Greg and Joan wrote:
1) Didn't PJB, 800 khz, Netherlands Antilles (Bonaire) run 500Kw? Do
they still do so today? I used to be able to pick them up in Massachusetts

Yes and no.

(the night before my brother's wedding in Traverse City, Michigan PJB
was BOMBING into my motel room. I mean, they were louder than the
Chicago clears less than 200 miles away. Things must have been auroral
that night.)

My understanding is PJB's power plant (they had their own...) burned
down. When they rebuilt they decided to settle for 100kw and a
directional antenna favoring northern South America. (Venezuela &
Colombia)

beamed out toward the ocean and their signals don't go west. Even WBZ has
a lobe dampened, IIRC, to protect a station in Wyoming.

My understanding is that WBZ's DA actually protects the *east* - they're
trying to avoid wasting power over the ocean where there's nobody (at
least nobody with a diary) listening. The Wyoming station (KTWO Casper)
protects WBZ, but not vice-versa.
--
Doug Smith W9WI
Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66
http://www.w9wi.com

Doug Smith W9WI had written:

| My understanding is that WBZ's DA actually protects the *east* - they're
| trying to avoid wasting power over the ocean where there's nobody (at
| least nobody with a diary) listening. The Wyoming station (KTWO Casper)
| protects WBZ, but not vice-versa.

As others here have said, that is correct. A visit to the site in
Hull makes it clear that there was some pretty shrewd engineering
behind that move.

As a data point, in Chicago, the very minute WNVR/1030 goes off
the air at sunset, WBZ comes booming in. I think WNVR may have a
license that allows it to sign on at Boston local sunrise rather
than Chicago, but I don't remember for sure now.

Farther to the south, though, in Missouri, WBZ isn't much of a
catch for nighttime listening while, sometimes, thanks to the time
difference, KTWO can be heard in the early evening hours. In the
Kansas City area, 1030 was also horked up by the station in Blue
Springs which has practically no nighttime signal north of the
Missouri River...one of the two areas in KC with the fastest
population growth. (But who listens to AM at night?)

--
Mark Roberts
Oakland, California
(it will forward)

Doug Smith W9WI wrote in message ...
Greg and Joan wrote:
1) Didn't PJB, 800 khz, Netherlands Antilles (Bonaire) run 500Kw? Do
they still do so today? I used to be able to pick them up in Massachusetts

Yes and no.

(the night before my brother's wedding in Traverse City, Michigan PJB
was BOMBING into my motel room. I mean, they were louder than the
Chicago clears less than 200 miles away. Things must have been auroral
that night.)

My understanding is PJB's power plant (they had their own...) burned
down. When they rebuilt they decided to settle for 100kw and a
directional antenna favoring northern South America. (Venezuela &
Colombia)

Trans World Radio (PJB) still operates from Bonaire with 100kw and
still on 800 khz MW. About 3 years ago (not in the late 80's as
someone else mentioned), TWR decided for reasons of cost to replace
the old faithful unit with a new solid state transmitter. Tubes for
the old 500 kw MW unit got increasingly more expensive to rebuild when
they failed, and the costs of fuel to run the deisel generators higher
and higher. With a reassessment of the need to "boom" into its former
coverage, TWR decided to focus on the Caribbean and northern parts of
S. America only as we are able to serve many of the areas further
south by program distribution to local Christian stations. We do get
occasional reports from US-based MW DXers and are grateful for them,
but don't consdier the US a target any longer. We're airing English
(though on a reduced schedule), Spanish, Portuguese and a couple of
smaller Indian languages.

The PJB power plant was sold to the local electric company on Bonaire
to help power the grid there. The fire mentioned above was not at TWR
(PJB's) site, but rather at the R. Netherlands facility also on
Bonaire.

Trust this will help clear things up.

Bill Damick
Trans World Radio Headquarters
Cary, NC
www.twr.org

"Bill Damick" wrote in message
...
Doug Smith W9WI wrote in message
...
Greg and Joan wrote:
1) Didn't PJB, 800 khz, Netherlands Antilles (Bonaire) run 500Kw?
Do
they still do so today? I used to be able to pick them up in
Massachusetts

Yes and no.

(the night before my brother's wedding in Traverse City, Michigan PJB
was BOMBING into my motel room. I mean, they were louder than the
Chicago clears less than 200 miles away. Things must have been auroral
that night.)

My understanding is PJB's power plant (they had their own...) burned
down. When they rebuilt they decided to settle for 100kw and a
directional antenna favoring northern South America. (Venezuela &
Colombia)

Trans World Radio (PJB) still operates from Bonaire with 100kw and
still on 800 khz MW. About 3 years ago (not in the late 80's as
someone else mentioned),

My impression, born out by field strength readings by the engineer at
WKVM-810 in Puerto Rico, was that the station had ceased to run 500 kw,and
was using the big rig at lower power since sometime around 1995 or 1996.

TWR decided for reasons of cost to replace
the old faithful unit with a new solid state transmitter. Tubes for
the old 500 kw MW unit got increasingly more expensive to rebuild when
they failed, and the costs of fuel to run the deisel generators higher
and higher. With a reassessment of the need to "boom" into its former
coverage, TWR decided to focus on the Caribbean and northern parts of
S. America only as we are able to serve many of the areas further
south by program distribution to local Christian stations.

At least it happened finally, although too late for some of us. I owned an
AM on 805 AM in Ecuador when TWR went on the air. It nearly destroyed the
station untill I could change frequency. A friend's station in Bucaramanga,
Colombia, was driven off the air by TWR's misguided religious zeal that
caused it to stomp on the coverage and signals of over a dozen radio
stations on 790, 800 and 810 in the NE South American zone.

People here complain about arrogance as demonstrated by Clear Channel; TWR
is the supreme example of arrogance for a "cause" with no thought for all
the people injured due to their actions.

In article , David Eduardo wrote:
At least it happened finally, although too late for some of us. I owned an
AM on 805 AM in Ecuador when TWR went on the air. It nearly destroyed the

805??? I thought AM radio in Ecuador was on the 10khz band plan like
the USA and Colombia.

In the past few years, though I've noticed a number of drop-in FM
stations on the "even" frequencies -- 95.4, 100.2, etc. That really
has to cause hell with a lot of digitally tuned car radios that only
tune in the odd frequencies.

People here complain about arrogance as demonstrated by Clear Channel; TWR
is the supreme example of arrogance for a "cause" with no thought for all

Ahhhhh....but they're doing the work of GOD! That forgives
everything, including the jamming of your heathen programming of your
station and your friend's. Be glad this isn't the Middle Ages.
They would have strung you up.... ;-)

--
Sven Weil
New York City, U.S.A.