problems with WFNX?

[dsturdy5]

At about 9:15 PM I was in my car and hit 101.7 and caught a snippet of a song. Then it faded to static. There was dead air for a time. It faded back in, then static, then out again. I was sitting in a parking lot in Salem, NH. Any thoughts?

 

[Bigtime Bowler]

Maybe it was just a Radiohead song. Deep.

 

[chrish]

Wish I had an explanation for you but I'm baffled myself, at the studio which is usually manned on weekend nights there is a 6 second silence sense on all
the Phoenix station transmitters.

In addition the transmitter remote controls all have a 61 second audio and RF off the air silence sensor that calls out starting with my phone #'s and down the line to several other people.
The WFNX Burk Autopilot 2 RF and audio failure call out was tested on Thursday
and calls were received down the line to everyone, if there is an autopilot
problem the jock on the air would have called me immediately as they hate
the annoying flashing strobe.
The WFNX studio alarm is a fed by a modulation monitor using a high gain Yagi on the studio roof, the transmitter alarm is fed from a modulation monitor from
the rf source right off the transmitter.

On Monday I will check the autopilot log and also the fault log on the transmitter itself.
Wish I had an answer for you

Chris Hall

 

[WLYNWAZNgm]

Probably something weather related... Power hit, maybe...
The WAZN dialup remote control was unresponsive - had to be rebooted
at the transmitter end. Also, the WLYN transmitter site lost AC power
for an hour...

 

[Eli Polonsky]

At about 9:15 PM I was in my car and hit 101.7 and caught a snippet of a song. Then it faded to static. There was dead air for a time. It faded back in, then static, then out again. I was sitting in a parking lot in Salem, NH. Any thoughts?

The way that it went from 'FNX, to static, to a dead carrier, to static again makes me think that perhaps there may have been something causing short-range interference right in your area. FM radios can actually transmit very short-range signals, perhaps there was another car in the parking lot with a radio that happened to be tuned to a frequency that could cause it to transmit a very weak signal that could interfere with your fringe reception of WFNX, or a vehicle with some sort of other device that could cause RF interference.

It could've also been interference from some other source in the area, or weather related. It doesn't sound necessarily like a problem with the originating station, especially not from that distance.

 

[WBIMDJ]

At about 9:15 PM I was in my car and hit 101.7 and caught a snippet of a song. Then it faded to static. There was dead air for a time. It faded back in, then static, then out again. I was sitting in a parking lot in Salem, NH. Any thoughts?

The way that it went from 'FNX, to static, to a dead carrier, to static again makes me think that perhaps there may have been something causing short-range interference right in your area. FM radios can actually transmit very short-range signals, perhaps there was another car in the parking lot with a radio that happened to be tuned to a frequency that could cause it to transmit a very weak signal that could interfere with your fringe reception of WFNX, or a vehicle with some sort of other device that could cause RF interference.

It could've also been interference from some other source in the area, or weather related. It doesn't sound necessarily like a problem with the originating station, especially not from that distance.

Surprisingly you can usually get WFNX well into southern NH. I've gotten them pretty clear almost to Derry and Manchester!

 

[TravisWMLN]

perhaps you were in Newton by the echo bridge mall....FNX always craps out there for me

edit: I just went back and read your post and saw you were in Salem NH....perhaps the corkscrew at canobie Lake was having some sort of radio transmitter jamming type effect

 

[Eli Polonsky]

perhaps you were in Newton by the echo bridge mall....FNX always craps out there for me

The "Echo Bridge Mall" is practically directly underneath the "FM-128" tower, which has WBUR, WJMN, WBMX, WKLB, and WODS on it. The overload is either causing interference or desenitizing your receiver to other stations.

 

[masscarnage99]

Theweird thing is this happened to me tonight driving up I-93 in Windham, NH but to WGIR in Manchester just a few miles up the road. It sounded like it was getting jammed out by something. Very strange

 

[dsturdy5]

Theweird thing is this happened to me tonight driving up I-93 in Windham, NH but to WGIR in Manchester just a few miles up the road. It sounded like it was getting jammed out by something. Very strange

Sounds like you were only a few miles as the crow flies from where I was.

 

[NewManno1]

It's was a glitch in the Matrix

 

[Eli Polonsky]

It's was a glitch in the Matrix

Could've been intermittent...

 

[chrish]

DISTURDY5, you may be on to something, by coincidence I live in Salem, NH, a
few days after your blog I noticed something odd interfering with WFNX at home.
Early every morning when I set my Bose clock radio before going to sleep I also check WFNX 101.7 and WFEX 92.1 to make sure they are OK. (Can't get WPHX-FM unless WFEX is off the air)
In the past week on occasion I have noticed a loud hum on 101.7, at first I thought WFNX was off the air and the Burk Autopilot call out failed.
I phoned in and found all alarms clear, status normal and parameters on the money.

I picked up the radio and moved the line cord around and was able to get 101.7
with the line cord in just the right position.
I moved here in 1987 and faithfully check 101.7 every night for almost 5 years
and never heard anything like this. I sounds much like an RF light bulb sounds
destroying AM audio....only its on FM. Some nights its there and some nights its not.
The mystery continues, I may have to borrow an FIM -41 to track it down

Chris Hall
WFNX