It's not as far as you think---likely only about 6-7 miles as the crow flies, plus parts of Jefferson sit up pretty high. Down in Lineboro, which sits below Manchester in elevation, it was shaky or gone.
Years ago, my buddy and I had the old tube-type exciter from WGCB-FM retuned to 96.5 into a simple dipole at 30 ft, and from Leaders Heights it covered out to Pleasureville with about 15 watts out. BTW, few things suck more than being 15-20 minutes from home, hearing your transmitter go down, and wondering if you'll beat the fire company to your house!! ;^0
> > I was in DC on business Friday and came home the back way
> > through Westminster and made a point to go through
> > Jefferson---this 95.7 is the same pirate that I was
> hearing
> > on 96.5 a year ago, had been running a CD changer, now
> > running XM's "Sunny" format. Thought I had it tracked to a
>
> > house w/several ham radio antennas south of Jefferson, but
>
> > not 100% sure. Started picking it up in Manchester, MD,
> and
> > still audible at my house in Leaders Heights. They've got
>
> > to be running 10 or 15 watts, I'd think---certainly not a
> > legal part 15 100 milliwatt job.
>
> They're only running 10 or 15 watts if the antenna is about
> 50-75 feet above ground. No way 10 or 15 watts from a
> normal-sized antenna gets all the way down to Manchester,
> Md., from Jefferson.
>