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WDEL Power Increase

Don't know if the increase is in use yet. But I can hear them better in Newark at 4:30am when I am driving to Boeing (that's my current gig). Before, I couldn't hear them at the Newark post office - got a Canadian oldies station instead. Now they are almost loud and clear. Of course that is still the night pattern. But about a year ago, they went off the air from 4-5:30am for some tower work. Was that for the increase?
 
I just spoke with someone in the WDEL newsroom, and they said they were told by management that the 10K upgrade is on hold for now, due to the economy. The upgrade will cost WDEL about a million dollars. They said they were told the plans are to eventually get the upgrade, but for now, it's on hold. WDEL did do some repairs to their towers, which might be the improvement in reception you're hearing.
 
WDEL could have very easily made the adjustments to their night pattern to get it to the new pattern since there is basically no change in the number of towers used/power level. Hope they get the CP renewed as its up in February.
 
I hope so too, as I work near New Castle and can only get WDEL if I run my radio on battery and have it in a certain place in my lab. WILM and WWTX, on the other hand, has a very solid signal to where I work, of course WILM's non-directional tower is only a few miles away on Walnut St. vs Shipley Road in North Wilmington. I believe WWTX's non-directional tower is on the Northeast side of Wilmington near I-495 and Governor Printz Blvd, so as the crow flies that may not be all that far either from my New Castle workplace. So the 10K upgrade would probably help WDEL pull in a greater day time audience, but wow, a million dollars. That's a lot of Concord Pet spots.
 
New application filed this month for 3 tower 10KW upgrade for WDEL, interesting stuff on FCC website. It looks better than previous proposal.
 
I went and looked at it on the FCC website. The only thing I could understand, it is a 3 tower setup rather than a 4 tower setup, which would be less restrictive. There isn't a map like you'd find at Radio Locator to show the difference in area covered with the 10K 3 tower plan vs the now defunct 10K 4 tower plan. Radio Locator doesn't yet have that new info so an update coverage map isn't there either. So ka3kza, can you explain for us laymen/women who lack the technical knowledge how the new proposal will help WDEL. If I read the FCC website correctly, WDEL today has a 4 tower setup for their 5K setup both day and night, but the pattern changes at night.

Thanks for yours or anyone else's help in better understanding all of this.
 
When you go to the FCC website, after you bring up WDEL in am query. click on applications list, then click on the most recent, from this month. When it opens, go to the bottom of the application, where exhibits are, and within them you will see the 5kw current vs. the 10kw proposal. Basically it loos like an better signal to the Northeast (Philly area), to the west into Cecil county and Northwest a bit.

I think they want to improve there signal against electrical interference, as well as coverage in the Newark and Elkton area. Cecil County is a part of the Wilmington Metro, and since a good number of people in that area travel to New Castle County to work and shop, plus with the housing growth along the Rt. 40 area, this makes sense.

The cost of the upgrade includes not only a new transmitter, but they will probably have to replace their phasor array, since the old one can't handle the doubling of power. If HD radio ever takes off, the fact that t hey are on the WSTW HD3 could help. I would love to see them add WDEL to the HD of WAFL, giving them better coverage downstate.

Hope this helps.
 
I'll check it out again. Thanks !

The idea of having WDEL on WAFL HD3 sounds like a good one for increasing WDEL's signal and branding downstate. Some of the WDEL folks do visit RI every now and again, so you just may have passed on a great idea they might not have yet thought of.
 
The idea of having WDEL on WAFL HD3 sounds like a good one for increasing WDEL's signal and branding downstate. Some of the WDEL folks do visit RI every now and again, so you just may have passed on a great idea they might not have yet thought of.
[/quote]

Actually, they have alternative/indie Graffiti (from 93.7-HD2) playing on Eagle's HD3
 
WDEL cannot be heard clearly in the Hockessin area at 6:15am or 5:30pm. This is pathetic. It really ought to do something to improve the signal within its own COUNTY. Cripes... this is 10 miles or less from the towers.
 
To improve the signal within NCC is part of what WDEL is trying to do. Unfortunately, WDEL also has to keep a pattern to protect a Washington DC station and I believe a Central PA or NY station, and I believe also a station in Richmond VA, so the 10K signal, as was explained to me by a WDEL staffer, will make their signal in NCC far better cutting through the interference, but won't improve the Newark or Hockessin signal as much as they'd like due to protecting those other stations. However, the rest of us should notice an improvement. WDEL isn't a clear channel station like WPHT in Philly is, so this sort of thing will limit them, but will help to restore the solid signal WDEL has always had in the Wilmington metro area.
 
In looking at the 2 maps for the present 5000 watts and the proposed 10000 watt day pattern for WDEL on www.fccinfo.com, it shows a very big increase in the signal going to the west, so there will be an increase in the suignal toward Pike Creek and Newark. The station WDEL protected on 1150 in Gaithersburg, MD is now on 1160 and has a lot of protection in WDEL's direction. WYNS moved to 1160 years ago but still has a pretty sizeable signal in WDEL's direction. The WDEL signal looks much more tucked in off the back of the pattern on the new set up. And I'm sure there were alot of field measurement hours spent on WRVA-1140 showing that their signal isn't all that good in WDEL's direction so they were able to increase it in that direction. One that would be interesting to see happen is if a power increase to 50000 watts could be done with WDOV-1410 during the day (they do allow 50000 watts on regional frequencies now).
 
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