[BC] Snow.blizzard fading?

[Broadcast List USER]

Ah, Winter/Summer Effect.

In general, especially in areas like the East Coast, the ground  
conductivity goes way up in the Winter.  The ground gets wetter.  I  
used to take care of an AM and in the WInter I had to keep pulling in  
the monitor points, and in the Summer let them out.

Then the ground would end up covered in snow.  I would ignore it.  The  
monitor points would go WAY HIGH.  But, in DC, snow would (nearly)  
never be around for long.

Of course (as an aside) this Winter is very different.  We are still  
under three feet of snow as it is compressed, and we are expecting  
more.  We had 56 inches at home (total for the year), and it is lower  
now, not because it has melted, but it has compressed.

The bottom line is SNOW really increases ground connectivity.

This increased ground conductivity doesn't change sky wave but does  
ground wave.  That can really change the interference zone.

I'm sure in some parts of the country things are normal, but in the  
mid-Atlantic things are strange.  I am only 30 some miles from WMAL  
and WTNT.  Both don't give me good night signals.  They do right now.

WELL, WMAL is a special case.  I had a great signal at my home UNTIL  
they increased their day signal from 5 to 10 kW.  They didn't change  
the night at all, but it went away.  One wonders why changing the day  
pattern would make the night pattern in my direction suck, but nobody  
cares, so why should I?

I wonder how the pattern was screwed up?  I have lived where I live  
for 26 years, AND the drop off in signal is not just on a few radios.   
Friends have asked about it.

BUT, at least for now, the signal is great with three feet of snow on  
the ground.

--chip

On Feb 16, 2010, at 11:49 PM, broadcast-request at radiolists.net wrote:

> Message: 15
> From: "R.V.Zeigler" <rzeigler at krvn.com>
>
> Bob Barnswatts wrote:
>
> KRVN in Lexington, NE 50Kw 880  has extreme fading at 60-100 miles out
> on really snowy nights particularly during a blizzard.
>
> I have not heard of this particular phenomenon in that area before.   
> Playing the odds, I will assume this is along I-80 near North  
> Platte. Might it have had something to do with KJLT 970 (5KW-D, 55W- 
> N) which is less than 3 miles north of I-80 and 5 mi. W. of North  
> Platte? Possibly, possibly not. I will have to see if I can catch  
> this happening sometime. Would be interesting to see if rain causes  
> the same thing.
> I have experienced the fading phenomenon out farther,(129 Mi. at  
> Ogallala) which corresponds to our skywave "bounce" area.
>
> --
> R. V. Zeigler, Dir. of Eng.
> Nebraska Rural Radio Assn.
> KRVN-KTIC-KNEB
> rzeigler at krvn.com