My two main AM frequencies leave little room on the upper end of the medium wave band for a third frequency, devoted to testing. Unless you count 1710.
My two main AM frequencies leave little room on the upper end of the medium wave band for a third frequency, devoted to testing. Unless you count 1710.
Of course 1710 would be a poor choice for regular programing because of its limited power allowance, but many antenna tests actually benefit from micro-mini-power because it is easy to observe, at close range , whether a given antenna performs as well or better than another antenna.
We’ll give it a try and tell you what happens.
All Covered?
What..is the entire upper AM band in your area back to back with stations crammed in like sardines?
And why could you not use 1710 for testing? The key word…”testing”. You will not be operating normally on that frequency…only testing. The frequency 1710 is just as valid to use for testing as is any other frequency below that.
But you really do need to build that 3 meter outdoor antenna system. I suggest that you make it so that you can use it across several frequencies and just tune it for each frequency session. Unless you intend to build 3 or more antenna systems each specific to one frequency.
RFB
The Packing
Here is a tour of the upper band surrounding my location:
1320 5kW with transmitter only 1.5 miles away;
1380 kHz 5kW;
1430 kHz 5kW;
1460 kHz 1 kW;
1490 kHz 1 kW;
1550 kHz 100mW KDXradio.com;
1570 kHz ? kHz 40-miles away;
1600 kHz 5 kW;
1680 kHz 148mW KDXradio.com.
1400 kHz works for testing, but 1710 seems more private.
Cramming The Band
Ya I would say that’s pretty packed up. There are a couple of slots in there near your two operation frequencies where testing can be done.
Out here in Wy, the band is so wide open in the day its like a ghost spectrum. At night, with the exception of the 50Kw clear channel stations, there are still plenty of open channels.
The population density must be quite large where you are at Carl. Stack em, pack em and rack em eh?!
RFB
Population
Yes, population here is a stockyard of human mammals in a vast sterile landscape nominally called The St. Louis Metropolitan Area, but the City of St. Louis, itself 64-square miles, is actually small compared to the over 100 municipalities in St. Louis County, a massive westward expansion in a never ending cluster of towns in St. Charles County on the other side of the Missouri River, and a probably equal or larger ocean of towns and villages across the Mississippi River in Illinois.
The radio situation has gotten very creative. I’ll give one of numerous examples. There was a 1 kw station southwest of St. Louis licensed to Festus, Missouri. A genius engineer got the station up to 50,000 watts by drawing a straight line from Festus, through the City of St. Louis, over to the Illinois side, and put a directional array aimed at Festus. Not only does the signal reach Festus, it also reaches Texas. They are “sold-out” with wall-to-wall religious programming at 1010 kHz.
Serving a city of license from way off somewhere else is a fascinating trick of directional engineering.