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WHAM this morning

C

carlvanorden

Guest
I get WHAM here in Northeast PA quite well in the morning, and good during the day.....this morning I noticed what sounded like pattern changes and dumps all morning long....during some segments there were what sounded like electrical shorts in a fader as well.......for a station with impeccable audio, there was a lot of "technical noice" thruout the program.........anyone else notice, or know what the problem was/is?Carl from NEPA<P ID="signature">______________
[email protected], [email protected],[email protected]</P>
 
> I get WHAM here in Northeast PA quite well in the morning,
> and good during the day.....this morning I noticed what
> sounded like pattern changes and dumps all morning
> long....during some segments there were what sounded like
> electrical shorts in a fader as well.......for a station
> with impeccable audio, there was a lot of "technical noice"
> thruout the program.........anyone else notice, or know what
> the problem was/is?Carl from NEPA
>
They just put in a new computer system as part of a studio renovation,..my sources say it's causing lots of problems as operators get used to it,..though not half as many as when they switched over to the "prophet" system back in the late 90's.

I would respectufully disagree with you about WHAM having impeccable audio...on the contrary IMHO their audio quality has been an embarrasmanet for a long time.. They've had problems with burps farts pops and cut outs for at least the past 16 years. These are things that engineers either can't figure out or have said they can;t fix due to various and sundry reasons. (I've heard everything from sun spots to the allignment of the studio to transmitter link to the configuration of buildings downtown as the reasons)
WHAM doesn't have nearly the "sound quality" as ..say,..WBEN , which highly compresses its audio to produce a crisper, cleaner sound. If you don;t believe me, drive to Batavia some day, and just flip back and forth...see which one "sounds" better ..I think you'll notice a stark difference.
 
> I get WHAM here in Northeast PA quite well in the morning,
> and good during the day.....this morning I noticed what
> sounded like pattern changes and dumps all morning
> long....during some segments there were what sounded like
> electrical shorts in a fader as well.......for a station
> with impeccable audio, there was a lot of "technical noice"
> thruout the program.........anyone else notice, or know what
> the problem was/is?Carl from NEPA
>

It sure isn't pattern changes because WHAM isn't directional.

For some reason it's rare that the station makes it down here to North Carolina. WWKB, WABC, WCBS, WFAN, WOR, and WBZ make it just fine. You would think a non directional AM would do better.

MikeM
 
> > I get WHAM here in Northeast PA quite well in the morning,
>
> > >
> It sure isn't pattern changes because WHAM isn't
> directional.
>
> For some reason it's rare that the station makes it down
> here to North Carolina. WWKB, WABC, WCBS, WFAN, WOR, and WBZ
> make it just fine. You would think a non directional AM
> would do better.
>
> MikeM

Mike:
It might well be because the Cubans run a propoganda station (250-thousand watts I'm told) on 1180 to counter the US propoganda on Radio Marti, which also broadcast on 1180 direectionally from the Florida Keys.
I know that back in the 90's WHAM was begging the government to move Radio Marti to another frequency, so the Cuban Govt. would move its propoganda machine to another frequency,...and then WHAM would be left unfettered and its signal would penetrate in the south.
When this whole thing first started, there were times when you could hear the interference from Cuba on 1180 in HENRIETTA...which is a suburb only about 5 miles south of downtown Rochester.
Here's the test. Tune in 1180...are you hearing latin music?? That might be why you can't get WHAM
>
 
WHAM Skywave

I did hear some of the Cuban station but it wasn't very strong here. WHAM was able to get over it but then 1180 went to mush, just a jumble with neither station coming in.

KB has a good bit of trash on 1520 to get over but seems to do a much better job. This might be a case of KB's directional pattern actually helping I guess.

KB had a Country station on 1520 in Missouri that was just killing it, even in parts of WNY. It seems to be gone now.
 
Re: WHAM Skywave

> I did hear some of the Cuban station but it wasn't very
> strong here. WHAM was able to get over it but then 1180
> went to mush, just a jumble with neither station coming in.
>
> KB has a good bit of trash on 1520 to get over but seems to
> do a much better job. This might be a case of KB's
> directional pattern actually helping I guess.
>
> KB had a Country station on 1520 in Missouri that was just
> killing it, even in parts of WNY. It seems to be gone now.
>
There are all manner of possible sources of interference for any AM station on the fringes of its coverage area. The FCC has been understaffed on the technical side for some time, so a lot of small stations in markets off the beaten track have been allowed to let technical parameters slide---they "forget" to sign off at sunset if they're daytimers, or forget to power down at night or change patterns properly if their licenses specify it. The result is that they get better coverage, but at the expense of illegally interfering with someone else hundreds of miles away. (I work for a station that's been a victim of other distant stations failing to honor their license parameters, so it is no laughing matter.)

One strategy is for a station to run a legal ID and then kill its carrier for a moment at sunset, simulating a pattern change or even a signoff, then power right back up again with daytime pattern and day power. Often, no one at the FCC will notice unless a co-channel station gets clobbered on the edge of its primary coverage area and complains about it.
 
Re: WHAM Skywave

> One strategy is for a station to run a legal ID and then
> kill its carrier for a moment at sunset, simulating a
> pattern change or even a signoff, then power right back up
> again with daytime pattern and day power. Often, no one at
> the FCC will notice unless a co-channel station gets
> clobbered on the edge of its primary coverage area and
> complains about it.

Bob,

Most of the time I have heard badly trained operators who play the sign off but leave the transmitter on with a dead carrier. Sometimes they will leave a network pot up so that would be burglers hear something on in the studio.

I wish the FCC did more to inforce the law. At times they seem like a joke, and not a very funny one.

MikeM
 
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