[BC] Faraday Fence - No Foreign Signals Allowed

[Broadcast List USER]

I was in San Diego in the late 70s for a job interview.  I loved listening to XETRA and KGB.  I'm sure there is a story behind it, but they changed KGB to KCNN, and later KPOP.  I have no idea what they are now.

KGB had AMAZING audio.  I was just blown away.  A long story later, the CE told me he used an extra plate supply rectifier, and connected it directly to the plate final, and connected it to a power supply that put out a nominal 250 VDC, the cut off Voltage of the final.  He fed it from a Variac so he could properly adjust the cut off Voltage so the carrier was never pinched off.  It really sounded great on my Toyota Corolla rental car.

On a trip a bit later, my (now) wife and I went to her sister's wedding in Dan Diego.  We drove the coast over about five days to San Francisco and flew home from there.  We listened to XETRA all the way up the coast.  Later, I saw the night pattern an figured they ran the array in reverse.  I hadn't seen the day pattern.  It does make much more sense that the station stayed on day pattern.

Now, I don't know much about the broadcast rules in Mexico, but that seems to be a very odd station.  It is XETRA 50 kW DA-2 licensed to Tijuana.  Then there is  However, there is also XETRA1, 77 kW Day, 50 kW night, also DA-2.  The city of license is the same, but the coordinates are different:

XETRA, Tijuana
32° 25' 30.00" N Latitude
117° 05' 15.00" W Longitude (NAD 27)

XETRA1, Tijuana
32°  17' 52.00" N Latitude
117° 01' 48.00" W Longitude (NAD 27)

Finally, there is a THIRD license for XETRA with a different city of license, Rosarito, but at 77 kW days like XETRA1 and those coordinates.

XETRA, Rosarito
32° 17' 52.00" N Latitude
117° 01' 48.00" W Longitude (NAD 27)

The patterns looked slightly different when I looked at them earlier.

I wonder why they have these three sets of licenses, all on 690 kHz.  I suppose they could be main, alternate main and auxillary, or something similar as used in Mexico.  All three have different Facility IDs.

The different city of license seems the weirdest to me.

--chip

http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/amq?state=&call=xetra&arn=&city=&freq=530&fre2=1700&type=0&facid=&class=&list=1&dist=&dlat2=&mlat2=&slat2=&NS=N&dlon2=&mlon2=&slon2=&EW=W&size=9

On Feb 17, 2010, at 1:08 PM, broadcast-request at radiolists.net wrote:

Message: 3
From: Dave Hultsman <DHults1043 at aol.com>

Remember on day pattern it was greater than 50 kW. across salt water from Rosorita beach to Los Angeles.   Also I seemed to recall when it was run by a company previous to yours they were known to leave it in day mode.

Dave

In a message dated 2/17/2010 7:23:32 AM Central Standard Time, richwood at pobox.com writes:
Having programmed what used to be considered a border blaster (XTRA),
not because of extreme power but because it was aimed at Los Angeles
from Mexico, Even with 50kW it still blasted. I received it clearly
in Salt Lake City. I'd hate to see the fence happen. It was one of
the most interesting jobs I've had.
Rich