Station Location HelpThe broadcast station location page is a search engine for AM, FM, TV, and other broadcast stations. Searches for broadcast stations by location, frequency, or call sign, and generates a plain-text, tabular, or graphical map of the stations found. A link to detailed information on each station is also provided. Instructions -- the quick start editionYou must to provide either a location or a frequency range field to limit the number of stations returned by a search; the rest of the settings are all optional.
Specifying a LocationA location can be selected in any of several ways: By Latitude and LongitudeThis is the most fundamental type of location specification, and the one into which the other methods must ultimately be resolved. Any of several lat/lon formats can be used to specify a location. For example:
as well as a few other variations. When in doubt, try it out. Another format might work, and if not you'll just get an error message. By US CitySince people seldom know their latitude and longitude, but frequently know what city and state they're in, a position can be specified, albeit it roughly, by entering the city. If a city name isn't unique, it can be followed by a state name or two-letter post office state abbreviation. So to specify a location as:
You get an error message listing the several different Pasadenas. To disambiguate these, Enter either:
Note that capitalization is insignificant, that the state or province must be separated from the city by a comma, and that either the full state name or the two character state abbreviation can be used. Note also that the gazetteer being used lists mainly large and mid-sized towns and cities in the US, Canada, and Mexico, and that if a city isn't contained in the gazetteer, its location cannot be determined. Generally the cities in the place file are populations greater than 2,000. By Zip CodeAlthough using a city to specify a location is convenient, it's also generally quite imprecise, particularly when a major metropolitan area is specified. A smaller region is the area covered by their zip code. Although zip codes aren't really meant to specify a geospatial coverage region, they can be pressed into this service with the internal zip code to lat-lon database, as is done here. So yet another way to supply the location of my home would be to enter the zip code as either:
Note that only the five digit form of zip codes are available in the database in use. By CallsignFinally, in some cases you might be interested in all the stations near some other station. To allow for this, a station callsign can be entered in the location field. A couple of good stations near me include:
Note: Case is insignificant, and that any AM, FM, or TV suffix or any suffix beginning with a hyphen will be ignored in performing the station search, and that if there's more than one entry for a station, the location of the first station is used. Selecting the Type of DisplayThere are four display options available. The stations found can be displayed as an HTML table, as plain text, as preformatted text, or as a full color map of the locations of the stations found during the search. An HTML TableThis is the main form of display for the information retrieved from a search. A one line summary is provided for each station found. Included is the station's call sign, frequency or channel, antenna information, power level, location, and the distance and bearing to the transmitter. The stations found are sorted first by frequency. If more than a single station is found on a given frequency, the stations sharing the frequency are then sorted by either distance, power, or antenna height, as selected by the other options settings. Each station's callsign provides a hyperlink to a display of detailed information on that station. In addition to all of the information included in the tabular station summary, this page provides several additional items of information on the station such as the station's owner, any comments entered for the station by the FCC, and a graphical display of the radiation pattern for the station's antenna. Plain Text or Preformatted TextThese text forms of display present the same information described for the HTML table display above, but presented in a plain text format. These are provided just in case anyone is still using a browser so old that it doesn't support tables, or if the output is to be captured and used for some other purpose. Normally, the HTML table display will be preferred. A Location MapBy selecting a map display, a very nice full color map of the stations located in the search will be displayed. A location mark will be provided by each station, with the callsign of the station adjacent to its location mark. Unfortunately, the station callsigns can really clutter up the map if a large number of stations are selected for display. By clicking on a location in the map, an HTML table of all the stations found near that location will be generated. This gives you a way to zoom in on the stations in an area of interest. Setting Other OptionsThere are a few other things that can be adjusted when specifying a search. Generally, the defaults provided are good choices, but you may want to fine tune things here once you've done a search or two to get the feel of things. Limiting the Range of a SearchSearches are by default restricted to stations within 100 Km of a location, which is roughly how far you can normally expect to receive most types of broadcast stations. You can adjust this to suit your reception conditions and level of optimism. Changing the units of measure from the default units of kilometers to statute or nautical miles effects not only the range but also the units of measure used in the display of the distance to each station. Limiting the Channels or Frequencies SearchedIf a channel number or frequency is entered in this field, the search will be restricted to stations broadcasting on this frequency. The channel or frequency must be entered in the same format displayed in the frequency column of the tables. This would be
A range of frequencies or channels can be specified by entering two frequencies or channels as described above, separated by a hyphen. Either end of this range can be omitted to restrict the search to the upper or lower end of the band in question. This allows searched to be restricted to
Limiting the Number of Stations per FrequencyBy default, only the two nearest stations on each frequency are included in the search results. This can be altered by changing the number entered in this field. Changing the Station Sort OrderNormally stations on the same frequency are sorted by distance. This can be changed to sort by power or antenna height. This effects which stations are included in the search results display, and the order in which the stations are listed in the station tabulations. Finding all Stations on a ChannelIf you're interested in generating a listing of all of the stations on a specific
frequency, enter your location as usual, specify the frequency of interest, and crank the |