Part Four

“Good Day, Sunshine”

Day 4 begins with yet another spectacular morning. Out for a walk at 8:15am CDT and it feels about 10 degrees warmer than it did on Monday morning. A very low breeze and not a cloud to be seen. As the Beatles’ song from 1966 proclaims, it is a good day and we have LOTS of sunshine. 

My “office” for the day is located in Darr, Nebraska. I am on Packing Plant Road (as listed on the nearby signal bungalow) or Road 426 at the intersection of U.S. Route 30. I have myself a lovely view outside:

And I have a nice yellow shade tree to park the rental car under:

It is 80 degrees with scattered cirrus all around.

Today’s travel is about railroading and radio broadcasting. Yes I know, I am on vacation, but as much as I am fascinated with trains, my other passion is radio, both amateur and professional.  And I find it quite amazing as to how well radio waves travel out here on the prairie.

Broadcast radio is made up of FM, AM and shortwave stations.  For this article, we will concentrate on FM and AM.  On the FM side, you need a fairly tall tower to put your antenna on top of to get the signal out. One of those towers is located in Holdrege, Nebraska:

The tower you see belongs to NET, Nebraska Educational Telecommunications. On top of the tower is KLNE-TV, digital channel 26, and below it is a 12-bay FM antenna belonging to KLNE-FM at 88.7 on your FM dial.

 Both stations are licensed to the city of Lexington, Nebraska.  As you can see from the map, courtesy of our friends at Radio-Locator.Com, KLNE-FM has quite the reach with an effective radiated power of 60,000 watts:

 

Now in contrast, AM coverage can be the same but that depends on where you live in the U.S. Some help from the folks at Wikipedia.Com.

AM radio signals act differently during daytime and nighttime. During the day, AM signals travel by ground wave, following the curvature of the earth over a distance up to a few hundred miles from the transmitter site depending on its power output, its physical location, and the conductivity of the ground the antenna is set upon. For example, WNEZ is a local AM station in Manchester, Connecticut broadcasting on 1230 kilohertz with a power output of 1000 watts. Below is its antenna pattern:

 

Then you have KGFW at 1340 on the AM dial in Kearney, Nebraska with the same power output. Below is its antenna pattern:

 

And their tower on the west side of Kearney:

Because of all of the closeness of buildings and suburbia in Connecticut, the WNEZ’s local signal is good for about 5 miles out with its distant signal being good for about 15 miles out.

But because you have no suburbia clutter out here and considering the flatness of the land out here in Nebraska, KGFW’s local signal is good for about 25 miles with its distant signal being good for almost 60 miles.

And if you are KRVN of Lexington, Nebraska running 50,000 watts output, your local signal is good for about 70 miles with your distant signal good for about 140 miles.

Now that’s for the daytime. However, after sunset, changes in the ionosphere, about 200 miles up, cause AM signals to travel by sky wave, enabling radio stations to be heard much farther from their point of origin than is normal during the day. This phenomenon can be easily observed by scanning the AM radio dial at night. As a result, many broadcast stations are required as a condition of their license to reduce their broadcasting power significantly (or use directional antennas) after sunset, or even to suspend broadcasting entirely during nighttime hours. Such stations are commonly referred to as daytimers.

This brings us back to KRVN, which uses a directional antenna at its transmitter site in Holdrege, Nebraska:

During the daytime, KRVN broadcasts on 880 kilohertz with 50,000 watts from its #3 tower. But at local sunset, KRVN must beam its signal to the west to protect co-channel station WCBS in New York, New York. WCBS is a class 1A station on 880 kilohertz meaning it has the authority to broadcast with an omni-directional signal, day and night. KRVN is a class 1B station and must protect WCBS. So at local sunset, a pattern change occurs and KRVN beams its signal to the west. See the charts below for the difference in its daytime and nighttime signals:

 

 

During the day, KRVN pretty much covers all of Nebraska. But at sunset, it’s a whole different story. Just before 7pm in Columbus, Nebraska this past Saturday evening, I was listening to KRVN at 7pm. A few seconds later, KRVN did its pattern change. What was just a fairly strong signal suddenly disappeared. KRVN was still on the air; it was just doing its job protecting WCBS. But when the sunrise comes up the next day, KRVN will throw the switch at 8am CDT and go back to its full omnidirectional pattern.  The late Bob Steele of Hartford’s [CT] own WTIC-AM 1080 would be very happy to hear the “antenna switch” as he used to call it.

After lunch, I stopped by KRVN to revisit KRVN’s chief engineer, Rod Ziegler, who just happens to be a ham radio operator with the call sign W0RVZ. We talk about the weather and how things have been affected by this past summer’s drought. Although the middle two thirds of the state has been enduring extreme drought, there are a number of farmlands that have been lucky to have irrigation courtesy of the Ogallala Aquifer that most of Nebraska just happens to be built on. I also mentioned to him that when I was here in 2010, there was a new program director who wanted to make changes to KRVN’s programming and make it more mainstream and to cut back on some of its farming agenda. Well it appears that those in the farming community spoke up and to quote Rod, there were some “personnel” changes. KRVN still does its farming programming as it has done in the past and is doing quite well in the ratings. As Rod said to me, “Why fix something if it ain’t broke??” Good advice if you ask me. Good for KRVN.

 

And did I mention railroading?? As I was heading to Lexington, I caught up with his double stack train, as seen in the rental car’s rear view mirror:

At the head end are five locomotives. The first unit is made by GE; the second made by EMC of GM; and the last three made by GE. You have a total of 21,600 horsepower pulling about a mile and a half of train. And for the record, they are UP 7969, UP 4486, UP 7982, UP 7996 and UP 7982. 

 

Luckily for me, traffic was light and I was able to pace the lead unit. Loud chugging can be heard from the GE s while a constant whine could be heard from the GM. For about 10-15 minutes, it was me and the double stack. And the prime movers beneath the hoods sounded amazing.

True train chasing as one railfan can get. "Poetry in motion" to quote the late editor of TRAINS Magazine, David P. Morgan.

  

Well, it seems our abundant sunshine has segued into almost total overcast. Still 80 degrees but the winds are slowly picking up. Kite flying might be in order for tomorrow. But you might want to use some industrial strength string.

Anyway, another day has come and gone. We’ll see what Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney have to say at tonight’s town meeting. And we’ll be back on the road on Wednesday with our next stop in North Platte.

And we conclude today’s entry with a small blast, no pun intended, from my past. As I usually do when staying in Cozad, I stop by the local Pizza Hut for my salad bar and individual sausage pizza. As I was enjoying my pizza, I heard one very loud “BRAP” from across the dining room. Seems some young person, whose identity will be protected, had a very loud burp. And as I looked towards that person, their older sibling was laughing their head off. I can remember way back when of a certain person, whose identity will be protected, that did the same thing in my presence. Again, no names here. But it brought such a beaming smile to my face.

God, I love Nebraska.

I’m Philip J Zocco. On The Road. In Cozad, Nebraska.