X'mitter sites.......

["PETER GEORGE, N1GGP" <PGEORGE@WELLESLEY.EDU>]

     I can attest with Paul Hopfgarten with the FM and TV reception in
our common old hometown, Randolph, MA.  WTEV/6 (now WLNE) always had a
lousy picture, even with a roof top antenna and a rotor.  The only good
thing about Channel 6 was when I was 10 or so, Channel 6 had the ABC
affiliation and of course the audio portion of WTEV was readily available
on any FM radio.  The folks put me to bed after 9:30 or so, but I was
able to listen to "The Odd Couple" or "Love, American Style" using the
radio right next to my bed.  The Channel 6 signal has always been lousy
due to the distance between Tiverton, RI and Randolph.  Plus the fact
that WTEV/WLNE uses a directional antenna array to protect WCSH/6 in
Portland, ME.  Channels 10 (WJAR) and 12 (WPRI) in Providence always had
a better signal than any of the Boston stations (2,4,5,7,25,38,44,56 and 68)
in my neck of the woods.  The reason, Great Blue Hill was in the way and
multi-pathed any of the Needham signals.  Forget Channel 27, it was hash.
The late Channel 14 (WJZB) in Worcester didn't do much better, either.
     Like Paul, most of my friends also listened to JB-105 or WPRO-FM
or the up and coming 94 and a half WCOZ.  Of course at night, it was
WLS (Chicago), WABC or WOWO (Ft.Wayne).
     When Channel 56 was transmitting from Woburn (1966-1968), the signal
was weak with loads of color fade.  The new Needham site was much better.
I do recall that in the summer of 1976, the Channel 56 transmitter blew
up.  They came back that evening using the exciter and surprisingly, it
still made it all but weakly.  (So I didn't miss "Dark Shadows" :-) !)
Channel 38 throttled back to 10% power the next morning in order (in
the words of Dana Hersey) to "aid Channel 56".  

- -Pete-


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Peter Q. George, N1GGP                  *  "Scanning the bands since 1967 !" 
33 Stetson St., Apt. 2                  *                  +
Whitman, Massachusetts  02382           *                  |
USA                                     *      73         +|+    de N1GGP
PGEORGE@wellesley.edu                   *                +\|/+
XERB@bigfoot.com                        *               + \|/ +
W221AG@hotmail.com (my FM translator)   *               + \|/ +
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