-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
WVOX lives on (for now)
- Thread starter RadioGuy1864
- Start date
10 watts? That's gonna have some decent coverage in New Rochelle from Mt Vernon, said no one ever. Maybe if he was located in New Rochelle it might pass the "sniff test."
Not for an STA, no. There's no minimum power and no COL coverage requirement for STA operation.
I'm not sure why this seems to be difficult to understand, but the general FCC policy these days where AM is concerned is that any licensee that wants to try to preserve an AM license (and isn't otherwise in trouble with the Commission) gets a LOT of leeway to do so.
Whether it's reflected in official statements or not, there's an understanding from staff that these stations are dying pretty quickly and that the economics of building new AM sites are terrible. And so as long as a licensee treats the AM Division staff with candor and isn't trying to pull anything over on them (cough WJLX cough cough), they'll usually get initial approval and a long leash on STA extensions.
It's tacitly understood that if the FCC started cracking down harder, a lot more stations would just hand in licenses entirely.
WGCH 1490 AM in nearby Greenwich CT appears to be in a similar situation. They lost their antenna site a few years ago, and indicate it is very tough to find a suitable replacement in the Greenwich area. According to their filings, they are apparently running 300 watts from a modest vertical antenna, of the type linked below, on top of a local building. They express a desire to eventually place a "75 foot coil loaded fiberglass whip antenna" on top of a local government structure.
Could something similar be an affordable solution for small AM stations such as WVOX that are basically serving a very local area?
WGCH Temporary Antenna
Could something similar be an affordable solution for small AM stations such as WVOX that are basically serving a very local area?
WGCH Temporary Antenna
Back in early early days of AM were not some stations using rooftop "wire" antennas between two towers? (WSB at the Biltmore Hotel IIRC)
IMHO If the FCC is really serious about "saving" AM they are going to have to be flexible about the antenna ground system and allow any transmission system that gives legal measured ( or on paper) coverage to the city of licence "permanent" status. STAs lasting decades are a joke.
IMHO If the FCC is really serious about "saving" AM they are going to have to be flexible about the antenna ground system and allow any transmission system that gives legal measured ( or on paper) coverage to the city of licence "permanent" status. STAs lasting decades are a joke.
The FCC is already flexible with AM's that are barely hanging on technically. I don't think they are quite ready to abandon the STA renewal game and grant permanent status to "non-traditional" transmission facilities with low power. But I think that day will eventually come.
Nearly every early (1920's) station used a "T" or "inverted L" antenna. As the technology advanced, it was discovered that vertical radiators were much better.
But in many places in the world, T's and L's were used even into the 1970's due to cost. When I built my first station in Quito, Ecuador, in 1964 there were 40 AM stations in the market. Only 4 of us had vertical radiators (towers) and the rest had antennas that were generally a wire between two Eucalyptus trees!
There are a variety of options now. The main issue is that short radiators or alternative systems are not very efficient. The FCC might allow stations to proportionally increase power to compensate.
so you had tree climbers instead of tower climbers!
Oh, yeah. In fact, I heard several stories of an AM being off because the antenna was felled by a strung wind such as the late August - early September "El Cordonazo" rain and windstorm that market a change from the dry to the wet season.
Did you have markers on the trees with wires, so you could tell which ones they were?
When I was in elementary school in Libertyville ILL, the guy two doors down had a Ham setup. It was basically two trees with insulators and springs for the trees swaying. Some how it never broke while I lived there. My Dad said he told him it was mainly used it to talk with his brother in Canada and not pay international phone rates.
Looking back he never messed with our TV signal (rabbit ears) or the Chicago AM stations. He apparently knew what he was doing which is a lot more than I can say about some CB operators.
I know it's apples to oranges but I anyways thought it is amazing that some Ham operators with a gloified cloesline antenna systems and low power rigs (compared to commercial radio) could go half way around the world.
I always regreted not learning Morse code and getting a Ham licence.
If they deregulate Ham radio, I have two tress in my yard that would perfect for an antenna. Just saying.
Good call. You were right about this.
Cumulus Surrenders Suburban New York Digital AM
Cumulus Media has surrendered the license of 1230 WFAS White Plains NY. WFAS was the last property remaining from Cumulus'
radioinsight.com
I never had one of those. Several stations I bought did, but I abandoned the equipment and transmitter sites and required the former owner to dispose of them.
Among other things, I built the first diplexed AM operation in the country, the first directional system (to serve up and down the Andes), the first FM in Northern South America and the first FM stereo station, too. Technology was part of how to stay way ahead of the competitors.
David Gleason in Ecuador 1964 to 1970 has some pictures of the diplexed AMs, the original AM build and the studios. And dome ratings, too..
One trick is to hang the antenna from trees with a roller and a weight on the adjustment side of the wire antenna. Thus, the swaying of trees causes the weight to keep the antenna horizontally tight, while the roller allows the wire to move up and down.
It is partly the short wave frequencies and partly finding an open frequency. One of my AMs in Ecuador was on 805 kHz and we got reports from the US, Europe, Australia and other distant places on just over 1 kw.
I got my ham license the easy way in Ecuador. I paid someone. Never learned code.
WVOX claims to have returned to the air on Tuesday October 8th.
WVOX Resumption of Operations filing
Has anyone heard them, or is this BS? It’s not as if the FCC is actually going to check on them.
WVOX Resumption of Operations filing
Has anyone heard them, or is this BS? It’s not as if the FCC is actually going to check on them.
Last edited:
With the power they are putting out, if you are not in Mt Vernon or the right side of New Rochelle, you won't hear a thing. I doubt it gets to Mamaroneck or Larchmount. It would be interesting for a local (I'm not) to report on the coverage.
Morse code has not been a requirement for years.
I wondered when that would go away. When I was in USAF Tech School at Kessler AFB the next floor down on my dorm they were training "ditty boppers". Those guys were training to listen to God only knows who's Morse code for 6 or 8 hour shifts. I assume they ended up working for "the company".
A couple of my friends in basic ended up working for Air America after their enlistment was over. One of them never was accounted for. His mother only got a letter with and a check for his back pay and another check for his life insurance. Couldn't find his name on the Wall either.
Can anyone confirm that WVOX is indeed on the air?