Groundwave on the Rails

[trusty]

A few years ago, I overheard some guys at the next table talking about a small AM station that put out a fantastic signal because its tower was located next to, or in the middle of, a railroad intersection - with the rails going out in all directions to give the station virtual ground radials that reached out beyond its coverage area. The guys left before I could get the name or location of the station; they seemed to be talking about an actual station (not just theory).

So, I ask this fine group here; have you ever heard of such a station, and how much do you think the railroads could actually boost the station's groundwave coverage because of its tower location?

 

[pianoplayer88key]

I remember reading/hearing a similar story about 670 KBOI. From what I heard/read, the signal was loud and clear 250 miles southeast, and could be heard 400 miles to the west. I don't really have more info, though.

 

[boiseengineer]

Might be KGHL 790 Billings, MT at their old transmitter site?
New one's close to the tracks also.

 

[Tom Wells]

Don't know about the specific station referred to, but I have heard such an effect, even at quite a distance away from
a tx site. In NW Indiana, ( Hobart ) there is a spot where the Norfolk Southern rails point almost exactly at Tinley Park, where
WLS is located, and run on that bearing for 10-20 miles. When you cross the tracks you hear some really interesting
effects on WLS's sound, almost exactly as would be heard turning AM radio with loop antenna through a null point.
It has always been this way ever since I started driving in the late 70's, whenever I cross this particular spot.

I do not see any major long line power lines nearby or other reasons to account for the anomaly.


A friend recently bought a house immediately adjacent to an overhead Chicago CTA line. If a train falls off, it WILL be on his house. If he has a decent ground system, and operates an AM part 15, wouldn't there be a great possibility that some of the ground wave radiation will also get into into this elevated grounded steel structure, increasing his range?

 

[anotherguyTN]

The mention of long power lines made me think of a situation in my area. In the 80's and early 90's WGSF (at that time on 1210) in Memphis didn't come in around Jackson, TN because of the directional signal. I could get it very weakly around Dyersburg where I lived at the time. But a few miles NW of Jackson on Hwy. 412 going toward Dyersburg there was a set of high power electrical lines that came from the general driection of Memphis and when you drove under them it would come in very strong. If I remember correctly there were high power lines (Possibly the same set) that went through Arlington, where the tower array was at that time. That changed when they moved the array to a new location in Bartlett, which happened around 1995. When that happened the strong signal under the power lines was gone.