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AM Frequency of the Week: 1530

For LPAM, you want to be as high up the dial as possible. For a "legal" antenna system, 3 meters is very inefficient at any AM band freq, but gets horribly worse as you go down the dial.

dave



Steve Green NEPA said:
I'm hoping this won't be * too * much off topic. Basically, I just need an overall conclusion on an engineering question. My inquiry is based on the 1530 theme of the thread, if that helps situate the matter more topically, hi.

See, former super-local 1530 WMBT Shenandoah PA (pronounced SHEN-doe locally) has been dark for ten years. Even its tower is gone. In its absence I've been able to receive, much better, the downstate WWSM 1510 and their WAY more traditional C&W.

Anyway: A few of us were tinkering around with the idea of putting on an LPAM station. The price of it all and the relatively hassle-free red tape from the FCC would help greatly for a labor of love/hobby/beer money venture like that. I count five frequencies in the town which are now vacant, and have been, each, for ten years at least. All five are on the traditional AM band. Four of those stations don't have their towers up anymore.
1530 is one of those frequencies.

The thing is, 550 has been blank in the day since WHLM/WJMW decided that they weren't bringing in enough revenue to keep the tower lights blinking and the meters going in four separate 'doghouses'.

So I was wondering how much better an LPAM on 550 would get out, vis-a-vis an LPAM way up there at 1530. Aren't conditions traditionally more friendly for coverage on the very low AM dial than they are at the top of the dial?
Or would such flea power make any difference?

If this all is too far O/T for this forum, my eMail is [email protected]

Thanks for the indulgence!
Click to expand...
 
schmave said:
Was in Sharonville on Saturday night for work and while WCKY was there and solid, I didn't hear slop on either 1520 or 1540. In fact, KXEL was blasting in on 1540. And whereas I've heard some cancellation as close as Kings Island, on Saturday night I didn't hear it until 10 to 15 miles northeast of there. By the time I hit Wilmington, WCKY was fading in and out quite a bit.
Click to expand...

I live in Sharonville, depending on weather, WCKY can sometimes fade here too, only 20 miles from the transmitter. It used to be much worse, up until a few years ago the signal was more susceptible to interference from power lines and sudden fades that would distort the audio past the ability to be understood. CC/iHeart must have fixed up the transmitter or tweaked something, because it's been sounding much stronger lately. KXEL can sometimes cause slop on 1530 though, crazy enough.

My listening location does a good job of illustrating the nature of the AM band and higher vs lower frequencies. 55KRC is about the same distance from me as WCKY, and WCKY is 50,000 watts to 55KRC's directional 1,000. But at night, those two signals are pretty much the same strength.
 
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