David, are you saying that WBZ's signal has degraded lately? I'm sorry, but I have to admit I'm confused by your two sentences above.
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Future of AM transmitter sites in the Boston area
- Thread starter Fenway1912
- Start date
I am saying that the increase in man made noise has required stronger signals to overcome it. The ITU says the minimum for clean AM reception in urban areas is 15 mV/m now.... that would reduce that inner contour by nearly half (power levels are exponential, taking 4 times the power to double coverage).
Where I live in Andover (~25 miles north of Boston) I only get WRKO cleanly at night. WBZ is full of static and electronic whistles that makes long-term listening at home very frustrating. Same with the other Boston stations (I only get 590 and 850, full of static...but no other stations).
When I am in my car, whether I get WBZ or not depends on which side of the road I am driving on: if I am on the side of the road where the Xfinity and Verizon wires are located, I can't hear WBZ. When the wires are on the other side of the road, I get WBZ with a lot of noise. Thankfully my car does have an HD radio, so it's off to WXKS-FM HD2.
Since Sirius-XM dropped the Boston traffic reports, WBZ is all that's left for traffic reports.
I, too, live in Andover, but get both 'BZ and 'RKO at home with no problems. Neither have I experienced the noise issue due to driving on the side of the street with Xfinity or VZ lines. Most VZ lines are optical fibers these days; they do not radiate even if a break occurs. A break in a Xfinity coaxial cable or at a broken connector MIGHT cause some noise. However, Xfinity requires power to run its inline amplifiers, and it may very well be the pole-mounted power supplies that are spewing out noise.
My 2004 Volvo had a khrappy AM radio with very poor sensitivity - except for noise, that is. This was a known design flaw in Volvo car radios. My 1988 Volvo, however, had a really decent AM radio, though I don't think any radio today is as good as those Philco car radios from the 1950s/60s.
Once WCBS becomes WHSQ in a few days, will WBZ be the last all-news station standing that isn't on FM? I realize that I'm tossing KRLD/Dallas out of the format, now that they only run "all-news" in AM & PM drive blocks
WSB AM in Atlanta is all news without an FM and it's #1 in the market.
I believe WSB is simulcast on 95.5 WSBB.
Aww, you're right, I forgot that.
Also involving transmitter sites/ antennae: WCAP 980 Lowell in financial trouble; sites could be foreclosed upon
www.lowellsun.com
The Column: More static at WCAP
INSTEAD OF being in the business of reporting the news, WCAP’s managing owner, Sam Poulten, is again making news — and not the good kind.
www.lowellsun.com
If the article is true, I wonder how Poulten has lasted this long
An article about the 2021 transmitter fire (L. Sun) is behind a pay wall but there's discussion on the station's situation on this thread:
Most AM noise is local. If there is a reception issue/noise, start figuring out what in your home or car is causing it.
I've found a device with a bad power supply causing problems in my house. My LED headlights in my car had some sort of broken wire/short issue and wiped out both AM and FM whenever I turned the headlights on. I've heard solar panels can be a problem and cause a lot of noise. Years ago my mother had trouble listening to her favorite station after she put a fluorescent lamp in a nearby birdcage making it noisy. Turn off the light and problem gone.
Put your radio on, start turning stuff off/unplugging stuff until the noise is eliminated or reduced.
If you have neighbors really close by - like in an apartment building - you could get noise from their stuff especially if your electrical system is shared.
I've lived in the Boston area since 1997 and I haven't noticed any degradation of WBZ's signal. I'll listen to it well past Worcester without a problem.
I've found a device with a bad power supply causing problems in my house. My LED headlights in my car had some sort of broken wire/short issue and wiped out both AM and FM whenever I turned the headlights on. I've heard solar panels can be a problem and cause a lot of noise. Years ago my mother had trouble listening to her favorite station after she put a fluorescent lamp in a nearby birdcage making it noisy. Turn off the light and problem gone.
Put your radio on, start turning stuff off/unplugging stuff until the noise is eliminated or reduced.
If you have neighbors really close by - like in an apartment building - you could get noise from their stuff especially if your electrical system is shared.
I've lived in the Boston area since 1997 and I haven't noticed any degradation of WBZ's signal. I'll listen to it well past Worcester without a problem.
My apartment building recently replaced all the hall lights (traditional fluorescents) with new fixtures/bulbs (likely LEDs).
Where previously I had very clean reception with minimal to no noise,
I now have a "buzz" across the AM dial which knocked out reception for all but 3 or 4 of the strongest local stations.
A previous home I lived in had a situation where if a particular light switch was on, it created quite a racket on AM radio.
Where previously I had very clean reception with minimal to no noise,
I now have a "buzz" across the AM dial which knocked out reception for all but 3 or 4 of the strongest local stations.
A previous home I lived in had a situation where if a particular light switch was on, it created quite a racket on AM radio.
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