[IRCA] WTMC-1380 Delaware Wackiness

["David Hochfelder" <xxmugginsxx@xxxxxxxxx>]

John,

I've done the drive from central NJ to Washington/Baltimore a few times, and
WTMC gets out quite a way up the NJ Turnpike during the day.  I tried for
them at night from home with no luck so far.

Dave
Highland Park, NJ


Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2006 18:59:33 -0700 (PDT)
> From: John Cereghin <pastor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [IRCA] WTMC-1380 Delaware Wackiness
> To: Mailing list for the International Radio Club of America
>         <irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Message-ID: <20060926015933.29562.qmail@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
>
> The Delaware Department of Transportation runs WTMC-1380 in Wilmington
> with a listed 520 watts day and 10 watts at night.  It's basically a
> glorified TIS, running traffic and public safety ads all day.  It puts a
> good signal into Central Delaware during the day.  They also announce a
> transmitter on 1380 in Rehoboth Beach which is a true 10-watt TIS.  I've not
> heard the Rehoboth station.
>
> Today, at lunch (I work just south of Dover, in Camden DE), I tuned into
> 1380 and heard two different signals from WTMC that were out of sync.  There
> was a VERY strong version with another, much weaker version of WTMC's audio
> underneath.  I was hearing two different WTMC audios.  I immediately thought
> I had the Rehoboth TIS as the weaker station under the much stronger
> Wilmington transmitter, but I realized that the dominant signal was very
> strong, almost too strong for a 500-watt station at 40 miles in
> Wilmington.  I doubted I was hearing both the Wilmington and Rehoboth
> stations dueling it out on 1380.
>
> A quick check of the FCC database shows another Delaware DOT TIS on 1380
> in Dover, probably at the DelDOT yard in south Dover, WQSF238 with 10
> watts.  Was DelDOT running another signal on 1380 from Dover?  They aren't
> announcing it.  They announce transmitters in Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach,
> but they do not mention any station in Dover.  But I think DelDOT is running
> a third transmitter on 1380 as what I'm hearing is too strong to be the
> Wilmington station, and certainly way too strong to be the Rehoboth TIS.  On
> the way home from work, I listened to 1380 through Dover and DelDOT was very
> strong but the signal was much weaker by the time I got to north Dover,
> showing that the dominant station I was listening to in the Dover area was
> low powered.
>
> I think now that DelDOT is running 3 stations on 1380.  WTMC, the main
> station in Wilmington, the 10-watt TIS in Rehoboth, WPQK925 and a 10-watt
> TIS in Dover.  If so, they are not running in sync, at least the Dover and
> Wilmington stations aren't.
>
> The long and the short of it is I think I have a new station in my log-
> #501.  :)
>
> John Cereghin
> Smyrna DE
>
>
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