High-power regionals stomping on co-channel neighbors in Critical Hours

Back when everyone in the US was 5 kW or less I'm guessing this wasn't a big problem. But with some regionals now with 50 kW daytime, there have to be some lesser powered co-channel stations that are getting pinched at least at the fringes during critical hours.

A case in point, on 1480: 50 kW KBXD Dallas sends a major lobe of its day pattern to the north, placing a .5 mv signal well into Oklahoma. This lobe is pointed straight at 5 kW KQAM Wichita, which sends a majority of its signal to the south.

I don't know how the KQAM signal is affected near Wichita. It may very well be that within the Wichita metro, KQAM is able to over-ride any CH interference from KBXD, and that's all that matters.

What I've been noticing is that over the last several mornings in southern Colorado, the Indian language programming on KBXD "Radio Mumbai" (my name, not theirs) is a regular visitor on 1480. Spanish KAVA in Pueblo is 1 kW-D on 1480, but most of its pattern heads to the southeast so it has a rather poor signal in Cañon City. I can null the KBXD signal enough to hear what I think is sports programming on KQAM, but KBXD is clearly dominant in the first hour on its day pattern.

Any other examples like this?

I'm sure that this has to be a problem in some locations. But it also seems to me that when a "regional" upgrades beyond 5kw, a sophisticated pattern to ensure requisite protection is typically part of the deal. I can't think of a single instance of a "regional on steroids" that's a significant pest around here. KZQZ from St. Louis is an example of an upgrade to 50KW on 1430. The new power/pattern throws more signal at me than before, but the critical hours signal here doesn't seem too extreme. Not a lot of difference from the previous.

On the other hand, KZQZ sends a lot of its 50KW right down I-70 towards Indianapolis, so they could be a problem for the 1430 there (ex-WIRE). This is interesting because back in the day, WIL (St. Louis) and WIRE (indy) were both class III-A stations.

The ones that are the worst are the ones that are 20000 to 50000 watts Daytime, Nondirectional, and 20-100 watts PSSA, Nondirectional, and "forget" to reduce power at Sunset. They affect all directions, and raise the effective NIF of Legacy stations with 2.0-8.0 mV/m NIFs to 20-30 mV/m or more, reducing their Night coverage area to a small fraction of what it should be. There are entirely too many of these new high power stations who are set up like these. If they want to be fulltime Class B, they should pay for the APPLICATIONS, LAND, DIRECTIONAL ANTENNA, and all the other expenses assoociated with a Class B facilities like the Legacy Class III-A and Class III-B stations did. Legacy Class III stations like WTMJ, WWJ, WXYT, KMJ, KJR, KKOL, KEIB, WFDF, WHBY, and WOOD at least have Day Patterns that would limit interference to many other stations even if they were left on Day facilities, or are DA-1. Most of the Class D Nondirectionals with high power Days and low power Nights already sold off their land, so they benefitted from that also. I did discuss in an email exchange whether there should be Critical Hours Protection to the Legacy stations with one of the best Consulting Engineers in the business, but we both concluded that it would be burdensome for the Legacy Class B stations who have played by the rules all these years.

KXET 1130 Mt. Angel, Ore. is all over CKWX Vancouver every evening, even closer to the Canadian border. KXET airs Russian programming.

Meanwhile back on 1480, the "Radio Mumbai" presentation has ended. This morning KBXD is running a repeating loop of a Spanish song with a Mumbai beat and an announcement that KBXD 1480 a 50,000 watt station is available for rent.

I've heard WGCR from Pisgah Forest, North Carolina, stomp all over WGN here in Ohio during critical hours for years. WGCR is a daytimer, as it should be on 720 in that location, but it sure gets out before it leaves the air.

I was driving through, or near, Plainfield NJ one afternoon, back when that COL's 1590 station WERA was still broadcasting. WERA was 500 watts daytime, directional basically NW-SE with their bowtie.

That poor local was getting stoned and brimstoned by WFTH* Richmond VA the whole trip through the area. It was still daylight. WFTH was 5000 watts omni at the time. Still .....

It seems to me that those AM 'regionals' who've upped their daytime power to alarming levels do so solely to overwhelm the risen noise levels on the band through their originally targeted daytime signal audience.
And of course, at night, these 'regionals' cannot even legally send a greeting postcard to any new borderline-reception addresses, never mind delivering a useful signal.
WPEN 950 Philly, WSNR 620, WNYM 970 and WWRL 1600 NYC come to mind as major-market Northeast 'regionals' who've outfitted their tower systems with legal PED's -- to no avail in the ratings. Somewhere around, say, Bermuda might hear this stuff and wonder why they're being yelled at from the US. But I can appreciate the DXers' concern for the afftereffects of this prodigal practice.

* One November night here in NE PA, I caught that same WFTH 1590 essentially homesteading atop the channel. According to Radio-Locator, former daytime-only WFTH has been tithed 19 watts.
One month before that, I was getting a solid half-hour log from religious rival, former daytimer-only (now sports) Richmond station WXGI 950. WXGI's official nighttime power is 45 watts.
I don't know how long this questionable stuff has/had been going on, but it might be time to go to confession, guys, lol.

Steve Green NEPA said:

I don't know how long this questionable stuff has/had been going on, but it might be time to go to confession, guys, lol.

Click to expand...

The FCC doesn't care. They don't have to. Whether it is a Democan or Republicrat in power, they appoint non-technical radio business insiders to the FCC, who will always make the poorest technical decisions possible.

I get your point, RBruce.

Doubtless, I wasn't clear enough. By 'this stuff' I meant the battle-of-the-Bibles war there in Richmond (and no doubt other markets). I logged both those regional stations in the late 90's, and I was idly wondering just how far back before I logged both in the dead of 9:30PM winter eve the stations were in the habit of 'forgetting'. There is no way I got both of those regionals that steady on their respective 19 and 45 watts from 120 miles off -- not with super-regionals WAKR and WPEN in the way.

Closer to the thread (and to the literal home) is one WEEU Reading on 830.
They once had four sticks in a row NW of Reading and sent no signal north at night.
WEEU not only upped their daytime wattage to 20,000 but added another tower to their array and moved the whole Erector Set north. The array is actually closer to Pottsville (the county seat of Schuylkill) than it is to Reading (county seat of Berks).
The daytime signal here is monstrous.
The nighttime signal .... well .... WEEU doesn't seem to be allowed sending any more 'north' than they'd been able to do. The 'daytime' increase in wattage and signal is one thing -- their main goal.

So I agree with OP JoeB and the rest about SSS or CH interference. What I can't figure is why so many AM DXers would put an asterisk and a wrinkled nose at the idea of being able to hear new loggings.

>>>KXET 1130 Mt. Angel, Ore. is all over CKWX Vancouver every evening, even closer to the Canadian border. KXET airs Russian programming.<<<

Mount Angel is roughly between Salem and Portland. Are there really that many Russians in the area? The daytime pattern does aim north to help it reach Portland. So I could understand how it might interfere with CKWX, which is a Class A station, sharing 1130 with fellow Class As, WBBR New York and KWKH Shreveport.

1560 WAGL used to stomp on any station on 1560 within about a 5 state area (the Carolinas, GA, FL, parts of TN) during critical hours until they signed off a couple years ago. That 50kw daytime signal was very powerful. They signed off at night though.

If we're going to expand this beyond the former class III "regional" channels, I nominate WCKY as champion "stomper" in suburban Chicago. It completely blows out rimshot WCKG on a fairly routine basis during critical hours. In WCKG's former life as WJJG, WCKY sometimes rendered WJJG unlistenable, if not inaudible, at the station owner's other place of business.....a car dealership about 20 miles away.