Thursday, June 9, 2016

FCC Providing AM Daytime Contour Maps

Not sure it's been mentioned on the forums before, but the FCC's AM broadcast query now includes links showing a daytime groundwave contour map for each station in the database. These, super-imposed over either a Bing-based map or USGS map or Google Earth. Links for pure KML coordinates are also provided for those wanting to map their own.

Only daytime groundwave contours are provided, out to the 2.0 mV/m and 0.5 mV/m contours.

Go to the AM Query page:

https://www.fcc.gov/media/radio/am-query

Type in a call sign, like KFI (640 KHz, Los Angeles), hit enter, and on the next page shown, click on the station call sign of interest.

The facility record of KFI:

https://transition.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/amq?list=0&facid=34425

Look for the following links at the bottom of the daytime record:

Maps:
      Daytime Groundwave 0.5 mV/m Service (and 2.0 mV/m) contours on Bing map
      Daytime Groundwave 0.5 mV/m Service (and 2.0 mV/m) contours on Open Street or USGS Maps
      KML / Google Earth (0.5 mV/m Daytime Groundwave Service and 2.0 mV/m contours)
      Text file for KML-capable browsers

Click on one of the map links and a contour map will be shown.

This is a nice innovation by the FCC. Hopefully, skywave plots will be implemented next.

FCC's contour map for KFI-640