Talk:WSLK

message: Regarding the radio station's coverage area, how is radio-locator.com a reliable source? The disclaimer language at the bottom essentially says it isn't. I can't follow where we're supposed to go for the Arbitron reference link. They have no SIP profile info. Can somebody walk me through that?--chaser - t 22:38, 23 April 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: "No Spring 2009 data found for WSLK-AM."  Hmm... - Dravecky (talk) 22:44, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

text: According to R-L's FAQ the signal maps are based on various dBu's. There's really no reliable source when it comes to coverage maps because of the terrain, etc. There are complicated FCC reports out there (that vary by station) about overlapping signals in order to figure out ownership limits and market areas. User:MrRadioGuy What's that?/What I Do/Feed My Box 23:53, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

text: I think that's too vague (what is the "Smith Mountain Lake area"? If we're going to rely on the map (and anyone would be within their rights to object, in which case we will have no information about coverage area), then we should follow the source as closely as possible. For example: "WSLK has good coverage on most of Smith Mountain Lake..." (there appear to be bits of the lake outside the red area) "...and a weak signal to Roanoke and Bedford." (tracking the language in the FAQs). It would not be inappropriate to add a disclaimer about these predictions being theoretical. That wording may not be what your engineer has found, but that's what the most reliable source we have says.--chaser - t 03:27, 29 April 2009 (UTC)

text: As a Radio and TV Broadcast Engineer serving the Mid-Atlantic Region for the last 20+ years, and as an avid WSLK listener that lives in the Roanoke-Lynchburg market, I can attest to the fact that WSLK's coverage is well into several counties...Franklin, Bedford, Pennsylvania, Roanoke, and Henry, just to name a few. I do RF signal testing and monitoring for a living, so know a little bit about the topic. I live probably close to 20 miles away from the station and still get a signal good enough to listen too !! And that's with an under-the-counter Wally World special. No telling what I would get if I used my Ham Radio ( kb4wnt )long-wire antenna. As my work has proven to me time and time again, these coverage maps from the FCC and R-L type web-sites are projections at best, and out-right guess at worst. You have to get in the field and actually "Ride" your coverage area, or better yet, do signal strength measurements like I do to actually know what the coverage really is. Why do you think the FCC requires such measurements to be done when-ever a station applies to make major changes to their transmission system? No information on these sites should ever be taken as gospel, or used to make statements about a stations coverage one way or the other.Ecs4hire (talk) 21:24, 27 April 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: That's great, but we can't cite that to a reliable source. We're a bunch of anonymous people on the internet, so citing a radio engineer who I talked to on the phone is no good, because a Wikipedia contributor does not have the same reputation and credibility as, say, the New York Times or Wall Street Journal.--chaser - t 03:27, 29 April 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Coverage area