Mt. Cerro Bola

Can someone tell me what radio station transmitts from Mt. Cerro Bola Tecate? Also, where is Cerro Bola locate?

So far I know these following stations that transmitts from Mt. Cerro Bola.

XHHIT 95.3
XHLNC 104.9 FM
XHPRS 105.7 FM

XHDTV TV 49.

Any others,

I think Mt. Cerro Bola has the best location for San Diego/Tijuana coverage than Mt. San Antonio in Tijuana. What do you think?

e-dawg said:

Can someone tell me what radio station transmitts from Mt. Cerro Bola Tecate? Also, where is Cerro Bola locate?

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Nit picking, I know, but you do not have to put Mt. ahead of Cerro Bola as "cerro" means "peak" or "mountain."

e-dawg said:

I think Mt. Cerro Bola has the best location for San Diego/Tijuana coverage than Mt. San Antonio in Tijuana. What do you think?

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Not even close. The location you speak of is so far east and slightly south of San Diego that it can't possible "see" over the mountains east of San Diego to deliver much of a signal into the metropolitan area. Mt. San Antonio is just on the south side of Tijuana and rises to about 1000 feet above sea level. That's a pretty good site to get to the SD/TJ metro. Go 40 or so miles east of that and try to look over Mt. San Miguel and all the surrounding terrain and I'd say you're throwing good money at bad coverage. Then there's that pesky curvature of the earth and the radio horizon and multipath and all the things that engineers get blamed for when it doesn't work just because somebody had the money to build it anyway. You know the story. Don't you?

Back to the original question. TJ/San Diego coverage from San Antonio vs Cerra Bola. Easy. Go stand on top of each one and see what you can see. Call me in the morning. Not too early though. And bring your check book. Nah, bring cashish.

Here's some photos I found of the Cerro Bola site online...
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/13814

It is higher than San Antonio, and on paper would have good coverage even sneaking in some signals into Imperial County, but on paper or in FCC and MMCT (Mexico's equilavent of the FCC) records, that only takes account if the terrain around Cerra Bola was completely flat, but that's not so... The problem is everything between San Diego and Cerro Bola.  There's alot of mountains and hills that are basically chopping away at usuable dbu's heading toward the market, before it actually makes it there.   Example would be XHDTV-49.  If you are down in Mission Valley or Pacific Beach, or even Downtown San Diego, forget about it.... A viewable signal will never be achieved.  However, once you head up Mount Soledad a bit or Mount Helix, or in Santee, Penesquitos, or Ramona, the signal is viewable.  And in places like Santee, the signal is only coming through thanks to it bouncing like a superball between hills and mountains, which of course introduces tons of multipath into the signal once it reaches a TV, and that's just in the analog world.  With digital, you can forget about it altogether if you are below 500 feet above sea level.

I guess with the Cerro Bola signals meaning to hit the San Diego market, it's a case of "What were they thinking?"

This pic...http://www.panoramio.com/photo/7085057 ,  basically explains the problem with Cerro Bola...

Dont forget about XEPE San Diego 1700 AM, there @ Cerro Bola too, I think.

Dnajera31 said:

Dont forget about XEPE San Diego 1700 AM, there @ Cerro Bola too, I think.

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AMs do not, unless there is no other alternative, broadcast from mountains.

What other TV/Radio stations broadcast from Cerro Bola besides XHDTV TV 49, XHHIT 95.3, XHLNC 104.9 XHPRS 105.7?

As for not recieving XHDTV TV 49 from downtown San Diego, I was able to picked up clearly in Downtown San Diego, Babola Park, Hillcrest, and Pacific Beach clearly on my Casio Pocket TV.

DavidEduardo said:

Dnajera31 said:

Dont forget about XEPE San Diego 1700 AM, there @ Cerro Bola too, I think.

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AMs do not, unless there is no other alternative, broadcast from mountains.

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AM Stations generally don't do much good broadcasting from a mountain top.  The "nature of the beast" of AM radio stations usually dictates that they do ALOT better at broad areas near sea-level, and/or near bodies of water, or very flat land, as most AM transmissions in a local area are ground-wave based, with any other transmissions beyond relying on atmospheric layers during nighttime hours. So AM transmission towers being on a high mountaintop actually may get less coverage, than if they were at sea-level. All about conduction there...

So far my list of stations transmitts from Cerro Bola.

XHHIT 95.3 Tecate
XHLNC 104.9 Tijuana
XHPRS 105.7 Tecate
XHFG 107.3 Tijuana

XHDTV 49 Tecate.

I think that's it.

XHDTV is run by Entravision and Televisora Alco. They had plans to use UHF 53 for DT but now it's back to square one. I assume they won't even bother with Digital. When they were UPN they had plans to use UHF 53 but KABC and Qualcomm decided to use it. Now that qualcomm will use UHF55 they could get another frequency. Probably at a lower frequency since the Mexico govt. has some open frequencies. Some people have complained that XHDTV is too weak and too far away. I'm sure it's obtainable but depends on location. Maybe Entravision likes to run their stations as cheaply as possible so thats why they are slow to go digital. Maybe they will consider it when the DTV transition for the US will happen in Feb. XHDTV doesn't have to digital until 2021 but the Mexican govt. has a DTV plan in several stages. It's a slow plan but they will go DTV. After the transition XHDTV will go back to UHF49 for DTV. They will co channel with KJLA assuming they are still around at this point. Some info may not be accurate but this is probably what the current situation is. As for Entravision well maybe they do spend money. It just seems that DTV isn't a priority to them.

Guys forget all of those Mexican signals, the best transmitter site in San Diego for FM is 52nd street the home of the great KGB-FM. The KGB signal is travels further than any other SD signal including the 77,000 watt 94.1. I have many times sat at a friend's house in Woodland Hills and listened to 101.5 in the house! But for AM's the best SD signal originates from "The Legendary Emerald Hills U.S.A.", KOGO!

But for the Mexican signals I would take Mount San Antonio over Cerro Bola any day of the week. You can't get building penetration from Cerro Bola. Look at 105.7 a good station to listen to, but it's a car radio station at best. But XHRM or XETRA-FM are both blow torches, and to a lesser extent so is XHTZ, but it is highly directional. The FCB station all have great building penetration in SD, in fact XHRM has really good coverage in L.A.

But why do you guys ask this are we about to have yet another station signing on to interfere with an American signal from Mexico?

Cerro Bola is getting another frequency. That frequency is UHF 47. That frequency is being operated by Televisora Alco. It looks like MyTV 13 is getting a digital station. It will probably have an HD signal as well or be an upconverted 480i signal. Maybe they will have a HD channel and an SD subchannel. Thanks to PSIP DT47 will be mapped to 49.1 and possibly 49.2.

XHFG transmitter location

e-dawg said:

So far my list of stations transmitts from Cerro Bola.

XHHIT 95.3 Tecate
XHLNC 104.9 Tijuana
XHPRS 105.7 Tecate
XHFG 107.3 Tijuana

XHDTV 49 Tecate.

I think that's it.

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XHFG 107.3 is not on Cerro Bola. I believe it's atop Cerro Colorado, much closer to the center of Tijuana.

Signal Geek said:

XHFG 107.3 is not on Cerro Bola. I believe it's atop Cerro Colorado, much closer to the center of Tijuana.

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I've identified two potential sites for XHFG, and Cerro Colorado I believe to be the primary.

There's also a backup site at 32°30'19.3" N, 117°01'48.7" W very near to XHITT-FM. It's the shack with the red tile roof. There's a plaque/sign far left that reads "XHFG FM". There might be another Uniradio station here too as this tower supports two sets of FM bays.

I've found every TJ FM except for XHRST (no clue, though I do know of at least one FM stick I cannot associate with a station) and XHLTN (I have several ideas but can't confirm any of them).

You will find 107.3 still in original location, which is not Cerro Colorado. The tower has been refreshed, and a new 6-bay array affixed in the last 18 months.
ERP, 20kw.
Street location= Gral. Arnaiz, cross Estrella del Oriente.

Google earth= 39-29'02.35N
117-03'16.93W

Big 121 said:

You will find 107.3 still in original location, which is not Cerro Colorado. The tower has been refreshed, and a new 6-bay array affixed in the last 18 months.
ERP, 20kw.
Street location= Gral. Arnaiz, cross Estrella del Oriente.

Google earth= 39-29'02.35N
117-03'16.93W

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I had been having major trouble figuring out who that was! Thank you so much!

Do you happen to have info on XHRST or XHLTN?

How about XHMORE 98.9 FM, where is the transmitter located?

I'm working on 107.7, XHRST. Orig. licensed to Rosarito Beach, then hopped eastward, moved freq. to 107.8 and jammed KWVE for a while.
XHMORE appears to be near the Ch.12 site. But the odds of getting accurate station info down there, is worse than your luck at an Indian Casino.
XHLTN= 32- 31'56.27 N
117-03'56.14 W

Big 121 said:

I'm working on 107.7, XHRST. Orig. licensed to Rosarito Beach, then hopped eastward, moved freq. to 107.8 and jammed KWVE for a while.
XHMORE appears to be near the Ch.12 site. But the odds of getting accurate station info down there, is worse than your luck at an Indian Casino.
XHLTN= 32- 31'56.27 N
117-03'56.14 W

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I still don't get why XHLTN is there and not XHMORE... You'd think that given the facility is owned by Cadena, they'd have their FM and their TV (XHBJ) in the same place.

Mexican station information acquisition has gotten better in the last three years, but for station types that don't matter that much in major areas — AM-FM migrants. Unfortunately, many old-line FMs have no information available.

Raymie said:

I still don't get why XHLTN is there and not XHMORE... You'd think that given the facility is owned by Cadena, they'd have their FM and their TV (XHBJ) in the same place.

Mexican station information acquisition has gotten better in the last three years, but for station types that don't matter that much in major areas — AM-FM migrants. Unfortunately, many old-line FMs have no information available.

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The Mexican election commission actually has much more detailed information on radio and television coverage areas than the SCT (Mexico's FCC).

You can find Longley/Rice coverage maps of every Mexican FM (by state) here:

http://www.ine.mx/archivos3/portal/...-id-4616afe38e332210VgnVCM1000000c68000aRCRD/