STREETZ 94.5 is on a translator and 2 different full power FMs, WFDR-FM and WIPK-FM. Isn't that the same situation?
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April Ratings- Atlanta
- Thread starter chrocket87
- Start date
STREETZ 94.5 is on a translator and 2 different full power FMs, WFDR-FM and WIPK-FM. Isn't that the same situation?
It's a somewhat different situation because 94.5 is not "translating" either of those 2 stations. It's translating one of WSTR-FM's HD channels. Those 2 stations are just bringing coverage into additional areas not contiguous to Atlanta.
They have not done anything because there is nothing they can do. Co-channel, adjacent channel and second adjacent assignments effectively limit them to what they have now.
Atlanta metro is a sprawling area that has diverse terrain, including several large pieces of granite (Stone Mountain, Arabia Mountain, Sweat Mountain, Blackjack Mountain, Kennesaw Mountain, Lost Mountain, et al) that make any radio coverage (broadcast, cellular, land mobile/public safety) tough.
Coverage also gets worse during the summer months when the foliage is on the trees, the noise floor comes up from powerline arcing (everyone running the A/C at full blast just to keep from melting) and those summer thunderstorms don't help either.
This isn't the flat lands of south Georgia or the great amber waves of grain.
Don't we get more tropo/ducting in summer as well? DXing gets better and marginal signals with cochannel stations in nearby markets get worse. (looking at you, Rock100.5)
Anything past line of sight relies in "refraction" which is affected by moisture which usually improves it. In the 1970's the equipment I worked on when I was in the USAF had line of sight or and amplified tropo mode, which was reliable for line of sight plus one third. There use to be a really big shot from the English coast to the north of Spain which used fixed billboard size antennas helped by the Ocean. Satellite and fiber links has made all of this obsolete. The simplest example I can think of is like when at night you can see the glow of headlights of a car cresting a hill before you actually see the headlights.
Tropo ducting can hijack a signal and sent it somewhere often hundreds of miles away, especially if your antenna is really high. I forget which station it was (IIRC they were on the Gulf coast) has had to use an auxiliary antenna only a couple of hundred feet when they got tropo/ducted so bad another station on the same frequency was coming in on the studio monitors.
This AM North of I 575 on 515, 97.1 was really getting killed. However 100.5 stopped my scan in Blue Ridge. Five minutes latter it was gone and so was the SC station that sometime takes out 100.5 in Atlanta.
Tropo ducting can hijack a signal and sent it somewhere often hundreds of miles away, especially if your antenna is really high. I forget which station it was (IIRC they were on the Gulf coast) has had to use an auxiliary antenna only a couple of hundred feet when they got tropo/ducted so bad another station on the same frequency was coming in on the studio monitors.
This AM North of I 575 on 515, 97.1 was really getting killed. However 100.5 stopped my scan in Blue Ridge. Five minutes latter it was gone and so was the SC station that sometime takes out 100.5 in Atlanta.
Not sure about the east and north side but Rock 100.5 has a pretty good fetch to the west and south. I get it to Forsyth and west to Carrollton. Tends to go out at the Bremen exit. I'll note that 92.9 has a similar signal yet works with a higher wattage. I will also note that 96.7 has probably the weirdest signal of all Atlanta area stations. Sometimes I can pull 96.7 further north than I can 105.7 and then other times, 96.7 only gets out about 30 miles. So weird. I'm not an engineer so I'm sure someone will explain why this is. One other thing - I actually think the Atlanta metro stations get out further than the south Ga stations. 97.1 may have issues on 85 ITP and around downtown but it comes in crystal clear with no problem in Villa Rica, and Dallas. 106.7 comes in clear to Macon and breaks up only because of the 100k watt station at 106.7 in Douglas Ga. Savannah stations that are a 100K watts are not as impressive with signal coverage compared to Atlanta and thanks to translators, that is getting even worse. Traveled down south this past weekend and Dublin has translator signals that are running all over some of the savannah stations. I've always though Augusta, Atlanta and Columbis radio had better reaches with radio than Macon, Savannah, Brunswick and Valdosta.
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