Re: New 1150 rumor

[Dan Strassberg <dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net>]

At 03:22 AM 7/26/97 +0000, you wrote:
>I just heard that ARS no longer plans to move WEEI's transmitter to
>Burlington.  Rather, they want to move WNFT to the Needham site of WEEI
>and sell the land presently occupied by WNFT's site.  Unfortunately for
>them, they'd have to put up another tower in Needham to do it, and I
>suspect it'll be a cold day in Hell when the town of Needham *ever* ok's
>another radio tower. 
>
Rob: In my earlier response to this message, I forgot to mention another
reason that this rumor seems wrong. Aside from the pattern considerations
that I brought up in the earlier message, it seems most unlikely that it
would be possible to accommodate 1150 at the current WEEI site by adding
just one tower. One must assume that if ARS were to add only one tower at
the site, one or more towers of the existing array would be shared by the
two stations, else it would be impossible to protect the stations to the west.

But the existing towers are much too tall for 1150. The FCC database shows
the towers to be 207 degrees at 850. That works out to 280 degrees at 1150.
Unless the plan were to replace the existing towers with shorter ones or to
replace them with segmented radiators (Franklin antennas), they would not be
usable by 1150. The Franklin approach is very expensive and, based on
reports about the few other stations that use such entennas, fraught with
ongoing technical headaches. One of the existing towers (the one closest to
Boston, I believe), includes a removable section at the top. I presume that
the intent was to replace that section with a top-mounted FM pylon. Instead,
when WHDH received its FM permit, the TX went on the top of the old Hancock
Building in the Back Bay. If a two-tower arrangement were possible, I
suppose this section could be removed and that might shorten the tower
sufficiently to permit its use at 1150.

But it does not seem likely that two towers would be adequate for a power
higher than the current 5 kW. In fact, even if protecting the Canadian AM
1150 to the northeast became unnecessary, two towers might not even permit a
nighttime power as high as 5 kW. 

- -------------------------------
Dan Strassberg (Note: Address is CASE SENSITIVE!)
ALL _LOWER_ CASE!!!--> dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net
(617) 558-4205; Fax (617) 928-4205

------------------------------