820AM heard on 98.3 FM

When I was tuning into 98.3 for MAX98.3 this morning. I heard a million commericals and promos for Bubba The Love Sponge and the rest of their lame programming that is heard on 820AM WWBA. I guess it means more bad FM radio in Tampa-St.Pete market. The last thing we need is a LPFM station which is a AM ratings failure. I am mad that WWRZ Max98.3 will not be able to be heard unless you live in Lakeland. Thanks Genesis for wasting another good frequency with your lousy talk station.

Tea Men said:

The last thing we need is a LPFM station which is a[n] AM ratings failure.

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Translators are not LPFMs!

Tea Men said:

When I was tuning into 98.3 for MAX98.3 this morning. I heard a million commericals and promos for Bubba The Love Sponge and the rest of their lame programming that is heard on 820AM WWBA. I guess it means more bad FM radio in Tampa-St.Pete market. The last thing we need is a LPFM station which is a AM ratings failure. I am mad that WWRZ Max98.3 will not be able to be heard unless you live in Lakeland. Thanks Genesis for wasting another good frequency with your lousy talk station.

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If they interfere with any listeners of WWRZ, Hall Communications will file a complaint and potentially shut them down.

They went after the WTMP's translator on 97.5 recently.

I guess Bubba needs an FM translator to get Genesis out of their rating doldrums.

Hall Communications has had a history of interference problems with stations in the St. Petersburg/Tampa market. Back when WHNZ 1250 had HD, the digital sidebands/hash interfered with Hall owned 1230-WONN in extreme west Lakeland, in the area of county line road and even points a mile or two east of County Line Rd; of course with WHNZ no longer broadcasting in HD, it’s not a problem. I don’t know if any complaints were filed at that time.

Much to my surprise, I was able to hear the 98.3 translator here in the SE corner of Hudson. It was noisy, but it was definitely the translator, I heard a promo for programs on 820.

W252DF is and has been translating WSRQ from Sarasota for at least the last two months that I have been here,
but they have been listed as translating WWBA with a CP to move from Sarasota to Largo.
Will this be a new translator or is the existing one going to move.

WSRQ is only promoting 106.9 and 1220 AM.
However, 98.3 is still the best way to hear them.

W252DF is now translating WWBA and is the ONLY translator in the Bay area that I can hear from the SRQ airport area.
MAX is waging a losing battle under them, but I believe that the two will flip-flop with the weather and my direction of travel.

98.3 has been off several hours at least today. Guess no one noticed or was put in charge to monitor this.
I usually hear it loud and clear in Pinellas.

I wish that the commission had required night patterns to be a limiting factor for a station's day signal.
In other words, if a station wants to run 1KW at night, their day power should be restricted to the same.
Where I live, 820 goes from 21mv/m in the daytime to 3mv/m at night.

I posted this 411 on another thread but it belongs here, too.
WWBA can be heard during the daytime on the high part of the John Ringling Causeway, strongly but slightly distortedly,
on 1640; their second harmonic. Enjoy!

I listened to "Bay Radio" on 1640 after I left TPA airport this morning
and heard it through most of St. Pete on I-275 and down into Manatee County.
I do not know if this level is excessive.

ai4i said:

I listened to "Bay Radio" on 1640 after I left TPA airport this morning
and heard it through most of St. Pete on I-275 and down into Manatee County.
I do not know if this level is excessive.

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Funny you should mention the ability to do this. I've landed on 1640 previously and thought "what am I DXing here", then waited to hear an ID, and it's 820 AM.

The ability to do this exists in multiple areas of the 'Bay area on my car stereos, including Riverview which we realize is not the transmitter location by any stretch.

I always thought it was a bad front-end on the receiver, but they're the only [AM] station I pick up so strong on a harmonic.

Byron

byron said:

...but they're the only [AM] station I pick up so strong on a harmonic.
Byron

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Were there a station on 1640, I believe that "Newstalk 820" would have to take corrective measures.

If I remember correctly why this happens, it's the sum of the difference between signals. 820 is showing up on 1640 for a difference of 820. Half of that is 410... 820 plus 410 is 1230, aka WONN Lakeland. 1230 plus 410 is 1640. 820 is the stronger signal so it's what you hear on the summed signal... it would occur when you are between the two transmitters.

When I used to go to Jacksonville, if you sat at the traffic signal on Southside Blvd. at Hogan Rd., where most of the FM signals in town are located, if you tuned to 100.7 you'd hear virtually every FM signal in town at once.

Wrong!
What you are describing is only true where both stations produce several volts per meter into the receiver,
often in a shared tower environment.
We do have a stick in Sarasota with stations on 1280 and 1450
that produce some mixture products on 1110 and 1620,
but only within the first fraction of a mile,
certainly not FORTY MILES distant.

This is just a simple matter of simple math:
820 x 2 = 1640.

OK thanks for shouting me down. Ill be very csreful to never post anything wrong again.

You can go back to being a nerd now. Jerk.

Parttimer said:

You can go back to being a nerd now. Jerk.

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No problem

I thought that they might have cleaned their emission today,
but they were on their night signal and this was all over them on 820.

ai4i said:

Wrong!
What you are describing is only true where both stations produce several volts per meter into the receiver,
often in a shared tower environment.
We do have a stick in Sarasota with stations on 1280 and 1450
that produce some mixture products on 1110 and 1620,
but only within the first fraction of a mile,
certainly not FORTY MILES distant.

This is just a simple matter of simple math:
820 x 2 = 1640.

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In this case, the assumption is correct. 2x the fundamental frequency is just a bad harmonic output. Most likely the station owner doesn't know that their harmonic filter is messed up.

What parttimer was describing is something called intermod, short for "intermodulation distortion". It is more common when both signals are strong, but, it is not true that two strong signals are actually required. I know of several cases where the two stations were separated by as much as 40 miles and still had intermod occur. There can be several reasons for this, but one common reason is when a non-linear amplifier in one transmitter receives enough of the other signal coming backwards from the tower that it gets amplified and mixed with the primary signal and re-radiated as a mix product. This is really not all that uncommon.