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Baton Rouge WPYR 1380 proposes dropping power/towers

With AM stations downgrading or going dark almost daily, there is a good chance whoever was in the directional null has downgraded their night signal or just gone away completely. There used to a page on the FCC site that listed every station on a frequency their power and class. Then there are the D stations which I often miss.

Since the commission "upgraded" the site it's not worth dealing with unless you are actually filling with the commission. I believe 1380 was one of the old regional channels. The nighttime protections were not as good as one of the old chear channels.
 
RFLA said:
Im wondering if 3 more watts to make up for tuning losses in the reworked setup ?
Click to expand...
No that is the power the FCC accepted.

Here is the cliff note version of what should happen:

Most likely they have a day transmitter and a night transmitter. IDK if there is a 5kw AM transmitter that can step back that far. It's been over 20 years since I touched an AM transmitter and that was a Harris MW1 that was backup to a Nautel.
I would simply bypass the phasing cabinet and permanently "hotwire" the transmitters feed going to the remaining tower. Then after checking to see if the antenna is still properly tuned by the ATU and actually testing to find out what ever the antenna resistance really is: you get your calculator on your phone and adjust power at peak modulation using P = R x I ² using the remote tower amp meter.
As long as there are no complaints and you stay within the 90% to 105% power range I seriously doubt the FCC will visit unless your paperwork is messed up.
 
How about this for night power... i know a station running 49.5 Watts!

Why?

49 wouldnt create prohibitive overlap with the station they need to protect and 50 would

(I was nerdy enough to read the night time filing paperwork when they filed for it since this station had been a strict daytimer up until about ... a decade ago.
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
How about this for night power... i know a station running 49.5 Watts!

Why?

49 wouldnt create prohibitive overlap with the station they need to protect and 50 would

(I was nerdy enough to read the night time filing paperwork when they filed for it since this station had been a strict daytimer up until about ... a decade ago.
Click to expand...
Unless they are below 1200, in an area of really good soil conductivity, or couldn't get a translator: why?
 
secondchoice said:
Unless they are below 1200, in an area of really good soil conductivity, or couldn't get a translator: why?
Click to expand...

they are below 1200, theyre on a clear channel but about 1250 miles away from the station they protect, they have an FM with a sperately programmed format and at the time, didnt have a translator
 
At least they will have signal winter mornings and evenings. Depending on the town and format, November and December can be important revenue wise. And 50 watts [49.5 x 105% (which is legal max power) = 51.975] on a clean channel can go a surprising distance (until the skywave visits). It's been "tested" in West Texas.

I knew a pirate in the early 1970's that had a large ranch in West Texas who would load up a record changer with his favorite albums for his truck and tractor's AM radio. His two neighbors enjoyed it too. His wife would change the records out a couple of times a day. First time I ever heard Iron Butterflies In A Gadda Da Vida the full album version in AM.

Hopefully they have a small low wattage AM transmitter. Running a regular transmitter into a dummy load even at 250 watts can be expensive depending on what the local power company changes.
 


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