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Could A Buffalo HD At 99.5 Be Interfered With By One From Kitchener?
What happens when one digital HD signal overtakes another, even though it's from another market? It's just one of the things that happened last December to WDCX-FM in Buffalo, when its HD signal went down - only to be replaced by a Canadian signal.
(It's not specifically mentioned in the article, but the illustration identifies the offending intruder as CIKZ-FM from Kitchener. But WDCX is at 99.5, while the Kitchener station is at 106.7. I'm not an engineer, but how do stations so far apart on the dial interfere with one another? Wouldn't it be more likely to have been 99.9 CKFM from Toronto? Anyway, here's the story.)
An Unintended Consequence Of Digital Radio
- RadioAaron
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Re: Could A Buffalo HD At 99.5 Be Interfered With By One From Kitchener?
The actual intruder was CKKW 99.5. (CIKZ originally launched at 99.5, hence the mixup)
This HD takeover is the only reason CKKW is in HD in the first place. When WDCX was HD and CKKW wasn't, the Buffalo signal often overrode the KW one. CKKW fixed the situation by themselves going HD.
- citats
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Re: Could A Buffalo HD At 99.5 Be Interfered With By One From Kitchener?
This actually happens all the time the other way around with WDCX HD and their analog signal being received by CKKW listeners. Not to say it doesn't happen to WDCX however I am only privy to the reverse occurrences. The periodic take overs are caused by "Tropospheric Ducting".
We use this site to get a TD forecast especially in the warmer months.
- Fitz
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Re: Could A Buffalo HD At 99.5 Be Interfered With By One From Kitchener?
citats wrote:
This actually happens all the time the other way around with WDCX HD and their analog signal being received by CKKW listeners. Not to say it doesn't happen to WDCX however I am only privy to the reverse occurrences. The periodic take overs are caused by "Tropospheric Ducting".
We use this site to get a TD forecast especially in the warmer months.
I had this happen about two years ago during a tropo. 107.7 from Buffalo was coming in and their HD 2 got taken over by a Syracuse station but the main channel remained the Buffalo one.
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- zed
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Re: Could A Buffalo HD At 99.5 Be Interfered With By One From Kitchener?
The actual intruder was CKKW 99.5. (CIKZ originally launched at 99.5, hence the mixup)
This HD takeover is the only reason CKKW is in HD in the first place. When WDCX was HD and CKKW wasn't, the Buffalo signal often overrode the KW one. CKKW fixed the situation by themselves going HD.
That explains why CKKW is the only Kitchener station with HD... I noticed this the last time I was in KW a couple of weeks ago and wondered why one of the lowest powered stations would have HD on. Now I know. Thanks RadioAaron.
- paterson1
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Re: Could A Buffalo HD At 99.5 Be Interfered With By One From Kitchener?
Never had a problem with CKKW's signal (Bounce FM) around K/W but have had interference occasionally maybe only 50km out of town. I did hear something fighting the Kitchener's station a few times and it was religious programming but didn't know where it was from.
I see that WDCX is a religious broadcaster out of Buffalo at 99.5 so this was what I heard. I understand like 102.5 Educational Media, WDCX also is counting on revenue from north of the border. They sounded fairly hard core for the brief time I heard the station, so I wonder how much money actually flows to them from here.
- rk12
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Re: Could A Buffalo HD At 99.5 Be Interfered With By One From Kitchener?
HD equipment should have an HD off button.Just like the old mono button.
- Marc1178
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Re: Could A Buffalo HD At 99.5 Be Interfered With By One From Kitchener?
In Sarnia I have heard both the former WCPN and the current WCLV from Cleveland come in over top of CBC Radio One on 90.3 FM on HD Radios. Most of those radios do not have an FM only mode. Right now, a Digital Radio broadcast is usually 13 dB below the main FM signal. If the FCC approval is given for them to switch -10 dB, the interference will get worse unless you only use regular AM/FM radios.
- dsgraham
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Re: Could A Buffalo HD At 99.5 Be Interfered With By One From Kitchener?
I remember in KW hearing WDCX coming in quite well especially during Tropo conditions and that was before The Bounce had moved to 99.5. Bringing an HD station to KW by Bell was a necessity only to cancel out the much more powerful American station's HD signal.