RE: MOUNT WASHINGTON BURNS

[Jeremy Mixer <mixer@zoso.net>]

On Mon, 10 Feb 2003, Bill O'Neill wrote:

> ... plus some important government
> > communications equipment.
> >
> > At the same time, there is a high terror alert......
> >
> > Interesting to think about.......I know it's kinda a long shot.......
>
> Yep, it is. And I take your remarks in the spirit in which they're written.
> As things seem to be destabilizing, there's increased level of anxiety and
> sensitivity to concurrent events.  It's not about a radio shack fire
> effecting a couple of FMs on a New England mountaintop.  It's what
> "disconnect" can feel like in small doses.

A friend of mine told me amybe I wa sbeing slightly paranoid, and I really
don't think I am. I find it sad, more than anything else, that a couple of
radio stations were knocked off of the air. Am I overly concerned? Not at
all......now if this stuff starts happened in other places, let's say
WBLM, WTOS, and WQCB and WCRQ (I think that is the rest of the Maine based
100,000 watt stations) all , or even some, had similar things happen at
their transmitter sites, THEN I would be concerned.

The things that got me thinking that were this- when someone mentioned
some sort of important government communications systems that were up
there. And when I discovered (a fact which I was not aware of) that WHOM
has the largest coverage area of any FM station in North America.

I am not a terrorist, and I don't want this discussion to end up become
inappropriate, but how is Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont public
broadcasting stations connected to each other? Is there any one spot that
could be destroyed (don't need any specifics, just a yes or know from
those who might know) that could knock out the main communications between
the stations?

I ask because, lets say there is some sort of national emergency. I know
the primary base for the EAS system is public broadcasting, with the
backup stations being stations with a large coverage area, such as WHOM,
WBLM, WTOS etc......without Maine Public Broadcasting distruting the
signal, and with no secondary stations sending out the EAS alert......only
a small handfull of stations would connect with the broadcast....... And
as I understand it, the system isn't that stable anyway. I often hear
about EAS machines not working properly at many radio stations.

Once again, interesting to think about for discussions sake, I am NOT
trying to make anyone freak out here. My mind wanders sometimes :)

Jeremy