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KCJJ, 1630, is in Iowa City, Iowa.
They cover a gigantic part of the country
at night, and have been heard in Europe.
I have heard them here in CT, althoughKCJJ, 1630, is in Iowa City, Iowa.
They cover a gigantic part of the country
at night, and have been heard in Europe.
I have heard them here in CT, although
a TIS station prevents that now.I just called them up, just for the heck of
it, and they are still transmitting AM stereo.
But the guy didn’t know what format.The GM is away, but is coming back next
week, so I’ll call him when he gets back.
Because he knows the answer.I understand that a lot of the AM stereo
radios from the 1980s don’t go up to
1630, but I still think it is an interesting
curiosity.KCJJ runs the standard power and antenna
pattern for the “X-band” stations, 10 kW day,
1 kW night, omnidirectional pattern.I hope they are C-Quam, but there is something
in the back of my brain that says they are not.Best Wishes,
Bruce, Dog Radio Studio 2
Total posts : 45366A TIS on 1630??? Now that’s unusual. Or is this TIS station so close to you that it is partially covering up 1630?
Chances are that the KCJJ station is transmitting the standard format of C-QUAM, since the FCC back in the early 90’s declared the Motorola C-QUAM as the standard for AM Stereo in the USA.
That being said…any station running one of the other formats would be in violation. Not only that, about the only radios one could find that is capable of all 4 formats or one of the others besides C-QUAM are vintage radios. All of the HD radios capable of decoding the AM Stereo transmission are built to decode the Motorola C-QUAM standard.
RFB
Total posts : 45366Thanks for the info.
Yup. I have a station on 1630 down the
street from me. It transmits information
for the town. It runs around 10 watts, but
the power was lowered to keep it within
the correct field strength contours.Maybe it’s not really a TIS, because it is just
an emergency info station that the local
fire department set up. So I don’t know
it’s classification. It does have a callsign,
I believe it’s WQBL-834.I was bummed out when it came on the
air and covered up KCJJ. I did listen to KCJJ
for many years. I was lucky – my SRF-A100
did go up to 1630. This 1630 local station
doesn’t do too much. It has a “tape loop” about
fire and carbon monoxide safety, and a few other
announcements about services the town has
available.The local 1630 is about 1/3 of a mile from my house.
None of my directional AM antennas sufficiently null
it out. I do have an AM BCB antenna phasing unit,
but it’s not set up right now. WQBL-834 also comes in
on my crystal set.So thanks again, RFB, for the info. I wish they would
turn the 1630 down the street off, but I guess that’s
being selfish.And as for KCJJ in Iowa, they are a talk station, but
I believe they transmit music during the weekends.Bruce, Dog Radio Studio 2
Total posts : 45366The TIS I operate for our City is on 1650.
It’s part of our outdoor siren warning system. You hear the siren-tune to 1650.
Otherwise we run NOAA, PSA’s and news.
Total posts : 45366KCJJ is a favorite stations ever since a year ago I first found their website, and discovered they have a video stream, U-Stream I think, with their morning show on camera.
The morning shows I watched had the owner as the host and a wide-screen board operator on our side of the glass. The wide-angle lense made him look extra wide.
The owner is so flip and funny that I started watching daily. I recorded audio a few times and used one stretch where a woman called and explained that the problem with some people was that they were Jewish. Instead of hanging up the owner got her to say more, so he said, “What is it about Jewish people? I’m Jewish.” And she babbled about it and he shot back, “Why do you call. You don’t like us, so what’s wrong with you… why do you keep calling.” The conversation got worse and worse. I used it on my Blare OnAir show.
The owner of KCJJ seems like a Part 15er who could afford a big station.
Total posts : 45366One morning I put the KCJJ audio from the web onto the SSTran AMT3000 and re-broadcast it at 1630kHz. I was very impressed with myself for such a clever idea.
Total posts : 45366I believe the TIS concept is good, but poorly implemented IMO.
The ridiculous restrictions on those stations, their incredibly boring and dull looping messages, lack of signal strength in certain conditions, and on the wrong band where 90 percent of any given city’s population is NOT tuned to or recognized as a frequency or band of its own unique identity.
Lets take NOAA radio as an excellent example. For decades the NOAA radio system has been programmed into the public as having its own identity and location..that is location on the radio spectrum. Specific radios were built for the NOAA band, and some consumer radios include these frequencies.
Now given the general public’s level of attention span..which sad to say is incredibly low but incredibly high to things like Lady Gag Gag and Dancing With The Fakes, the modern pop culture anything goes to the extreme everything, the one thing they can relate to and recognize right away is when someone says “NOAA”, or “Weather Radio”. It is in their heads and instantly recognized.
Now apply that to TIS. TIS..placed onto a part of the radio spectrum where it has been proven and documented that 99.9 percent of the radio listening public migrated to the FM band back in the 70’s and stayed there. Even today with this “IBOC”, to which I call “IBLAH” for all its uselessness worthless splatter maker, which has done nothing to improve content on the radio, the majority of the public is still tuned to the FM band.
Now with things like iPod, iMobile, iPad and 4G, the ratio of radio listeners is dwindling even faster to the digital medium.
About the only percentage of the public that is really aware of what a TIS is or what a SSB is or what a CW is are special portions of the whole..those who have a room full of radio gear most of which sit idle and look pretty. Are even those special portions of the radio geeks sitting around tuning every single piece of equipment at the same time just waiting for that special TIS or NOAA or EAS announcement?
Probably so. But the special portion of the whole is only that…a portion and not the whole. Now why is that??? Why are there special applications put into place for special portions of the whole and the whole left out of the loop with a “one size fits all” blanket approach such as the EAS fiasco and not educated in a system specifically designed for a purpose..such as that of NOAA.
IMO..I think TIS got the same treatment as did AM Stereo…just throw it out there and “let the public decide” approach. Well I think the public has already decided long ago where they will tune in, and the attempts to revive a band that was literally abandoned by the industry out of either stupidity or sheer arrogance is “too little too late”.
The band will not be revived with travelers information stations scattered all over the dial filled with dull computer generated voice announcements that repeat all day long. TIS should have its very own allocated band and mandated to be installed in every single consumer radio made, including the NOAA frequencies also mandated to be put into all radios. This helps to centralize these services into one place for the average public, again who’s attention span ratio is incredibly low these days unless it glitters and spotlights with flashing colors and up-beat music of singers and bobbing wanna-be’s.
Heck there is still a large portion of the public who has no idea what EAS is..all they know is that there is this annoying buzzing and then tones and then some crawler or full screen CG insert followed by another buzzing, all of which interrupts the Lady gaghging on a fresh bowl of Klingon Gagh.
Should TIS find a better home and method of delivery?
I think it should…for its own sake as well as the public’s sake.
This editorial has been a presentation of TISEAS, a non profit tax payer funded service spooled from the pork barrel spending era.
RFB
Total posts : 45366We have a highway information station
a couple of miles away on 1670. I don’t
think that station conveys too much useful
info, but I don’t really know. I haven’t
listened too it too much. Somewhere on
the local highway, there is a sign, with the
message:
Tune To 1670 for travelers information
(Or something like that.)That sign is in a place where the station
comes in really poorly. I don’t know where the
transmitter is.At one time we had a 530 TIS that covered a
huge area. I’ll have to look into the history of
that one. It’s not on anymore.By the way, as I am working on getting my AM
back on the air, I have had it on a lower channel
than usual. It has been on 1460. I have also tried
1330 and 1590 (thanks to Mr. Crow, who provided
the dip switch info, which I had lost) but 1460 seems
to be the most quiet during the day. This allows
my signal to go through some antique radios AND
my Sony SRF-A100. Unbelievable. Through the
SRF-A100, the SS Tran AMT-3000 sounds like
FM radio!Bruce, Dog Radio Studio 2
Total posts : 45366“Unbelievable. Through the
SRF-A100, the SS Tran AMT-3000 sounds like
FM radio!”Yep. When the bandwidth floodgates are opened up from the mere 2.5Khz either side (5 total) of the carrier, you end up with an incredible result. And hi-fi audio does not require 2 channels to be hi-fi.
RFB
Total posts : 45366KVOC 1230 located here in Casper Wy runs 1Kw day/night omni off a single 120′ stick. The transmitter is a BE AM-1 which also has the C-QUAM stereo option installed.
The studios located across town, are all wired for stereo as is the ISDN link to the TX. The entire setup is stereo and all that is needed is the stereo switch turned on at the TX.
Unfortunately the station is dark due to lack of proper maintenance funding by the ownership. Hopefully it will return to the air soon.
RFB
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