Well it seems 95.7 fm was great for our signal as long as wqmf fm in louisville wasnt blasting thru here in waves. It seems the hot weather we have had in kentucky has brought with it another rock station 200 miles away in louisville,ky.
Our station is in london,ky and so to avoid interference issues or complaints in the future we decided to move rock 95 to 89.5 fm in the non-comm section of the band.
Careful research went into this decision for our move. Although wqmf is close to 200 miles away on the kentucky/indiana border they are still a licensed radio station and we all know they have the right of way. I wonder has anyone else ever had to change frequencies even if your station had a great signal on the channel you chose first? more later.
interference from 200 miles away!?
Ok guys and gals,
I am looking for some input here. 89.5 fm is hurting us, our coverage has dropped signifiganlty on this frequency and several other channels we tried are bringng in stations from all over the place.
Radio-Locator has been a good referance as well as the f.c.c. website, wich brings me to this point. What would you do in this situation?
One we cannot possibly go the route of part 15 a.m. because of the rules here in the mobile home village wich state the following, all radio and television antennas must be in no higher than 3 ft above the mobile home and at the back of the home.
Two , i have already asked questions about installing an antenna here and they seemed almost reluctant to help out. Nothing can be attached to the home and no holes can be made in the ground.
Those are the two main reasons i went with part 15 fm, our antenna is inside our home mounted on the wall close to the ceiling.
As for the station wqmf, it is not in louisville,ky but rather jeffersonville,indiana wich borders kentucky. According to the f.c.c. website their erp is 28, 500 watts if i qouted that right and their service is for jeffersonville indiana and louisville ky some 170 to 200 miles away from london ky. If youd like to add your opinions to this post i would like to hear from you.
One more thing, i will be looking into the propagation models to see how this area is being affected by tropospheric ducting and the such.
If you check out the unused frequencies search on Radio-Locator.com our zip here is 40744 and of course we are in kentucky (ky)
Ducting
I assume you are operating a legal part 15 FM station. If not, my comments may not apply. If I understand your dilemma correctly, it seems that this is a self correcting situation. Ducting is a temporary effect lasting from hours to days but it is not permanent. If you are concerned about your signal ducting back to the service area of the licensed station, don’t be. You will cause no interference by this route since your ducted signal strength will be overwhelmed by the broadcaster’s signal in their listener area. You are hearing them because there is no other signal on the frequency, which is not the case at their end of the path.
It is good to be concerned about not causing interference with licensed stations, but it doesn’t appear likely that someone within your signal service area, other than a radio hobbyist doing DX, would be listening to a station 200 miles away. Continue to use what appears to be your good judgement, but it appears you will be safe staying on your original frequency.
Did I understand your situation correctly?
Neil
Ducking the ducting er nevermind
Sorry bad attempt at a pun,
Neil your right on the money with the ducting issue. I know it usually works one way for the most part. As for staying on 95.7 fm , that ended up being our final decision.
The interference issue is not as bad as we first thought and because of the ducting being temporary we know it wont last long and is a force of nature. There really isnt a whole lot any station, part 15 or otherwise, can do about the way weather patterns affect their signal.
I used to work in commercial radio and volunteer public radio, in my spare time i would dx fm and tv. One evening i was tuning around and 88.1 wich is shared by two non-comm stations, one religous and the other a college station. Both stations over 80 miles apart here in kentucky, the religious station was closer to me.
Most of the time these stations would push and pull each other fighting to be the top dog, both stations are 1kw fm.
That particular evening was different, a station in st.louis on 88.1 fm dominated the airwaves for hours. I always had a tape in the cassette deck recording in case i stumbled on some awesome dx.
The signal was so clear i was able to jot down call letters and a phone number , i then called the station an told the host of the show that they sounded great in kentucky. He was blown away to say the least,and asked if i wanted to request a song.
Anyways back to my part 15 it is legal, as legal you can get and i intend to stay that way. We cover the trailor park wich was our main goal, if the signal strays past that it is no more than 1/4 line of sight.
thanks