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KVOI's Poor Signal

R

RadioBill

For the past week KVOI appears to be having a serious problem with their nighttime facility. For example, here in Sahuarita before KVOI's 7am powerup I'm hearing "Wake-Up Wyoming" (KTWO) instead of "Wake-Up Tucson". Last night at I-19 and Irvington KVOI was completely buried by K2 and a Spanish speaker (presumably a Mexican).

In addition, KVOI's daytime facility always has been weak for 10kw. Their coverage resembles nothing like this:

Radio-Locator.com

Radio Station Search Engine
radio-locator.com radio-locator.com
For example in the Kearny-Winkleman area they have a very weak signal on my car radio. It seems like no matter which direction I'm driving away from Tucson, 1080 KGVY's and 1290 KCUB's 1kw signals are equal to or slightly better than 1030 KVOI's 10kw signal.
 
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Yep, the signal has been doing that for about two weeks. Usually dropping out around 5:30pm and back up to full strength at 7am. It seemed like it was fixed on Wednesday but it was back out on Thursday night. I live in north Tucson and the signal usually comes in loud and clear in the evening.
 
Filed friday with the FCC for KVOI, I'm assuming non directional, as when a directional station gets 25 percent of licensed power, its usually Non D

STATION KVOI(AM) HREEBY REQUESTS A SPECIAL TEMPORARY AUTHORIZATION TO OPERATE WITH 250 WATTS OF POWER DURING NIGHTTIME HOURS, OR 25% OF THE STATION'S LICENSED NIGHTTIME POWER. THE REQUESTED STA IS CONTEMPLATED BY 47 CFR 73.1560(D).

THE LOWER POW OPERATION IS NECCESARY AS THE RESULT OF SOME TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES. THE LICENSEE IS CURRENTLY TRYING TO DETERMINE THE SOURCE OF THE PROBLEM SO THAT IT CAN BE REPAIRED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

THE PUBLIC INTEREST, CONVENIENCE AND NECESSITY WOULD BE WELL SERVED BY THE REQUESTED STA, WHICH WILL ENABLE THIS MINORITY-OWNED AM STATION ON THE AIR AT NIGHT UNTIL THE PROBLEM IS SOLVED, AND REPAIRS ARE MADE.
 
RadioBill said:
For the past week KVOI appears to be having a serious problem with their nighttime facility. For example, here in Sahuarita before KVOI's 7am powerup I'm hearing "Wake-Up Wyoming" (KTWO) instead of "Wake-Up Tucson". Last night at I-19 and Irvington KVOI was completely buried by K2 and a Spanish speaker (presumably a Mexican).

In addition, KVOI's daytime facility always has been weak for 10kw. Their coverage resembles nothing like this:

Radio-Locator.com

Radio Station Search Engine
radio-locator.com radio-locator.com
For example in the Kearny-Winkleman area they have a very weak signal on my car radio. It seems like no matter which direction I'm driving away from Tucson, 1080 KGVY's and 1290 KCUB's 1kw signals are equal to or slightly better than 1030 KVOI's 10kw signal.
Click to expand...
Well, SRG's post quoting the STL helps! I should also mention that skywave signals have a way of coming in just under or just over a local signal and wreaking havoc on the signal. Congrats on getting KTWO!
SomeRadioGuy said:
Filed friday with the FCC for KVOI, I'm assuming non directional, as when a directional station gets 25 percent of licensed power, its usually Non D

STATION KVOI(AM) HREEBY REQUESTS A SPECIAL TEMPORARY AUTHORIZATION TO OPERATE WITH 250 WATTS OF POWER DURING NIGHTTIME HOURS, OR 25% OF THE STATION'S LICENSED NIGHTTIME POWER. THE REQUESTED STA IS CONTEMPLATED BY 47 CFR 73.1560(D).

THE LOWER POW OPERATION IS NECCESARY AS THE RESULT OF SOME TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES. THE LICENSEE IS CURRENTLY TRYING TO DETERMINE THE SOURCE OF THE PROBLEM SO THAT IT CAN BE REPAIRED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

THE PUBLIC INTEREST, CONVENIENCE AND NECESSITY WOULD BE WELL SERVED BY THE REQUESTED STA, WHICH WILL ENABLE THIS MINORITY-OWNED AM STATION ON THE AIR AT NIGHT UNTIL THE PROBLEM IS SOLVED, AND REPAIRS ARE MADE.
Click to expand...
Thank you. I wonder what technical problems they might have?
 
ZantennaG1 said:
Well, SRG's post quoting the STL helps! I should also mention that skywave signals have a way of coming in just under or just over a local signal and wreaking havoc on the signal. Congrats on getting KTWO!

Thank you. I wonder what technical problems they might have?
Click to expand...


STA.. STA not STL

The transmitter could be bad. There could be a ground and cabling issue to the towers. The tuning houses/phasors could be busted. They could also have a problem switching patterns.
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
STA.. STA not STL

The transmitter could be bad. There could be a ground and cabling issue to the towers. The tuning houses/phasors could be busted. They could also have a problem switching patterns.
Click to expand...
Yep, my bad, I meant STA, LOL. Thanks for letting me know.
 
RadioBill said:
For example in the Kearny-Winkleman area they have a very weak signal on my car radio. It seems like no matter which direction I'm driving away from Tucson, 1080 KGVY's and 1290 KCUB's 1kw signals are equal to or slightly better than 1030 KVOI's 10kw signal.
Click to expand...
If the red cross in the map is the location of their antenna then I could easily understand why Kearny-Winkleman are not getting the signal. To the N, NNE and E of Tucson city center are some pretty tall mountains (the Catalinas, Rincons, Galiuros and others). The relative placement of the three stations' antenna locations might be significant.
 
landtuna said:
If the red cross in the map is the location of their antenna
Click to expand...
It is. I wonder if the height of KVOI's tower is of the proper wavelength as well.
 
ZantennaG1 said:
I wonder if the height of KVOI's tower is of the proper wavelength as well.
Click to expand...

From FCC data, KVOI has four towers, each a bit less than 200 feet. At 1030 kHz they are 74.6 electrical degrees tall, perhaps not an ideal height but they can certainly be made to radiate reasonably well.

As Paul suggested, there are any number of problems that could be causing the night antenna to not work. It is somewhat unusual that the licensed night antenna is only two towers, while the daytime array is a four-tower parallelogram. Not sure what the situation is exactly, but since they didn't mention the daytime antenna in the STA request, one would assume it's working OK.

Lots easier to find a problem in a two tower array, then four towers....been there, did the dance. I wish them luck.

I visited that site several years ago, after a severe thunderstorm knocked a couple of the towers down. I assume they got all that fixed.
 
Looks like Only 2 towers used at night. Simple slight reduction to the north (protect KTWO).

Complex daytime pattern
.1639451684331.png
Don't know why except for the 1010 in Phoenix.
 
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