[BC] nominations for best sounding AM in your area?

[Dana Puopolo]

Here in Los Angeles there really aren't any good sounding AMs, though a few
from Mexico get into here and some of them sound pretty good. KGO comes in
here at night from San Francisco and they sound pretty good. In Boston, WJIB
would be my choice. Bob Bittner plays records and CD's carefully recorded into
his automation as WAV files. The automation runs into a BE 8S-150 console then
directly into an Orban 9100B Optimod conservatively set up. His STL is two
pieces of Belden 8451 into the next room. His transmitter is a 400 watt Nautel
unit which runs factory equipped C-Quam AM stereo.  He has a single self
supporting tower that's about 20 feet at its base. I believe the tower is 285
feet. 

The last time I did a base measurement, I took things out +/- 30 kHz and it
was fairly flat and symmetrical. The resistence was low (IIRC, around 15
ohms-which makes sense for a short tower at his frequency (740). He uses a T
to match things-though a 3.5:1 ferrite core transformer would probably be
almost ideal-and easy to make/wind at his 250 watt power level. He's also
running about 250 feet of RG-8 for his transmission line, which helps to give
the transmitter a flatter load (the loss in the coax makes the transmitter
happier by serving as a swamper). Since it's insulated and runs along the roof
(where his ground plane is), it probably also serves as a ground radial.

All in all a pretty good setup-and his dial position makes him one of the
better coverage 250 watters out there too.

-D 

From: Timothy West <n3drb at comcast.net>

curious:

what's the best sounding AM you've personally heard? not the loudest,  
not the most coverage, but the best sounding , an AM so good if you  
closed your eyes you'd swear you were listening to a FM mono signal  
when heard through a good receiver?