Prairie View A&M's KPVU Granted Upgrade to C2

[Mike O]

The FCC granted A&M's KPVU 91.3 an upgrade from C3 to C2 and a power increase to 31kW at 128.37 meters with a directional pattern. The good news for those that like KPVU's Jazz, Friday R&B day and NPR programming is that the main lobe is towards Houston. From 50 degrees to 190 degrees the full power will be transmitted.

This will place the 60dbu signal on the western fringes of The Woodlands, over Jersey Village, to the SW about 5km south of Katy and to the west along The Katy Freeway just to the west of Sealy. The 54dbu signal, which is the protected contour for Class B stations up north (the same maximum parameters as a Class C2 50kW @ 150m) through Conroe, Spring, The Memorial Villages and Pecan Grove. The 54dbu signal is a good strong signal meaning that KPVU should have very good coverage to Humble, downtown Houston, Bellaire and Missouri City. The eastside of Houston should have fair to good coverage, especially in vehicles.

Hopefully KPVU will have a much better signal in the Galleria area and not get nearly the interference from Beaumont's KVLU when conditions from the east are enhanced, which is a common occurrance.

Prairie View A&M has been trying for some years now to get an upgrade to a C2 and as in the case of KILE Bellaire, their perseverance has paid off. Since KPVU is using the same tower, once the directional antenna is ready the upgrade will take place. This will give Houston another decent rim-shot signal from a station that has good programming. The upgrade will also provide Houston with some NPR programs that are not carried by KUHF.

 

[stan]

Mike,

How does this affect or interfere with KVLU 91.3 - Beaumont? Will there be an overlap somewhere between Beaumont and Houston?

 

[Mike O]

Mike,

How does this affect or interfere with KVLU 91.3 - Beaumont? Will there be an overlap somewhere between Beaumont and Houston?

I ran a 60dbu Protected Contour with a 40dbu Interfering Contour Map on the FCC web site and the two stations are closer together than I realized. KVLU won't or shouldn't have any interference from KPVU in the Golden Triangle, but I can see were there could be some overlap of the signals on the eastside of Houston and around the Baytown area. Using Baytown as a reference point you are 98.5km from the KVLU antenna and it has a signal strength of 38.2dbu which is definitely listenable with a good home or vehicle radio. You are 105.9km from the KPVU antenna and it has a signal strength of 34.1dbu, also a listenable signal. You could pick up both stations at the same time in Baytown and to the west for maybe ten kilometers.

KVLU is the stronger station of the two with 40kW at 137 meters HAAT and KPVU towards Houston and Beaumont is 31kW at 128.4 meters HAAT. If there is a strong enhancement of signals from the Beaumont-Lake Charles area, which is not uncommon, I can see KVLU still being the dominate station to about the West Beltway in Houston.

I bought a new '06 Xterra Saturday and Sunday afternoon around 2pm I was sitting in my parents driveway in Cypress playing with the radio. The SE comes with a pretty hot radio and I had KIOC Big Dog 106 and KTTX K-Tex Brenham at the same time. I was approximately 212km from KIOC and about 176km from KTTX. KIOC has a signal strength of around 22.5dbu and KTTX around 22.9dbu so basically both stations were of equal strength. KTTX did fade up enough to light up the RDS with K-TEX. I don't know if KIOC uses RDS or not. I haven't been able to play with the radio while I've been driving yet since almost all the driving has been on the freeways and the steering is so much tighter than what I am use to I have concentrate on driving. I was coming back from Spring Monday afternoon around 3pm and The North Frwy was solid bumper to bumper traffic all the way to The Loop and doing that get up to around 50mph and then coming to a stop most of the way. The Loop and The Katy weren't much better and by the time I exited onto Voss I was happy just to listen to Rock 1037 without any fades or drop outs.

I'm hoping that I can scan around on the way to and from Galveston Wednesday.

 

[Mike O]

Stan,

I hope the post about KVLU and KPVU explained your question. If you run a map from the FCC web site you will see where the 40dbu Interfering Contour overlaps and in the middle of the two overlapping contours is where you could have both signals or your radio changing from one station to the other. If you have any other questions email me.

Mike

 

[stan]

Thanks, Mike. You explained the situation quite well.

 

[Doctor_Technical]

Hey Mike, do you know who makes the Xterra radio? IOW is it actually a Ford or Delphi? If you have the car's papers, might you be able to pull a model number of the radio?

Did some running in a buddy's Xterra last weekend and was impressed with the radio. Well-implemented RDS.

 

[Mike O]

Hey Mike, do you know who makes the Xterra radio? IOW is it actually a Ford or Delphi? If you have the car's papers, might you be able to pull a model number of the radio?

Did some running in a buddy's Xterra last weekend and was impressed with the radio. Well-implemented RDS.

Sorry for the late reply. I took a few days and went down to Galveston to enjoy the ocean. Didn't take a laptop with me, wanted to get away from the PC for a few days.

The Xterra SE has the Rockford-Fosgate Radio installed and there is nothing in the owners manual about the manufacturer. The internet info I could pull up is the radio is made by Rockford, Inc.. I checked the radio today and there is not any model number on the radio or in the user guide.

Wish I knew more , but that was all I could find.

I didn't even mess with the radio when I was in Galveston, but plan on going back down again Thursday of this week and will drive out to East Beach as far as I can and give the radio a real test where the signals pound in from all up and down the Gulf Coast.

It is by far the best radio I have ever owned in a vehicle. I had a 1969 Ford Galaxy 500 with AM only that was a super radio, but this radio even beats the Ford radio. I will try and get a hold of customer service and see if they can shed any light on the radio, but I wouldn't hold out any hopes for answers.

Mike

 

[Doctor_Technical]

Thanks Mike, I appreciate your efforts. Call me a dinosaur, but I'll still jump in the truck just to spin the dial.

 

[Mike O]

Thanks Mike, I appreciate your efforts. Call me a dinosaur, but I'll still jump in the truck just to spin the dial.

I'd hardly call you a dinosaur. Some of my best DX'ing was done on my many late night drives back from Bay City, Beaumont & Nacognoches, amoung other places with my '91 Chevy truck. The '91 Chevy truck radio doesn't hold a candle to the Xterra's radio.

So far the only great DX I've confirmed on the Xterra was WQEW 1560 New York with Radio Disney. I got a positive ID at 1am on the West Belt. I'm going to stick with 1560 for a while as I imagine that RAFTT or the new owner will have the nighttime array up and running ASAP. I live in the main lobe for the proposed night operations of KILE.

/begin rant/I would really like to see the KILE call letters go to KPTI 105.3 and the station returned to Galveston with the antenna on Pelican Island. KOVE-FM 106.5 may be licensed to Galveston, but is hardly a Galveston station. If 105.3 went back to Galveston at least the station would be serving over 100,000 people between Galveston and Texas City instead of a very few with a low antenna way out on Bolivar Peninsula and licensed to Crystal Beach along with KSTB 101.5 which should be returned to Kemah and be "The Star of the Bay" again. Crystal Beach has a population of around 300 and both stations are nothing more than high power translators at this time. KPTI simulcasts Party 104.9 and KSTB simulcasts KAYD 101.7 Silsbee/Beaumont. What a waste of two stations. I know it would require some waivers from the FCC concerning overlap of Prohibited Contours, but the FCC seems to be a little more open to such Waivers when it comes to stations like KPTI and KSTB and serving a substantial population as opposed to serving a couple of thousand. We can only hope that the stations would be allowed to move and serve their intended populations and not some silly ass town of 300 with two FM stations that have a 60dbu signal that doesn't even get off of Bolivar Penisular. /end of rant/

Unfortunately couldn't go to Galveston today, maybe Monday, but that all depends on Tropical Storm Chris. The latest forcast I heard around 7pm was that Chris is pretty much on the same path as Hurricane Rita of last year, except there is some high pressure system that could push the Hurricane into the Galveston/Houston area. I pray that the station is wrong or just hyping this latest storm up for some ratings. We will know all too soon.

Mike