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Monday, August 30, 2004
The dirt on AM radio coverage 
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| | As a radio buff, I've always marveled at how far AM radio carries in the big flat states. The largest of the large are AM legends KFYR/550 in Bismark, ND and WNAX/570 in Yankton, SD. By day, KFYR puts a good signal over all of North Dakota (about the size of New England), plus nearly all of South Dakota, half of Minnesota, plus hunks of Montana, Nebraska and Iowa, plus the southern parts of several very large Canadian provinces. WNAX's daytime signal reaches into eight large states. Now get this: both stations are just 5000 watts apiece. That's 1/10th the maximum licensed power in the U.S. Well-known big stations like WABC in New York, WBZ in Boston, KFI in Los Angeles and KNBR in San Francisco, are all 50000 watts. But, big as they are, none has the daytime coverage of these huge guys. That's because the ground conductivity in the prairie states is quite high: 15-30Mhos/meter or better, versus 0.5-4 in most of the East (most of Long Island is 0.5) and the Northwest. Hunks of Texas, a few Rocky Mountain States and California have patches of 15-30, but not spread over the large areas we see running down the middle of the country. |
| | I just augmented the FCC's M3 Map, and added it to the top of this post, so you can see where you'll find the best ground conductivity in the country. (I know, like you care. But hey, it's fun for me, and like, 10 other people, okay? More proof blogging isn't for the masses.) |
| | Night, by the way, is a whole 'nuther condition. That's when the E layer of the ionosphere reflects AM waves back to the ground, giving the 50kw big guys an advantage (though coverage across the ground persists). |
| | In the old days "clear channel" was the classification for a couple dozen stations that had exclusive use of their channels at night. Which is why I could pick up KFI/640 from Los Angeles at night in New Jersey, and WLS/890 from Chicago on my little Zenith 7-transistor radio while camping on the floor of Yosemite Valley, 41 years ago. The last clears I heard at a great distance were WBZ from Boston, in Palo Alto, when I moved there in 1985, and WHAS from Louisville that same year — both on a GE portable radio. Since then the FCC has licensed countless smaller stations on the old clear channels, and the band is a mess at night. |
| | And in a few more years the whole thing will be gone. That's the plan in the U.K., I think. Readers will let me know, I'm sure. |
Roll lubing
| | Hugh MacLeod calls Gapingvoid's blogroll "Linklube." |
Heroin for political blog junkies
When the going gets tough, the ugly turn uglier
| | For decades the radio industry has crushed incipient competitors by wielding raw political muscle and arguments that are at once apocalyptic and apocryphal. Radio station owners, who formed the National Association of Broadcasters in 1923, have won laws and regulations that have banned, crippled or massively delayed every major new competitive technology since the first threat emerged in 1934: FM radio. |
| | A great piece. Read the whole thing. |
Perhaps the opposite of DRM is foreplay
I think I'm still at 0.9
| | Dunno if any of our talk made it into Life 2.0 (that's why I'm buying the book), but it was fun being a stopping point in Rich Karlgaard's barnstorming research trip. |
Bowling for Frances
| | Heading to the beach in North Carolina next weekend, to get together with many friends I haven't seen in ten years or more. Hope we're not also due for a rendezvous with this (close-up here). Here's an even less optimistic view. |
Seeing how the other .001% parties
| | Want to show off your Texas Two-Step and cowboy boots? You need to get into the "Good Ol' Honky Tonk Salute" honoring Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. It'll help if you know someone at the Nuclear Energy Institute, the National Mining Association or the Edison Electric Institute (the utilities' trade association), because they each paid $20,000 to throw the shindig. |
| | Feel like something classier, like hearing Frank Sinatra Jr. perform in the Rainbow Room? Just give at least $25,000 to a "charity" called the American Council for Excellence and Opportunity, which promotes "programs that encourage and support free market philosophies." |
| | Not that Micah has been especially kind to the Democrats, either. Recall Hidden in Plain View from the last month. And if you're wondering why you're holding your nose while you vote against Bush, Micah points to where the real flies are buzzing. If you have a problem in Massachusetts, you go to Kennedy's staff not his. What does he really stand for, other than careful calculation? |
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