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WDGY AM HD

LDronglien said:
Yes, I heard the same thing. I live in Minnetonka. I also noticed that the AM signal was sort of in and out for a few seconds every couple of minutes. It made my wife crazy so she forced me to turn it off. I wish the Borgen family could buy a 24 hours AM signal in the area for WDGY. I don't know if Salem is selling any of their frequencies - but I sure would like to see 980 as WDGY.
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WDGY has a great brand. They are one of the few in our market who still show up at events with merch. They also promote the AM station alongside the translators. There was this one promo, something to the effect of: "In your home on your smart speaker, and in your classic car on the AM dial." I think that's really smart. They have a market niche, and they run with it.

That said - I mostly listen on KTMY HD2, and so do most people I know who like the station.

980 really is a great frequency in the Twin Cities. It would be epic if "The Twin Cities Christian Voice" flipped to "The Original Rock n' Roll Station." Sadly, I don't see Salem selling anything in our market anytime soon. Salem has a tower array in St. Louis Park that I believe they are not using, too.

Gregg. said:
As David says, the NARBA pact and other subsequent agreements weren't perfect. As with all human endeavors, there was politics involved. Some owners had better lawyers or elected officials who could influence the outcome. (Apparently nobody was making a case for WHA Madison, WEW St. Louis, WDZ Decatur and KUOM Minneapolis--originally WLB, some of the oldest stations on the dial that remain days-only or with minimal nighttime power.)
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WHA Madison at night sounds nearly perfect inside their signal contour. Too bad the broadcast power barely reaches beyond the city limits. At this point, these stations will prioritize their FM translators and let their AM stations rest in peace.
 
I always wondered about that claim. I just assumed they were one one the first of the old class 4 AMs. Maybe the relative height of Cumberland Plateau that Cookeville sets on verses Nashville to the west gave them better access to Ionshere before 1400 became jammed at night. I the worked at WPTN in the early 1970s, and had a friend who worked at WHUB and he said he was told that when they hired him. They had all kinds of souvenirs on the back hallway wall including a fan letters from different states. The Judge was still alive but I never questioned the 70+ year old about any claims his station made when I met him after Church.

WPTN and WHUB shared the same engineering team. Both of them were at WPTN trying to run a proof on 1550 one night.* I asked about WHUB and Ransom said WHUB could have had a much better channel when they started but they didn't want to spend anymore money on lawyers.

*It didn't go well the modulation meter was at 95% that night with the transmitter off! Even with that transmitter on there was about 20% "noise" during any silent pause about 15 minutes before signoff during cold months.
 
pattywells said:
WDGY has a great brand. They are one of the few in our market who still show up at events with merch. They also promote the AM station alongside the translators. There was this one promo, something to the effect of: "In your home on your smart speaker, and in your classic car on the AM dial." I think that's really smart. They have a market niche, and they run with it.

That said - I mostly listen on KTMY HD2, and so do most people I know who like the station.

980 really is a great frequency in the Twin Cities. It would be epic if "The Twin Cities Christian Voice" flipped to "The Original Rock n' Roll Station." Sadly, I don't see Salem selling anything in our market anytime soon. Salem has a tower array in St. Louis Park that I believe they are not using, too.


WHA Madison at night sounds nearly perfect inside their signal contour. Too bad the broadcast power barely reaches beyond the city limits. At this point, these stations will prioritize their FM translators and let their AM stations rest in peace.
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I believe the 1440 Khz KYCR is still in the St Louis Park location near 100 and Highway 55.
 
pattywells said:
I was in my car last night. It was well past sunset - around 7:00 p.m.. WDGY was still on air and broadcasting in HD. Any ideas why?
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I’m in a chat group with many Twin Cities AM and FM DXers. A few of them have noticed this as well, and are saying that WDGY has Post Sunrise and Post Sunset Authority, which, if I understand correctly, means WDGY is allowed to be on a certain amount of time after sunset and a certain amount of time before sunrise at reduced power. (Correct me if I’m wrong, AM is not my area of expertise and I’m just relaying what I’ve heard and how I personally interpreted it) The group members speculate that when the transmitter drops to PSSA/PSRA power, that HD Radio is enabled, as they have seen WDGY in HD before sunrise, and after sunset. But when the transmitter switches to regular power at sunrise, the HD is disabled.
 
fmradioguy said:
I’m in a chat group with many Twin Cities AM and FM DXers. A few of them have noticed this as well, and are saying that WDGY has Post Sunrise and Post Sunset Authority, which, if I understand correctly, means WDGY is allowed to be on a certain amount of time after sunset and a certain amount of time before sunrise at reduced power. (Correct me if I’m wrong, AM is not my area of expertise and I’m just relaying what I’ve heard and how I personally interpreted it) The group members speculate that when the transmitter drops to PSSA/PSRA power, that HD Radio is enabled, as they have seen WDGY in HD before sunrise, and after sunset. But when the transmitter switches to regular power at sunrise, the HD is disabled.
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Edit: Pre-Sunrise* Authority
 
fmradioguy said:
I’m in a chat group with many Twin Cities AM and FM DXers. A few of them have noticed this as well, and are saying that WDGY has Post Sunrise and Post Sunset Authority, which, if I understand correctly, means WDGY is allowed to be on a certain amount of time after sunset and a certain amount of time before sunrise at reduced power. (Correct me if I’m wrong, AM is not my area of expertise and I’m just relaying what I’ve heard and how I personally interpreted it) The group members speculate that when the transmitter drops to PSSA/PSRA power, that HD Radio is enabled, as they have seen WDGY in HD before sunrise, and after sunset. But when the transmitter switches to regular power at sunrise, the HD is disabled.
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Do they have pre sunrise?
 
DavidEduardo said:
My favorite restriction is the one where Canada has permanently closed a number of full "clear" channel stations, yet maintains international notification of them. So US stations restricted by those allocations must still protect stations that don't exist! Example: Moncton on 1070.
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CBA 1070 originally operated from the site that eventually became Radio Canada International's shortwave transmitter farm in Sackville. Radio Magazine on Facebook just posted some great archival photos from when the RCI site was built. The CBC constructed the new shortwave building on top of the existing 1070 building because that's the only way CBA could stay on the air during construction. The CBA AM and RCI shortwave transmission facilities remained co-located in Sackville until 1968 when CBA's tower moved to Moncton. It was shut down in 2008 when CBA migrated to FM. RCI was shut down in 2012 and all the towers were torn down in 2014. The land, which is a salt marsh, and the building, which was gutted inside but still stands, went to an indigenous First Nations group.

Scroll down to the post from December 14 to see the photos:
www.facebook.com

Radio Magazine

Radio Magazine. 12,064 likes · 583 talking about this. Passionné par la radio? Radio Magazine vous présente une fois par jour l'essentiel de l’actualité et de l’histoire de la radio
www.facebook.com www.facebook.com
 
fmradioguy said:
I’m in a chat group with many Twin Cities AM and FM DXers. A few of them have noticed this as well, and are saying that WDGY has Post Sunrise and Post Sunset Authority, which, if I understand correctly, means WDGY is allowed to be on a certain amount of time after sunset and a certain amount of time before sunrise at reduced power. (Correct me if I’m wrong, AM is not my area of expertise and I’m just relaying what I’ve heard and how I personally interpreted it) The group members speculate that when the transmitter drops to PSSA/PSRA power, that HD Radio is enabled, as they have seen WDGY in HD before sunrise, and after sunset. But when the transmitter switches to regular power at sunrise, the HD is disabled.
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This would all make sense, as the HD signal only turns on after sunset. It also appears to be at much lower power. I was driving around the Hudson area the other weekend as was able to pick up the HD signal. The digital signal dropped when I drove back to St. Paul, and the analog signal was much lower in Minneapolis than during the daytime.

If the DX group is open, send me a message on how to join.
 
pre sunrise authority is 6am to local sunrise if sunrise is after 6am
post sunset authority is sunset to 2 hours later

this data wont show on fccdata, fcc info or radio locator.. its often in paper records at individual stations./ the fcc issued new PSSA/SPRA data a decade or so ago and then rescinded it because of a calculation error.

If you have night power thats higher than your post sunset power, you can use your night power (i managed that was 1kw day 27 watts night ,but had post sunset as low as single digit power)

i find it interesting HD is only on at dark, if thats true.... its pointless for such a short time and skywave greatly affects it at that point
 
I get WDGY 740 in Minnetonka by 394 and 169 pretty well. I listen to it on the Nutone Intercom radio in the house. It's from 1984 and has really good AM and FM reception. AM has wider frequency response than most "modern" radios so WDGY sounds pretty good. The FM signal is difficult to receive out here, though I have a Pioneer SX-1980 that picks it up from the FM antenna in the garage attic. It's too staticky in FM Stereo but in mono sounds fine.
 
Runch M said:
I get WDGY 740 in Minnetonka by 394 and 169 pretty well. I listen to it on the Nutone Intercom radio in the house. It's from 1984 and has really good AM and FM reception. AM has wider frequency response than most "modern" radios so WDGY sounds pretty good. The FM signal is difficult to receive out here, though I have a Pioneer SX-1980 that picks it up from the FM antenna in the garage attic. It's too staticky in FM Stereo but in mono sounds fine.
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I'm also in that area and it does come in pretty well. I use a Grundig Satellit 800, several Magnavox radios and a Sony Earth Orbiter. I live in a condo so there is some interference on the Magnavox units, but if I get them outside it is very clear. I wish they could up the power a bit, but 5K is better than what WDGY used to be.
 
WDGY had a nice showing for the Sunday Beatles 60th anniversary at the MOA on Sunday. I don't know what big showing is there, but it seemed pretty full to me and there were lots of people who had not heard about it stopping and listening in. I'm not the biggest guy on cover bands, but the group "A Hard Day's Night" did a good job. The photos shown from the August 21 1965 event were cool. Only $5 or $5.50 to get in back then. I miss Metropolitan Stadium.

All the DJs were there except Ray. Don Michaels mc'd the event, but just at the start. Bill Diehl's wife was there - thank you WDGY for ensuring she came.
 
It has been gone here in Minnetonka for about 4 days. I wondered if their towers were being serviced or moved. I have no radios that can pick it up. Until recently it was very well received here. Weird. I'll email the chief engineer.
 


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