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One Watt

cyberdad

cyberdad

Had occasion this evening to drive by one-watt ND nighttime stick of WSQR 1180. The stick is about one mile north of downtown Sycamore, IL. Sycamore is about 60 miles west (and a little to the north) of downtown Chicago. Population about 15,000. Exact time was just after local sunset.

What does one watt do?

Approaching from the south on Illinois highway 23, I encountered a very scratchy signal on the far south side of Sycamore....probably about four miles from the stick. Lots of electrical noise and tough to listen to. In the downtown area itself, the signal was better, but still prone to some noise and a "push" from WHAM. Just north of downtown, the signal became "city grade". This continued for about a mile beyond the stick to the north (the stick is in a lot adjacent to highway 23). The signal was a little better in the rural to the north of town than it had been in the residential and commercial area on the south side. But it had completely vanished by the time I got to the edge of the next town (Genoa), about six miles north of the stick.

Conclusion: As paltry as one watt is, it's still not a total loss for a small town.

Obviously the "flea power" is to protect WHAM (I'd also say R. Marti...but that's not designed to be a domestic service). I'm not knowledgeable about all the aspects of protection rules, but to me a limit of one watt seems a little silly. If this particular station went to five watts or even ten, it's hard to imagine that there'd be any noticeable effect on WHAM or any other station on the channel. But they would at least be able to provide a quality nighttime signal to their entire COL instead of just a part of it.
 
The Nighttime Interference Free Contour has a lot to do with how well one watt, or a hundred watts will do. If you're sandwiched between two former Class I-Bs on the same frequency, it might be pretty good. Many stations with low PSSA are nondirectional, and the antenna may be close to the center of a town, so it might still do well. If you have a day DA close to what a Class B authorization would require, you might have a higher power PSSA. If your DA goes right toward a well protected station, the PSSA may be very low.

Radio Marti would not have a domestic skywave to be protected. You have to be outside WHAM's night service skywave contour to even get one watt.
 
cyberdad said:
Had occasion this evening to drive by one-watt ND nighttime stick of WSQR 1180. The stick is about one mile north of downtown Sycamore, IL. Sycamore is about 60 miles west (and a little to the north) of downtown Chicago. Population about 15,000. Exact time was just after local sunset.

What does one watt do?

Approaching from the south on Illinois highway 23, I encountered a very scratchy signal on the far south side of Sycamore....probably about four miles from the stick. Lots of electrical noise and tough to listen to. In the downtown area itself, the signal was better, but still prone to some noise and a "push" from WHAM. Just north of downtown, the signal became "city grade". This continued for about a mile beyond the stick to the north (the stick is in a lot adjacent to highway 23). The signal was a little better in the rural to the north of town than it had been in the residential and commercial area on the south side. But it had completely vanished by the time I got to the edge of the next town (Genoa), about six miles north of the stick.

Conclusion: As paltry as one watt is, it's still not a total loss for a small town.

Obviously the "flea power" is to protect WHAM (I'd also say R. Marti...but that's not designed to be a domestic service). I'm not knowledgeable about all the aspects of protection rules, but to me a limit of one watt seems a little silly. If this particular station went to five watts or even ten, it's hard to imagine that there'd be any noticeable effect on WHAM or any other station on the channel. But they would at least be able to provide a quality nighttime signal to their entire COL instead of just a part of it.
Click to expand...

I went to college at NIU in De Kalb about 40 years ago. I don't think WSQR existed then. The station in Sycamore that I remember in those days was on 1560 daytime only. I would doubt based on your description WSQR would even reach De Kalb at night with the one watt.
On another note back then Chicago's AM 1000 then WCFL could barely be heard in De Kalb/Sycamore at night. De Kalb was directly in WCFL's null.
I remember driving west from Chicago that WCFL's signal would really go downhill fast at night past Sugar Grove.
 
If it is one watt, I suspect that it is just outside the night skywave service area of WHAM. If it were directional, it could probably have 25 or 50 watts, but would have to protect WHAM's protected contour with no more than 25 uV/m 10% skywave.
 
Not that it makes much difference, but I noticed that WSQR has post-sunset authority. That allows them to operate until two hours past local sunset with varying power levels, from four down to two watts, before being required to cut back to one watt. (See, I told you it didn't make much difference.) OK, who knows if they actually use the PSSA?
 
vibe said:
Why so little power (or watts the matter)?
Why not 25 or 50w?
Is this due to WHAM?
Click to expand...

Does it get any inteference from WWVA or WOWO. These two used to both run IBOC so that would make things worse. But I think WWVA is still on low power after their towers were destroyed. And WOWO reduces power at night, but its still pretty close.
 
Unfortunately, IBOC interference from first adjacents is not recognized by the FCC, even though it is clearly a factor. When WABC and WJR stopped using night IBOC, there were estimates that the effective NIF for WJR and WABC due to the first adjacent sidebands was in the 14 mV/m range, equivalent to a typical Class III "Drop In" from the 1950s or 1960s rather than a Class I-A true clear channel.
 
jd said:
Not that it makes much difference, but I noticed that WSQR has post-sunset authority. That allows them to operate until two hours past local sunset with varying power levels, from four down to two watts, before being required to cut back to one watt. (See, I told you it didn't make much difference.) OK, who knows if they actually use the PSSA?
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure they don't use it. I'm about 25 miles from the stick. They have a pretty decent signal here daytime (with 900 watts ND), but they're invisible right after sunset. And I think I would have heard them last night
at least in the town right up the road six miles away.

As Radioman pointed out they used to be on 1550. I stand to be corrected, but I think they were at 1kw ND and something like 100 watts night. They daytime signal here was fair...not as good as on 1180. You could usually here them in the mix at night, but with a listenable signal. At one point, I believe they did have a CP for DA nighttime operation, but the facility was never built.
 
cyberdad said:
At one point, I believe they did have a CP for DA nighttime operation, but the facility was never built.
Click to expand...

A quick check shows, unless I missed something, that WSQR was 200 watts daytime on 1560 with 20 watts at night, non-directional day and night. They received a construction permit in 1998 which would have allowed them to run 210 watts at night and you're right, nothing was built. The 4-tower nighttime array was to have been about eight miles SSW of Sycamore, a couple of miles south of I-88.
 
One watt can get a decent signal on a good frequency (i.e. low). In my area, there's three ten watt TISs, two on the expanded band frequencies, and one on 530.

Charleston County has a little ten watt one on 1630 which just plays Christmas music for the Holiday Festival of Lights and traffic info on a 10 minute loop.

The transmitter is on a pole at the park grounds on James Island, and it really gets out. On a good day it can be heard 5 miles away. I've heard it in Mt. Pleasant. It even cuts through the noise at night in many of these places.

The 1610 transmitter on Folly Beach has a great signal. It mainly plays tourist information from the Town of Folly Beach, and since it's right on the water, it can be heard very far. It comes in well at Isle of Palms, Kiawah Island, and can be heard for probably a dozen miles along the coast. It goes several miles inland too.

Where I am, the 530 signal is good during the day, but at night is overwhelmed by the Turks and Caicos and whatever else is on the frequency. It's only about 3 miles, maybe 4 straight-line, but that distance makes a difference.
 
1580 WIFE Connersville,IN has 4.6 watts night at the high end of the dial. Downtown is 0.7 miles away & you really can't tell the difference between the 250 watt day & 4.6 watt night power. Furthest city limit is about 5.3 miles...if you really want to listen there, you can (worth noting that a DXer in Findland or one of those countries logged them on 4.6 watts--and yes, they really were on that power at the time). They've been using the flea power for many years..apparently they (and the 1 watter in IL) both realize that (almost) anything is better than nothing. That said, WSEZ 1560 Paoli,IN's site is about 2 miles from downtown and they never did opt to use their 1 watt authorization....although in some daytime experimenting it was determined that the transmitter's power meter was barely moving (well under 1 watt) while providing a listenable signal downtown. Chances are that 1 watt at night on 1560 would be worthless at 2 miles. WCSI Columbus,IN uses their 19 watt (IIRC) night power on 1010...a frequency that gets walloped at night. Their 19 watts at a better dial position doesn't do as well as the 4.6 watts at WIFE. It's all about the interference level on the frequency involved.
 
FM translators east of the Mississippi used to be limited to one watt, and on the old Class A frequencies. There were few at the time. There was a translator in Petoskey, MI with 1 watt, W265AA (100.9) that I could get on the car radio for 10 miles. Being "AA", it was the first translator on 100.9. I probably could have received it regularly for 20 miles with a 10 element beam. I'm sure that some here have heard these 100 miles or more.
 
MarioMania said:
How far does 1 watt go on FM??
Click to expand...

Last night I was driving in the Palatine area (Northwest Highway/US 14 and Quentin Road) and I was surprised to hear W264BF on 100.7 from the Sears (OK, Willis) Tower with their mighty 2 watts at 1451 feet, interfering with WKKV Racine, WI. 28.5 miles! Previously, I heard translator W264BF up to Glenview and River Grove, but that's more like 12-14 miles. Of course, 2W. @1451' would get out a lot further out in the countryside, without all of the urban interference!
 
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