map for WQAM:

http://tiger.census.gov/cgi-bin/map...IES,&off=streets,GRID,shorelin&ht=0.5&wid=0.5

Or try maps.google.com....enter the coordinates in this format...25 44 36 N 80 09 14 W (in other words, remove the
degrees [°] minutes ['] and seconds ["] symbols from the FCC database when entering the coordinates in maps.google.com...you'll see a photo of the the tower and surrounding environs...

Thanks. Glad to see their still underwater ;D

 

[tanner]

WDAE in St Pete is out in the middle of Tampa Bay. A causeway goes between the 2 towers

 

[radioman148]

WDAE in St Pete is out in the middle of Tampa Bay. A causeway goes between the 2 towers

How's their daytime signal?