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Something on 107.1 around Ardmore?

TheDingo

TheDingo

Very much the same way i came across 102.7 WWFA when it was stunting, this morning heading to work, i flip by 107.1 to find a very strong signal, with not very good audio quality playing Southern Cross by Crosby Stills Nash & Young, The audio quality made me think it's an AM translator. Had the signal solid on Old Railroad Bed Road, started to lose it when i turned onto hwy 53, and completely lost it when I topped the hill before Kelly Springs Rd. I couldn't ID any of the other songs I heard but they also had something to do with "southern". No IDs heard at all on this one.
 
BamaWOLF said:
Very much the same way i came across 102.7 WWFA when it was stunting, this morning heading to work, i flip by 107.1 to find a very strong signal, with not very good audio quality playing Southern Cross by Crosby Stills Nash & Young, The audio quality made me think it's an AM translator. Had the signal solid on Old Railroad Bed Road, started to lose it when i turned onto hwy 53, and completely lost it when I topped the hill before Kelly Springs Rd. I couldn't ID any of the other songs I heard but they also had something to do with "southern". No IDs heard at all on this one.
Click to expand...

I'm having trouble finding anything that makes sense.

I can only find one station authorized on 107.1 in Alabama: W296AI Montgomery (and yes, the coordinates are in Montgomery) Licensed for 38 watts.

There are two LPFMs authorized in Tennessee on 107.1. WRFN-LP just west of Nashville and WVOO-LP Columbia. No full-power stations or translators in Tennessee on 107.1.

I'm told there was some tropospheric propagation in the area overnight, so maybe you were hearing something further away than normal? Mississippi or Georgia? I don't think WUHU in Kentucky would be playing anything like that.

Either that, or a pirate, or a XM modulator.. (with only three stations in Alabama and Tennessee and all of them low power, 107.1 is probably a pretty good place for that kind of thing!)
 
I'm not sure it'd be anything from Mississippi, either. WLSM Louisville would the closest signal and that's SW of Columbus by a fair margin. I don't remember their format but R-locator says country. The only other Mississippi signals are Belzoni (pronounced Bell-ZONE-ah) and near Hattiesburg, but both of those wouldn't play that type of music.
 
Def not WUHU, They're a regular catch around here, and i could hear it cutting into the unidentified signal once i turned on to 53. I usually always get to the turn off onto 53 around 5am, so i still had it strong then, and there was no TOH ID. There was a period a couple years ago when an AM station somewhere up around winchester TN was running a pirate translator on 104.9 that could easily be heard in Huntsville, maybe they're at it again. It had the bad AM sound quality which is what made me think translator in the first place, could just be a flat out pirate, I'll have to check it out again in a few hours when i get off work, there's nothing but bleed over from WBPT and WQLT on it here around madison square mall.
 
It's a pirate. Caught an ID on the way home saying "running on a rangemaster transmitter, this is Part 15 AM W-F-O-X The Fox Toney AL. I live in Toney, and i've used 107.1 for my XM FM modulator for years at the house, the signal from the XM used to cover my entire yard and could still be heard at the top of the hill until WUHU and bleed from WQLT killed it off, I can't even pick it up in the driveway now with the pirate completely wiping it out. Another ID mentioning 1670 AM. on my DX rig the signal seems to be the best with the antenna pointed east, I'm a few miles west of the WXBR towers, Wonder if someone put something up there.
 
They just ran another ID claiming to be broadcasting under FCC Part 15 rules. There is no way the FM is running legally. with a listenable signal from just west of Kelly Springs Rd at the top of the hill on hwy 53, to Old Railroad Bed Road, where the signal becomes solid, and stays solid up old railroad bed to at least Pulaski Pike. And it strong enough here at the house to completely obliterate the legal part 15 signal coming from my XM radio outside the house, and cause quite a bit of static on it inside with the dx rig.
 
Hmmm... Although the FM 107.1 station could be a pirate, the AM station, WFOX, is not. WFOX AM is covered by part 15 FCC rules, and the rangemaster transmitter mentioned has an output of 100mw (1/10 watt) which is legal as long as the ground wire/ antenna does not exceed 9' in length. The coverage area of the AM should probably be only about a mile or so. I believe WFOX has a myspace page somewhere, and has a link on www.part15.us website. It might be a good idea to let this guy know about what's happening on 107.1, just to give him (or her) fair warning.

I remember last year there were some severe storms moving through Madison County. WHNT News 19 gave a list of stations carrying the severe weather coverage, and WFOX was one of them... :D

-Travis
 
I have nothing on 1670 here, So they're more than a couple miles from me. Thought I saw something that looked like an antenna on top of the water tower just up the street from me that i hadn't noticed before, but it may just be a lightning rod or something.
 
Another ID stating they're running a Rangemaster for AM, and an EDM for FM. Quick google search and I'm seeing the EDM is not even FCC approved.
 
Yeah, the EDM is technically not part 15 compliant, and could be used illegally. The EDM is offered in two versions, a 10mw and 100mw. According to a review on part15's website, the EDM100 has a range of 1500-2000', which is well beyond the power legally allotted for part15 FM.

I'm not sure what the actual mv/m level has to be, but the range, if used legally, should not exceed a distance of about 300'. The EDM10, if used with the wire antenna or an antenna attenunator, could be used legally. However, in a fairly rural area, 300' does not amount to much without networking several transmitters together, which cost money and is a very long story to explain... between finding areas to place transmitters, and finding people to agree to have a transmitter placed in their yard, it can get very complicated.

-Travis
 
I used to run my station inside a metal building where i used to work until 2008 (the flag factory on Shields Rd in Huntsville), with nothing but the tx module from a griffin road trip for iPod, I would have loved to have something like that back then, Where the signals could not get out of the building except when the shipping door was open. I can't find the specs on the roadtrip transmitter from back then but I believe it was also 100mW, and it would cover almost the entire building easily when the door was closed. I even had one report of "100.3 the Dingo" (this was back before WQRV came to town) being picked up in one of the houses on the street behind the building a few times.
I just took google earth and measured the distance where I was picking this station up, 10.18 Miles of road, from Pulaski Pike, down old railroad bed road, and 53 hwy to the hill right before kelly springs road. it's around 5 miles on old railroad bed rd alone, where i had solid signal the whole way. I'm wondering where they have their antenna at, has to be somewhere up pretty high with that kind of range, if not coupled with a watt or two. There's nothing out here very high except cell towers, one right next to old railroad bed, and one at pulaski pike and toney road. As well as the big huge water tower here off of pulaski pike that can be seen for several miles.
 
Well they either got the message I sent, or the feds showed up, nothing on 107.1 but bleed from 106.9 and 107.3, and I believe I did briefly hear them on 1670 but it was so weak and drowned out by engine noise I couldn't tell for sure.
 
It's in the Toney / Harvest area actually, my initial thought was a translator in ardmore.
 
Well i spoke too soon, my XM signal was full of static again when i got home, turned the XM radio off and there was the signal again, running silent this time.
 
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