Just an update WGTO 910 AM Cassopolis will have its new DA and Transmitter in place by late summer. WGTO has CP for 5.7 kw with a new pattern that is tighter towrd wfdf but much more open to South Bend and Benton Harbor.. Puts 2 mil over South bend half mil over Michigan city. Currently waiting for phasor from kintronic
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``WGTO GOING HIGH POWER
- Thread starter WGTO
- Start date
High power? Are you serious? Effectively you're a daytimer, that's taking huge sky wave hits hours after sunrise and hours before sundown. It appears, the only real thing you're gaining for all practical purposes is a marginally listenable grade signal in some key Michigan farmland during limited daylight hours. And while you're trying to or by the time you get the thing proofed, and WFDF is going to be right up your tookus, it'll be winter, at best and that means 7:15am- 4:30pm, or 8:30- 3:00 without skywave. And while you're fiddling with your daytimer power increase, you managed a nightime decrease, while WFDF is blowtourching you with a nighttime power increase. That's really genius. So much for strategic investments.
A
audiophile.
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WGTO said:Just an update WGTO 910 AM Cassopolis will have its new DA and Transmitter in place by late summer. WGTO has CP for 5.7 kw with a new pattern that is tighter towrd wfdf but much more open to South Bend and Benton Harbor.. Puts 2 mil over South bend half mil over Michigan city. Currently waiting for phasor from kintronic
Congrats!
WGTO said:Sam Lite is such a smart person but he fails to realize that by going to 5.7 kw WGTO puts a much bigger 2mv footprint which makes it eligible to use an FM translator over the South Bend Metro... now who's crazy?
Better have that SOB in your back pocket--it has to be an existing translator or an unexpired CP. They're not going to let you go fishing for a new one to stick in SB.
FWIW, your post caught my eye because in my miss-spent youth I spent several years as a jock with the original WGTO (now Orlando's WFLF) down in Central Florida---50-kw at 540 kHz. Now THAT's "high power!"
yep wish we had the 50kw blowtorch of the original WGTO.... and yes we do have a couple of translators in the back pocket....we will put on one in our backyard in a couple of months we have the right to get the South Bend translator but cannot use it till the 6kw upgrade is done.the old 2 mill contour is too short... that will not be this year. Had to fork over too much cash for the backyard translator so we will work on the power boost next year.... better fm now and high power later dontcha know!!!!
I am still able to listen to WGTO in my car in Chicago and northern suburbs.
Along Lake Shore Drive in Chicago the WLS iboc hiss is quite diminished in places, and the conductivity of Lake Michigan makes WGTO sound like a local. Before the ibocle of HD, 'GTO was strong and clear. I can't wait to see how approx 6X power will sound over here.
By the way, WGTO really suffers in most areas from WLS iboc, so I sure hope the 6kw is helpful.
Along Lake Shore Drive in Chicago the WLS iboc hiss is quite diminished in places, and the conductivity of Lake Michigan makes WGTO sound like a local. Before the ibocle of HD, 'GTO was strong and clear. I can't wait to see how approx 6X power will sound over here.
By the way, WGTO really suffers in most areas from WLS iboc, so I sure hope the 6kw is helpful.
Tom Wells said:I am still able to listen to WGTO in my car in Chicago and northern suburbs.
Along Lake Shore Drive in Chicago the WLS iboc hiss is quite diminished in places, and the conductivity of Lake Michigan makes WGTO sound like a local. Before the ibocle of HD, 'GTO was strong and clear. I can't wait to see how approx 6X power will sound over here.
By the way, WGTO really suffers in most areas from WLS iboc, so I sure hope the 6kw is helpful.
Same here. I live in the northern Chicago suburbs and hear WGTO fairly well around the shores of Lake Michigan.
I'll be looking forward to the increase in power.
I'm local WGTO in SW MI. Have they actually gone to "full power" at night yet? I still can't pick them up after dusk beyond 5 miles from Dowagiac. Exactly where is the transmitter/tower site?
Great news !!! To those who haven't yet heard, WGTO started broadcasting on FM 101.1. Sounds fantastic!!! Now I can listen to oldies at night!!
Well, my comment of sounds fantastic only applied while I was in Dowagiac. Five miles out of town @ M152 the signal started to fade. By the time I hit the the hills around Sister Lakes, the signal was fluttering with another station in the background. WGTO FM must be low power. Anybody else care to comment?
You are correct the ERP is 250 watts. WGTO FM is actually W266BS translator. Coverage to the East is fanstatic all the way east of Jones. Coverage to the west poor due to conflict with WKQX Chicago. Present location is interim. Plans are already underway to move to higher location more centrally located in population center... someplace closer to Niles. Antenna is also directional. Regulations allow multiple translators to be used by AM stations so if revenue picks up we can purchase yet another translator for Niles South Bend... Right now we are concentrating on making the power we have sound as good as it can.
The intended area of coverage is Cass County.. Van Buren is spotty. But since the problem is Co- Channel from Chicago there are places where it booms in due to obstructions from Chicago. So its rather weird. There are places in South Bend where its full quieting but places in Dowagiac where its a bit fuzzy, It can also be heard well in parts of Three Rivers but again that is due to lack of interference from other stations to the East.
Larry Langford OWNER
The intended area of coverage is Cass County.. Van Buren is spotty. But since the problem is Co- Channel from Chicago there are places where it booms in due to obstructions from Chicago. So its rather weird. There are places in South Bend where its full quieting but places in Dowagiac where its a bit fuzzy, It can also be heard well in parts of Three Rivers but again that is due to lack of interference from other stations to the East.
Larry Langford OWNER
Taking the time for the long haul will pay off.... At least electronic filing moves through on secondary and low power applications at blazing speed (a couple of weeks to three) compared to the old days of paper filing and your applications sitting on a desk gathering dust on the old "M" street in "D.C."......
The translator on 101.1 FM is bad news for fans of Q101 in Berrien County.
Q101 is now completely unlistenable most of the time along I-94 in the Benton Harbor / St. Joe area. It's now a 50/50 mix of Q101's signal and this translator's signal.
Before this translator signed on, Q101 could be heard with little difficulty across that area. In the car, I could often hear it to the I-196 / I-94 junction or beyond. Now, I have to drive to at least the Bridgman exit before I can get a listenable signal from 101.1. WIRX must be loving this (not a bad station at all for a small market operation, btw. Much better than WRKR and WBFX, for example.)
I know it wasn't WGTO's intent to cause this type of interference, but I'm still ticked off about it nonetheless.
Here's hoping the planned move closer to Niles will reduce inteference to Q101 if & when it happens.
Q101 is now completely unlistenable most of the time along I-94 in the Benton Harbor / St. Joe area. It's now a 50/50 mix of Q101's signal and this translator's signal.
Before this translator signed on, Q101 could be heard with little difficulty across that area. In the car, I could often hear it to the I-196 / I-94 junction or beyond. Now, I have to drive to at least the Bridgman exit before I can get a listenable signal from 101.1. WIRX must be loving this (not a bad station at all for a small market operation, btw. Much better than WRKR and WBFX, for example.)
I know it wasn't WGTO's intent to cause this type of interference, but I'm still ticked off about it nonetheless.
Here's hoping the planned move closer to Niles will reduce inteference to Q101 if & when it happens.
MarkW said:The translator on 101.1 FM is bad news for fans of Q101 in Berrien County.
Q101 is now completely unlistenable most of the time along I-94 in the Benton Harbor / St. Joe area. It's now a 50/50 mix of Q101's signal and this translator's signal.
Before this translator signed on, Q101 could be heard with little difficulty across that area. In the car, I could often hear it to the I-196 / I-94 junction or beyond. Now, I have to drive to at least the Bridgman exit before I can get a listenable signal from 101.1. WIRX must be loving this (not a bad station at all for a small market operation, btw. Much better than WRKR and WBFX, for example.)
I know it wasn't WGTO's intent to cause this type of interference, but I'm still ticked off about it nonetheless.
Here's hoping the planned move closer to Niles will reduce inteference to Q101 if & when it happens.
MarkW, that's the problem with all of these "drop-in" low power translators and LPFM stations. They ruin reception of higher powered but more distant stations that some of us would prefer to listen to. Case in point: WLFQ-LP wipes out Chicago's classical station WFMT for many miles. The FCC considers these LPFM's to have a usable coverage area of just a few miles, but the interference extends for 20 miles or more! I used to be able to listen to WFMT while driving around South Bend, but now my classical music is replaced by hip-hop by the time I reach mile post 67 on the Indiana Toll Road... and that continues all the way to mile 107. We are seeing the "AM-ization" of the FM band happen in a big way. I, for one, hate this... and can't wait until I have mobile Internet in the car. Then it'll be good-bye forever to all of the noise and interference of OTA radio as far as I am concerned!
On another, possibly happier note: WLS has turned off their IBCO Hiss-O-Matic. I am wondering if this has improved reception for WGTO listeners to the west of Cassopolis?
THANK GOD WLS IBOC HAS BEEN SHUT DOWN!! We at WGTO are getting out like we did in the old days... actually have listeners in Chicago again. I have been experimenting with processing and want some feedback from the group here. I have switched from the OMNIA 5 over to a vorsis VP8.. The VP8 has great DSP architecture that allows you to experiment forever. Parametric EQ switchable pre or post compression. Preemphasis is switchable pre or post limiter.. the clipper has several personalities and the attack release is precisely adjustable.
I have it set to forget the NRSC preemphasis curve and came up with one that sounds a lot better ( I think) we boost the high end 11db at 4.8Khz the bottom gets a boost of 4 db at 95hz.. The high end is band stopped at 6khz. The rise of the high end EQ is very sharp the result is what i think is an exciting air sound even on narrow radios which are of course the norm. The loudness factor seems to really jump on the dial. More than i could get with optimod.. The attack and release of the limiter was set to mimic the settings of the original volumax with hard clipping after. Curious for comments. and we are still running 1kw..by the way.
Some sad news to report. After 22 years WGTO is for sale.. its been fun to play with but I am going broke and nearing retirement age so I cant say how long it will still be around to play with but all things must end i guess..
I have it set to forget the NRSC preemphasis curve and came up with one that sounds a lot better ( I think) we boost the high end 11db at 4.8Khz the bottom gets a boost of 4 db at 95hz.. The high end is band stopped at 6khz. The rise of the high end EQ is very sharp the result is what i think is an exciting air sound even on narrow radios which are of course the norm. The loudness factor seems to really jump on the dial. More than i could get with optimod.. The attack and release of the limiter was set to mimic the settings of the original volumax with hard clipping after. Curious for comments. and we are still running 1kw..by the way.
Some sad news to report. After 22 years WGTO is for sale.. its been fun to play with but I am going broke and nearing retirement age so I cant say how long it will still be around to play with but all things must end i guess..
I did an alignment on the (1972 Motorola AM/FM) car radio and have been doing some listening.
Heard Waterloo by ABBA yesterday and the processing was burying the backup vocals somhow.
Almost sounded like a stereo phase cancel/flip issue. The high frequencies are nice, and sounds like more than 6 khz, but there's
maybe a little too much midband compression, as these seem withdrawn and overall intelligibility suffers.
I approve of the high and low end boost....is that step before or after the Vorsis?
Maybe a little less hard of a clip. It doesn't sound like the carrier's getting too close to pinch-off.
I live 3 miles in from the shore, and it's amazing how quickly the signal falls off.
There's a 1620 in South Bend with sports yap and they're completely gone at home, while listenable at the lakeshore.
Same story for WIMS 1420 Michigan City, darn near nothing left after three miles of buildings.
I need to use a tuned loop at home to listen to WGTO, and then it sounds pretty good, especially on the
big 1936 Philco 116X with the piezo tweeters and extended response range.
Heard Waterloo by ABBA yesterday and the processing was burying the backup vocals somhow.
Almost sounded like a stereo phase cancel/flip issue. The high frequencies are nice, and sounds like more than 6 khz, but there's
maybe a little too much midband compression, as these seem withdrawn and overall intelligibility suffers.
I approve of the high and low end boost....is that step before or after the Vorsis?
Maybe a little less hard of a clip. It doesn't sound like the carrier's getting too close to pinch-off.
I live 3 miles in from the shore, and it's amazing how quickly the signal falls off.
There's a 1620 in South Bend with sports yap and they're completely gone at home, while listenable at the lakeshore.
Same story for WIMS 1420 Michigan City, darn near nothing left after three miles of buildings.
I need to use a tuned loop at home to listen to WGTO, and then it sounds pretty good, especially on the
big 1936 Philco 116X with the piezo tweeters and extended response range.
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