CKWW 580 Signal Observations

[ShempLives]

Maybe it's because of the storms last weekend, but in the past two days CKWW's signal has been not as strong as usual. (I live on the east side of metro Detroit.)

[Colonel Flagg]

It's really bad. It's so weak that the LED traffic lights are destroying the signal at intersections.

[MWmetalhead]

It is definitely weaker than usual in my location; not a gigantic difference but it *is* noticeable.

CFCO in the daytime comes in more strongly than both CKWW and CKLW in my neck of the woods, and that's true even when CKWW is at full strength.

800 CKLW's signal has been out of whack ever since the transmitter fire of several years ago, and that's true both day and night.

[k8jd]

Just curious , so I selected my 250 ft long dipole and listened with my Icom 7300 radio. Here is my report from Commerce Township (halfway between Pontiac and Milford) ;.
560, S7 and recovered mod just above noise level
570, S5 Fair mod recovered.
580, S3 no mod recoverable (tried narrowing filter and mode on USB and LSB too)
590, S4 and weak audio mod recovered.
600, S3 some mod recovered.
610 , S9 strong mod recovered.
620, nil, just noise.
630, S9+ very strong recovered mod.
That antenna is trimmed for 1820 kHz and has 200 ft of RG8X coax that may have a lot of loss at low end of AMBC band with terrible VSWR. .

[Ben Zonia]

The ICOM 8600 apparently has the best Received Signal Strength Indicator, including S meter, 52 segment meter, digital display for all units including dBuV/m actual field strength plus or minus 3 dB up to 1100 MHz, + or - 6 dB above 1100 MHz. You could easily calibrate it with an FIM-41 and FIM-71 using a fudge factor curve, and use it as an actual field strength meter. Probably not quite accurate enough for Proofs of Performance and antenna testing, but close.

The only thing missing would be a magic eye indicator.

[k8jd]

I think the 8600 is a bit out of my price range for receive only gear ! I see ads from $1800-2500 !

[Turkeytop]

Here in London ON, CKWW usually pounds in like a local during the day. I tried it today and it was weak and noisy.

[Radiobirdman]

Listening to CKWW in the car around metro Detroit most mornings and as early as 3:30 PM or so I can hear WTCM Traverse City right underneath.

[WOHO]

Big disappointment in the Toledo Metro. CKWW used to sneak-in fairly well on days, not so much anymore. Driving up 75 thru Monroe county, (with a decent wideband AM radio) you get sh*t from 560 onto 570 and 580, making matters even worse.
The Big 8 is no where near what it was in 1983 down here either. WJR still throws fire, BUT, audio is not near as good as the Ed B days when wideband AM stereo was the norm. Is WJR running the power saving type transmitter now too? Might explain weird S-meter readings in addition to about 5KHz filtering and whatever crap they use for ratings transmission.
CFCO never disappoints, and they did have a null at one time to the SW clipping Toledo a bit.
WWJ is hammered with interference here, and 1270 is not receivable at all, so the loss of Toledo's 1470 means no Detroit Tiger games receivable in Eastern Lucas County Ohio for 4 years now.

[Ben Zonia]

Depending on how much power saving they use, those transmitters sound to me like about a quarter of the way to trying to listen to an SSB signal without a BFO. 1 kW stations that don't use it sound better.

[Marcus]

The nighttime interference on 580 is making their signal useless where I live tonight. I don't recall that being much of a problem in the past.

[k8jd]

Is WJR running the power saving type transmitter now too? Might explain weird S-meter readings in addition to about 5KHz filtering and whatever crap they use for ratings transmission.
CFCO never disappoints, and they did have a null at one time to the SW clipping Toledo a bit.
WWJ is hammered with interference here, and 1270 is not receivable at all, so the loss of Toledo's 1470 means no Detroit Tiger games receivable in Eastern Lucas County Ohio for 4 years now.

Most of the Metro Detroit AM antennas are aimed North.
WJR using a "Power Saving" transmitter? maybe they turn it up, just for commercials !

[billmich88888]

that's not how those work

[Deleted User 16173]

Any idea as to when the station will change format?