I use a number of tricks to quickly locate information on mediumwave stations. You might call them shortcuts, or easy ways to get to certain station web site data we might be interested in - and without having to re-navigate each site again looking for what we want. Why not just go directly there? Follow along and I'll show you how.
Here's some one-click examples of what we can get, simply by copying and pasting a link into your browser:
1. Station broadcast format. Data provided by Arbitron.
2. General station data. Data provided by fcc.gov
3. Station's application list. Data provided by fcc.gov
4. Station's contour map. Data provided by fcc.gov
5. General station profile information. Data provided by fcc.gov
6. General station data. Data provided by radio-locator.com
7. Contour maps. Data provided by radio-locator.com
8. Satellite .JPG image of transmitter site. Data provided by google.com
Let's go through them, one by one.
1. Get Station Broadcast Format From Arbitron
US and Canadian mediumwave stations file station information, including format, web stream location and other details with Arbitron quarterly. You just have to know where it is.
Here's the link for KLAA for summer 2018. Change the call sign to one of your liking and copy and paste the URL in your browser. We will do this throughout this post.
https://www1.arbitron.com/sip/displaySip.do?surveyID=SU18&band=am&callLetter=KLAA
Substitute call letters of your choice, including Canadian stations. For the surveyID= field, use the current season we are in. i.e., use WI18 for winter 2018, SP18 for spring 2018, SU18 for summer 2018, FA18 for fall 2018. Next year, in 2019, use "19".
Only one season will work, the current season. You can't get historical data. Note, however, that in nearly all cases, Arbitron will show that the station's data is not current for the current season. They are drawing the data off of the previous season's submission. It is indeed current, as the station has not submitted changes.
2. Get General Station Data From The FCC
Here's the link, again for KLAA.
https://transition.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/amq?list=0&call=KLAA
Substitute call letters of your choice, including Canadian, Mexican, or any foreign station that has filed with the FCC.
3. Get A Station's Application List From The FCC
http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/pubacc/prod/app_list.pl?Callsign=KLAA
Again, for KLAA. Substitute call letters of your choice, including Canadian, Mexican, or any foreign station that has filed with the FCC.
4. Get Public Profile For Station From The FCC
https://publicfiles.fcc.gov/am-profile/KBMB
Substitute call letters of your choice. It appears to be U.S. stations only. Station KBMB used here.
5. Get Daytime Contour Map For A Station From The FCC
https://publicfiles.fcc.gov/am-profile/KBMB/contour-maps/
Substitute call letters of your choice. It appears to be U.S. stations only. Station KBMB used here.
6. Get General Station Data From Radio-Locator
https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/finder?freq_exact=Yes&format=&owner_search=starts&count=1&is_lic=Y&is_cp=Y&is_unl=Y&is_ful=Y&is_lp=Y&sort=Call&sr=1&band=AM&call=KLAA&freq=830
Substitute call letters of your choice, including Canadian. Here we must also enter the frequency in KHz. KLAA, 830 example used.
7. Get Contour Map For A Station From Radio-Locator
Here's the link for the daytime contour map for KLAA. Change to h=D.
https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=KLAA&service=AM&h=D
Substitute call letters of your choice, including Canadian. Use the letter "D" at the end.
Here's the link for the nighttime contour map for KLAA. Change to h=N.
https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=KLAA&service=AM&h=N
Substitute call letters of your choice, including Canadian. Use the letter "N" at the end.
Some stations are in the Unlimited category, like KOA-850 in Denver, for example. Here's the link for the unlimited contour map for KOA. Change to h=U.
https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=KOA&service=AM&h=U
Substitute call letters of your choice, including Canadian. Use the letter "U" at the end.
8. Get A Satellite .JPG Image Of A Station's Transmitter Site
Google maps has a function that will create a small .JPG image for you of the satellite ground view of a latitude-longitude coordinate.
This one is a little more difficult. You must know the latitude and longitude of the station transmitter site, but you can get that from the FCC General Station Data link (section #2) above. Replace the latitude (33.92861111) and longitude (-117.61583333) with one of your choice. Remember to use a negative longitude if you are in the western hemisphere, and a negative latitude if you are in the southern hemisphere.
Maximum zoom is 17. Lower the zoom if you need to.
The maptype= parameter can be "hybrid" (terrain with some satellite ground annotation), "satellite", "roadmap" (a road map), or "terrain".
.JPG size is either 640x640 or 320x320. Using scale=2 will double the size. format= can be jpg, png, or gif.
Here's the link for KNMX-540, Las Vegas, New Mexico:
http://maps.google.com/maps/api/staticmap?center=35.57361111,-105.17138889&zoom=17&size=640x640&maptype=hybrid&scale=2&sensor=false&format=jpg
One more handy bit of code to get V-Soft signal data.
Easy Way To V-Soft Signal Data
Now let's write a little HTML to get some V-Soft data.
Get a nice signal strength chart by zip code or station call sign from V-Soft. If you've ever wanted to know what the mediumwave signal strengths are in your zip code from various stations nearby, you can.
Copy the following code into any text editor (like Notepad), and save it as an .HTML file. No changes are necessary.
Then click the file. Enter either your zip code (or any zip code), or a station's call letters. Click the Submit button. You will be re-directed to the v-soft.com site and see a nice table of signal strengths.
Hope you enjoy these web tricks.
Here's some one-click examples of what we can get, simply by copying and pasting a link into your browser:
1. Station broadcast format. Data provided by Arbitron.
2. General station data. Data provided by fcc.gov
3. Station's application list. Data provided by fcc.gov
4. Station's contour map. Data provided by fcc.gov
5. General station profile information. Data provided by fcc.gov
6. General station data. Data provided by radio-locator.com
7. Contour maps. Data provided by radio-locator.com
8. Satellite .JPG image of transmitter site. Data provided by google.com
Let's go through them, one by one.
1. Get Station Broadcast Format From Arbitron
US and Canadian mediumwave stations file station information, including format, web stream location and other details with Arbitron quarterly. You just have to know where it is.
Here's the link for KLAA for summer 2018. Change the call sign to one of your liking and copy and paste the URL in your browser. We will do this throughout this post.
https://www1.arbitron.com/sip/displaySip.do?surveyID=SU18&band=am&callLetter=KLAA
Substitute call letters of your choice, including Canadian stations. For the surveyID= field, use the current season we are in. i.e., use WI18 for winter 2018, SP18 for spring 2018, SU18 for summer 2018, FA18 for fall 2018. Next year, in 2019, use "19".
Only one season will work, the current season. You can't get historical data. Note, however, that in nearly all cases, Arbitron will show that the station's data is not current for the current season. They are drawing the data off of the previous season's submission. It is indeed current, as the station has not submitted changes.
Here's the link, again for KLAA.
https://transition.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/amq?list=0&call=KLAA
Substitute call letters of your choice, including Canadian, Mexican, or any foreign station that has filed with the FCC.
3. Get A Station's Application List From The FCC
http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/pubacc/prod/app_list.pl?Callsign=KLAA
Again, for KLAA. Substitute call letters of your choice, including Canadian, Mexican, or any foreign station that has filed with the FCC.
4. Get Public Profile For Station From The FCC
https://publicfiles.fcc.gov/am-profile/KBMB
Substitute call letters of your choice. It appears to be U.S. stations only. Station KBMB used here.
5. Get Daytime Contour Map For A Station From The FCC
https://publicfiles.fcc.gov/am-profile/KBMB/contour-maps/
Substitute call letters of your choice. It appears to be U.S. stations only. Station KBMB used here.
6. Get General Station Data From Radio-Locator
https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/finder?freq_exact=Yes&format=&owner_search=starts&count=1&is_lic=Y&is_cp=Y&is_unl=Y&is_ful=Y&is_lp=Y&sort=Call&sr=1&band=AM&call=KLAA&freq=830
Substitute call letters of your choice, including Canadian. Here we must also enter the frequency in KHz. KLAA, 830 example used.
7. Get Contour Map For A Station From Radio-Locator
Here's the link for the daytime contour map for KLAA. Change to h=D.
https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=KLAA&service=AM&h=D
Substitute call letters of your choice, including Canadian. Use the letter "D" at the end.
Here's the link for the nighttime contour map for KLAA. Change to h=N.
https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=KLAA&service=AM&h=N
Substitute call letters of your choice, including Canadian. Use the letter "N" at the end.
Some stations are in the Unlimited category, like KOA-850 in Denver, for example. Here's the link for the unlimited contour map for KOA. Change to h=U.
https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=KOA&service=AM&h=U
Substitute call letters of your choice, including Canadian. Use the letter "U" at the end.
8. Get A Satellite .JPG Image Of A Station's Transmitter Site
Google maps has a function that will create a small .JPG image for you of the satellite ground view of a latitude-longitude coordinate.
This one is a little more difficult. You must know the latitude and longitude of the station transmitter site, but you can get that from the FCC General Station Data link (section #2) above. Replace the latitude (33.92861111) and longitude (-117.61583333) with one of your choice. Remember to use a negative longitude if you are in the western hemisphere, and a negative latitude if you are in the southern hemisphere.
Maximum zoom is 17. Lower the zoom if you need to.
The maptype= parameter can be "hybrid" (terrain with some satellite ground annotation), "satellite", "roadmap" (a road map), or "terrain".
.JPG size is either 640x640 or 320x320. Using scale=2 will double the size. format= can be jpg, png, or gif.
Here's the link for KNMX-540, Las Vegas, New Mexico:
http://maps.google.com/maps/api/staticmap?center=35.57361111,-105.17138889&zoom=17&size=640x640&maptype=hybrid&scale=2&sensor=false&format=jpg
 |
| KNMX-540 Static Map from Google |
One more handy bit of code to get V-Soft signal data.
Easy Way To V-Soft Signal Data
Now let's write a little HTML to get some V-Soft data.
Get a nice signal strength chart by zip code or station call sign from V-Soft. If you've ever wanted to know what the mediumwave signal strengths are in your zip code from various stations nearby, you can.
Copy the following code into any text editor (like Notepad), and save it as an .HTML file. No changes are necessary.
<html><head></head><body> GET V-SOFT DATA FOR ZIP CODE OR CALL SIGN: <form action="http://zipsignal.v-soft.com" id="findzips" method="post" name="findzips"> <input id="zip" name="zip" size="20" type="text" value="123456" /><input type="Submit" /> ZIP CODE</form> <form action="http://zipsignal.v-soft.com" id="findstations" method="post" name="findstations"> <input id="call" name="call" size="20" type="text" value="KLAA" /><input type="Submit" /> CALL SIGN</form> </body></html>
Then click the file. Enter either your zip code (or any zip code), or a station's call letters. Click the Submit button. You will be re-directed to the v-soft.com site and see a nice table of signal strengths.
Hope you enjoy these web tricks.
