I too have memories of Vachon Island

[lglavin@lycosmail.com]

Those of you who have visited fybush.com know that
Scott's tower site of the week is Vachon Island 
in Puget Sound south of the Strait of Juan de Fuca
(I just put that in because when I lived there I
liked to say it;  another favorite: Puyallup, WA
pronounced Pew-ollup...after a few beers we would 
give a traffic report for Seattle radio "there's been 
a pileup in Puyallup!) When I was in the USAF, I
was stationed at McChord AFB outside of (and nearly as 
large as) Tacoma if you include adjacent Ft. Lawton.
Like Scottso, I took the ferry to Vachon to scope the 
towers out there (as well as the FM's on Tiger
Mountain in Issaquah.)  The outlet on 1090 AM
was amazingly directional at night, protecting 
the Canadian Province of Alberta and a station in 
Mexico outside of San Diego.  It was KING-AM at
the time, and there was a point not far from Sea-Tac
airport where, on a rare clear night, you could 
SEE the tower lights, but not hear KING over the
interference. (Something of this nature occurred 
around here when then-truly classical WCRB operated 
on 1330 am with three towers.  On certain nights,
WPOW in NYC operated from a transmitter site on Staten Island.  If you placed yourself right in the null 
of WCRB-AM's nighttime pattern right on Rt 128, 
you could see the tower lights but pick up WPOW.)
 KOMO's transmitter plant looked impressive, but both
day and night, it was hard to pick up over the flightline
facilities.  Little KVI fared better and KIRO 710
better still.  There was an oddity at the time...
stations operating at one-octave from each other:
770 and 1540.  If you listened to one and drove near
the transmitter of another, the latter boomed in.
Just like trying to listen to WLYN 1360 in front 
of the WRKO 680 towers.  Lynn is set off from Boston 
by several miles, but both stations in Seattle
had signals aimed at the city.  It must have confused 
many locals who didn't know what was happening.
(The 550 in Cumberland and 1110 in E. Providence RI
probably aren't powerful enough for mutual interference
in areas they're trying to reach.
Well, Scott thanks for the updated pix...but in all the
time I lived there, I don't recall seeing any 
rainbows.

Laurence Glavin




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