[BC] FM Stereo Question

[Mike McCarthy]

I see nothing wrong with shutting the pilot off for mono content. We do it
for our talk programming during the day. We then flip stereo back on at
night when we play music. I would however NOT mess with the pilot
injection level. Leave it at 9%. The problem is not with the pilot level.

I would look at terrain shielding as a possible problem IF the problem
persists with the pilot off and there are hills between your site and the
area of interest. I would also verify the AM noise is better than 50dB if
you are a music station.

There are MANY more things to look at beyond these two.  But I would start
here and then work through resolving any transmission based issues first.

MM

> I'm trying to maximize my newly acquired 2500 watt FM station.  The good
> news is it is on a 495 foot tower. The bad news is it's no flame-thrower
> and the 60 dbu contour goes right through a town that I consider essential
> to the financial health of the station.  On some radios, it is no problem.
> On others the signal it is quite noisy, or even nonexistent.  I'm sure
> that there is nothing I can do to help the $11.96 drug store radios, but
> for folks with decent stereos, I'd like to have as good a signal as
> possible.
>
> I'm considering taking the station mono to see if that helps, but before I
> do that, I'm wondering if experimenting with the 19 kHz pilot level would
> make much difference? Right now it is at 9%.  I'm pretty sure lowering it
> would make things nosier, but how about increasing it to 10% (which I
> think it the edge of "legal")?
>
> Has anybody experimented with this?  I realize that I'd sacrifice a little
> loudness for the increased pilot level.  >
> Any suggestions are appreciated.
>
> TIA
>
> Chuck Conrad
> KZQX Radio
> www.kzqx.com
>
>