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= [ WLFM ]=

B

BOBBY.B

=[ HAS ANYBODY HEARD IF ( WLFM ) WAS GOING TO INCREASE IT'S POWER MORE ? I CAN GET IT ON MY RADIO'S IN THE HOUSE BUT WHEN IN THE CAR==NO WAY. I READ THAT MORE POWER WAS ON THE WAY. THAT WAS AT CHITOWN SMOOTH JAZZ.COM !!]==[ HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND BOBBY.
 
See the WLFM website for possible updates: http://www.wlfm877.com/

There is an email to contact them directly with your questions:[email protected] Tell us what they say if they answer.

Many of us think that WLFM's power is at or near their maximum. Where are you located? It may depend where you are in their signal pattern. Check this map out here: http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=TX1269749.html
WLFM has been contacted about going omnidirectional since there are no TV stations anywhere near Chicago that WLFM could interfere with since Analog TV has been shut down. That would greatly improve the signal especially to the far North and Northwest suburbs. The 3 kW WLFM signal is only about 3dB less in power than other radio stations that have operated from the John Hancock Center at 6kW. WLFM appears to have more power in the horizontal plane, which may explain why the signal isn't so good on some car radios, however one of my vehicles has a vertical whip and a radio that came with the vehicle... in other words, it's not a "supertuner" and I'm getting a decent signal for WLFM as far away as Crystal Lake, Dundee and Algonquin.
 
=[ THANK'S FOR TAKING TIME TO LET ME KNOW ABOUT THE OUT PUT OF ( WLFM ) I DID E-MAIL THEM AND WE WILL SEE IF THEY E-MAIL BACK??--I LIVE IN ROLLING MEADOW'S AND I GET IT ON THE HOUSE RADIO'S. I GOT A NEW HD.RADIO FOR MY CAR!!AND CAN HARDLY GET {WLFM} ON THE CAR RADIO. ONCE AGAIN THANK YOU AND HAVE A GREAT DAY ===BOBBY.
 
BOBBY.B said:
=[ THANK'S FOR TAKING TIME TO LET ME KNOW ABOUT THE OUT PUT OF ( WLFM ) I DID E-MAIL THEM AND WE WILL SEE IF THEY E-MAIL BACK??--I LIVE IN ROLLING MEADOW'S AND I GET IT ON THE HOUSE RADIO'S. I GOT A NEW HD.RADIO FOR MY CAR!!AND CAN HARDLY GET {WLFM} ON THE CAR RADIO. ONCE AGAIN THANK YOU AND HAVE A GREAT DAY ===BOBBY.
Click to expand...

If you can hear the more outlying stations such as WNIU 90.5 De Kalb and WZOK 97.5 Rockford really well from Rolling Meadows then your car radio should be ok. Make sure the DX/Local button is set to DX (if your car radio has it). If the tuner sensitivity is 10 dBf or better, that should be a good radio. Then depending on how old the vehicle is, the antenna may be slightly corroded inside, that might possibly lower the efficiency of the antenna making it harder to hear more distant stations. If you have the windshield antenna that may be the problem, though one of my vehicles has a windshield antenna, and reception is great into Crystal Lake and beyond and this is with a factory radio (the radio that came with the car)

If everything has been checked out you might want to consider an FM antenna preamplifier if your car radio sensitivity is not that good. But if your tuner sensitivity is better than about 10 dBf, you may overload the car radio tuner and may damage the tuner's electronics. If you're not sure about what to do, you might want to ask whoever installed your radio or possibly contact Autosound on NW Highway in Palatine.
 
BOBBY.B said:
=[ THANK'S FOR TAKING TIME TO LET ME KNOW ABOUT THE OUT PUT OF ( WLFM ) I DID E-MAIL THEM AND WE WILL SEE IF THEY E-MAIL BACK??--I LIVE IN ROLLING MEADOW'S AND I GET IT ON THE HOUSE RADIO'S. I GOT A NEW HD.RADIO FOR MY CAR!!AND CAN HARDLY GET {WLFM} ON THE CAR RADIO. ONCE AGAIN THANK YOU AND HAVE A GREAT DAY ===BOBBY.
Click to expand...

Hey Bobby,
Although I posted this on the dxers board, I figured I'd post here too. I live in Buffalo Grove and WLFM doesn't come in well here either. It's strength is on par with a distant signal like My 99.1 from Racine, WI. And I have some pretty good radios to pull it in with. While I can certainly receive it here at the house, it's the weakest Chicago signal by far.

So, I don't think it's just you - nor is it necessarily your radio. For some reason, this area is in a bit of a signal hole for them.
 
Re: = [ WLFM ]

It seems that the WLFM signal has improved somewhat the last couple of days - I live near Crystal Lake, and I have an older analog Pioneer receiver (SX-750) with a "T" dipole indoors (in addition to much more recent equipment and an outdoor FM antenna) No matter how I positioned the indoor dipole antenna, I was getting an alright signal, but too noisy in Stereo. Then a couple of days ago I turned on the receiver and the signal strength meter indicated a stronger signal on its scale of 0-5, more like a 0.5 rather than barely moving from 0, and the Stereo sound is reasonably clear now. I'm also getting WLFM on my clock radios, weak, but listenable, where I was not getting the station before on the clock radios. Mobile reception in my car and truck is now more reliable as well. So something must have been changed on the transmitting end in the past few days. Other stations in the area have been at the same signal strength, so I can't attribute this to atmospheric enhancement.

Now if we could only confirm these things from Mr. Kelley, he must be busy at WLFM, we haven't heard from him here lately (wish he could answer our emails), but I will say that I'm enjoying the improvements though live and local would be a great goal for WLFM...
 
I'm here one and all....been busy. Thanks for noticing the improvements in the signal. Good things are coming....Rome wasn't build in a day..
 
Hey Pat, you've been doing some good work as the WLFM signal has improved a bit in the Buffalo Grove area. While still not as strong as the "big" signals, it's now on par with WPWX up here - which is to say that is definitely better than before.

My earlier comment compared it with Y-103.9 or My 99.1 from Racine at our house, which was to say that it was somewhat of a fringe signal that required more effort to listen to. In the car, it's gone from fair/good to very good around here. Thanks for working on it!!
 
So something must have been changed on the transmitting end in the past few days.
Click to expand...

Yes, something did happen. WITI Milwaukee, Channel 6 turned off their analog signal.

The station was allowed by the FCC to keep their analog signal on the air after June 12th, so they could air programming to educate viewers about the change to DTV, similar to what WFLD was doing. But now the Fox Milwaukee station is off the air for good on Channel 6. The station's digital Channel number is 33, which displays on 6-1 and 6-2.
 
Comes in much better here in Plainfield, in the car, that is. On my radios here in the house, signal is a bit better, still pretty bad though.
 
avtosalon said:
So something must have been changed on the transmitting end in the past few days.
Click to expand...

Yes, something did happen. WITI Milwaukee, Channel 6 turned off their analog signal.

The station was allowed by the FCC to keep their analog signal on the air after June 12th, so they could air programming to educate viewers about the change to DTV, similar to what WFLD was doing. But now the Fox Milwaukee station is off the air for good on Channel 6. The station's digital Channel number is 33, which displays on 6-1 and 6-2.
Click to expand...

No, that's not it. We had some discussions about this when WITI turned off the analog and that made little or no difference here.
 
Not everyone might know this, and I've never seen this mentioned anywhere, at least on radio-info - I added about 10 feet of #22 gauge wire (similar to telephone wire, though #18 gauge could be used - that's similar to lamp cord wire) to a clock radio that has a short 2 foot antenna on it, and moved the antenna around until I got a great signal. All I did was strip the insulation off of the clock radio wire and the wire I attached and I'm getting great reception. Perhaps I am in one of WLFM's strongest signal lobes, and the elevation of land is higher than the surrounding area, but for me, the addition is well worth it, since I enjoy the music, and most of what's out there on commercial radio in Chicagoland is not to my liking, so I did what it takes to get a better signal.

If anyone wants a better signal at home in particular, you may need to make the effort to get a better signal until WLFM goes omnidirectional since no one including "Mr. K" is telling us. By the way, Mr. K, will WLFM be promoting the station more? [Like with some advertising and bumper stickers] Smooth Jazz 87.7 does need to get the word out!!!
 
And, as predicted, 95.5 fell off the table with Mega. A lot like Clear Channel's Rumba format in Philly - which lasted 10 months. Out in Philly, I kept telling them to go with a rock format on that frequency - which they eventually did and have done pretty well with. Here, the answer is country done right.

But nobody listens to me....I'm just sayin'. :D
 
I noticed that WLFM's audio cut out once today around 10:30 a.m. for about 15 minutes, and another time within the next hour for less time than that. The RF carrier stayed on each time, somehow the audio stopped a few times. I hope that their engineers find the cause of this, you can't disappoint 400K+ listeners!!!

By the way, the Jazz program on Sunday night that plays the more traditional Jazz is excellent. Please keep that program on the air!!!
 
Alright, it looks like the audio problem is fixed. I hope that the management and engineer checks the audio & RF signal quality on a regular basis with an actual FM radio!

Any chance WLFM could transmit the Title/Artist info. in addition to the call letters "WLFM" being continuously sent out by RBDS/RDS?
The announcers tell us the title and artist of many, but not all the songs played.

Now WLFM has been on the air over 2 months - 68 days to be exact - we're looking forward to the updated PPM numbers for July.
 
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