Re: NHPR acknowledges dead air

["David W. Harris" <dwh@totalnetnh.net>]

Steve Ordinetz wrote of New Hampshire Public Radio:

> If I'm not mistaken, the microwave links to the satellite stations
> originate at WEVO's transmitter site...if the first link in the chain
> breaks, no one gets any audio.  The Keene signal must go thru several hops
> to get there, I presume the others do, too...their studios on N. Main St.
> don't give a clear shot to much other than the Hopkinton site.
>
Microwave links to the satellite stations?  Yes, I see my memory was
mistaken about promises to link Keene and Hanover with Concord via land
lines.  I found this in the December/January 1993/94 member newsletter,
noting the new signal in the Upper Valley:

"WEVH broadcasts from an existing tower atop Moose Mountain near Hanover
where it rebroadcasts WEVO's primary signal at 89.1FM on 91.3FM.  Future
plans call for linking the Upper Valley station to NHPR's broadcast
center by microwave.  This will remove WEVH's dependence on WEVO's main
transmitter and assure a higher broadcast quality."

The current problem seems to be occuring between North Main Street and
Little Pond Road (right across from Sylvia Miskoe's home, the
transmitter is in Concord, roughly two miles east of the Hopkinton
border).  Today the on-air apologies for the signal interruptions
included something new:  "It's possible the problem is not in our
equipment but is coming from an outside source."

Right now it sounds like NHPR is feeding the transmitter over a regular
phone line. The stereo pilot is off.  As crummy as this sounds with
classical music, it's a vast improvement over the way things sounded
earlier today with the microwave feed (2 hops, by the way, with a relay
near White Park).  There was constant interference that sounded like a
drum machine blasting away at a gain equal to or exceeding that of the
studio signal.