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KDUX signal

C

Cobra14

By comparing to other stations and knowing what station signal used to be like it’s weaker than it used to be. Like a lot weaker. Used to be one of the biggest signals in the area. Now even in Elma it’s not like it used to be. Also that Catholic chatter on 104.7 from right over the hill In Olympia steps on it. It almost seems like the Catholic station has a bigger signal now. Used to get KDUX all the way toward and past Tacoma back in the day. Now it’s all 104.7 in Olympia with HD noise from 104.9 and noise from 104.5.

True fact 101.7 translator gets out better than 104.7 KDUX now. Something toasted at KDUX TX site? Like damn.
 
I am sure Alpha Media is not too focused on this tiny cluster. Four stations - 2AMs, Class A FM, Class C2 FM and an FM xltr. BossBill knows the market. He might have some insight... or you could just call the station...
 
KDUX has been on low power for quite a while now. I was told last year that a) lightening hit the transmitter, or b) there was a power surge. I've heard both versions, but their main FM transmitter is toast. My best guess is it's been on low power for well over a year, maybe a couple of years. We drive between Allyn and Aberdeen twice a week, and I've noted that the KDUX signal level at McCleary is about the same as my FM translators, which are running 250 watts. Whether they are operating under a legally-required STA, I don't know. Call the station... see what they say.

Last year, my Class A FM KANY developed a problem and would only make half power. What I did was buy a new transmitter and got back to full power; I'll be repairing the old one and keeping it as a backup.
 
Tracks what I observed. Toasted transmitter. Probably doesn’t matter much if the main desired areas are covered.
 
Population-wise, the growth area is eastern Grays Harbor County, 25-35 miles from transmitter sites.
 
Wondering if whoever is in charge is seeing a correlation of revenue loss due to poor signal or if they don’t see it as an urgent issue because the ads are still selling. It’s been that long. You’d think they’d get it back up to at least enough power to cover those areas mentioned better. Like you observed too, the translators at 250 watts are just as strong as KDUX now. KDUX is supposed to be running like 30kw or so. Wouldn’t be that hard to get at least 1/4 of that. I don’t know anything about the antennas and what power it takes to get 1/4 of the licensed Output.

As it is now, seems like they have an Amazon bought transmitter on the air at like 100 watts. Hope they don’t burn up the wall-wort running it. Or cigarette adapter plug.
 
KDUX is a Class C2, licensed at 31 kw, with a six-bay antenna. At the same site, they have an aux transmitter licensed for 40 watts, single bay antenna. I don't recall the main transmitter, but 10 kw TPO would sound reasonable (TPO x .5 x 6).

And that's a wrap.
 
Why would they want such a small transmitter for the aux? It’s not that much more to get a bigger one is it? Like a couple grand $ or so? Seems like they’d want at least a thousand watts or so. Or maybe they want to run the aux for long time with minimal power requirements like if the power went out or something for a long time. Doesn’t make sense tho. 100 watts with 40 out the antenna. Like damn.
 
Haven't been out to the Washington coast in a while, but KDUX used to be one of the strongest signals out there. I could hear them clearly all of the way up towards Forks.

As for the auxiliary transmitter, many smaller market stations don't see much value in investing in the best equipment for an auxiliary. Given that the auxiliary transmitter, in theory, is not supposed to run that often, it doesn't really need to be be their finest piece of equipment. I once worked for a radio station with a backup site that covered a fraction of the main transmitter. It still worked out okay. KDUX's auxiliary seems to hit most of the area where their advertisers are, so they're probably content with it. The fact that they're a little weak to the east is the only real issue that I see. Some advertisers may want to make sure that they're hitting communities like Elma and McCleary.
 
Cobra14 said:
Why would they want such a small transmitter for the aux? It’s not that much more to get a bigger one is it? Like a couple grand $ or so?
Click to expand...
A type accepted 1 kw transmitter, such as GatesAir or Nautel, think around $8,000 and up.

This is a widely known manufacturer outside the US (don't know if type accepted in US) that I have seen in Latin America...

FM Transmitters from BW Broadcast

BW Broadcast high performance FM Transmitters and exciters for radio stations, theatres, stadiums, translation and the lab.
www.bwbroadcast.com www.bwbroadcast.com

Look at FM transmitter prices.
 
BW's gear was indeed solid, very well priced, and was very widely used in the US for LPFMs, translators and other low-power applications... until both the company's principals died during the pandemic and the company abruptly went out of business.

The website may still be up, but there's nobody there to build or sell you a new unit.
 
We bought an Elenos 3kw FM transmitter a year ago from BE for just about $10k; nice rig (they're probably more like $12k now). And just purchased a couple of 3kw units from Gates Air at $12-13k each including built-in Orban 5-band processing. Also very nice!
Nautel also very good but lower-power units are a bit bulkier.

40 watts ERP is running from an exciter. A non-starter.
 
fordranger797 said:
Haven't been out to the Washington coast in a while, but KDUX used to be one of the strongest signals out there. I could hear them clearly all of the way up towards Forks.

As for the auxiliary transmitter, many smaller market stations don't see much value in investing in the best equipment for an auxiliary. Given that the auxiliary transmitter, in theory, is not supposed to run that often, it doesn't really need to be be their finest piece of equipment. I once worked for a radio station with a backup site that covered a fraction of the main transmitter. It still worked out okay. KDUX's auxiliary seems to hit most of the area where their advertisers are, so they're probably content with it. The fact that they're a little weak to the east is the only real issue that I see. Some advertisers may want to make sure that they're hitting communities like Elma and McCleary.
Click to expand...
Elma and McCleary happen to be the fastest-growing parts of Grays Harbor County, and receive good signals from the Olympia area stations, including KXXO, KRXY, KYYO.
 
WE have BW TX's in service at a few places, including two back ups

Were installing Nautel VS150s are 5 of our stations
 
I've noticed the weak to non-existent signal up in the WA Cascades. At the 6500' level above White Pass/US-12 (Hogback Mountain), KDUX was tentatively logged and quite weak, with mostly KDUK in Eugene audible on 104.7. Meanwhile, Astoria FMs were very strong, especially KMUN 91.9 over KDNA. Their signal was much stronger when I was just a few miles away at a similar elevation in 2020.
 
You think they’d have a backup somewhere they could “borrow”. Isn’t KDUX owned by Alpha now? Don’t they have a rather large operation in Portland where they could get a bigger transmitter than 40 watts? Like maybe a backup 1KW or something that’s sitting on a shelf not being used in another market. Maybe not since they haven’t done that yet. Or maybe they’re getting the money worth out of that 40 watts.
 
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