KRAJ Antelope Valley

[Neel]

How good is the signal for 100.9 The Heat in the Lancaster/Palmdale area?

I was driving down US 395 this weekend and caught the station for a while. I know the station is licensed to Johannesburg, CA....but the signal seems pretty weak. The reception wasn't that great until about 20 miles north of Johannesburg and then started to fade out again near Kramer Jct. You can see the transmitter off the 395 and in Randsburg. I'm wondering if it's super-directional towards the Antelope Valley since they market themselves as an AV station. I would be curious to see if it can be picked up in Ridgecrest as well.

 

[radioguybroadcasting]

How good is the signal for 100.9 The Heat in the Lancaster/Palmdale area?

I was driving down US 395 this weekend and caught the station for a while. I know the station is licensed to Johannesburg, CA....but the signal seems pretty weak. The reception wasn't that great until about 20 miles north of Johannesburg and then started to fade out again near Kramer Jct. You can see the transmitter off the 395 and in Randsburg. I'm wondering if it's super-directional towards the Antelope Valley since they market themselves as an AV station. I would be curious to see if it can be picked up in Ridgecrest as well.

Its 1500W at 1319 feet with a Non Directional antenna...
http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=KRAJ&service=FM&status=L&hours=U

 

[XRQKFM]

Its 1500W at 1319 feet with a Non Directional antenna.

Only on paper! Both 100.9 and sister station 104.9 signals both favor the Antelope Valley, with deep nulls to the north and east and west. Case in point: 92.7 Ridgecrest can be herd clearly in Lone Pine with its antenna located on the valley floor in Ridgecrest at 185 ft above ground yet 100.9 & 104.9 can barely herd on most car radios. The same situation holds true for 100.1 Tehachapi; While staring at the transmitter site from Tehachapi, the signal is barely receivable, yet in Lancaster about 40 miles to the south the signal is city grade. A couple of years ago 97.7 Mojave lowered their antenna to the large face section of the tower, and aimed it 2 bay antenna towards Lancaster-Palmdale. The signal is now in the mud at the Motel 6 in Mojave the COL, which is line of sight to the tower. 103.9 which is co-located at the same site on a pole a very short distance from the 97.7 tower delivers a city grade signal in Mojave.

100.9 and 104.9 both can be herd towards Gorman on the I-5, and Frazier Park to the west of the I-5 and down towards Acton on Hwy 14.

I have been told as long as it looks good on the easily fudged paperwork, the FCC does not really care if the predicted contours are true. 103.1 which shares the tower site with 100.1 has changed its antenna system to favor coverage of Lancaster over the COL Tehachapi. Like 100.1 the 103.1 null is so deep towards Tehachapi, that it can barely be received in many parts of the greater Tehachapi area, like the Brite lake campground (line of site) with a stock car radio. Hitting the search button on most radios in Tehachapi will skip over both 100.1 & 103.1 but lock on a couple Bakersfield stations. In Lancaster hitting the search button, both 100.1 & 103.1 will cause the search to stop and lock on; even on local search mode.

On the Radio-Locater website, all the above stations claim to be non directional, if you believe that, I have a few homes I would like to unload in the Antelope Valley at 2005 market value.

I happen to listen to 104.9 with a good signal today and I was very close to the I-5 near Gorman.



Steve
www.radiobrandy.com

 

[Neel]

Interesting, thanks.

I went up to the track at Willow Springs last weekend and actually got to test out 100.9's signal to answer my own question. In the Suburban's radio, the signal was pretty lousy at Willow itself but gets better as you head toward the 14 in Rosamond. Down the 14 through Lancaster/Palmdale it is decent but did get static at certain points and pretty much faded out in the pass towards Santa Clarita. I don't know if it's a true Antelope Valley station if people in Palmdale can't receive the station with minimal static and effort.

I think I saw the tower for the station when I took a detour off the 395 and decided to explore around Randsburg to see what was out there.

100.1 on the other hand has a pretty good signal. I can clearly pick it up in Wrightwood when I'm at Mountain High.

Back in the day when I lived in Corona, I could get 103.1 from Techapi in my room over the 103.1 in Newport Beach (which irritated me cuz I wanted Groove, not country). I also remember picking up a faint 104.9 from Ridgecrest but I think my house location in Corona was some freak location that got unusual signals (including 96.1 from Brawley and 98.1 from Yermo).

 

[Todd]

I haven't been out that way in a few years, but unless KRAJ has done some serious upgrades... it's not a Palmdale/ Lancaster signal. KIIS is local, and even KGGI out of Riverside has a better signal in Palmdale / Lancaster.

 

[XRQKFM]

The offices for 100.9 KRAJ are co-located with the studios of 103.9 KGBB Edwards in Quartz Hill, at the corner of 50th west and ave M.

I went up to the track at Willow Springs last weekend and actually got to test out 100.9's signal to answer my own question

The 100.9 is pretty well shielded around Willow Springs, the 93.5 tower located near Willow Springs can barely make Mojave 15 miles away to give you an ideal how effective the shielding is.

100.1 on the other hand has a pretty good signal. I can clearly pick it up in Wrightwood when I'm at Mountain High.

Amazing since it can't make the COL with anything near a city grade signal.

KIIS is local

It is with a full power signal on 105.5

Steve
www.xrqk.com