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Tropo on the Northside June 2026

S

secondchoice

WSB 95.5 was getting clobbered north Ball Ground earlier today. Even 100.5 which often gets tropoed by WSSL was doing better. 750 with the limitations and noise of AM was easier to listen to in my car.

How far south did is this happening. I think my RDS said it was WSM FM for a second or two but I was driving and could only glance a second or to. What ever it was it wasn't Country. Sounded like another talk program.
 
formerlyinATLradio said:
Ball Ground is far asf lol but it appears that WSBB is now 100k watts? Didnt know that.
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It's a FM C1 100k watts at 915 feet above average terrain. There is a very very slight null to the Northwest which under normal conditions is undetectable in a car radio in Rome Ga. For my use when they were on the 97.1 tower the signal was better but the 95.5 60 db signal reaches many more people from their current location.
 
WSBB is one of the weakest 100K watt stations around. I'm not 100% sure on position on tower but assuming it must be low. I'm in Bremen and while 95.5 comes in better than 100.5, it's not by the difference you would think. 95.5 starts going out near the Tallapoosa exit where as 100.5 starts going out in Bremen. That is literally only 9 miles apart yet 100.5 is less than 20K watts while 95.5 is 100K watts. By comparison, 101.5, 96.1, 98.5 and 99.7 all come in pretty clear.

Edit: Just checked and 95.5 is at a decent height. Must be a crowded frequency. I also note I have difficulty pulling the signal south towards Macon but I know 95.5 has a translator around Macon/Warner Robins. Again, I think it's just a crowded frequency around the south.
 
acheron1982 said:
WSBB is one of the weakest 100K watt stations around. I'm not 100% sure on position on tower but assuming it must be low. I'm in Bremen and while 95.5 comes in better than 100.5, it's not by the difference you would think. 95.5 starts going out near the Tallapoosa exit where as 100.5 starts going out in Bremen. That is literally only 9 miles apart yet 100.5 is less than 20K watts while 95.5 is 100K watts. By comparison, 101.5, 96.1, 98.5 and 99.7 all come in pretty clear.

Edit: Just checked and 95.5 is at a decent height. Must be a crowded frequency. I also note I have difficulty pulling the signal south towards Macon but I know 95.5 has a translator around Macon/Warner Robins. Again, I think it's just a crowded frequency around the south.
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Try WREK. 100kW C1, but only 102m/335' HAAT. Tower is sandwiched between Woodruff dorm and Northside Drive. I've seen bigger cellphone towers.

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acheron1982 said:
WSBB is one of the weakest 100K watt stations around. I'm not 100% sure on position on tower but assuming it must be low. I'm in Bremen and while 95.5 comes in better than 100.5, it's not by the difference you would think. 95.5 starts going out near the Tallapoosa exit where as 100.5 starts going out in Bremen. That is literally only 9 miles apart yet 100.5 is less than 20K watts while 95.5 is 100K watts. By comparison, 101.5, 96.1, 98.5 and 99.7 all come in pretty clear.

Edit: Just checked and 95.5 is at a decent height. Must be a crowded frequency. I also note I have difficulty pulling the signal south towards Macon but I know 95.5 has a translator around Macon/Warner Robins. Again, I think it's just a crowded frequency around the south.
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IIRC 100.5 was originally an West Alabama station (I think Gadsden or Anniston). That allocation ended up in College Park (Atlanta). Unless the FCC created a new allocation or someone upgraded there is a "hole" which only FM class D or AM translators whose 60 DB is limited by 25 miles from tower or an AM with a 2 mv/m signal that can go farther. With the crappy soil conductivity in the area it is rare to go more than 25 miles I believe only 810 and 570 might be able to use their coverage to go farther in this part of Alabama, but not by much. And that's just looking at FCCdata and radio-locator maps. Not something I would present to the FCC.
 
Dan Gorby said:
Their tower is right on campus, owner by the University which means RENT FREE. with 100kw from that central location, that is adequate.
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Not disputing that, but it's still a tiny tower for a 100K station.
 
100.5 was in Anniston, WHMA and was a country station called Alabama 100 prior to the move in January 2001. Those calls have since been reassigned to another Anniston station.
 
LostMountain said:
100.5 was in Anniston, WHMA and was a country station called Alabama 100 prior to the move in January 2001. Those calls have since been reassigned to another Anniston station.
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And a metro-Gadsden rock station now has the callsign WKLS.
 
Dan Gorby said:
Their tower is right on campus, owner by the University which means RENT FREE. with 100kw from that central location, that is adequate.
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They are a FM C1 because they are 100k watts. IDK if this allotment has the spacing protections that a normal Clas C1 does. It is weird that an engineering college would have short sticked FM. Of course you have real good building penetration up to about the 35th floor. If GT runs out of land, the free tower space could go away. Assuming they can increase their tower height, some one will bring up channel 8's tower on Stone Mountain. Looks good on paper but in real life is not as good so I doubt that's an an option. Unless one of the engineers at Tech or at one antenna manufacturers can get better coverage than Channel 8 did when it was annolog the coverage would be spotty in places. The current digital channel 7 that channel 8 is using doesn't work at my son's third floor apartment in Hiram.

They really should buddy up GSU's WRAS or get some alumni to do a 50 year $1 a year lease on a tall rooftop in Atlanta.

Of course they might stay a 100KW "class A" station if this FCC allotment limits their height. Also your dealing with State government that is loaded with Tech's rival UGA.alumni.
 
jabba17 said:
Not disputing that, but it's still a tiny tower for a 100K station.
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WREK has an 8-bay antenna. The engineering types don't seem to post here anymore, but perhaps one of them will see this.

My understanding--and I could be wrong--is that an antenna with that many bays is intended to emphasize signal intensity closer in rather than distance.
 
secondchoice said:
They are a FM C1 because they are 100k watts. IDK if this allotment has the spacing protections that a normal Clas C1 does. It is weird that an engineering college would have short sticked FM. Of course you have real good building penetration up to about the 35th floor. If GT runs out of land, the free tower space could go away. Assuming they can increase their tower height, some one will bring up channel 8's tower on Stone Mountain. Looks good on paper but in real life is not as good so I doubt that's an an option. Unless one of the engineers at Tech or at one antenna manufacturers can get better coverage than Channel 8 did when it was annolog the coverage would be spotty in places. The current digital channel 7 that channel 8 is using doesn't work at my son's third floor apartment in Hiram.

They really should buddy up GSU's WRAS or get some alumni to do a 50 year $1 a year lease on a tall rooftop in Atlanta.

Of course they might stay a 100KW "class A" station if this FCC allotment limits their height. Also your dealing with State government that is loaded with Tech's rival UGA.alumni.
Click to expand...
I don't think engineering expertise is the constraint, but money is.

The deal that involved the Board of Regents selling WGST 920 to Meredith in the early 70s earmarked the proceeds for student radio at Tech, specifically improving WREK. While WREK had been around for a few years already, that money and the restrictions on it seems to have protected WREK from the same fate that befell WRAS. So maybe WREK is keeping their signal smallish on purpose.

I'm still surprised that GPB hasn't found a way to get a proper signal in Atlanta. I did check, though, and there's not really anything unless they can buy a station from a religious broadcaster who gets tired of competing with EMF and move it into the metro, probably on 88.9 or 89.7.
 
It's important to remember that class designations work differently below 92 MHz. Because there's no table of allocations in the noncommercial part of the band, everything's done on contour protection. While stations below 92 MHz are listed with class designations, those are there more for FCC recordkeeping and for protections to adjacent channels in the commercial band. Unlike the commercial band, where a "class C" station can pretty much automatically go to ythe class maximum, a station like WREK is hemmed in by other stations on adjacent channels. If it were to go to a taller tower, it would very likely have to reduce power significantly below 100 kW to compensate. So there's not really that much incentive for them to move.
 
So basically this is just really an overpowered FM class A *or B1 ( if we were in class B area). You can tell this is a taxpayer funded operation. A commercial broadcaster would go with a taller tower and smaller electric bill.

* 2 meters extra height is not going to extend the line of sight a significant amount:
300 meters: 61.8KM line of sight and radio horizon of 71.3 KM
302 meters: 63 km line of sight and a radio horizon of 71.6 KM
Less than 4 feet coverage difference
 


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