[BC] AM IBOC In The Dallas / Fort Worth Market

[DHultsman5@aol.com]

In a message dated 8/9/2006 11:12:52 P.M. Central Standard Time,  
peterh5322 at rattlebrain.com writes:

>Give  me the ground conductivity of the San Francisco Bay Area. 30! It seems 
 
>it would take more than 50Kw here in the South to do what a 5Kw plant  does 
>there.




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I recall the conductivity in the Dallas area is nearly 30.  When I  lived in 
Dallas I regularly listened to stations in Austin, Amarillo and  Shreveport, 
Louisianna daytime ground wave.
 
As a former CE in the DFW market and a fomer CE in the Birmingham,  Nashville 
and Pensacola markets,  I would trade the conductivity in the  South, 
terrible at between 2 and 8 m/mhos/m and love to have the near 30  from the Dallas 
area.   Of course the Pensacola area across salt water  to Mobile was pretty 
good compared to inland coverage.
 
Not as good a mid-americas 40 mm/m however.
 
The big thing I have noted in Dallas is the significant increase in random  
noise in the AM band as compared to 35 years ago.   More people, more  power 
lines, more noise generating street lights and a lot of noise that we as  AM 
engineers would track down and complain about 40 years ago. One of my early  jobs 
as a young station engineer was to track down noisy power line insulators  
causing interference to our station. I used our FIM and a Sprague Model 500  
Interference locator to isloate the problem.  I then reported to the local  power 
companies, the pole number and the address of the problem.  Then the  power 
companies would come put and replace or spray the insulator that had  broken 
down.
 
That was a long time ago,  radio stations don have the personnel to  monitor 
the problems and power companies don't have a staff to solve the arcing  
unless it is visible or audible to people nearby.
 
Dave Hultsman