To our Chicago area posters, what's your take on the new WAIT...WCPT daytime site vs. the old one in Elmhurst? The Elmhurst site was easily as good as any Class I-A AM. Before CHAM moved to 820, I could get WAIT AND WOSU on a Sony TRF radio in SE Michigan by just turning the set and nulling out the other.
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What is your reception on 820 AM at night?
- Thread starter Dxer1105
- Start date
Schroedingers Cat said:
I don't listen to 820's present format, but a few years ago when they ran sports on that frequency I thought the daytime signal was very good for me, but I live in the near north suburbs so I'm well positioned for them. Can you get them in Michigan now during the day?
WCPT is probably there in the mix with CHAM and WOSU, but it's probably in the 50 uV/m range or less. CHAM and WCPT are in nearly opposite directions, so I would have to have some kind of a phased DA to get it well. Even a direction finder arrangement would leave WOSU in the mix. When it was in Elmhurst, and WMAQ would go onto 5 kW 1/4 wave auxiliary, WAIT appeared to be stronger than WMAQ. WMAQ still came in quite well on auxiliary. I knew right away when it was on the auxiliary though even without a signal meter.
Before I had easy access to FCC information, I was curious as to why WEAW...WKTA came in quite well in SW Michigan and WGES/WYNR/WNUS/WGCI/WGRB did not. WAIT/WCZE/WPNT/WSCR/WCPT/WAIT/WCPT. Speaking of callsign changes and returns, how many times has 94.7 been WLS-FM? Is it six times?
Schroedingers Cat said:
How far are you from Chicago? I remember when 820 was WAIT I could hear it going east to just about the Indiana/Ohio state line.
The location I was at when I used to hear WAIT and WOSU by turning the radio was about 220 miles from the Elmhurst location, and probably a few more to WMAQ. I'm a little further away now, but I can still hear the four I-As on the car radio in the daytime. There's a daytimer on 1000 in Ohio that interferes with WMVP where I am now.
Schroedingers Cat said:
Unscientific casual observation. WCPT on 820 has a pretty good daytime signal...but not as good as the old WAIT when the stick was by the chicken farm in Elmhurst. We've had our second car since we bought it new in 1999. It has a good radio that works as well today as the day we bought the car. Long story short, 820 doesn't have quite the range that it did "back in the day".
Schroedingers Cat said:
Looking at the coverage maps, 1390's main lobe is slightly NE of a mainly north pattern, so it almost misses Lake County, IL with a city-grade signal and then empties into Lake Michigan, so boaters must be getting a great signal east of Milwaukee (-: Wonder what they're protecting on 1390 and 1380/1400? Possibly they have to "miss" the 1400 in Racine, WI. There is also a slight null towards SE Michigan as well... WKTA, on the other hand, is aimed almost directly at SE Michigan. These signal patterns have been existence for 1390 since WNUS for sure, and 1330 since the station moved to the Northbrook transmitter site from Evanston in the 70's, I believe. That should help explain why...
WGRB-Daytime: http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WGRB&service=AM&status=L&hours=D
WKTA-Daytime: http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WKTA&service=AM&status=L&hours=D
I thought WEAW...WKTA just moved across Dundee Rd. They used to have top loaded towers on the other side of the road. Those disappeared, as did the top loaded towers of WIND when they rebuilt the site. The only location I remember near Evanston was when they applied for 500 watts nighttime from a separate site near the WCGO site. As I recall, problems protecting WHBL while sending the signal north using very tall towers prevented this from being approved.
Some may also remember when 820 was fulltime with four tall towers from the Elmhurst site.
There's a 1390 licensed to Holt, MI, WLCM, formerly licensed to Charlotte, MI, where the day site continues to be. They built a new nighttime site south of Holt. That is one direction WGRB has to protect, along with the 1400 in St. Joseph, MI.
Some may also remember when 820 was fulltime with four tall towers from the Elmhurst site.
There's a 1390 licensed to Holt, MI, WLCM, formerly licensed to Charlotte, MI, where the day site continues to be. They built a new nighttime site south of Holt. That is one direction WGRB has to protect, along with the 1400 in St. Joseph, MI.
D
Darth_vader
Guest
At this moment it's a mess of stations along with the usual mess of switching power supply/BPL/TRIAC etc. noise. Can't hear much on there that's intellegable. There are a couple "talking houses" (one's actually a condo that the owner's trying to rent out) in the surrounding neighbourhood that operate on 820, so that may be what's making it sound like a mess by comparison to your observations.
Aside from shortwave and the local flea-powered TIS transmitters, I've never actually heard a "W" station here. But then I'm admittedly not as avid a mediumwave DXer as some others on this board are, either.
Aside from shortwave and the local flea-powered TIS transmitters, I've never actually heard a "W" station here. But then I'm admittedly not as avid a mediumwave DXer as some others on this board are, either.
stormy01 said:
I don't remember 1330 ever having a transmitter site in Evanston. Where was it located?
Regarding 1390, in the 60s when they were known as WYNR and tried to compete with WLS for a short time with Top 40, their signal into the northern suburbs at night was below average at best even with them sending more signal to the north. I did however hear 1390 in Cleveland one night in 1964.
Not to wander further off topic, but I once heard the old WYNR 1390 late at night in suburban Dallas. The jock on the air was none other than The Wild Child, Dick Kemp. Considering that I heard it on a very cheap portable radio and their pattern didn't favor my location, I have no idea how it happened.
From my present location a little west of Tyler TX, it's WBAP 24/7 with a smattering of Cuba underneath most nights. Back On Topic! ;D
From my present location a little west of Tyler TX, it's WBAP 24/7 with a smattering of Cuba underneath most nights. Back On Topic! ;D
The history I found says that WEAW had a 500 watt omni PSRA and a "low power" omni auxiliary at the old FM site.
From Vermilion, OH:
Tried 820 on the car radio just now and was getting WBAP/Ft. Worth, TX mixing a little with another unknown station and lots of IBOC slop from a station on either 830 or 810.
Tried 820 on the car radio just now and was getting WBAP/Ft. Worth, TX mixing a little with another unknown station and lots of IBOC slop from a station on either 830 or 810.
Schroedingers Cat said:
Now that you mention it I do remember those towers at Main & McCormack in Skokie. Am I understanding correctly that WEAW at that site was omni?
Getting back to 820, when WPNT went DA at night from Elmhurst the signal into the northern suburbs at night was fair at best.
ra
One source I found made it sound like one tower, another source sounded like it was directional. It sounds like it started out at 500 watts. Maybe if we looked at David Eduardo's site, we could find out.
radioman148 said:
One source I found made it sound like one tower, another source sounded like it was directional. It sounds like it started out at 500 watts. Maybe if we looked at David Eduardo's site, we could find out.
1954 Broadcasting Yearbook shows WEAW as a Construction Permit with 500 watts, DA-D, but doesn't show the transmitter location. A later edition shows it as 1000 watts, with no antenna information. The problem with operating at night with a signal to the east, is that it would interfere with every well protected 1330 in its path-WTRX Flint, WFNN Erie, and WWRV New York, and to the north, there is WHBL Sheboygan, also well protected.
The problem with WAIT...WCPT on 820 at night is that it was only 1000 watts, now a little more from Willow Springs, but the NIF is quite high from WBAP.
The problem with WAIT...WCPT on 820 at night is that it was only 1000 watts, now a little more from Willow Springs, but the NIF is quite high from WBAP.
The NIF form the application for 1500 watts night shows an NIF of 15.5 mV/m, which would only take a 10% skywave of 0.775 mV/m from WBAP to account for it, although this study isn't shown in the applcation. I'm surprised that the COL at the Elmhurst location continued to be Chicago, as I don't see how they could have put 15.5 mV/m over 80% of Chicago at night with just 1000 watts. Maybe they got a waiver.
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