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Re: [TowerTalk] Field Strength comparison

To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Field Strength comparison
From: Jim Brown <jim@audiosystemsgroup.com>
Reply-to: jim@audiosystemsgroup.com
Date: Sun, 5 Sep 2021 13:21:19 -0700
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
On 9/5/2021 6:31 AM, Joe Subich, W4TV wrote:
If one takes a lesson from the FCC/broadcast "proof of performance"
measurements, they measure field strength at one kilometer (one
mile?).  That (1 km) works out to be 2 wavelengths at the lowest
frequency in the broadcast band and 6 wavelengths at what used to
be the top of the band.

As a young EE student, I worked in the consulting office of Pete Johnson, who with Carl Smith (who also ran CREI), wrote the FCC's AM technical Rules after WWII. Pete's practice was designing arrays to fit new stations into a band that had been full for 25 years. Some weekends were sitting with other EE students with slide rules, Bessel tables, and 25 column accounting spreadsheets computing patterns for a design, every 5 degrees of Az and 5 degrees of elevation. During the week, I would compute and plot on aero maps the resulting ground wave contours using the graphics and conductivity contours in the Rules, with different graphics every 5-10 channels. (Wavelength in the AM band varies by more than 3:1.) In those days (early '60s), field strength was referenced at a mile. km was simply a shift to the metric system.

73, Jim K9YC


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