Most websites for part 15 radio stations and yes even commercial radio stations have coverage maps.
Most websites for part 15 radio stations and yes even commercial radio stations have coverage maps.
But up until recently, I have been copying maps from yahoo maps and drawing a circle showing my coverage area according to what I have heard using a car stereo and specific locations around town.
Enter Google Earth
Great program to play with if you want to do some armchair exploring.
You can see any place on the globe without packing your bags or waiting in line at the airport , in fact you can even explore space.
Best of all it’s free. But im not writing this to plug Google Earth but rather the idea of using this program to help plot out strengths and weakness of your AM signals.
Here’s what I have done.
1. find your location on google earth and print a map, be sure to save that map to the program so you can return to it later.
2. take your map and drive around town with a friend or spouse and have them plot on the map the strong and weak areas around town.
(of course you need a radio to do this)
3. After you have marked on the map the strength and weakness of you stations signal, return home and use google earth again.
Open the map you saved in the program and select the icon in the toolbar labeled “Place marks” it looks like a Thumb tack.
Use your printed map as a reference and place the thumb tacks on the areas you want to highlight. There are many different icons for the thumb tacks so use your best judgment.
A red thumb tack could show strong signals, a blue one could be for the weak signals. After plotting the areas your most interested in you can select the Ruler option in the programs toolbar.
This feature has many options, feet, inches, miles, kilometers, meters.
Ground zero or your stations location will be your starting point and drag the line to the place you want to get the distance from.
As you drag the ruler from point to point it will increment the appropriate numbers for the distance from point A to point B.
You can label the Thumbtacks with the miles or kilometers and of course place other notes there as well.
4. Save the map with the changes to the programs folder for later reference and print the map if you so desire. At this point you can take a screen shot of the map which will include the thumb tacks etc.
Then in your favorite photo program open that screen shot and add the circles or outline your strong signal areas for showing off on your website or as I have done use this information to help determine what areas in your neighborhood you might want to focus on to increase coverage in those trouble areas.
Of course this doesn’t have to be all technical, it was actually fun messing with this program and I now see what areas I need to work on to get a stronger signal .
This is in no way 100% accurate as we all know our signals change from one day to the next. On my website you can view some example maps.
http://radiodizzy.webs.com/apps/photos/
Enjoy
Coverage maps
Rock,
Nice project. I did this eons ago. I drew a scaled map of my neighborhood and using my trusty Motorola 6 transistor radio, my semi calibrated ear, and my bicycle I mapped my coverage. At the time, due to parental zoning restrictions, my antenna was horizontal on a basement joist. Not surprisingly, the patterns seemed to follow the telephone and power lines on the poles.
Later, when I had my first car with a radio, I was able to receive my signal six miles away. This was line of sight situation and the AM band was a lot quieter then. Our home was next to a water tower which could be seen from the “six mile hill” (some from the Dayton Ohio region will recognize this as the hill at the intersection of Rt. 35 and Union Road west of Dayton). How’s that for 100 mW DX with an underground transmitting antenna?
Anyway, it would be nice to see your map.
Neil
Pretty Awesome DX
Really cool considering it was from your basement.
On my website in the photo gallery you can see some of the maps I created. My best coverage or usable signal really isn’t as great as I hoped it would be.
With the talking house 2, I am transmitting just under a half mile, and that’s pretty noisy. At just under 2000 feet my AM signal is enjoyable to listen to. Past that it’s at the mercy of the static demons.
I was also able to measure just how far my FM signal reaches and adjust it according to my findings on google earth.
From my door step to the end of the entrance road was 900 + feet and after you leave the village, my FM signal drops out quickly.
According to the rules, my signal could be considered almost pirate like if not for the line-of-sight factor. I will be adjusting the FM signals according to the maps from now on.
All this time I was guessing that the distance from my doorstep to the main road was around 200 feet, now I know better.
Anyway, I did get a good idea of what needs improving and what needs to be limited.
Coverage Maps
Hi guys! I really enjoyed your above comments.
I have plotted my AM coverage in the past.
It turns out that my coverage area is not a circle
but an north-south ellipse with many peaks and
nulls. Many nulls occur at four way intersections.
And yes, the coverage varies from day to day.
I am still trying to measure the distance from my
house to the street and so forth.
Thanks Rock, and Neil, for the cool info.
Bruce MICRO1690/1700