Well, if you never said KDX is also a
monitoring post - after going through that -
you sure can say it is one now!
I listened at 0730 EDT. my time, during
critical hours (I think). Nothing except
2 very weak stations beating against each
other at about 10 HZ.
It's time to bring out some better equipment.
According to the internet, this thing is only
112 miles away from me.
How come I'm not hearing it? It's omni.
It should be there.
Best Wishes,
Bruce, DOGRADIO
Is it even possible the station is not on the air yet? Maybe something went wrong.
In my opinion WRCR moving to the expanded band is a bit of a rare event. Part 15’ers on 1700/1690 will move somewhere else and things will continue how they always have. If someone is running a station on 1700 and does not use a radio to check it and hear a full power station popped up on the channel they are doing something wrong.
WRCR is not listed as having hybrid digital status. http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/pubacc/prod/sta_list.pl
Right now there are only 296 applications for AM stuff in the FCC database (10 in the expanded band) for the entire country, which is tiny compared to the FM database. There are only 367 construction permits (10 in the expanded band). Many of the applications or construction permits are duplicated day/night. So all-in-all, the AM database is pretty stable. (That does not count TIS actions.)
The expanded band is safe as of this moment. If the AM broadcasters ever decided to work together with the FCC to relieve some of the congestion in the 540-1600 range the expanded band would look like prime real estate. But there are a few things that will keep that from massively happening wholesale, including but not limited to:
1. The FCC got burnt when it opened up the expanded band, it gave stations expanded band licenses with the intent that the station would turn in their old license when the expanded band facility was built. Stations argued it was in the public interest to keep their old station and provide new content on the expanded band frequency. Instead of thinning out the crowded 540-1600 by moving some into the expanded band, the FCC had new stations on the air.
2. Many AM stations do not have the money to maintain their current facilities, let alone build new ones.
3. There are still radios out there that max out at 1600/1610, and radio stations know it. I have found them in some of my friend’s cars. I have found them in stereos that people still use because they have had no reason to replace the stereo. I have found them for sale on eBay with free shipping from china. AM is already a iffy place to reach an audience and handicapping a signal by some radios not being able to tune it makes the expanded band look less desirable.
4. The expanded band carries really well after dark. The more stations on it the more crappy the listener experience will be at night.
5. Expanded band power is limited to 10kW. The power number is more likely to sell ad time than the actual coverage/listenability of a station. A 50kW directional station will probably not move to an expanded band station with 10kW because explaining why with less power the ad cost should be the same will be difficult.
Even of the FCC started to allow 87.9 for part 15 and licensed stations I can see the same issue here. I don't know if they will ever allow part 15 transmitters there. But the Scoche is one of questionable concern when it comes to 87.9. As far as AM I was hoping the extra frequencies in the expanded band would be mostly clear for part 15.
Pos ID, "...1700, WRCR"
Not a full legal ID at the top of the
hour, but good enough.
The technique used by me was learned
from my Part 15 experiences.
More to follow.
Bruce, DOGRADIO
Up above I gave the link to the WRCR website, and their program schedule looks like a dream... really, like a Part 15 station. They have some of the shows carried by me on KDX.
And they STREEM!
You can hear WRCR even if you can't get WRCR.
Awsome!
I tried to get their stream but couldn't.
However, they are fading up now that
we are in critical hours.
I don't know what time they will drop their
power. (What time of day does critical hours end
this month?)
I did call them. The guy running the board
was very happy and told me they have been
heard in Pennsylvania with a very good signal,
and it isn't even dark yet.
He said the station is so "small" that the air
monitor is just a radio sitting on a shelf. I
think he said they have to turn it down the
when the DJis talking, or when they are doing a
talk show.
It's about 7:10 PM EDT my time.
More to follow.
Brooce, DOGRADIO
For the evening, that's 2 hours before
sunset until sunset (local for the station.)
What would that be?
Bruce, DOGRADIO
Brooce, why didn't anyone else think of that?
Call them up. Say hi. Let them know. They might appreciate it.
Fantastic.
So critical hours ends at (?)
Sunset is about 8:25 PM EDT
But that's not how they do it -
it's done on the half hour or quarter hour.
So is it 8:15 PM, 8:30 PM, or 8:45 PM?
I just can't remember what it is supposed
to be for this part of the country in July?
But at one of those times they will go from
10kw down to 1kw.
Brooce, DOGRADIO
Worldround Monitoring Station logging in.
At 9:45 PM CDT monitored 1700 AM and heard "sports number talk" among a group of neanderthal males. Likely not the NY signal.
Dinner time now, take care.
Give me some time to be 100% sure, I have never gotten anything on 1700KHz except noise, but there is a station playing music on 1700KHz as of 12:10 AM EST. My Location, Norwich, Connecticut. Antenna an indoor AM coil antenna.
It is fading in and out though, so allow me time to get a station ID.
Song playing is "with you I'm born again" by Billy Preston and Syreeta
Now, regarding AM1700 Heritage Information Radio of Norwich, CT. It was never able to cut through the noise level here though and does not play music.
The tough part is I am getting an oscillation pulse on this radio, I have utility down step power transformers all around me.
The station is playing music though, heard a Rod Stewart song playing a few minutes ago.
The on line stream is like 6 1/2 minutes behind the AM broadcast, YES!!! I can get it here in Norwich CT!
Bruce.
What kind of receiver are you using?
And, Carl - ya never know. You might
hear them sooner or later!
More on that to follow!
By the way, never in my life did I
think there would be a nearby (to me)
commercial station on 1700 kHz.
Brooce, DOGRADIO
You would laugh if you seen this radio, it is an RCA RS2534 junked because the 5 disk changer was screwed and the previous owner canned the carousel years ago, so there was no fixing the CD changer, so I gutted it out of the unit entirely.
I have a homemade AM antenna, 150 feet of rubber coated wire wrapped around a 9 inch by 11 inch Top Ramen Noodles box, sometimes I hook up a wire that goes up to my tower on the roof to the plus side of the coil and it brings in more stations but also a lot of noise with it.
I also have a 5000 Watt Night time station on a 3 tower directional array at 1310KHz line of site to my location, this radio station is WICH 1310 AM Personality Radio here in Norwich, CT. I do get receiver over load from them in certain parts of the AM broadcast band, but using a two foot wire inside the house attached to the plus side of the coil brings in this WRCR station fairly well. It does fade in and out and hits peaks where it is 100% loud and clear.
Bruce.
Someone posted on my FB page that this station was 1KW and going into the splatter world of HD.