The Station's Late Nite Princess -chapter 02

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Chapter 2 of
 
  The Station's
 Late Nite
  Princess

 

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Interesting

But FM has no 'skip' and is mainly line of sight. FM is pretty much limited by antenna height but the waves themselves don't bounce off of the ionosphere. AM I know does as you can DX from stations a very long way off. As an example, during the Vietnam War the troops in Vietnam were able to receive WABC in NYC.

Anyway, FM will bounce off of buildings and cause reception difficulties (due to multi-path reception) so there is some 'bounce' but it can never do true long distance.

At that point in the

At that point in the conversation he wasn't talking about FM but the radio waves in general.

I'm told STFU more times in a day than most people get told in a lifetime

actually

Alecia Snowfall's picture

actually, you're wrong. I listened to a radio station over two hundred miles away from where I was. The weather was strange that day and the strength of the station was only fifty thousand watts. and yes, it was an FM station.

quidquid sum ego, et omnia mea semper; Ego me.
alecia Snowfall

FM 'skip'

AM skip is common but FM skip is not unheard of. I listened to an FM station that was over 2000 miles away(in New Zealand across the 'pond'). AM being a lower frequency is more affect by atmospherics(causing skip) where FM being a higher frequency tends to go straight through.

Joanna

Of course it's possible

But how reliable is that?

If I were to guess, the ionosphere must've been under just the right conditions for that to happen whereas AM skip is relatively reliable. I live in the DC area and I can listen WCBS 880 AM pretty easily even on a car radio as long as no other station is stronger then it at the time.

The possible idea here is that she might get a wider audience due to a 'skip', but that aint gonna happen. More realistically, she might get a wider audience via web streamed radio. I can listen to Hong Kong streaming stations which is very neat.

Perhaps more importantly.....

D. Eden's picture

Radio waves can actually be bent by proper use of the ionosphere. This was actually utilized by the US to monitor Soviet planes and missiles in Alaska. By bending,radar waves around the curvature of the earth, they were able to "see" over the horizon. Of course, this was made obsolete by satellites, but it did in fact work.

The same process was used to communicate over the horizon as well.

Also, radio waves act differently close to south pole. I don't recall the cause, but the US Navy discovered the effect prior to WWII. Special radios had to be designed and built for use in the South Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The working concept was discovered by accident by a ham radio operator in the US.

D. Eden

Dum Vivimus, Vivamus

Looked it up

And OTH radar does not violate what I said.

OTH radar has a maximum frequency of 30MHz which is a lot lower than the FM band.

FM skip is possible but not particularly reliable so in general, that is not something that can be relied upon.

Not quite true. Skip is a lot

Not quite true. Skip is a lot less common at around 100 MHz where FM radio works than at around 1 MHz where AM radio mostly operates but still happens.

Read the first two chapters

sugar_britches63's picture

I have read the first two chapters Lady Snowfall and was instantly hooked much like what happened to me with Frills. I am surprised that Marty has not made a connection yet. I see Don/Dawn doing many things that a daughter might do but many sons. I hope that Dawn can come out and play soon, as in at the radio station as a fill in DJ due to someone either leaving or getting sick and finding a young hip audience that helps make the station a big success and also getting her dream of voice over.

opinor ergo sum

Charlotte Van Goethem

Wonderful

GypsyWoman's picture

Another hit I am sure. More please!

Kat H

What he said about CB radio

What he said about CB radio is true for sure. Being an OTR truck driver, I was in Idaho about 20 years ago and was talking to Birmingham Al, and he sounded like he was right next to me

Really think that dawn needs

Really think that dawn needs to tell her dad soon. Still a interesting story.

Little by little the story is

Little by little the story is coming together towards what we can assume will happen(the late night gig) but like so many of your other works the story is about the journey not the destination and it looks like Dawn and Don are starting on the journey little by little.

A new job, a need to develop his female voice for his dream job, an ally who is looking out for Don, and a father who is accommodating and understanding...things are heating up!

I'm told STFU more times in a day than most people get told in a lifetime

getting there

Alecia Snowfall's picture

getting there is half the fun....just ask people that jump out of perfectly good aircraft. *giggles like a maniac*

quidquid sum ego, et omnia mea semper; Ego me.
alecia Snowfall

Digging This

Got a sweet flow. Tanks
ed


ed

Dont know much about US radio

Dont know much about US radio apart from the song WOLD .I like radio 4 radio 2 .This is a good story .I ,love the gay guy REN kicking meatheads round the park like a football.You do a good story

I'm really enjoying this

I'm really enjoying this story and looking forward to how Dawn gets a job as DJ (my guess as to what's going to happen) but I also really wish I could read Ren's story, especially about his life in Japan.

very nice

2nd chapter I love how the story is starting out and get the feeling that Don/Dawn is going to be yet another fantastic character.
I also get a small feeling that dad has a few worries about Don but is unsure about what they are exactly.
Ren is also another nice character and I have a felling that he is also going to be a further big help maybe with out realising it.
Looking forwards to seeing how this story develops cause I know that Snowfall will have a few suprises for us avid readers.

Matt

I can remember while

I can remember while stationed in Amarillo, TX (1960-1962) listening to radio stations that were at extreme distances from our base. One was located in Del Rio, TX way down on the American-Mexican border, south 454 miles from our base.
The other was a station (WLS) located in Chicago, IL, 1049 miles Northeast from Amarillo.
We could only pick them up at nighttime, and that, for us started around 2300 hrs (11 pm), when local and other nearby stations, operating on 50,000 watt transmitters started dropping off the air for the night, clearing up the airways.
Both stations claimed they were operating on 100,000 watt transmitters.
When I as living in Tacoma, WA in the 1990s; I was also able to pick up 850AM (KNBR) radio station out of San Francisco, again at night only, This is around 770 miles north of SF and has the radio waves going over the top of the Siskiyou mountains which are between Northern California and Oregon.

For the Record...

KNBR San Francisco is at 680 AM. Since it broadcasts the San Francisco Giants, its slogan in the 80s or 90s was "you're in the Giant reach of KNBR", and its postgame sports talk show regularly included listeners who at least claimed to be phoning from just about everywhere west of the Rockies. (It has an even more far-flung audience now, but that's because of the Internet.)

In the West, 850 is KOA, a Denver area station that covers the Broncos of the NFL. (860 in the San Francisco area is KTRB, which like the others here broadcasts 50,000 watts during the day, but is required to scale back to 5000 watts at night -- further than the others.)

Eric

FWIW

Back in the mid-seventies WLS was a clear channel station. Clear channel stations operated on a frequency that could blast out and cover a swath of the country. Any other station on that frequency ceased operations at sundown so the big guns could operate without any interfence. There was one of those stations nearby me, KVOO. 1170 was their frequency as I recall. There was one down in Louisiana, but it was iffy.

Awhile back the FCC decided these stations were no longer needed. The former CC stations had to cut their power way down.

And after all of that I'll address the main issue here. I have talked to another ham in Arkansas on two meters. Each spring and fall the frequencies we used (144mhz and up) an operator could key up our repeater like he was at the base of the tower. Now, the FM broadcast frequencies end at 108mhz. So yes, they could be reliably factor in some short skip. Ground skip can help also.

There are hams that keep an FM radio tuned to the top of the band. When it starts opening up they will go to work trying to get as distant as possible.

Antenna structure can also shape the signal path. But I'm not going to get into that, no way! Here endeth the lesson of the day


"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin

In the late 60's, I was in

In the late 60's, I was in high school in south central Arkansas. Around 8:00 every night WLS AM in Chicago would up their transmitter to 50 kwatts. It came in clear as a bell. I used to shiver in the winter when listening to the DJ talk about the weather in "WLS, Chicago, the Windy City." It seemed a bit exotic to live in a southern rural community and listen to a Chicago radio station at night.

_Bev_

To paraphase one of BC's

To paraphrase one of BC's readers,"good"

Hugs,
Karen

A new DJ?

Jamie Lee's picture

What luck Don getting a car. Unless he gets snowed in, weather will no longer be a problem. As will putting up with any nonsense on the school bus. Seems strange there aren't any security cameras in the school parking lot, so both Ren and Don don't have to park at the mall. Don't fancy the mall likes the idea.

Let's see, Don is taking an AV class, he's able to do several different voices, and he's looked into a job at the new radio station. Eye spy a DJ leaving the owner in a lurch by leaving. What's the owner to do? He needs another DJ. Perhaps he hears Don do one of his voices, or Don gets playful and answers with one of his voices. However it happens, the owner sees Don as a replacement DJ using one of his voices. The sultry one.

And my question from the first chapter comments gets answered. Ren knows more about fighting than the thugs roaming the high school. But when the wrestling coach jumped in, didn't that leave the school open to a lawsuit for a teacher attacking a student? And that coaches' dismissal? Anyway, Ren sent a message no one could miss. Thanks to the goon squad.

Others have feelings too.

Very Engrossing

waif's picture

So far, I am hooked.

:-)

Be kind to those who are unkind, tolerant toward those who treat you with intolerance, loving to those who withhold their love, and always smile through the pains of life.

Foley

TheCropredyKid's picture

Radio-era sound FX was really wild - my two favourite were both (i think) for "Inner Sanctum".

One episode featured some sort of macabre supernatural menace, and the line "Oh my ghod - it's turning him INSIDE OUT!" - for which the soundman got a motorcycle inner tube, cut it to make a long straight rubber tube, ran a rope down the middle and tied it to the far end. With a little water sprinkled on the rubber, it did, indeed, make a properly horrific sound to match the mental image.

The other (which, now i come to think, may have been on "I Love a Mystery") featured an episode set in a system of caves - and at one point, the Good Guys have to cross a large cavern where thousands of giant spiders are basically covering the floor. The sound men went out and bought something like twenty pounds of seedless green grapes, put them in a big tray on the floor, and ...* splortch * *splot * *splotch * ...

 
 
 
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I like the breadth of this.

I'm getting a bit of several great stories in this from Zapped by Bob Arnold to Danny by Roberta J. Cabot two really great writers to look up and aspire towards.

*Great Big Hugs*

Bailey Summers