Re: Andleman returns tomorrow to 1510

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

No additional towers. No zoning issues. The new day pattern uses the same
two towers as are used for the current day pattern, which will become the
new CH pattern. An additional phasor is what's needed. I believe that WWZN's
two existing phasors reside in the ATU building at the base of tower 1. It's
a steel "building"--rather like a stainless steel truck trailer raised up on
concrete piers to keep it away from the flood waters that sometimes hit that
side of the 411 Waverley Oaks Rd Industrial Park. The tower base and the
building are surrounded by a chain-link fence to which is attached a painted
wood fence so you can't (easily) look inside. There may be no room inside
the ATU building for an additional phasor, but there should be plenty of
room in the Tx building.

When the station was being constructed, the consulting engineer told me that
the reason he designed the setup that way was that the owners of the station
and the industrial park kept changing the location of the Tx building within
the site. I guess the architects were still playing with different concepts
for the three-story office building that was built on top of part of the
ground system after the station was completed. This negotiation was going on
even as the towers were going up. The engineer said that he had to order the
phasors and the design had to be based on a known location. The tower
locations were already fixed, so he decided to put the phasors in a location
that wouldn't be changed. To do otherwise could have added months to the
station's construction schedule.

Sure, if the CH and N phasors are in the ATU building and the D phasor is in
the Tx building, the setup for changing patterns will be more complicated,
but I still find it hard to imagine the technical problems being very great.
The current day pattern is a relatively standard cardioid nulled to less
than 1 kW behind the array. The new day pattern is a very substantially
detuned version of the same thing. The field out the back is the equivalent
of several tens of kW ND.

As far as I can see, the biggest risk and potential cost associated with the
project is the cost of satisfying complaints of interference within the new
1V/m day contour. The area is quite densely populated. In theory, all such
complaints in areas to the north and east of the site were resolved when the
site first went on the air in 1981. Allegedly, the costs of interference
abatement back then topped $1 million. The new 1 V/m day contour must take
in several additional square miles to the south and west. However, part of
that area consists land owned by the state and federal governments, and may
not be considered to have any resident population.

As for the signal in NH being worse now than it was when the TX was in
Quincy, that would likely be true in the Seacoast region, since part of the
path from Quincy to that part of NH is over salt water. Also, my own
listening tests showed a definite reduction in signal strength in the
Hanover area after the office building was built on the northern part of the
ground system. I personally witnessed the destruction of part of the ground
system when conduit was being installed to bring power to the light
standards that illuminate the parking lot between one of the towers and the
office building. I told the guy who was supervising the guy with the
grooving machine that he was cutting the station's ground system. He said
"what's it to you?" and came at me in a menacing way. I got the hell out--in
a hurry.
--
Dan Strassberg, dan.strassberg@att.net
617-558-4205, eFax 707-215-6367

----- Original Message -----
From: SteveOrdinetz <steveord@bit-net.com>
To: <boston-radio-interest@khavrinen.lcs.mit.edu>
Sent: Sunday, March 03, 2002 9:20 PM
Subject: Re: Andleman returns tomorrow to 1510


> Dan Strassberg wrote:
>
> >There isn't a lot of time before the CP is pulled for failure to
construct.
> >I can't figure out what Rose City (WWZN's licensee) has been waiting for.
>
> Financial or zoning issues would be my guess.  What's involved in making
> the change...are there additional towers that need to be constructed or is
> it just tweaking of phasing?
>
>
>
> >BTW, most recollections of 1510's terrible night signal during the days
when
> >the station held the Red Sox contract relate to the station's operation
from
> >North Quincy--before its move to 411 Waverley Oaks Rd in Waltham.
WMEX/WITS
> >ran only 5 kW-N from N Quincy, and--especially after the construction of
the
> >State St South office complex immediately to the west of the N Quincy
> >site--was completely unlistenable at night in the western suburbs.
>
>
> I can't speak for the western suburbs, but the signal seemed a lot better
> here in N.H. back when the tx was in Quincy.  A decent portable could
> receive it quite well (at least during the day).  The same radio can't
even
> hear 1510 today.
>
>