A little more on transmitting mono vs stereo

The FCC made a big mistake there, reducing coverage if you wanted stereo.

Mark

On our LPFM our 60 dBuV footprint covers the entire city and then some. To eliminate stereo separation to gain a litte more distance makes no sense.

http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/patg?id=WLSL-FL

It would make sense to kill stereo if you wanted to target San Antonio, Zephyrhills, or Lacoochee. Some minor multipath would be reduced and the signal to noise ratio would be better for cheaper radios by switching to mono for the COL of St. Leo, especially during times of atmospheric enhancement.

Keep in mind the majority of FM listening occurs within the 64dbu contour.

Mighty said: "Keep in mind the majority of FM listening occurs within the 64dbu contour."

I replied: "I'm not sure what you mean by "the majority of FM listening" means."

Forgive me if this isn't what you meant, mighty1650, but a few years back, Arbitron (now Nielsen Audio) ratings cross-referenced with coverage maps usually showed that once a listener was outside the station's city grade (70dbu) coverage area -- and 64 dbu is probably a more precise and correct number -- they were far less likely to listen to any particular FM station. 

With my licensed FM's over the years, I courted audiences and advertisers within the 70 dbu contour.  Any listeners or ad bucks we got in weaker signal areas were bonuses!

If you live in a rural area with few strong local signals, it's true that some pretty robust listenership can take place in areas outside even the 60dbu (urban grade) contour.  But in areas with lots of *strong* signals to choose from, listeners tend to gravitate toward those that provide more signal to that whip antenna of theirs.

You are absolutely correct marosborne. Listenerns don't tend to put up with very much noise or static if they don't have to. Less of a problem in rural areas where there aren't as many signals but still a major tune out factor.

That makes sense. Maybe I will experiment.

Hi Mark!

Was Kiss 94 ever a 100,000 watt station? I see the transmitter is out by the Bald Mountain road now. That's not where you put it, is it? Remember pouring the concrete in that swamp? Ugh! I spent a day or two out there babysitting until we got our remote.

Here is the KISS 94 coverage map:

Is the red circle the 70dbu you are talking about? If you switched it to MONO, how much would the red circle increase?

Doug

The red circle is the 60dbu, the 70dbu would be roughly half or less of that. By switching to mono expect listenability to increase in the distant and fringe areas, essentially move that red to the purple.

Thank you Mighty! That is quite a jump!

Wdcx, that is pretty schweet! Thats 100w ERP I take it...

Doug

Radiodugger:  I'm just now seeing your post regarding the WKSQ contours.  We moved the transmitter to Bald Mtn. in Dedham in 1985.  The city grade for a full 50kw FM extends roughly 20.5 miles out.  The red circle, urban grade, goes out about 32 miles for a full 50kw.  So the station covered the Bangor market like a local, as Bangor was only about 12 miles from that site.