Re: Tunnel Radio

["Dan Strassberg" <Dan.Strassberg@att.net>]

As far as I know, it is a local repeater--one for each station that is
rebroadcast. And it must now also be in place in the Sumner and Callahan
tunnels, because on my last airline trip (in January) on my way back from
Logan (in a Taxi in a traffic jam) the cab driver had WBZ tuned in all the
way through the tunnel.

I think that the original idea for Tunnel Radio in the South Station Tunnel
was to broadcast (one signal only--Tunnel Radio's repeating loop of
commercials) on 455 kHz, the then-standard intermediate frequency for AM
radios. I understand that this didn't work satisfactorily and that the
scheme was quickly replaced with one that broadcast Tunnel Radio on each of
the local AM frequencies. I guess that when Tunnel Radio died four or five
years ago, the Tunnel Radio "programming" was replaced by co-channel
rebroadcasts on each of the local channels. There must be a bank of
receivers located sufficiently far from the tunnel to avoid picking up the
tunnel signals, and, most likely, the received signals (carriers and all to
avoid beat notes between the tunnel transmissions and the stations' normal
transmissions), are relayed to the transmitters in the tunnel via coax.

I'm curious now to know whether WBIX, which is licensed to Natick and wasn't
on the air when the current system was put in place, can be heard in the
Tunnels. If it can, I assume that Alex Langer had to fork over a small
amount to whomever runs the service to add a transmitter for the station. I
can't imagine that the low-power transmitters that feed the antennas in the
tunnels are very expensive. And, of course, the "transmitter" might be just
a broadband amplifier that feeds the subterranian antennas with entire AM
band (it's still less than 1.2-MHz wide) as picked up by an above-ground
broadband "receiver."

--

Dan Strassberg, dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net
Phone: 1-617-558-4205, eFax: 1-707-215-6367

-----Original Message-----
From: A. Joseph Ross <lawyer@world.std.com>
To: Paul Hopfgarten <hopfgapr@sprynet.com>
Cc: boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org
<boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Date: Thursday, March 08, 2001 1:26 AM
Subject: RE: Tunnel Radio


On 7 Mar 2001,  Paul Hopfgarten wrote:

> I believe there is wiring in place for AM reception for the Dewey Square
> Underpass (the actual name of the South Station Tunnel). I have picked up
> AMs within the underpass(tunnel). However, much like the crap on the walls
> of the tunnel, I suspect scant attention is paid to the maintainence of
the
> SoStaTun AM wire system.

I'm curious how this system is supposed to work.  Is it a local repeater
for the tunnel?  Or is it something else?




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A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                        617.367.0468
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