Deeds thinks BCRP will cover Boise
Don Day | April 29, 2008Idaho Daily Statesman entertainer Mike Deeds says that BCRP will cover Boise. So there… it’s solved then.
He quotes the BCRP engineer – Michael Brown with Brown Broadcast Services – and says that if you can get KQTA/Ke Buena 106.3 in Boise – you’ll get BCRP’s forthcoming station.
If you can tune in 106.3 FM right now, you’ll most likely be able to hear BCR, according to Brown, who’s performed radio engineering since 1974 and FCC application work since 1987. Brown says that comparing a 100,000-watt station and a 7,900-watt station isn’t “apples and apples, but it’s apples and green apples.” The biggest factor for FM stations, by far, is intervening terrain. “The power is important,” Brown says, “but it’s not nearly as important as the terrain.”
Brown favors this map – which he says is more accurate. Also – remember how IRN was the first to note that BCRP would probably have to use a translator to get good Boise coverage? That translator has been secured – and would broadcast at 93.5 FM. Here’s the map of the translator’s signal pattern, according to Brown again.
Our “own” RDS echoes what Brown says in a previous comment
KQTA is 100 kw, and BCRP is only 7.9 kw. More important than power with FM signals is height and line of site. BCRP will do better than you think.
Then there’s this:
“My point is, why would we have spent all this time and effort working on this thing if we didn’t have damn good reasonable assurance that this thing was going to send a beautiful signal into town here?” Abrams says. “I wouldn’t have tried to bring the entire community along if I thought there was going to be marginal reception here.”
The 93.5 translator is licensed to Garden City & operates with 21 watts and is owned by Silver Creek Management of Boise. The principal of Silver Creek is Michael McClary at 867-9082. I’m unaware of Mr. McClary but then I live in southern Idaho not Treasure Valley.
According to the FCC records it currently rebroadcasts KWEI licensed to Fruitland but KWEI has a CP to increase power from its present 8kw to 22kw which will then give it a city grade signal over Boise meaning the need for the 93.5 translator may be moot especially given that KWEI could use an on-channel booster in Boise if the terrain back to its main transmitter site was conducive to a booster.
Brown Engineering map:
“isues”
Hmmm… Big dollar engineering study still doesn’t buy the use of a spell checker…
The KWEI power boost won’t help them in Boise since their signal is obstructed by the mountains/foothills and will continue to have severe multipath.
When 93.1 fires up the IBOC 93.5 will be toast.
BoiseEngineer is correct. From what I have been told you cannot see Squaw Butte from Boise….hence you cannot get the signal in well… LINE OF SITE is what an FM/TV signal craves in order to be seen/heard. All of this is going to prove quite interesting.
Perhaps that is why they call it Antenna Theory… in the amateur radio world.
The line of sight to downtown is obstructed, but as Oldtimer mentioned, KWEI would probably be a worthy candidate for a low powered on-channel booster aimed at downtown Boise. I am usually not a fan of the use of boosters, because they can cause reception problems in areas that previously did not have them. However, at 22kW, KWEI has a great line of sight signal that would overpower booster grunge in most of the rest of the valley.