Finally, some good news regarding AM radio

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

I wish some of these "Bible-Beater" stations down here would go back to music. Every one of 'em is an "old-timey" full gospel station, which means they scream & shout, & are about as subtle in their message as Little Boy was w/Hiroshima. Furthermore, if all THAT wasn't bad enuff, their chief engineer at most of them must be someone who knows nothing about modulation or broadcasting-Just turn 'er up as loud as she'll go.Gotta get The Word out there to all them there now Heatherns...

There is a small AM station about five miles from my apartment that is something like the "Bible-beater" stations in your area. Fortunately, it's not too powerful (1kW days, 0.5kW nights) and I am far enough away from its towers that it doesn't take over my radios at any time, although the signal is strong enough during the day that it shows up at two points on the digital tuner in my stereo system--560 and 1460 kHz, the latter being the station's FCC-assigned carrier frequency. As far as the station's programming is concerned, as I said, it is a 24/7 religious black gospel station that will stop at nothing to get its message out--including running the modulation level to 110 percent. No kidding--sometimes (make that most of the time) the modulation is so high the signal is terribly distorted as well. I thought there were limits as to the maximum modulation level allowed for AM radio; if there are, the stations where you are and the little one near me, in addition to countless other such stations in small towns and even suburbs of important cities that don't seem to care how they sound (as long as they are loud), should have been either cited for overmodulation or put off the air entirely, as their apparent disregard for their sound quality, let alone FCC rules, is appalling. IMO, it gives AM radio a heck of a bad name. Thank goodness for stations such as Toronto's CHWO AM 740, which still plays decent music and whose engineers know something about transmitting quality AM signals.