Acceptable registrations in the queue through March 16 at 11:00a ET have now been activated. Enjoy! -M.W.

Terms of Use have been amended effective October 6, 2019. Make sure you are aware of the new rules! Please visit this thread for details: https://www.mibuzzboard.com/phpBB3/view ... 16&t=48619

WTRX

Discussion pertaining to the Tri-Cities, Flint, Mt. Pleasant, and Bad Axe
User avatar
Ed Joseph
Posts: 379
Joined: Sat Sep 10, 2005 9:27 pm

WTRX

Post by Ed Joseph » Sun Mar 17, 2019 2:06 am

I live near Corunna and Linden in Flint. WTRX *used to* come in fairly decent at night here, but I've noticed that since this past fall, they sound like they're 500 miles away. The audio is barely discernible over the transmitter hetreodyne from whatever station is under it. Have there been issues there this past year? I mean, other than the long blocks of dead air throughout the day? I get the same weak signal on every radio and tuner I have.


I confirm all my information through a high, white whore's souse!

CK-722
Posts: 1284
Joined: Sun Dec 16, 2018 3:53 pm

Re: WTRX

Post by CK-722 » Sun Mar 17, 2019 4:38 am

I suspect that they have issues with the DA. A few weeks ago, they were on omni and WCHB 1340 turned off their IBOC. About 5 PM, they put it back to DA, and WCHB turned their IBOC back on. I assumed that to do DA proofs or null azimuth proofs, they apparently asked Crawford to do this. They were blasting into Romeo like I never have heard before. The 105 degree null is right toward Romeo. It's zero in the Theoretical Pattern there.

https://fccdata.org/?lang=en&facid=1576 ... tabs=18600

I think you mentioned in another thread, that Don McComb or Dave Gale had shown you the old WBBC 1 kW Day pattern, which I suspect was much better out to the West and Southwest than the 5 kW Day pattern. They suspected that it could have been just two towers Day. They may have wanted a better signal near Buick, so they went with the three tower pattern. Back then, the FCC wanted 50-100 mV/m over factory areas, but I don't think it was mandatory. It might have been an issue for better service in a competitive hearing.

When WBBC went on the air in 1947, WILS was on 1430 and WLEW was on 1540. The only Day pattern considerations were WEXL 1340 (now WCHB) and WFIN 1330 Findlay. WEXL was 250 watts nondirectional with a tower between 1/2 and 5/8 wavelength from the WEXL-FM/WOMC tower on Woodward Heights.. They could have had much better service to the West and toward "The Creek" if they had jumped on it back then. They also had a CP (or just needed some minor modification for a grant) for an FM on 99.9 in 1948. It was 6 kW from the top of the North Tower of the WTRX Array, where WFBE now sits. Booth was far too modest with these possibilities. 1.25 kW nondirectional STA toward your RL described would have a pretty good signal. So it could a transmitter issue also.

If you hear Foreign Language programs on 1330 at Night, WKTA (legacy callsign WEAW) Evanston is possibly not reducing to 110 watts with a 6 tower array in a timely fashion.


Is THAT where they got the idea for the 486-SX?

Same (x, y, z), different (t)

Your bullet missed my trial balloon.

RTN Price. Not guaranteed. As of 12:30, 157.71 Down 0.22.

Artificial Intelligence is a Child that needs a Parent to guide it through.

CK-722
Posts: 1284
Joined: Sun Dec 16, 2018 3:53 pm

Re: WTRX

Post by CK-722 » Sun Mar 17, 2019 3:57 pm

WKTA 1330 Evanston has well protected 1330 stations in every direction. That's why the low power and multiple towers. At one time, they were going to try to shoot it North over WHBL Sheboygan with 500 watts with 1/2 wavelength plus towers near the WCGO 1590 Night Array, but I guess it either clipped their NIF on the edges, or the nulls are not as deep as the theoretical vertical radiation characteristic. Rich had some graphs and insights about the real null depth above the Horizon of 1/2 wavelength plus monopoles here a few years ago.

WHBL is the deepest null. WTRX null is the second deepest null, but it also protects WFNN Erie, PA, WWRV New York City, NY, WRCA Waltham, MA, and other less well protected stations.

https://fccdata.org/?facid=&call=wkta&c ... d=&lang=en


Is THAT where they got the idea for the 486-SX?

Same (x, y, z), different (t)

Your bullet missed my trial balloon.

RTN Price. Not guaranteed. As of 12:30, 157.71 Down 0.22.

Artificial Intelligence is a Child that needs a Parent to guide it through.

User avatar
Ed Joseph
Posts: 379
Joined: Sat Sep 10, 2005 9:27 pm

Re: WTRX

Post by Ed Joseph » Sun Mar 17, 2019 10:37 pm

Back when I was Assistant CE at WTRX, I picked up WEAW (then known as WSSY) in Lapeer county on the FIM, right where Miller Rd would have crossed over where I-69 was going in (NOT the same Miller that runs through Flint). During the Day, and WSSY had a fair signal out that way. I was quite surprised to hear them instead of WTRX there, even though it was in the deep null. I was roughly, oh, 20 miles nearly due east of the studios, just a bit north of Newark Rd. WTRX *should* have been at least audible there,unless I was right in the actual null, but I thought the edge of the city-grade "paper" lobe was right through that area. But I may have been in the null's *actual* direction. Still, I would think I'd be able to null out WSSY and at least hear WTRX in there. I was checking out the area prior to a remote that the sales tarts sold out there, I'd remembered having problems with the signal out that way in the car, so we needed to see if we'd have to come up with a loopback for on-air feed. Obviously, we did!

I told Don, "unless you want them listening to 'the Sissy", we'd better come up with a plan here". We borrowed another Marti from I think it was either Bill Sanderson or Norm Perry and aimed it out that way, fed from the mod monitor.


I confirm all my information through a high, white whore's souse!

CK-722
Posts: 1284
Joined: Sun Dec 16, 2018 3:53 pm

Re: WTRX

Post by CK-722 » Mon Mar 18, 2019 12:34 am

With the Day facilities of WKTA, the maximum skywave return right around SR and SS from WKTA would be about 3 mV/m. One time, over by Bob Eastman's house on Greenbrook, after pattern change at WTRX, I taped the Signoff of WEAW, about 3 miles from WTRX, where the Night null was very deep due to reflections cancelling the incident signal, on a Sony CF portable. The actual nulls in the Night Pattern are not supposed to be that deep, but the reflections cause it to cancel and be very weak in places, like (conveniently) the Owner/GM's house. I actually talked to Bob a few times, and we once discussed how much better the signal would have been from Gibson and Porter Rd., where they had even bought some land. They never filed the application though. It would have more than doubled the Day signal near there, even more than doubled at Night, maybe 5 times the FI. A few years later, I called and told Dave Gale that I was the one who complained about the signal because I lived in the null. His response was, "Doesn't everybody?". It was solid where he lived on Freeman? Ave. I think you were there one Night when I called and complained.

Were you dating the producer of Flint Feedback then? If so, it could have been you, as she mentioned that Dave Gale was off that Night. She thought you were really smart! So maybe I just assumed that she "liked you liked you". Some other interesting stories about Wally Kennedy. He was a "Teenage Guest Disk Jockey" on WLS. "Don't be nervous, don't be rocky..." It was a major break for him, and he parlayed it into his first real job at....wait for it...WEAW! His second real job was at WTRX!


Is THAT where they got the idea for the 486-SX?

Same (x, y, z), different (t)

Your bullet missed my trial balloon.

RTN Price. Not guaranteed. As of 12:30, 157.71 Down 0.22.

Artificial Intelligence is a Child that needs a Parent to guide it through.

User avatar
Ed Joseph
Posts: 379
Joined: Sat Sep 10, 2005 9:27 pm

Re: WTRX

Post by Ed Joseph » Wed Mar 20, 2019 3:39 pm

CK, I never dated anyone from the station while I was at WTRX. Flint Feedback was long gone when I worked there, replaced by Perry Wright's Flint Nightline program.


I confirm all my information through a high, white whore's souse!

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic