KLO 1430 Weak Nighttime Signal

[Terry]

For about the past week KLO has been so weak at night that I can't actually listen to their programming. They are on the air, but so weak that by turning my radio I can easily hear a much stronger signal from a station in Denver playing some old, slow music. KLO has always been weak, but they are now suddenly unlistenable at night, at least here on the east side of the Salt Lake valley.

[CAwasinNJ]

That's interesting. The Denver station (KEZW) looks like it should have a pretty significant null toward Salt Lake. They're only supposed to run 5kw at night anyway. I wonder if there's something wrong with their array and that's flooding out KLO. KLO is also only supposed to run 5kw at night too.

What I *can* tell you that KLO sounds fine from the listening post in Central Davis. Of course I'm much closer to the transmitter, so that may not be of a lot of use.

[David]

I've noticed the same weakness in KLO's night time signal lately, and I'm in the north part of Ogden. Last week I was tuning across the AM band with an Alinco communications receiver and a home brew indoor antenna, and KLO's signal was wavering between 2 and 3 S units. That's very odd, because KLO usually booms in here at night anywhere between 7 and 9 S units. I think CA is correct in saying that something is wrong with the station's antenna array, because KLO's night time signal seems to get weaker as the distance from their transmitter increases.

[Terry]

I just took a look at KLO's Facebook page and someone has posted this:

"For some reason, the reception of 1430AM has deminished signifacantly. I work on Hill, and can barely receive this radio station. It's like another station is bleeding over. Do you have an FM station I can tune to?"

[seattlefollower]

Mike, I apologize for the inconvenience. We are aware of our overnight transmission problems and are working to correct them as quickly as possible. The signal clears up at about 6:30 every morning and we should have the overnight fixed very soon. Thanks for sticking with us and listening to KLO!
We are working on the problem and should have it repaired soon.

[CAwasinNJ]

Maybe very soon. I was monitoring 1430 heading north out of Salt Lake tonight and it was a mishmash of garbage. KLO wasn't there at all. At 8:23 as I was heading past the Legacy split from I-215 the signal popped in completely clear. I doubt there's a razor thin null that ends right there, so I'm guessing they turned the transmitter on. (No legal ID though.) After that I could only stand listening to the......unique individual that called in to the Prager show. You weren't missing much if you didn't get to hear THAT.

How is the signal near you now?

[Terry]

At the moment, 10:53 PM, they are completely off the air. Neil Diamond is coming through nicely from Denver though.

[David]

Almost 1:00 AM now and I'm hearing nothing but the soothing big band/nostalgia sounds of KEZW in the north end of Ogden, which certainly beats listening to the unique individual who phoned into Dennis Prager's show. :-) With KLO absent from 1430 and KEZW dominating the frequency, it reminds me of the nights when I used to drift off to sleep listening to the station on 1020 AM in Roswell (a/k/a "alien city") before they dumped their nostalgia format for classic country. Good times, indeed!

[David]

KLO's nighttime signal is back to full strength now--they are booming in at my location at about 20 db over S9. I was listening to Mike Gallagher's show on my truck's radio on the way home from work this morning and caught an entertaining monologue about going to the movies alone. Too bad I can only hear KEZW online now, though.

[Terry]

KLO was still off the air last night.

[David]

Aug 9, 2014 12:28:08 GMT -6 Terry said:

KLO was still off the air last night.

Apparently KLO is still having some technical difficulties with their nighttime signal. The station was full strength Thursday night/early Friday morning, but when I turned on the radio in my truck after work Friday the signal was really weak again, and tonight KLO is being almost totally obliterated by KEZW. The signal strength on Friday improved significantly when I was driving south, but as soon as I turned towards the east KLO's signal was gone. I wonder if they're having problems with the equipment that switches the direction of the antenna array once the sun goes down?

[CAwasinNJ]

AM receiver antennas are highly directional, so changing the orientation will have an impact on reception. A car radio should have multiple antennas to compensate for that, but car radio AM sections are so cheap these days they may not have bothered. (That's a whole different rant we could get into in another thread if anyone wants to.)

I'm not very good at reading the pattern plot graphs from the FCC, but they do use 4 towers in a directional array both day and night. It looks to me like the patterns themselves are similar or the same but the power levels on each tower change. Anybody who's better at reading those things than me please chime in.

[David]

"AM receiver antennas are highly directional, so changing the orientation will have an impact on reception. A car radio should have multiple antennas to compensate for that, but car radio AM sections are so cheap these days they may not have bothered."

That's one of the reasons I don't own any vehicles that are less than five years old: these days, AM/FM radios in new cars seem to be an afterthought, as most of the new breed of engineers assume that people prefer to listen to music on an MP3 player or iPod in 2014. The AC Delco AM/FM radio in my '93 GMC Sierra has great AM reception and decent sound with four speakers, and the AM receiver even receives AM stereo stations (if there are any of those left in the Western states).

[Terry]

At 8:30PM KLO just disappears. Now I'm hearing some Asian language on 1430, maybe Chinese.

[dxstuboy]

Asian on 1430 is probably one of the two Asian stations in California, likely the northern one (KVVN-AM).