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New Translator on 101.1

R

RadioDoogie

Noticed this afternoon that Star 94 is being simulcasted onto 101.1. Where is this translator? I assume they will program it with something else eventually?
 
IMHO they are just trying to keep this "legal" by firing it up just long enough to reset the STA. They filed a STA November 19th last year. The real interesting issue they have deal with is the WLJA 101.1 Ellijay CP to move farther south which give them a signal in Cherokee, and Cobb counties.:

http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/patg?id=WLJA-FM&s=C

Their 60 DB coverage will hit Canton:

http://www.bing.com/maps/?mapurl=ht...eq=101.1&contour=60&city=ELLIJAY&state=GA.kml

IMHO: WLJA most likely continue to crept south and try to fit in-between 100.5 and 101.5 or 101.5 and 102.5.
 
I guess the state is now "renting" space on their towers. I wonder if 100.5 could move on that tower and use a directional antenna and upgrade to C1 or better? Would that help with WSSL Greenville messing with their signal?
 
I drove from Loganville to Alpharetta yesterday and the station is clear but choppy even near the mountain. The station goes away once you hit spaghetti junction and WLJA starts to fight with it. WLJA was pretty clear once I got to Alpharetta. I can see where this is going to be an issue especially once they upgrade WLJA. Not sure if WNNX moving to the rock would help or hurt it.
 
Historically, FM coverage from Stoned Mounting hasn't been good. Moving 100.5 would lose some coverage to the West and Northwest, might get more signal into the places currently shaded by the rock. In the real world, I'd expect the total population which could receive it to decrease a bit. However, depending what you had on it, the gained area might be to your advantage. Movement might also allow another signal to exist or come closer to the city. All these come into play in deciding such a move.
 
What am I missing with regards to 100.5's signal? Considering it's relatively low wattage (13,500), I have always thought that station gets out an impressive distance. I get the station just all the way to Carrollton out 20 west, just north of Cartersville, and all the way south to Forsyth. This is impressive because 92.9, a station with 64,000 watts is has relatively the same coverage when I travel.
 
You are correct, this new translator does not go out very far. You have to be within 15 miles to get a clear signal. W250BC 97.9 goes out much further at the same power. It seems you're right about the mountain.
 
100.5 is like 107.5 in that it works better than it has any right to do. Both are directional, 107.5 is also asymmetrically polarized. They both cover well.
 
acheron82 said:
What am I missing with regards to 100.5's signal? Considering it's relatively low wattage (13,500), I have always thought that station gets out an impressive distance. I get the station just all the way to Carrollton out 20 west, just north of Cartersville, and all the way south to Forsyth. This is impressive because 92.9, a station with 64,000 watts is has relatively the same coverage when I travel.
Click to expand...

Quite often WSSL will mess with 100.5's signal north and east of Canton and around Alpharetta. Once you get north of Jasper you can forget 100.5 (not that there are a lot folks living there). The tower 100.5 is on now at one time had 94.1 and 92.9 on it. It work rather well then, of course both stations were around 100KW and there was a lot less interference.

IMHO: It most likely be a couple of decades before Atlanta gets north of Jasper, but when an if it happens a lot of Atlanta FM's will be in the same boat as the old directional AM's are having now. A lot of the market is out of their reach.
 
I have been driving all over the metro this past week and this new translator on 101.1 is awful. Something is constantly interfering with it. Even next to Stone Mountain Park on US78 the station is very staticy. I can't go more than 5 miles away from the mountain before it really gets choppy. What is interfering with this translator? I would think with the power and height it should be putting out a lot like W250BC on 97.9.
 
How does ground conductivity affect FM? I always thought line of sight plus and extra 20 to 35% was all you can expect. Of course on and adjacent channel stations, large buildings, and big mountains that cast "shadows" can raise hell with the non line of sight coverage. GPTV seems to have good coverage of the market and they are on Stone Mountain.
 
Line of sight to the radio horizon is what you get at VHF. Over better ground conductivity, you'll have greater signal strength to a degree. It still won't bounce like MW.
 
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I have always noticed that KEC80 our Atlanta NOAA weather radio station that broadcasts from Stone Mountain at 162.55 MHz is much weaker at 1000kw compared to other NOAA stations with equal power in other markets. I live about 10 miles from the mountain and it is always really weak and staticy. I have a more difficult time receiving WGTV on the portable DTV versus WSB being 10 miles east of the mountain and 25 miles east of Atlanta. I am much farther away from WSB than WGTV yet WSB comes in clearer than WGTV. Of course WGTV is on a VHF channel RF 8 and WSB is on UHF RF 39. I know UHF goes out farther than VHF on DTV.
 
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There are large steel? cables that run down the side of the rock (if you've ever been up there) that provide the ground for all the stations. WGTV is probably using their old super turnstile antenna from analog days since they did not change channels. If you are familiar with these, the feed lines to the different bays have a tendency to rot out. WSB changed channels necisitating a new antenna.
KEC80 is using a 300W Motorola Micor transmitter the last I knew. With antenna gain the ERP might be 1KW but not 1000KW (1MW).
 
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