Adman4120 said:
I opologize for my mistake. I meant to say why does a 5,000 watt station such as WSYR in Syracuse, which is only 42 miles away come in crystal clear in Rome, and WGY which is only 90 miles away at supposedly 10 times the power doesn't come at all for the most part? I wonder if they are running 50,000 watts or not.
Yes, WGY is at full power. Theres a few factors to consider when comparing WGY to WSYR.
1- WSYR has a directional pattern, which means that in their main lobes, their ERP is somewhat better than 5kw. WGY is non-directional, meaning all their power is equally distributed in all directions.
2- Stations lower on the dial get out better with less power than stations at the high end of the dial with equivalent (or even greater) power. The difference is the longer wavelength at lower frequencies.
3- Ground Conductivity. Central NY has a slightly higher ground conductivity than Eastern NY, which improves a station's groundwave signal (the one you hear during the day). Also important is the condition of the ground system installed at the respective station. Those are made of copper, which deteriorates over time.
Another thing to note is that 10x the power does not = 10x the range or signal strength, even if everything else was equal (tower efficiency, location, frequency, etc). In fact, if you took WGY's power and reduced it to 5kw (90%), you would only lose maybe 50% of it's overall groundwave range. There's an mathematic equation for this that I dont have available at the moment, but perhaps an engineer out there would like to elaborate on.
If anyone ever makes the trip to Rome, just turn on 810 at night and listen to what you pick up....basically nothing, in and out sound, other stations in the background, noise.
At that distance, you're in a 'cancellation zone'. What happens is basically the groundwave signal isn't quite strong enough to overcome nighttime background noise & interference from other stations. The skywave signal, which makes distant stations come in at night, is effectively going over your location (or the bulk of it at least). The result is the two weak signals cancel each other out. The further you travel west (even just 70 or 80 miles), the better WGY will come in at night. (an old saying about Albany station WPTR was you could hear it better in Nova Scotia at night than you could out in the parking lot.)
We here in Albany have the same issues with most of the NYC stations. We can hear WFAN, WABC, WCBS fairly well during the day, but at night we get severe phasing & fading due to both weak groundwave & weak skywave signals fighting it out. In fact, it's not uncommon during the winter months to hear Cuba and other Latin American stations ride right over top of 660, 710, 770, and 880.
Stations at the high end of the dial tend to get better skywave coverage closer in to the transmitter. To use the NYC example, 1130 & 1560 really boom in here most nights, while their lower dial counterparts tend to struggle. Again, it has to do with wavelength.
boggling