How Close Are FM's Being Placed These Days?

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How Close Are FM's Being Placed These Days?

Postby jon » Sat Jul 26, 2014 9:49 am

albertaboy4life wrote:How long until someone takes a run at 100.3, the "last" frequency available in Calgary?

What, and deprive Calgarians of a chance to occasionally listen to The Bear?

Given the distance and terrain between Edmonton and Calgary, just what would Industry Canada approve these days, in terms of both cities with a station on the same frequency? CFBR-FM, originally CFRN-FM, is one of the original three FM stations here, all of which signed on in 1948. It currently runs 100,000 watts non-directional.

Are we now at the point where a Calgary FM might be licensed with its own 100KW non-directional signal on the same frequency?
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Re: How Close Are FM's Being Placed These Days?

Postby jon » Sat Jul 26, 2014 10:49 am

Beyond my facetious comment about Calgarians listening to Edmonton FM stations, the real issue is how large a coverage area do major market FM stations expect these days? And what are Industry Canada's expectations in terms of interference levels and frequency (skip conditions, etc.) at what distance over what kind of terrain.

I'm sure that no Edmonton station is arguing about a good clean signal into Red Deer. Although the distance is the same to Calgary as Edmonton, from Red Deer, the terrain is a lot more FM-friendly to Calgary, so there may indeed be Red Deer listeners to Calgary stations these days; I know there used to be 30 years ago.

I think the real question for 100KW Edmonton FM stations is what kind of interference they will get, and how often, in places like Drayton Valley and even Camrose, if a 100KW non-directional station is licensed for the same frequency in Calgary.
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Re: How Close Are FM's Being Placed These Days?

Postby Mike Cleaver » Sat Jul 26, 2014 8:45 pm

Effective FM range, given that it's line of sight transmission is limited by the earth's curvature to about 75 miles.
That's regardless of transmitter power.
If the receiving antenna can "see" the transmitting antenna, you'll get a useable signal, just weaker as you move towards the cut off zone.
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