J93 Signal

[taylorengineer]

I'm starting a new thread to reply to Brent's questions about J93 and it's signal. X-14 was correct to ask that the thread about Sheila not be turned into a J93 thread.
J93 has always been what is called in the industry a "rim shot." The current tower is some 45 miles out of downtown Atlanta, close to Greenville, Ga. It operates with 27,000 watts from a 1600 foot tower. Everything possible was done to optimize the signal to work best towards the Atlanta area but the distances and topology work against the signal.
There are high spots in the metro area where the signal is actually not bad. There are areas shaded by terrain features i.e.hills that have little signal. But the main thing which killed the Atlanta signal was digital broadcasting which creates a legal interference zone several channels on either side of a station broadcasting IBOC, or digital FM radio. The area you live in is swamped by 92.9 IBOC. It's all legal but is unfortunate for "rim shots." You probably have a hard time receiving 95.5 WSBB in your area because of 96.1 IBOC. There are other fringe signals which lost Atlanta coverage because of "progress."
Too bad IBOC hasn't caught on with the public. J93 possibly could possibly have remarkably better Atlanta coverage with full power IBOC (the recently approved higher power levels for digital.) But the physics of line of sight propagation of FM frequencies still remains - they will never cover the entire metro area from where they are - even with 100,000 watts.

 

[BIGSTICK]

Very well said, thank you. 8)

 

[secondchoice]

J93 should have bought or leased WLJA when it was on 93.5. The 93.5 signal was moved north into the Chattanooga Market and replaced by 101.1. 93.5 would have gave them some north side coverage. Maybe some sharp engineer could have found a way around 92.9's and 94.1 third channel protection, and improve 93.5's signal south towards Atlanta. You could hear Braves Baseball in most of Cobb county on the old 93.5.

 

[taylorengineer]

You would be amazed at all the scenerios that were discussed to improve the signal at J93. The IF issue with 104.1 in Newnan created a big problem with moving closer as did the 92.9 second adjacent issue. And even if they moved east and north, zoning was a negative - getting a tall tower built in some counties was nearly impossible. This company was/is not Cox.....it was never a "money is no object" kind of deal.
Even with a move closer in there is still the terrain issue. The land elevation in North Georgia slowly gets closer to sea level as you move south (it's really not that simple but in a coarse sense that's true.) Southern stations are essentially shooting "uphill " in the northern arc. There is a rather pronounced ridge just south of I-285(if my memory is correct) which impedes coverage also. Radio signals (FM) behave much like visable light - think of the shadowing created when an object is placed between you and a lightbulb. Same thing happens with FM signals.
Radio Training Network is sitting on some translators around Atlanta. Don't be surprised if one of those shows up in downtown Atlanta with 250 watts at 1000 feet........

 

[jabba17]

Peachtree Ridge (roughly a line from Peachtree Road to Buford Highway in Chamblee to Old Peachtree Road), which also serves as the Eastern Continental Divide (between the Atlantic and the Gulf) at its northern end, causes some obvious signal demarcation between the weaker north GA stations and the weaker ATL stations. For example, if you're south of the ridge, WXKT has issues. North of the ridge, WNNX has issues. This ridge is also why 107.5 is relocating to where the "Gwinnett Is Great" water towers used to be (which also took advantage of the high elevation).