Do American Stations Need to Protect Other Stations Not in North America?

[Steve Green NEPA]

Some here will remember when in late '62 during the Cuban Missile Crisis there were DXer reports of Cuban stations on what sounded like every AM frequency. As a kid I caught several of them in annoying dial places myself. Station logbooks like White's, Jones and the WRTVHandbook were useless for any ID purposes. Auroral conditions and the colder DX weather made things worse for any DXer or listeners east of the Mississippi and even into the Louisiana Purchase territory.
Never could fathom what such overkill was trying to reach in Castro's own country, and it became evident that he just didn't want any AMers from the US or anywhere else coming INTO his turf.
So much for treaties, graciousness and compliance. And a half-hearted, grudging, DXer 'nice going' to those who basically added a hundred pirate stations onto their 'logged' files.
With Brendan Carr (and his career catharsis that comprises Chapter 28 of the Project 2025 blueprint) heading the FCC, expect to find the seep of politics inexorably shouldering aside many purely 'radio' discussions -- administrators' and moderators' standards notwithstanding.

 

[davideduardo]

Same for KFMB 760 San Diego, 50,000 watts at night but as a Class II.

KFMB is a unique exception to several rules. It was on 540 until a renegotiation of NARBA gave that channel to Mexico, extending a great distance into the U.S. so the FCC had to give something comparable to KFMB and the best-of-the-worts choices was 760.

KOH 780 Reno, KBOI 670 Boise, KDWN 720 Las Vegas, KTNQ 1020 Los Angeles, all of them full time 50,000 watt stations but all Class II.

More exceptions. When the FCC broke down most of the 1-A clear cha nine ls to better serve the rural West, George Storer financed a 50 kw station in Roswell, NM, in exchange for a really bad 50 kw full time in LA.

Among the @-A clears broken down in the West were 660, 670, 720, 780, 1210, 1180, 1100, 840, 880, 890 and a couple of others. All the new ones were 10 kw and above and highly directional at night.

WGY didn't have to make any changes to its single-tower antenna. It stayed 50,000 watts non-directional. But it did have to drop its high ranking I-A status when KGO went to 50,000 watts as a co-equal Class I-B.

But by the time that happened permanently, TV was taking o er nights with Americans and those big signals did not matter at all.

 

[davideduardo]

Some here will remember when in late '62 during the Cuban Missile Crisis there were DXer reports of Cuban stations on what sounded like every AM frequency. As a kid I caught several of them in annoying dial places myself. Station logbooks like White's, Jones and the WRTVHandbook were useless for any ID purposes. Auroral conditions and the colder DX weather made things worse for any DXer or listeners east of the Mississippi and even into the Louisiana Purchase territory.
Never could fathom what such overkill was trying to reach in Castro's own country, and it became evident that he just didn't want any AMers from the US or anywhere else coming INTO his turf.

Cuba always had huge numbers of stations and several big national networks. It eve n had a couple of 1-B clear channels.

That nation is 800 miles wide, and no station alone covers even a wide portion of it well. It takes at least a dozen 10 kw or more stations on good frequencies to cover Cuba even moderately well.

But in the earliest 60’s all stations were nationalized and became voices for Fidel and his new government. When the missile crisis occurred, no stations had been rebuilt to increase power or to even violate NARBA. That came later as the Russians built more and bigger stations.

 

[davideduardo]

One time while listening to WSM, the propagation briefly shifted. I heard the ending of "Don't sleep in the subway " by Petula Clark. It appears to have come from Cuba by the antenna direction. That only happened once.

650 also had well received (by DXers) stations in Colombia and Venezuela, straight across a salt water path.

 

[tvnut]

Some here will remember when in late '62 during the Cuban Missile Crisis there were DXer reports of Cuban stations on what sounded like every AM frequency. As a kid I caught several of them in annoying dial places myself. Station logbooks like White's, Jones and the WRTVHandbook were useless for any ID purposes. Auroral conditions and the colder DX weather made things worse for any DXer or listeners east of the Mississippi and even into the Louisiana Purchase territory.
Never could fathom what such overkill was trying to reach in Castro's own country, and it became evident that he just didn't want any AMers from the US or anywhere else coming INTO his turf.
So much for treaties, graciousness and compliance. And a half-hearted, grudging, DXer 'nice going' to those who basically added a hundred pirate stations onto their 'logged' files.
With Brendan Carr (and his career catharsis that comprises Chapter 28 of the Project 2025 blueprint) heading the FCC, expect to find the seep of politics inexorably shouldering aside many purely 'radio' discussions -- administrators' and moderators' standards notwithstanding.

That Cuban push across the band was a response to the U.S. convincing some major AM powerhouses (WWL, WSB, WCKY and WGBS Miami) to carry VOA programs in Spanish for several nights beginning with Kennedy's speech announcing the missile presence in Cuba. Seven AM stations were used at first, followed by KAAY soon after, and WGN, then said to be audible in Cuba, on its own the first night repeated Kennedy's speech in English and Spanish overnight instead of its good music program. WKWF Key West, all 500 watts, also joined in, along with three shortwave stations.

 

[davideduardo]

That Cuban push across the band was a response to the U.S. convincing some major AM powerhouses (WWL, WSB, WCKY and WGBS Miami) to carry VOA programs in Spanish for several nights beginning with Kennedy's speech announcing the missile presence in Cuba.

They were “convinced” by big amounts of cash. Stations did not make money in overnights.

Seven AM stations were used at first, followed by KAAY soon after, and WGN, then said to be audible in Cuba, on its own the first night repeated Kennedy's speech in English and Spanish overnight instead of its good music program. WKWF Key West, all 500 watts, also joined in, along with three shortwave stations.

And what nobody in DC realized is that Cuba had stations on nearly every AM frequency, often several. None of those US signals was really listenable in Cuba. But the political “noise” was part of the whole campaign against Cuba’s association with Russia in the depth of the Cold War.

 

[tvnut]

They were “convinced” by big amounts of cash. Stations did not make money in overnights.

And what nobody in DC realized is that Cuba had stations on nearly every AM frequency, often several. None of those US signals was really listenable in Cuba. But the political “noise” was part of the whole campaign against Cuba’s association with Russia in the depth of the Cold War.

The report in Broadcasting said the government asked the stations to bill them for the air time after the crisis was over.

I haven't read every issue of Broadcasting on your amazing website, but have you ever heard the government helped finance some major stations to broadcast all night early in the Conelrad era – so the 1950s – so they would be able to be on the air if there was an attack alert?

 

[davideduardo]

I haven't read every issue of Broadcasting on your amazing website, but have you ever heard the government helped finance some major stations to broadcast all night early in the Conelrad era – so the 1950s – so they would be able to be on the air if there was an attack alert?

Never heard that story, but I learn new stuff every day!

It does sound credible, though. I was rather young at the height of the nuclear attack paranoia of the mid to late 50's, but remember the drills at school where we would duck under our classroom desks as if that would protect us from an "atom bomb". I even managed to hear several of the CONELRAD national tests, but never realized that there might have been incentivization for stations to remain on the air.

In that mid-50's period, not a lot of stations were on the air 24/7. Even those that were on 24 hours a day were off on Sunday night - Monday morning after Midnight for maintenance. There were AM frequencies that were so empty on Monday morning that 4 AM EST sign-ons from Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay were easy to hear as were stations in Hawaii, New Zealand and Australia after midnight, PST... all from my Ohio location.

So it would seem that the technocrats in DC in charge of alert systems might have worried that the Russians might pick 3 AM EST on a Monday morning for a nuclear attack, knowing that nearly all mainland US stations would be off the air!

Is that a paranoid thought, or what?

 

[radiofan2023]

They were “convinced” by big amounts of cash. Stations did not make money in overnights.

Is that what led to the rule/law/whatever it’s called that makes VOA not target their programming to people in the US, no matter what language it’s in?

 

[davideduardo]

Is that what led to the rule/law/whatever it’s called that makes VOA not target their programming to people in the US, no matter what language it’s in?

Good question; I will look this up later. My collection does not include much on the history of the VOA / RFE / Radio Martí / et. al. but I believe that the original founding of the VOA specified that it could not direct programming at domestic audiences.

If anyone has links or sources for data on the early days of the VoA, please let me know and I will try to build a section of WorldRadioHistory about it!

 

[KeithE4]

Is that what led to the rule/law/whatever it’s called that makes VOA not target their programming to people in the US, no matter what language it’s in?

No shortwave station in the US is "supposed" to target American audiences. That's been FCC policy probably since at least WW2. Of course, we know that's total BS, since the religious broadcasters do so blatantly, and on frequencies not allocated for shortwave broadcasting in the US (60 and 90 meters).

VOA isn't under FCC jurisdiction, but AFAIK they've always had the same policy, although they've always verified reception reports from US listeners. I think it's because they're not supposed to compete with commercial stations.

 

[tvnut]

Is that what led to the rule/law/whatever it’s called that makes VOA not target their programming to people in the US, no matter what language it’s in?

No, that law was in place. Some wondered at the time if the move violated the law, but the threat of nukes pushed it to the back burner and it faded away. Plus, the stations didn't have to do it, but went along with press secretary Pierre Salinger's "suggestion."

 

[radiofan2023]

No, that law was in place. Some wondered at the time if the move violated the law, but the threat of nukes pushed it to the back burner and it faded away. Plus, the stations didn't have to do it, but went along with press secretary Pierre Salinger's "suggestion."

Thanks for explaining.

 

[WCJ]

I can understand why 640 was picked for a Conelrad freq, but why 1240 with it being a graveyard freq?

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

@ WCJ

Volume.
Back in the days of yore, 640 had one station on 24 hours, and that was on the west coast.
Check out this 1240 map, though. Courtesy of nf8m

https://nf8m.com/pattern_maps/current/DAYTIME-UNLIMITED/DAYTIME-UNLIMITED_1240KHz-1.html

 

[secondchoice]

I can understand why 640 was picked for a Conelrad freq, but why 1240 with it being a graveyard freq?

Because there were (are) literally 100's of stations on that frequency. Radio directional finding would be hard. Also there could be a lot of "local" messages sent without have to change out crystals likre stations on other frequencies. I heard rumors that some stations were supposed to put in 640 crystals retune the antenna and use 640 at specific times.

I just thank God they never really had to use the Conrad system.

 

[davideduardo]

I can understand why 640 was picked for a Conelrad freq, but why 1240 with it being a graveyard freq?

In every area, most if not all stations were part of CONELRAD. Transmitters made in the 50's had switches on the front panel to change to 640 or 1240.

During CONELRAD tests, multiple stations would switch on and off in each area, preventing individual transmitter sites from being homed in on.

640 was not picked because on big station was on it. It was picked so that there would be a lower band channel and an upper band channel to allow nearly all stations to "jump" to one of them at highly reduced power.

 

[davideduardo]

Because there were (are) literally 100's of stations on that frequency.

And not just the existing 1240 stations used that channel for the operation. All participating stations on the high end of the dial would alternately move there for a few minutes at a time.

Radio directional finding would be hard. Also there could be a lot of "local" messages sent without have to change out crystals likre stations on other frequencies. I heard rumors that some stations were supposed to put in 640 crystals retune the antenna and use 640 at specific times.

You can't just change the crystal and move to a new channel. The tuned circuitry in the transmitter and at the Antenna Tuning Unit was all "tuned wrong" so very low power was used or the transmitters would kick off. Some transmitters had a separate CONELRAD section that allowed them to move to one of the two channels, but most did not.

 

[secondchoice]

Three or less channels may be doable. 990 to 1240 really tuff. Most likely would be at the lowest power the transmitter would run. One would wonder in a nuclear fallout environment who is going to go to the dog house to retune the antenna? Did they ever have a test to see if changing frequency 20 or 30 channels up would really work?

 

[semoochie]

On the San Francisco board, a question was asked about 810 KGO's directional antenna. We know it protects WGY Schenectady. BLA wants to know if KGO "must also protect the skywave for DZRJ AM 810 in Manila?"

Having a continent to ourselves, I guess the U.S., Mexico and Canada don't require its AM stations to protect anyone other than each other, plus The Bahamas and at one time Cuba. Did Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Bermuda or any other nearby island nation participate as well?

We do know that Hawaiian stations, despite being 2,500 miles out in the Pacific, do have to protect some West Coast stations and visa-versa. But even that is pushing the boundaries of what an AM station needs to protect.

Hawaiian stations are non-directional.