[BC] Noise Floor...

[Cowboy]

On Saturday 18 February 2006 18:01, Jerry Mathis wrote:

> > I don't think the reality of today's AM broadcasting has set in with most
> people. The majority of new buildings going up today are made with STEEL
> beams, where they used to use 2X4's. These buildings TOTALLY block broadcast
> band (~1MHz) signals. IBOC, full digital, or no, AM band reception is only
> going to get worse.
> 
> I once worked for a 1KW AM on 1450. We did election coverage one year at
> their new Election Central, a brand new building with the afore-mentioned
> construction. This building was less than 2 miles from our tower. We could
> not receive the station's signal inside this building AT ALL.  In order to
> hear the station and get cues, I had to set up a radio outside, and run a
> wire into the building (big mess, lots of people, had to tape down the wire,
> etc. etc.) This was 6 years ago. It's only gotten worse since then.

 In the context of general public reception, this doesn't help, but....

 I've run into this myself, where the station signal would not penetrate the
 studio building. ( new, steel construction )
 ZERO signal in the studios.
 Ran around the building with a FIM for about a half day, and found a 
 point in the building where the building steel resonated.
 Put the monitor antenna right THERE !
 ( happened to be in the ceiling above the GM's office, and horizontal )
 Got 5 volts into the monitor from a .25mv incident signal as measured
 in the parking lot.

 Of course, the "old school" engineer decided "That'll never work" and
 relocated my loop to the roof. Gotta be outside, you know.
 Of course, that really didn't work. ( but it was prettier, and more
 politicly acceptable to him )

 So, next time you need coverage inside that building, a little
 creative detective work can serve you well.

-- 
Cowboy

http://cowboys.homeip.net

System checkpoint complete.