• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

WBT's Nightime Signal

  • Thread starter audiomusiclover
  • Start date

A

audiomusiclover

Guest
Just a quick question for you Engineers. I have often wondered since WBT's nightime signal is nulled out to the West and even to the east. Does that directional pattern have any added impact (bonus) on their northern and southern signals? They are 50KW directional as most know, so asking if their North/South nighttime patterns are stronger with the East/West nulls, than if they were a non-directional 50k'er
 
Yes, the signal will be more than 50kW in the main lobes. Think of it like squeezing a balloon. FM is different in that the directional antenna input power is reduced to keep the main lobes from going over the maximum allowed for the class and height (have to let some air out of the balloon).
 
I didn't realize there was a null to the east. Why do they have a null to the east? I can't think of any stations they are protecting in that direction.
 
Although I never heard an ID, I caught WBT on my trip to Newfoundland in 1999 with preseason Carolina Panthers football. (Who else could it have been on 1110?)

When I was in Bermuda in 2005, I shoulda checked at night for WBT to see if that tight N/S pattern was true, but I forgot.

I sent Mr. Sheridan above an mp3 of 1110 from south FL about 2 months ago. Back in the 60s and 70s growing up, it was WBT & only WBT at night here, with a nice signal. But now there is a Cuban, and maybe that 1110 near Dallas is still putting on a night signal when they shouldn't, but I think that was resolved.

And, I have *never* heard KFAB 1110 Omaha, ever.

cd
 
I found an interesting STA (special temp authority). Looks like they are looking for ways to save on the power bill.

Use of MDCL technology requires a waiver of 47 C.F.R. § 73.1560(a) to
permit reduction of unmodulated carrier power to levels below 90 percent nominal carrier power.

The STA expired on 2-1-13 and it doesn't show an extension.
 
Mike Sheridan said:
I didn't realize there was a null to the east. Why do they have a null to the east? I can't think of any stations they are protecting in that direction.
Click to expand...
I wondered why WBT didn't sound good at night. Even KMOX and WTAM (whatever it was called at the time) sounded clearer.
 
The null to the east is not as pronounced as the one toward the west. If you are in Charlotte proper no problem. Salisbury, well, signal at night won't be so great.
 
Powell E. Way III W4OPW said:
The null to the east is not as pronounced as the one toward the west. If you are in Charlotte proper no problem. Salisbury, well, signal at night won't be so great.
Click to expand...

Salisbury is right in the North-Northeast main lobe,
Monroe & Wilmington NC are in the main direction of the east null at night.
 
I don't know that WBT's powerful northeastward nighttime ground signal would peter out as close as Salisbury - I wouldn't think so. Maybe by the time one gets to Thomasville or High Point it would be gone. WBZ-Boston aims its 50kwatt signal westward. I have driven through northern Connecticut at night and been unable to hear WBZ at all. I have been in metro Detroit and regularly heard WBZ coming in so clearly at night that, if I didn't know better, I could have thought their tower was no more than a mile away. So, for a 50kwatt AM signal at night, even if you are traveling away in the main lobe of a directional signal, you eventually leave the ground wave behind you. Then you may not hear the station again until you get far enough away that you start to get the signal bouncing off of the ionosphere.
 
rls97600 said:
Then you may not hear the station again until you get far enough away that you start to get the signal bouncing off of the ionosphere.
Click to expand...

Guess that explains why I can hear WSB 750 Atlanta better at night when I visit NJ,
than at my house here in Gaffney SC.
It does ok here at night but it fades out quite a bit sometimes.

I'm also 50 miles west of WBT and there are times I can hear it at night somewhat
but it's like a flickering static most of the time at night being in the west null,
it does much better 500 miles away up north in the main lobe.
99.3 WBT-FM is clear at my house so I don't have to try and hear it on AM when I'm at home.
 
The signal is nearly unlistenable in Concord at night. Static, static, static.
 
Reception in Florida with WBT at night is generally good. The main problem I have with them is sometimes I hear IBOC hash from either WTAM or KMOX, very annoying.
The problem at night with WBT and other clear channel stations is the skip cancellation zone, usually about 50-100 miles from the transmitter. Have noticed it around Statesville and between Charlotte and Columbia at times.
 
Skywave signals can do funny things too. When I worked for 5000 watt / 1000 Watt night directional WMNC in Morganton, it was a regular thing for our nighttime signal to be picked up on Ocean Drive in Myrtle Beach like a local. our main lobe was pointed to the Southeast and petered out about 25 miles from the transmitter, but it got into Myrtle beach like a champ most nights.

That is now a thing of the past, since Duke energy raised the rent on the leased property for the directional towers from $800 a year to About $1000 a month in 1987 and they took a 10 year renewal then went non directional in 1997 or so with very low power.
 
jtudor said:
Skywave signals can do funny things too. When I worked for 5000 watt / 1000 Watt night directional WMNC in Morganton, it was a regular thing for our nighttime signal to be picked up on Ocean Drive in Myrtle Beach like a local. our main lobe was pointed to the Southeast and petered out about 25 miles from the transmitter, but it got into Myrtle beach like a champ most nights.

That is now a thing of the past, since Duke energy raised the rent on the leased property for the directional towers from $800 a year to About $1000 a month in 1987 and they took a 10 year renewal then went non directional in 1997 or so with very low power.
Click to expand...
When I lived near Monroe WDEX signed on at 1430 AM, which is also WMNC's frequency. Their six towers were west of Monroe and I could hear the station south of those towers at night. I would assume their signal went east if the towers were west of town.

This makes me wonder how your signal would be allowed to go in that direction, but I guess you were there first.

I do like listening to WMNC when I go to the mountains. It's hard to believe 5000 watts provides such poor coverage on the radio in my car. Fortunately, for now I meet up with some former neighbors in the Hickory area and they have a better car radio. WMNC makes it all the way to Old Fort.
 
WMNC moved from its 4 tower array and dropped its power to 2700 watts day and 46 watts night a while back. That's why coverage is so degraded. They moved to the WMNC-FM stick.
 
Mike Sheridan said:
I didn't realize there was a null to the east. Why do they have a null to the east? I can't think of any stations they are protecting in that direction.
Click to expand...
Their nocturnal null to the ESE is not all that deep and their main north lobe goes straight into what was the market back between the world wars, but the shape of their night pattern is about the same as the shape of the east coast and they send about 150 KW ERP up and down the coast.
Skywave used to be significant and WBT's might have covered more people than any other US radio station back in the day night.
The station uses three of these. One is original and two were replaced after a hurricane Hugo.
At one time they had a 1KW synchronous amplifier between Shelby and Cherryville, directional with two or three towers shooting away from Omaha and only on at night.
Here is my favorite Blau-Knox ;D
 
wncmacs said:
WMNC moved from its 4 tower array and dropped its power to 2700 watts day and 46 watts night a while back. That's why coverage is so degraded. They moved to the WMNC-FM stick.
Click to expand...
That's a real shame.

What do classic country fans do at night?
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom