KGOW POUNDING INTO MCKINNEY TX SATURDAY NIGHT AFTER SUNSET

[Jay Walker]

I don't know what time November power/pattern change is for Houston but here's the story...

I've never noticed KGOW 1560 Houston here at my location 280 plus miles from the KGOW transmitter. Granted they run 46kw daytime 15kw nights, but all of the signal day and night feeds the fishes in the gulf. Their signal was a solid 10 to 20db over S-9 on the ICOM 756 Pro and the 160m inverted V from 1800 zulu through 1930 zulu well past grey-line and into hard "Dark".

Since they were running Rice University Football maybe they "forgot" to make pattern/power change? At 1930 they made power/pattern change. Seems it was well past "dark" when they made the switch. Oddly enough during my monitoring times they were much much stronger than 50kw KOKC (KOMA) in OKC.

Again, I don't know what time November power/pattern change is for Houston but KGOW was pounding in well past dark

 

[bturner]

I'm not sure if they're the same sunset time as the station I work for but 1830 is the Daylight Savings Time sign off for November in nearby Cypress...probably 30 miles north

 

[Jay Walker]

I'm not sure if they're the same sunset time as the station I work for but 1830 is the Daylight Savings Time sign off for November in nearby Cypress...probably 30 miles north

I'd bet you are either the same time or plus/minus 15 minutes. The changeover is no big deal to me, I was just impressed with this "new signal" that popped up on the graveyard portion of the Dallas AM dial. I am still impressed with whatever propagation event we either had or didn't have to see a signal 20 over S-9.

I was checking to see if 1480 in DFW had made it back on the air after a LONG absence when to my surprise I get KGOW...

Ain't radio fun ;D

 

[jd]

Since they were running Rice University Football maybe they "forgot" to make pattern/power change? At 1930 they made power/pattern change. Seems it was well past "dark" when they made the switch. Oddly enough during my monitoring times they were much much stronger than 50kw KOKC (KOMA) in OKC.

Again, I don't know what time November power/pattern change is for Houston but KGOW was pounding in well past dark

This kind of thing has occurred many times in the past. The power change should have occurred at 6:30. Beginning tomorrow it's supposed to be at 5:30 CDT.

I'm not sure if they're the same sunset time as the station I work for but 1830 is the Daylight Savings Time sign off for November in nearby Cypress...probably 30 miles north

It's really 55 miles between the sites, but surprisingly the times noted for KGOW are the same as for KYND.

 

[Jay Walker]

Hi JD
My surprise was how well KGOW was pounding into McKinney at around 5:30 in the afternoon. They were stronger than the local on 1540 running 32kw just south of DFW International in the mid-cities, and stronger than KOKC in OKC. The signal strength was running between 10 and 20db over S-9.

Seriously, I figured I'd hear San Antonio (WOAI) long before I'd hear a station feeding fish in the Gulf. It just goes to show you, you'll never know what you can hear when you twist the big knob. 8)

 

[ChuckTiller]

There was a discussion about this before concerning KGOW's pattern/power change. As I remember, it is based on local sunset for KNZR, Bakersfield, California.

 

[Mediafrog+]

There was a discussion about this before concerning KGOW's pattern/power change. As I remember, it is based on local sunset for KNZR, Bakersfield, California.

The changes between day and night sites/patterns for KGOW are at local sunrise/sunset...the Bakersfield situation doesn't apply to them. Any operation on the day pattern after sunset would affect stations in OKC, the midwest, as well as WQEW in NYC.

Always been curious how KGOW avoided some sort of critical hours parameters for its signal.

I think we can chalk this one up to KGOW being late going to night site/pattern. The day pattern is pretty potent to the north when skywave kicks in.

 

[Jay Walker]

There was a discussion about this before concerning KGOW's pattern/power change. As I remember, it is based on local sunset for KNZR, Bakersfield, California.

Thanks for the heads up Chuck. I'll check into the relationship with KNZR simply out of curiosity. I don't have an axe to grind regarding the power/pattern change time. I was more intrigued by the reception of KGOW as they were in like a local around 5:30 in the afternoon when I had never heard them before. Propagation was definitely working in KGOW's favor. They were even stronger than the 32kw local on 1540 located south of DFW International.

Thanks for the clarification Mediafrog+. When I checked Radio-Locator's listing for the day pattern/night pattern it looked like the bulk of the power was shooting into the gulf and was pretty much nulled in my direction in far north Collin County around 10 miles north of McKinney. The antenna/receiver in use here is a 160m Inverted V into an ICOM 756 Pro.
I would guess the reason I'd never heard the station before is more than likely an example of "The right place at the right time".....

Thanks again ;D

Jay Walker

 

[Mediafrog+]

Thanks for the clarification Mediafrog+. When I checked Radio-Locator's listing for the day pattern/night pattern it looked like the bulk of the power was shooting into the gulf and was pretty much nulled in my direction in far north Collin County around 10 miles north of McKinney.

Keep in mind that the Radio-Locator maps are for groundwave signals, which are enhanced in coastal areas and over water. That's why it looks like most of the signal is headed over the Gulf. You'll see the same thing on other Houston stations. However pay attention to the red innermost contour, and you get a good idea of the actual radiation pattern.

For the KGOW daytime pattern, there is a deep null that goes towards Navasota and Hillsboro, but just east of that is the main lobe of the signal, and that would hit your north Collin County location.

The "Navasota null" is why many listeners in the western part of the Houston market get a poor signal from KGOW despite the 46kw. The central and eastern parts of the market get a flamethrower signal.

Your nearby KZMP 1540 throws most of its daytime signal E-W, with a deep null to the north, which is why it is weaker than the KGOW skywave you heard.

The KGOW night signal is the true fish-feeder, aimed right through the Yucatan Channel towards Colombia. It actually misses quite a bit of the northern part of Houston metro.

 

[OldChicago]

I don't know what time November power/pattern change is for Houston but here's the story...

I've never noticed KGOW 1560 Houston here at my location 280 plus miles from the KGOW transmitter. Granted they run 46kw daytime 15kw nights, but all of the signal day and night feeds the fishes in the gulf. Their signal was a solid 10 to 20db over S-9 on the ICOM 756 Pro and the 160m inverted V from 1800 zulu through 1930 zulu well past grey-line and into hard "Dark".

Since they were running Rice University Football maybe they "forgot" to make pattern/power change? At 1930 they made power/pattern change. Seems it was well past "dark" when they made the switch. Oddly enough during my monitoring times they were much much stronger than 50kw KOKC (KOMA) in OKC.

Again, I don't know what time November power/pattern change is for Houston but KGOW was pounding in well past dark

At the risk of making a fool of myself like I did the last time I made a comment about KGOW, I can speculate what may have happened bacause I have seen it happen before. The computer or person controlling the XMTR changeover did not adjust for the change back
CST Sunday morning and is still going on as if it still CDT.

OLD CHICAGO

 

[Jay Walker]

At the risk of making a fool of myself like I did the last time I made a comment about KGOW, I can speculate what may have happened bacause I have seen it happen before. The computer or person controlling the XMTR changeover did not adjust for the change back
CST Sunday morning and is still going on as if it still CDT.

Hello OLD CHICAGO

Hello OLD CHICAGO
After I started my little thread I realized we were at the first of the month ;D
Back in the day when power/pattern change required "thought" I had a dual alarm digital clock kit which did the switch. It worked well BUT only if I remembered to re-set the times on the last day of the month. Since I was scanning around critical hours for the Central time zone and KGOW was running day power/pattern I happened to be in "The right place at the right time".

It works for me...
: : : : : : : :
Jay Walker

 

[mrbeasley]

Every AM license, where a directional antenna is authorized, specifies that all times are in Standard Time. The computer, or the person controlling the transmitter must switch the pattern/power based on what the time would be in Standard Time. With the present day transmitter remote controls this is a simple as setting the pattern change clock to Standard Time all year long. Then there is no mistake about when the switch takes place. A good engineer knows this.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

I wonder if this could be as simple as a totally automated system that didn't know daylight savings time end had changed a few years ago.

 

[Jay Walker]

Every AM license, where a directional antenna is authorized, specifies that all times are in Standard Time. The computer, or the person controlling the transmitter must switch the pattern/power based on what the time would be in Standard Time. With the present day transmitter remote controls this is a simple as setting the pattern change clock to Standard Time all year long. Then there is no mistake about when the switch takes place. A good engineer knows this.

I don't know the operational situation at KGOW, but in defense of my fellow Chief Engineers/Operators, many engineers these days are operating more than one facility. Contrary to the misconceptions I see on some of these power/pattern related posts, not every station has a state of the art B.E., Nautel, Harris or Continental transmitter with the latest in computer control. Yes indeed it's true most new AM transmitters have the ability to handle power/pattern changeover including daylight savings time compensation automatically.

However...

Many of these shoe-string operations are running transmitters from the late 60's and early 70's and in a lot of cases there's no one on-site at the facility (low budget shoe string operation). The typical budget remote control is basic and has a limited amount of "Alarm" conditions where it will robo-dial for help. Most in general only have the basic low plate voltage, low plate current, low common point, high room temp and tower lights alarm functions. The Burke remote control has 16 functions, readings and alarms on a fully built out system. With a 5 tower direction you've ate up ten positions just reading tower phase and ratios...the remaining six are rapidly used up with other primary needs.

Kicking it "old school"...

Years ago, I used a dual alarm digital clock built from a kit with an external interface to handle switching from a Collins 21E at 5kw to a General Electric XT-1 running 1kw. The change over handled power, transmitter, and phaser. This was in the early 70's way before Glass panel transmitters. It always worked great unless I forgot to change the alarm times on the occasional end of the month Sunday evening.

Jay Walker

 

[Rad10]

Nobody said they noticed it was accurate last night... My bad, i missed the time change settings on the remote control.