A day in the life of a lamptimer

[nocomradio]

 I'm waiting for the online stream to come up..........

[Dr. Akbar]

Now I'm not ready to claim victory just yet with the all-night Lumberyard. Keep in mind, this is the time of year where every two years, for whatever strange reason, Sandusky keeps the 1440 transmitter on all night for one infamous weekend. If you look earlier in this thread, the same phenomena happened two years ago right after April Fools Day. The same thing also occurred four years ago back in 2008. I don't know why this happens every two years (to keep the night-time authorization?), but it's occurring yet again this year.

Take off your tin foil hat, Jorge numero uno de ASU...this time it's the real deal as Lumberyard 14~Forty is blasting out those worn out oldies all night long with 52 watts of mono music pow-pow-power!

While the transition from night to day power is seamless, on Sunday night KAZG blew an RF fart going from 5kw to 52 watts. It was almost as jarring as hearing back to back Kookie songs Saturday night! Nurse Jeff and I wonder if the Goldminer Chief Engineer has programmed in all those power setting combinations?: night power to PSRA; PSRA to day power; day power to PSSA; PSSA to night power. Plus these settings can change from month to month in late fall, winter and early spring. The Nautel can handle it if you've got nothing better to do than program them in.

And what becomes of the beloved Lamptimer? Will it become a doorstop at the Lumberyard xmttr shack? Or will the Goldminers heave it into the canal and let it "drift" downstream to Tempe?

But the most important question: what becomes of this topic? Seems it has come to the end of the line and time for the Middle Eastern Men of the Media to move on. We'll miss A Day In The Life Of A Lamptimer, but we tip our fezes to the Valley's newest fulltime Ancient Modulation station.  Well done, Goldminers!

[asugeorge1]

Now I'm not ready to claim victory just yet with the all-night Lumberyard. Keep in mind, this is the time of year where every two years, for whatever strange reason, Sandusky keeps the 1440 transmitter on all night for one infamous weekend. If you look earlier in this thread, the same phenomena happened two years ago right after April Fools Day. The same thing also occurred four years ago back in 2008. I don't know why this happens every two years (to keep the night-time authorization?), but it's occurring yet again this year.

But the most important question: what becomes of this topic? Seems it has come to the end of the line and time for the Middle Eastern Men of the Media to move on. We'll miss A Day In The Life Of A Lamptimer, but we tip our fezes to the Valley's newest fulltime Ancient Modulation station.  Well done, Goldminers!

All right Doc, the tin foil hat is coming off! This wonderful news has definitely been a long time coming.

I wonder when the Nautel transmitter was actually installed? Aside from a late afternoon back in February where KAZG was off the air, I haven't noticed any glitches in the signal when the new transmitter would have been installed. Perhaps the work was secretly going on during the night...

Now that we officially have KAZG in full compliance with 52 watts, it's time for a night-time signal report of the Lumberyard: I was struggling to listen to those 52 watts last night from the Media Hut satellite campus down here in Gilbert. While the signal was still listenable, it was getting interference from power-lines and other skywave interference. Around Tempe and south Scottsdale, though, the signal is great. While KAZG may only be 52 watts at night, its transmitter location in southwest Scottsdale is ideal to cover a good part of the East Valley and central Phoenix population. On the other hand, you have a station like 1510 AM with a higher night-time wattage authorization, but their transmitter location is so far away from the majority of people in Phoenix that I bet KAZG with their 52 watts serves more people with an even clearer signal.

Also last night, I could tell the wattage was a lot lower than the PSRA KAZG has been using in the past. This morning after 6:00 A.M., the signal was considerably stronger. The east side Media Hut will continue to monitor the situation!

As far as the future of this thread, I believe it will continue on. Why? Because the Lamptimer is still there. The power drops from 5000 watts to 52 watts will continue to drift per the reverse-drift lamptimer just as before. Also, the novelty of KAZG will continue to live on. No commercials, no legal ID's, Radio Khushi, Kim and Don, Frank Sinatra and more. Where else can you get this? Only from the valley's original Goldmine station, 1440 KAZG!   

Can we get another repeat of all those Kookie songs for those of us who missed it? 

[KOOL Listener Lauren]

This is sounding too much like a final chapter. Stop it! No tying loose ends and concluding. A day in the life of a lamptimer lives forever... as long as radio is around. 

[nocomradio]

Also, the novelty of KAZG will continue to live on. No commercials, no legal ID's, Radio Khushi, Kim and Don, Frank Sinatra and more. Where else can you get this?

 Actually, over here in Virginia we have the "Big K" WKCW that provides just those things, minus Radio Khushi of course.

[pberger]

I tuned in Sunday night around 11:55 p.m.   Lots of background noise, hard to listen to.  Then, suddenly at 11:59, the background noise disappeared, and the Goldmine was nice and clear!     Must have been that competing station in Santa Maria must have shut down at midnight.      The Goldmine was still nice and clear at 5:30 a.m. Monday.

[oldiesfan6479]

Tuesday morning, the Lumberyard kicked it up to five gallons exactly at 6:45 AM,
with a second or two of dead air at the power switch.

Meanwhile, the KayFuNNsters seemed to be on a "higher power" already at 6:32.

And the Big 1480 forgot they could be "big" until about 7:10.

[asugeorge1]

I've also noticed the last couple nights that the Lumberyard is now broadcasting ID bumpers and airing top of the hour ID's all night long. Someone must have gone in and fixed the old system that stopped airing ID's and bumpers after 7:45ish, which was the lasted the Lumberyard would broadcast during the middle of summer as a daytime only station.

I have to say, it's sort of weird to be able to listen to the Lumberyard at all hours of the night. At my location, KAZG gets some serious skywave interference, but it's able to fight the good fight and stay on top as the prominent station. Thank you Sandusky for finally broadcasting the Lumberyard at night! After eleven long years, KAZG is finally broadcasting at night! 

[KOOL Listener Lauren]

Let's get a good idea of the beloved Lumberyard 1440's new reach!

Post your nearest major intersection and if you can hear it where you are post-sunset!

[asugeorge1]

Let's get a good idea of the beloved Lumberyard 1440's new reach!

Post your nearest major intersection and if you can hear it where you are post-sunset!

All right KOOL Lauren, let's do it! For me in Gilbert near Guadalupe and Val Vista, KAZG comes in with a listenable signal, but the Lumberyard gets some serious skywave and electrical interference. If you're lucky enough to get away from all the noise, at best the station comes in with a poor to fair signal.

I can also post some other observations from driving around town: From downtown Phoenix driving back to the East Valley via I-17 and I-10, KAZG is weak around the Durango Curve near the KOY stick, but the signal strengthens as you head east and peaks on the I-10 near the Broadway Curve. On the U.S. 60, the signal fades a little near Mill Avenue (which is strange since that's directly south of the KAZG stick), but the signal increases in power near the 101 and into Mesa. The signal is actually very good until you get past Stapley Drive / Gilbert Road. Once past Gilbert Road, you can notice some serious skywave interference and it continues to get worse near Val Vista Drive. Overall for me, the signal is listenable in Gilbert, but there is some serious skywave and electrical interference going on.

I wonder why the signal fades a little directly south of the KAZG stick along Mill Avenue in Tempe? I think the culprit might be those Papago Mountains, but I'm not entirely sure.