I see in Radio-Locator that WIST 690 has a CP to become a 9100 watt non-directional daytime only facility. I take this to mean that they are essentially giving up on the AM, and trying to survive on the FM translator that R-L also lists.
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Mighty 690 becomes a daytimer?
- Thread starter J Alex Bowab
- Start date
690 has an active application for 2.1KW nights via a two-tower DA at the day site.
If I remember the rules correctly, stations that were daytime only can stay that way but once converted for nighttime they can't go back and something in this old mind is saying the rule change was around 1987?
But anyway Doctor Technical is right, AM stations can modify their patters day and night to protect stations in other areas from interference, WIST was a 4 stick 10kw station that lost some towers due to Katrina and has been running low power and STAs since.. apparently FCC allowing them to go daytime off of one stick, however what I saw was the 2.1kw nighttime was accepted for filing so not sure how they are gonna handle the nighttime issue
But anyway Doctor Technical is right, AM stations can modify their patters day and night to protect stations in other areas from interference, WIST was a 4 stick 10kw station that lost some towers due to Katrina and has been running low power and STAs since.. apparently FCC allowing them to go daytime off of one stick, however what I saw was the 2.1kw nighttime was accepted for filing so not sure how they are gonna handle the nighttime issue
The rule that changed was the one that allowed new stations to be licensed as class D "daytimers."
(That's a bit of a misnomer these days; a class D station can actually run up to 249 watts at night, but that nighttime signal is not protected from incoming interference.)
While you can no longer license a new class D station, you can convert an existing fulltime station to class D status. This is becoming somewhat common as stations recoil at the cost of maintaining an expensive, land-hungry directional array. It's often cheaper for a station to take down all but one tower in its directional array and drop down to minimal night power, especially if it has an FM translator to continue to provide night coverage.
Also, an existing class D station can convert to class B (fulltime) status, if it's willing to pony up for the needed directional array and if it can squeeze in the allocation.
(That's a bit of a misnomer these days; a class D station can actually run up to 249 watts at night, but that nighttime signal is not protected from incoming interference.)
While you can no longer license a new class D station, you can convert an existing fulltime station to class D status. This is becoming somewhat common as stations recoil at the cost of maintaining an expensive, land-hungry directional array. It's often cheaper for a station to take down all but one tower in its directional array and drop down to minimal night power, especially if it has an FM translator to continue to provide night coverage.
Also, an existing class D station can convert to class B (fulltime) status, if it's willing to pony up for the needed directional array and if it can squeeze in the allocation.
dwtpa97 said:
Can you still pull in WWL in Tampa during daytime hours?
It's been many years since I was in Tampa, but the presence of a local station there on 860 makes it difficult to hear 870 WWL.
J Alex Bowab said:
You have to read the comments at the bottom of https://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101399222&formid=301&fac_num=74090 . They separated the application to change the day facilities from that to change the night facilities.
From the application:
_________________________________________________
What they want to do is:
- Move their daytime operation to the existing nighttime site.
- Change the daytime operation from 10kw into a 4-tower directional array to 9.1kw into the southernmost tower of the nighttime antenna. (thus going non-directional during the day)
- Replace the four-tower nighttime array with a two-tower array. (neither of these towers matches the licensed nighttime facility -- apparently they plan to completely replace the nighttime towers. It is quite likely Katrina forced that decision.)
- Reduce nighttime power from 5kw to 2.1kw.
They've held some kind of Special Temporary Authority since Katrina. Unfortunately it was initially filed on paper (not electronically) so the technical details are not available online. A renewal, filed electronically, says the STA allows for non-directional operation with a power not to exceed 2,500 watts daytime and 1,250 watts nighttime. It doesn't specify which site.
Regarding reception of WWL in Tampa, as has been stated above, the 860 here prevents any daytime reception. At night, the local 860 reduces power and many parts of the area can indeed receive WWL regularly. I recall back in the 1950s, before we had the local 860, WWL came into Tampa all day long with a listenable signal, just not as loud as the local stations.
A little off topic - If any oldtimers might be interested, sometime back I posted a short video on YouTube that contains clips from a 1959-60 aircheck of WNOE (AM), accompanied by some post card views of New Orlean back in the old days. Of course, you have to be really ancient to appreciate stuff from that far back, but I thought I would mention it for whatever it's worth. The link is: http://[u]www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3l4l2itntw[/u]
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