Hurricane DX: AM stations allowed to use daytime power at night?

[cd637299]

Didn't know that about KWKH. Was hearing it in south FL this week....seemed like the same signal that their 50 k directional array put out. Pretty decent for 12.5 k ND.

cd

 

[MarioMania]

How about Earthquake on the West Coast??

What's the rules about AM station staying on??

 

[radioman148]

Haven't they been working on these towers for a long time?

For the engineers at KWKH (and KEEL, too) it must seem like forever. The problem with the sites was identified several years ago and work began back in 2007. If things had gone smoothly they would have been done with it long ago.

2007, I didn't realize it was that long.

 

[LibertyNT]

Didn't know that about KWKH. Was hearing it in south FL this week....seemed like the same signal that their 50 k directional array put out. Pretty decent for 12.5 k ND.

cd

I was listening to KWKH here in DFW for a bit last saturday,
The Signal was Strong then Dropped out at midnight.
Maybe they run the 12.5 K until midnight then go to normal night pattern?

 

[cd637299]

^ I heard it after midnight EST at work...Will have to check out the next hour!

cd

 

[davideduardo]

It is true that AM stations can use daytime facilities after sunset during emergency conditions, but there are some rather iffy restrictions. For one thing, it's only permitted if the station is the only source of emergency information in a given area. This is open to some interpretation, but generally if there's a full-power FM station in the same area with storm coverage, the AM station can't really claim to be the only source. I would guess most major-market AMs would fall into this category.

The suburban stations could, in general, state that they were providing location specific info if they even attempted to stay on... most today have no news department and no ability to provide any service, so it's a moot point in most places.

An AM might argue that FM has limitations in some cities, particularly when folks are being told to stay indoors where an AM might penetrate better. If the station could show some reasonable effort at providing service, if the disaster is large, the FCC would likely not want to pass judgment on a real effort towards serving listeners. For example, if a Spanish or Black targeted station said that they were serving a unique group with special interests, nobody is going to question that position.

 

[Icangelp]

Don't know if it was a result of remaining ND during the storm, but 1110/WBT was unusually strong when I tuned in around 10:40 p.m. I assume both 1120/KMOX and 1100/WTAM are IBOC, as WBT was almost obliterated by noise.

 

[nocomradio]

Here in VA, the AM dial sounded pretty much as usual. No exceptionally strong stuff or distant stuff was coming in that I can't normally catch. That was around 10-12PM last night when Irene was moving Northward and starting to thin out a bit.

I did however notice that the FM dial was much more full. I was pulling in a few stations on adjacents to my locals. Mostly on the lower end of the dial.

 

[cyberdad]

The only out-of-the-ordinary thing I heard last night (Saturday night) was a strong signal from WTIC. WTIC is usually invisible here in the far northwest suburbs of Chicago or, at best, buried under a semi-local 1080. Last night, however, there it was well on top of everything else....but with Red Sox baseball.

 

[radioman148]

The only out-of-the-ordinary thing I heard last night (Saturday night) was a strong signal from WTIC. WTIC is usually invisible here in the far northwest suburbs of Chicago or, at best, buried under a semi-local 1080. Last night, however, there it was well on top of everything else....but with Red Sox baseball.

I wonder if they were operating on their ND daytime pattern?

 

[hipporadio]

The only difference I noticed last night in the Cincinnati area was the strong and consistent presence of 1100 WBT Charlotte. They usually drop off the radar here when they switch to their night pattern – replaced by a weaker KFAB for about an hour. When 'FAB hits the night switch, 1110 becomes a low-level "bog" of IBOC trash from KMOX, occasionally-bobbing WBT, and even a strange appearance of down-the-road 250-watt daytimer—WCBR in Richmond, KY. Yes, this obviously-automated and likely-unattended gospel station has disregarded its signoff requirement and broadcast thru the night on MANY occasions—at times for MONTHS at a stretch. They have no PSSA or flea-power night authorization, and I've driven past Richmond at least a dozen times after dark and heard them for a good distance along I-75. :

 

[ddsparxx]

About 4:50 AM EST this morning in VA I heard a music station on 560 with a signal that is strong for a short period of time, the music sounded like easy listening vocals probably in Spanish, with announcements in Spanish. If this is not a Cuban station, then what could it be?

 

[MarioMania]

How about Earthquake on the West Coast??

 

[ddsparxx]

Disregard what I said earlier--it appears to be my post (reply 31) doesn't belong in this thread.

Mario, I doubt the thread title would apply to west coast earthquake disasters.

 

[nd2023]

Perhaps disassociated per se with the thread, but I didn't want to start another thread.

I'm not an accomplished FM DXer like so many here. It seems to me, however, that some meterological conditions, perhaps similar to tropo, might occur during violent coastal weather.

Anyone here ever FM DX during a hurricane? If you had unusual success, from which side or direction of the storm were you listening? Were you in it or ouside the area? If conditions are indeed enhanced, how would they be described? Would only the area up to the end of the outer rain bands fall under the impacted situation, or might the effect extend further than that?

Before Earl just missed our area last year, there was great tropo from Boston to South Carolina.