If your really close to just about any transmiter the output is likely to blow you away. Further away the signal goes down. If they are really louder than they used to be, they may have had to raise the gain to extend the usable range. With stack trains growing as long as 12,000 feet on a regular basis these days, maybe they needed a boost in the output. Most of the origional transmitters were put in when 7,000 feet was considered a huge train. Just a thought.