It's Official: Aug 1 @ 8:40pm CFCW to 840

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It's Official: Aug 1 @ 8:40pm CFCW to 840

Postby jon » Sat Jul 11, 2015 12:04 pm

Original Subject: CFCW Rearranging Their Towers?

Hearing reports that CFCW is disappearing from the dial in some areas to the South of the transmitter coincides with the type of work that would be required to do what they are trying to do: change frequency and transmitter patterns. Without changing transmitter sites.

Not sure how much life is left in their current towers, but unless they are all being replaced, some tower moves have to be happening. On a 24/7 radio station, that means temporary adjustments to the day and night patterns to use less towers. Without reducing the protection of other stations on or near their 790 KHz frequency.

Simplest way to do that would be a pattern with no signal to the South.

Or they may already have the 840 towers in place, and are running the 840 night pattern full-time on 790.
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Re: CFCW Rearranging Their Towers?

Postby jon » Sat Jul 11, 2015 12:16 pm

Another interesting item. The FCCInfo.com site that I use for patterns shows a move of 74.5 metres for the transmitter site.

Not sure if that is a result of the rearrangement of towers or indicates a new building for the transmitter.

Either way, it is the same piece of property, as the distance from the first and fourth tower of the new 840 night pattern is about 320 metres.
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Re: CFCW Rearranging Their Towers?

Postby TRENT310 » Thu Jul 16, 2015 9:56 pm

Now that CFCW signs off at night time, this will give them their maintenance window to do the "cold work".

I've sent multiple emails to Doug Mattice and the folks at Newcap but none have been returned so far. Not sure if they're trying to be all hush-hush for competitive reasons or if they're just too busy to check email.
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Re: CFCW Rearranging Their Towers?

Postby TRENT310 » Fri Jul 17, 2015 6:33 am

This is the promo they're running on-air letting listeners know about the overnight period interruptions.

CFCW-JR-840Flip-Overnights.mp3
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Re: CFCW Rearranging Their Towers?

Postby albertaboy4life » Fri Jul 17, 2015 6:54 am

Let's hope Jackie Rae's comments, in the promo posted by TRENT310, are correct about better sound for CFCW and that she isn't just talking about an improved signal.
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Re: CFCW Rearranging Their Towers?

Postby i2thesky2 » Tue Jul 21, 2015 10:15 pm

Hey guys, I haven't posted in 5 years...

Anyways, CFCW went off air on 790 and 840 went on air monday morning between 12 and 2 AM with no audio, signal coming on and off at various strengths. Tonight, Tuesday, 840 went on after 10 PM for awhile, again no audio. Signal strength good north of Red Deer. I think the switchover might just happen tomorrow morning by the sounds of it.
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Re: CFCW Rearranging Their Towers?

Postby TRENT310 » Thu Jul 23, 2015 10:08 pm

They've been bringing up dead carrier on 840 for the last few nights since the Thursday start that JR mentioned in her blurb there. They typically return to 790 around 4:45-4:50, in time for the morning show. I am picking up higher RSSI on 840 than 790 with the same receive antenna system on my end.

Still no reply to my emails.
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Re: CFCW Rearranging Their Towers?

Postby i2thesky2 » Thu Jul 23, 2015 11:19 pm

I think the way they are doing it right now is running 790 on an omni directional pattern at 25 kw but shutting it down at 10 pm every night so the signal doesn't leak down into the US while running 840 on the other towers to test the night pattern to make sure the lobe signatures are correct before they green light the switch over. Just a guess.
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Re: CFCW Rearranging Their Towers?

Postby TRENT310 » Fri Jul 24, 2015 12:49 am

Anyone who's still up right now... 840 is modulated with sweet audio content.

I was fixing up one of my radios tonight and was pleasantly surprised to hear this right now.
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Re: CFCW Rearranging Their Towers?

Postby i2thesky2 » Fri Jul 24, 2015 7:32 am

Yeah I heard it too, the audio quality is much improved, even on 790. They no longer filter out any sound higher than 5000 hz. 630 CHED is the only AM station in Alberta with poor quality audio, even 880 CHQT sounds better these days. Now that most AM broadcasters have upgraded their gear, it's up to the manufacturers to step up their game. It would be so sweet if AM stereo made It's return.
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Re: CFCW Rearranging Their Towers?

Postby albertaboy4life » Fri Jul 24, 2015 9:12 am

Hear Hear i2thesky2 on AM Stereo returning.

But I'd say 630 CHED still sounds better than AM 700 The Light Calgary due to its low bit rate STL feed. Between outright audio drops and digital artifacts, 700 sounds terrible.

Can't wait to hear CFCW on 840. That's great that the 5 kHz filter has been turned off. I still have wide-band AM receiving equipment and hate listening to stations with flattened sound.
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Re: CFCW Rearranging Their Towers?

Postby TRENT310 » Fri Jul 24, 2015 10:03 am

That's funny, so the story is I was up late last night aligning this receiver and since the pointer needle was way off scale I needed something to center to... so I carefully shimmied it over to rest right on the 700 mark while listening to CJLI, and then made sure it also lined up to the 1000 mark listening to KOMO. Then I gave the knob a flick the other way and heard CFCW, still IDing as 790, at 840 on the dial and I was like what the heck did it slide off AGAIN?

These old "Hi-Fi" receivers of the 70s/80s have great tuners. Plus, very easily serviceable. I love how they had text labels for pots and inductors, and the traces on the other side were silkscreened on the top side as well. Meanwhile, I also have one of those brand new, 7.1 DTS, HDMI everything receivers and the AM tuner in that thing is the worst, if you can pick out any signal from the tons of internal noise it generates. I'm disappointed to see the AM tuner is basically an after thought these days. Onkyo actually was the hold out for AM Stereo, offering that feature in their products well into the 2000s. Sadly, most of them never ever had a chance to receive anything that would trip the light.

Speaking of lights, I guess I'm off to try to find a 6.3 volt dial light and some super glue to put that knob cover back on.

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Re: CFCW Rearranging Their Towers?

Postby TRENT310 » Mon Jul 27, 2015 8:08 am

The formal announcement was made today.

August 1, 2015 8:40 PM

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Re: It's Official: Aug 1 @ 8:40pm CFCW to 840

Postby jon » Mon Jul 27, 2015 9:32 am

It will be interesting to see if they run on 790 for the permitted 3 month period. And, if so, how they do it: using lower power non-directional on a tower not needed for the 840 pattern, or running the 840 directional patterns on 790 by running both frequencies on the same towers.

I have not read of anyone reporting them testing on both frequencies at once, so I suspect it will be "Cold Turkey": off 790 and on 840.
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Re: It's Official: Aug 1 @ 8:40pm CFCW to 840

Postby TRENT310 » Mon Jul 27, 2015 1:02 pm

jon wrote:It will be interesting to see if they run on 790 for the permitted 3 month period. And, if so, how they do it: using lower power non-directional on a tower not needed for the 840 pattern, or running the 840 directional patterns on 790 by running both frequencies on the same towers.

I have not read of anyone reporting them testing on both frequencies at once, so I suspect it will be "Cold Turkey": off 790 and on 840.


All signs point to this being a flip, not a parallel overlap. They will be publicizing the flip at BVJ being a high profile event for the audience so any listeners who aren't aware, really haven't been listening for the past 7 months anyway. Even most AM to FM flips do not use their allowable overlap period even though it would be even easier from a technical standpoint. Based on the improved audio quality on 790, it would seem they are running on their new equipment already but at the current frequency at reduced efficiency.

I'll try my best to be at the Highway 21/13 site on the day of the switch over. I mean, when was the last time we saw something like this? Was it CHQT moving from 1110 to 880 that was the last AM station to move on the dial around the Edmonton area?
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