Wow, the ground conductivity in the Coachella Valley must be absolutely terrible if a 99-watt FM does better than a 5kW and a 10kW AM! (What about 1250 KNWH? What hole is it supposed to fill?) What frequency is that FM on? I wonder if I'd get better reception of it than 970 KNWZ in El Cajon.... (I can't get 1140 KNWQ due to 1130 KSDO's splatter, though, and 1250 is occupied by KZER Santa Barbara and splatter from local 1240 KNSN. Also I was just remembering that when I was in Borrego Springs one summer day several years ago, I was getting a clear signal from 970 KNWZ with a Panasonic walkman-size radio/cassette player and Select-A-Tenna.
So the FCC map says the conductivity is "2", but what do you say it really is? Is the ground path from Santa Barbara to San Diego that much better so I can get 500-watt 1290 KZSB in Ocean Beach with a better signal than 10kW 1140 KNWQ a few miles west of Riverside on CA-60?
Also what do you mean by 830 having a worse signal than 980? I thought 830 was 50kW to 980's 5kW, and I thought the lower dial position should have less groundwave losses? Or does it have to do with 830's transmitter being so far from their COL? Last few times I've been in the L.A. area I remember receiving KLAA loud and clear at my grandma's house in San Gabriel day and night, as well as at night on the way home (down 605 or 57 (if from Hacienda Heights) and 5 through Orange county). Earlier this week I did have difficulty at night with KLAA at a friends house in northwest Moreno Valley, but that's not an area that 830's trying to serve, is it?
Of course I realize that no frequency would be available for this, but if, theoretically, there was a 50kW non-directional AM somewhere below 600 kHz using a Franklin antenna, would it cover the entire valley during the day? Or, what do you think the major limiting factor would be? Ground conductivity? Too much man-made noise? Speaking of which, what level signal in a rural area would be comparable to a 15mV/m signal (minimum I think you mentioned for L.A. area listeners) on a $5 pocket radio (whose noise floor (DXer's limit) sensitivity is, say, 2mV/m) inside a thick-walled (for example one that could survive a direct hit from Tsar Bomba) steel building with lots of equipment running in downtown L.A.? BTW so far my observation is that my radio's front ends are beginning to overload, even with a signal below 15mV/m. Amplify that signal with a big enough longwire antenna, and it'll probably overload my radio so the audio on the assigned channel is overdriven/distorted.
How much farther would you think stations would be "listenable" if all the man-made noise that exceeds atmospheric noise was reduced? IMO excessive noise levels seem, for me, to be the primary culprit for poor reception. Also something that puzzles me.... so the FCC usually doesn't license adjacents close geographically.... any idea why my radios do fine separating 1030 XESDD and 1040 KURS, both locals for me, but have difficulty digging out 1110 KDIS and can't hear 1150 KTLK with 1130 KSDO and 1170 KCBQ in the way? I would normally expect to get fair reception of 1110 and 1150, but have 1030 and 1040 stompin' all over each other.
So the FCC map says the conductivity is "2", but what do you say it really is? Is the ground path from Santa Barbara to San Diego that much better so I can get 500-watt 1290 KZSB in Ocean Beach with a better signal than 10kW 1140 KNWQ a few miles west of Riverside on CA-60?
Also what do you mean by 830 having a worse signal than 980? I thought 830 was 50kW to 980's 5kW, and I thought the lower dial position should have less groundwave losses? Or does it have to do with 830's transmitter being so far from their COL? Last few times I've been in the L.A. area I remember receiving KLAA loud and clear at my grandma's house in San Gabriel day and night, as well as at night on the way home (down 605 or 57 (if from Hacienda Heights) and 5 through Orange county). Earlier this week I did have difficulty at night with KLAA at a friends house in northwest Moreno Valley, but that's not an area that 830's trying to serve, is it?
Of course I realize that no frequency would be available for this, but if, theoretically, there was a 50kW non-directional AM somewhere below 600 kHz using a Franklin antenna, would it cover the entire valley during the day? Or, what do you think the major limiting factor would be? Ground conductivity? Too much man-made noise? Speaking of which, what level signal in a rural area would be comparable to a 15mV/m signal (minimum I think you mentioned for L.A. area listeners) on a $5 pocket radio (whose noise floor (DXer's limit) sensitivity is, say, 2mV/m) inside a thick-walled (for example one that could survive a direct hit from Tsar Bomba) steel building with lots of equipment running in downtown L.A.? BTW so far my observation is that my radio's front ends are beginning to overload, even with a signal below 15mV/m. Amplify that signal with a big enough longwire antenna, and it'll probably overload my radio so the audio on the assigned channel is overdriven/distorted.
How much farther would you think stations would be "listenable" if all the man-made noise that exceeds atmospheric noise was reduced? IMO excessive noise levels seem, for me, to be the primary culprit for poor reception. Also something that puzzles me.... so the FCC usually doesn't license adjacents close geographically.... any idea why my radios do fine separating 1030 XESDD and 1040 KURS, both locals for me, but have difficulty digging out 1110 KDIS and can't hear 1150 KTLK with 1130 KSDO and 1170 KCBQ in the way? I would normally expect to get fair reception of 1110 and 1150, but have 1030 and 1040 stompin' all over each other.
Based on how I hear the L.A. and Coachella Valley signals described, I would not expect to even be able to BFO beat with their carriers here in El Cajon day OR night even with a high-end AM tuner (for example 3 front-end tuned RF stages, separate quad-conversion local oscillator and mixer, 10 IF stages, 4 24-pole IF filters, synchronous detection, 18" ferrite bar, anything else I'm forgetting) and a tuned multi-wavelength beverage antenna, yet I'm able to hear quite a few of them using just a pocket-sized Sony SRF-59 and its built-in ferrite bar antenna! Also I had thought that Long Island and northern NH & VT had the worst conductivity. You wouldn't by any chance know where I might be able to find a more accurate ground conductivity map of the USA?