KTCY Signal

[charles123]

Is it me or them? The signal is off on my radio, according to them they can hear it on their end but I can't on mine. Are they trying to upgrade or something? Because if they're not Air 1 will never work here in Dallas.

 

[Jay Walker]

Charles123
If you're south, south east of DFW Intl. It will be a tough catch.
I get them well north of McKinney near Anna. I am listening now @ 1:13p on a Bose table radio with the usual FM wire antenna a couple of feet long hanging behind the table.

Jay Walker

 

[charles123]

Charles123
If you're south, south east of DFW Intl. It will be a tough catch.
I get them well north of McKinney near Anna. I am listening now @ 1:13p on a Bose table radio with the usual FM wire antenna a couple of feet long hanging behind the table.

Jay Walker

Right now I'm right off of 183 & Mockingbird

 

[Jay Walker]

Charles123
If you're south, south east of DFW Intl. It will be a tough catch.
I get them well north of McKinney near Anna. I am listening now @ 1:13p on a Bose table radio with the usual FM wire antenna a couple of feet long hanging behind the table.

Jay Walker

Right now I'm right off of 183 & Mockingbird

According to my rough plot you are around 60 miles from the transmitter site.
You are well out of the 70 and probably the 60dbu contour... So the distance along with terrain differences, will most likely require an outside antenna for reliable reception...

Hope that helps.

Jay Walker

 

[julesism]

charles123, it's loud and clear on multiple radios here in Lewisville. I checked it the other night too when I saw your post on the other topic. It was working for me then too.

 

[Mediafrog+]

Before EMF took over KHJK here in Houston, the station was on its auxiliary site for over a week while repairs/maintenance were done on the main site. Guessing it was a stipulation of the sale that things get fixed. Could the same thing be going on with KTCY?

I'm able to hear the DFW northern rimshots with a good signal in Ennis on the drive along I-45..

 

[charles123]

Before EMF took over KHJK here in Houston, the station was on its auxiliary site for over a week while repairs/maintenance were done on the main site. Guessing it was a stipulation of the sale that things get fixed. Could the same thing be going on with KTCY?

I'm able to hear the DFW northern rimshots with a good signal in Ennis on the drive along I-45..

Does this mean a signal upgrade??

 

[Jay Walker]

Before EMF took over KHJK here in Houston, the station was on its auxiliary site for over a week while repairs/maintenance were done on the main site. Guessing it was a stipulation of the sale that things get fixed. Could the same thing be going on with KTCY?

I'm able to hear the DFW northern rimshots with a good signal in Ennis on the drive along I-45..

Does this mean a signal upgrade??

KTCY is at max for where they are located, and there's no way to upgrade or move further south as there are spacing issues. With 92,000 watts at 620m or 2046ft HAAT they are at the max for the area as close as they can get to DFW. So this is as good as it gets.

It's actually a respectable signal tower height and ERP wise but being southeast of Bowie and North of Bridgeport it's more of a Texoma signal than a DFW signal. Which make sense since this frequency was poached out of Ardmore OK (KIKM - I think)
The original KTCY was a Sherman station on 104.9 but with all of the juggling over the years it get's hard to remember who was what and when ;D

Mike Shannon can correct me if I am wrong in the timeline...

Currently KTCY is collocated with on the same tower as with the following stations and ERP for each station:

WBAP-FM (90kw)
KZZA (75kw)
KBOC FM (93kw)
KTCY (92kw)

The FCC shows a 10-bay ERI antenna with the center of radiation at 620m which is where the other signals on the tower are shown as well.

The signal level is par for the power/height so I don't believe it's a maintenance issue.
It's just one of those quirky things regarding the path between the transmitter and receiver....

All this info is compiled from the from the Cavell, Mertz, and Assoc application as well as the FCC query for the station.

Hope this helps...
Jay Walker

 

[Jay Walker]

To slightly Hi-Jack the thread but on a related note here's "Fun with math."

Using the posted power gain of 5.68 for the ERI SHPX-10AC6 10 Bay Antenna we find the required Transmitter Power Output (TPO) to reach the calculated effective radiated power (ERP) for each of the signals from that tower to be as follows:
ERP/5.68 (power gain)= TPO

WBAP-FM (90kw ERP) = (15,845 watts TPO)
KZZA (75kw) = (13,204 watts TPO)
KBOC FM (93kw) = (16,373 watts TPO)
KTCY (92kw) = (16,197 watts TPO)

Total Combined power to the antenna (not including combiner loss and line loss) is 61,619 watts which is below the Input Power Rating of 64 kW for the ERI SHPX-10AC6


***These TPO calculations do not include combiner loss in db or transmission line loss in db***

This gives you a good idea of what 93,000 watts ERP really is in terms of actual transmitter power.

Jay Walker

 

[charles123]

To slightly Hi-Jack the thread but on a related note here's "Fun with math."

Using the posted power gain of 5.68 for the ERI SHPX-10AC6 10 Bay Antenna we find the required Transmitter Power Output (TPO) to reach the calculated effective radiated power (ERP) for each of the signals from that tower to be as follows:
ERP/5.68 (power gain)= TPO

WBAP-FM (90kw ERP) = (15,845 watts TPO)
KZZA (75kw) = (13,204 watts TPO)
KBOC FM (93kw) = (16,373 watts TPO)
KTCY (92kw) = (16,197 watts TPO)

Total Combined power to the antenna (not including combiner loss and line loss) is 61,619 watts which is below the Input Power Rating of 64 kW for the ERI SHPX-10AC6


***These TPO calculations do not include combiner loss in db or transmission line loss in db***

This gives you a good idea of what 93,000 watts ERP really is in terms of actual transmitter power.

Jay Walker

The signal was on this morning, but went off again around 9 this morning. It's been doing that all week.

 

[Huff]

Currently KTCY is collocated with on the same tower as with the following stations and ERP for each station:

WBAP-FM (90kw)
KZZA (75kw)
KBOC FM (93kw)
KTCY (92kw)

The FCC shows a 10-bay ERI antenna with the center of radiation at 620m which is where the other signals on the tower are shown as well.

The signal level is par for the power/height so I don't believe it's a maintenance issue.
It's just one of those quirky things regarding the path between the transmitter and receiver....

All this info is compiled from the from the Cavell, Mertz, and Assoc application as well as the FCC query for the station.

Hope this helps...
Jay Walker

The other interesting aspect of this tower is that even though it's home to four FMs basically at the same height, there is not a master antenna. Instead it's topped with a mini-candelabra with 96.7, 101.7 and 106.7 each on one of the three mounts at 620m. 93.7 is twenty meters below on a side mount.

Scott Fybush has a good shot of the tower from his visit a few years ago:
http://www.fybush.com/site-021121.html

 

[Jay Walker]

Thanks Huff, I wasn't sure if the antenna was a master or separates. The FCC info did mention different centers of radiation (with-in a couple of meters) so I was going to assume they were individual but hedged my guess towards a master system. ???

I should have taken a look at Mr. Fybush's site as he's the "King" of all things tower related.

Jay Walker

 

[Kent]

It's actually a respectable signal tower height and ERP wise but being southeast of Bowie and North of Bridgeport it's more of a Texoma signal than a DFW signal. Which make sense since this frequency was poached out of Ardmore OK (KIKM - I think)
The original KTCY was a Sherman station on 104.9 but with all of the juggling over the years it get's hard to remember who was what and when ;D

101.7 is an ex-Denison signal (KDSQ, KDVE and KIKM). 104.9 is also an ex-Denison signal. It was the original KMKT. WBAP-FM is the original KIKM-FM.

 

[charles123]

Thanks Huff, I wasn't sure if the antenna was a master or separates. The FCC info did mention different centers of radiation (with-in a couple of meters) so I was going to assume they were individual but hedged my guess towards a master system. ???

I should have taken a look at Mr. Fybush's site as he's the "King" of all things tower related.

Jay Walker

Is KRNB's transmitter near KTCY's? Because KRNB did the same thing, it goes off around 9am but right now it's on.

 

[charles123]

Thanks Huff, I wasn't sure if the antenna was a master or separates. The FCC info did mention different centers of radiation (with-in a couple of meters) so I was going to assume they were individual but hedged my guess towards a master system. ???

I should have taken a look at Mr. Fybush's site as he's the "King" of all things tower related.

Jay Walker

It does sound like an upgrade because the signal is coming in loud and clear where I'm at.

 

[jd]

It does sound like an upgrade because the signal is coming in loud and clear where I'm at.

It might seem like an upgrade if you were having trouble hearing the station clearly where you are, since it's apparently back to full power. As for speculation about them having been on their back-up transmitter facility recently, the fact is that they don't have an auxiliary.

I'd suspect that some adjustments might have been made but as mentioned earlier in this thread KTCY is at the maximum in height and power where they are and there is no power increase or move possible that would many any appreciable difference. No applications have been filed to ''upgrade" the signal, and don't expect to see any.

 

[charles123]

It does sound like an upgrade because the signal is coming in loud and clear where I'm at.

It might seem like an upgrade if you were having trouble hearing the station clearly where you are, since it's apparently back to full power. As for speculation about them having been on their back-up transmitter facility recently, the fact is that they don't have an auxiliary.

I'd suspect that some adjustments might have been made but as mentioned earlier in this thread KTCY is at the maximum in height and power where they are and there is no power increase or move possible that would many any appreciable difference. No applications have been filed to ''upgrade" the signal, and don't expect to see any.

 

[charles123]

It does sound like an upgrade because the signal is coming in loud and clear where I'm at.

It might seem like an upgrade if you were having trouble hearing the station clearly where you are, since it's apparently back to full power. As for speculation about them having been on their back-up transmitter facility recently, the fact is that they don't have an auxiliary.

I'd suspect that some adjustments might have been made but as mentioned earlier in this thread KTCY is at the maximum in height and power where they are and there is no power increase or move possible that would many any appreciable difference. No applications have been filed to ''upgrade" the signal, and don't expect to see any.

No wonder the signal's been off all last week