WWJ signal problems? (+ WJR audio distortion)

[innate-in-you]

Yeah, I'm in White Lake, and WWJ has been very inconsistent lately. Barely listenable in the early morning hours before the sixth antenna turns on. It's much clearer when I get to Novi where I work, but still not as good as it used to be Also, my car's A/C is interfering with AM lately, not sure what to do about that.

Or do you mean when the sixth tower turns off?

Though the array has six towers, one of the towers goes off altogether and another provides very little field.
During the day, it's effectively a five-tower array, but has the "soul of a four-tower array".

[CK-722]

Might be the colder ground. Might be the skywave conditions. Daytime skywave has been very big lately though.

A low field ratio tower can have a profound effect on the pattern, just like a reradiating nearby tower. It can fill in deep nulls and even substantially increase major lobes.

[CK-722]

One of the first antennas that John Kraus built was to hear WWJ in Ann Arbor on a Crystal Radio.

[bmw]

The two best-sounding daytime AM's I've heard in Michigan are 790 WSGW and 1480 WIOS.

WJR now sounds like it is competing with WWJ for the worst audio. Both stations sound terrible, IMO.

[Deleted User 3751]

I don't know about anyone else noticing but, WWJ's HD signal drops in and out in areas it never did before. It's been happening at least for two months now. Perhaps the HD Xmiter is on a lower power, setting, that's just a guess because they appear to be at full power on the analog side.

[audiophile]

Hopefully, Rich will check in on this. As I have heard, WJR still has two tube 50 kW transmitters out there in Riverview, and they sound better than the solid state ones. ...

Well, better most likely is the subjective conclusion of listeners based on what their ears tell them, and which for them, that belief is true.

I know that WJR is, or at least was using a Harris DX-50 solid-state transmitter as their main transmitter. The DX series of Harris AM broadcast transmitters generates the fully-modulated r-f output waveform completely by digital means, and with noise, harmonic and audio intermod distortion so low it is difficult to measure accurately in a test lab — far less than any "tube" transmitter using high-level plate modulation of the carrier, or the carrier/peak tube design of their previous Continental 317 transmitter.

I don't know if WJR is still using their DX-50, but if they are and their audio sounds bad to some listeners, that is virtually impossible to have originated within the transmitter itself.

When I check out the nighttime skywave of WJR in west central, Illinois using my Tecsun PL-880 set for 5 kHz audio bandwidth (which I frequently do), their audio sounds clean and usually louder/denser than what I hear from WBBM and other Class A stations in that same time frame.

Guitar players and enthusiasts, and audiophiles (plural) still often prefer tube amplifiers. There are shops that specialize in rebuilding guitar tube amps, and particularly McIntosh home audio tube amps, which are still in great demand. The popularity of vinyl has added to that.

Sorry, I prefer Solid-State

[audiophile]

I don't know about anyone else noticing but, WWJ's HD signal drops in and out in areas it never did before. It's been happening at least for two months now. Perhaps the HD Xmiter is on a lower power, setting, that's just a guess because they appear to be at full power on the analog side.

I've had my current car since June (my first with an HD Radio receiver). I've noticed no difference whatsoever in HD range for AM 950. It's never been that great over that period of time.

As spotty as 950 is for HD reception, 910 is worse, and 1200 is downright terrible. 950 and 1270 are the most reliable signals for me as far as HD decoding on the AM band goes.

I've not been able to decode 1340 WCHB's HD signal even one time. Even at 11 Mile and Woodward (only a few miles from the TX site), no dice! The HD tries to lock in but is never successfully decoded.

As far as I'm concerned, a properly processed analog AM signal on a wideband receiver offers superior audio fidelity to an AM IBOC digital signal in hybrid mode.

The audio quality of 950 / 1270 / 910 / 1200 in HD is nothing to write home about. Music still sounds like shit. Speech frequencies sound a bit more natural & brighter. Imaging (i.e. separation of sounds) is only modestly improved.

For those who don't own an HD capable radio, there is no reason to fret. You ain't missing much.

I feel the speech sounds very unnatural in HD. Very grungy.

On a good wide receiver, voice sounds perfect in analog.

Music can hide HD artifacts depending on the material and a your lack of familiarity with the music.

WJR was playing some music on my GE Superadio the other day, it sounded pretty good for AM, certainly better than HD!

[Bryce]

Drove back to town from St. Joseph last night. WJR didn't have, in my opinion, a quality signal until just before Jackson. Years ago, that signal would have been quality for much of the trip.

[ftballfan]

I don't know about anyone else noticing but, WWJ's HD signal drops in and out in areas it never did before. It's been happening at least for two months now. Perhaps the HD Xmiter is on a lower power, setting, that's just a guess because they appear to be at full power on the analog side.

I've had my current car since June (my first with an HD Radio receiver). I've noticed no difference whatsoever in HD range for AM 950. It's never been that great over that period of time.

As spotty as 950 is for HD reception, 910 is worse, and 1200 is downright terrible. 950 and 1270 are the most reliable signals for me as far as HD decoding on the AM band goes.

I've not been able to decode 1340 WCHB's HD signal even one time. Even at 11 Mile and Woodward (only a few miles from the TX site), no dice! The HD tries to lock in but is never successfully decoded.

As far as I'm concerned, a properly processed analog AM signal on a wideband receiver offers superior audio fidelity to an AM IBOC digital signal in hybrid mode.

The audio quality of 950 / 1270 / 910 / 1200 in HD is nothing to write home about. Music still sounds like shit. Speech frequencies sound a bit more natural & brighter. Imaging (i.e. separation of sounds) is only modestly improved.

For those who don't own an HD capable radio, there is no reason to fret. You ain't missing much.

My current car (and the one before it) has HD Radio for AM and I've occasionally gotten WTMJ and WSCR to decode in the Manistee area

[innate-in-you]

I don't know about anyone else noticing but, WWJ's HD signal drops in and out in areas it never did before. It's been happening at least for two months now. Perhaps the HD Xmiter is on a lower power, setting, that's just a guess because they appear to be at full power on the analog side.

Could it be due to later sunrises and earlier sunsets? Perhaps you lose the HD portion of WWJ's signal when Montréal's 940 (also 50kW) signal comes in by nighttime skywave?

[innate-in-you]

Might be the colder ground. Might be the skywave conditions. Daytime skywave has been very big lately though.

A low field ratio tower can have a profound effect on the pattern, just like a reradiating nearby tower. It can fill in deep nulls and even substantially increase major lobes.

In December, the Northern Hemisphere is tilted 23° away from the Sun.

Though most readers here live at about 42 or 43°N, at midday, we're at about 65° N on the face of the Earth's disk. This renders the RF-absorbing D-layer less able to hinder daytime skywave skip on MF.

Of note, the lifting of the maximum RF power on Regional channels from 5kW to 50kW has changed post-sunrise, pre-sunset and even midday skywave skip.

Some of these steroid-era regionals are getting out, as some 50kW clears at the top of the band have been doing all along.

KZQZ (1430, St. Louis, MO). is 50kW. About one day in four, I listen to them on my way home, as they are one of last Oldies stations left.