Soxless Boss

[Dan Strassberg]

>
> But then, I also remember hearing WMEX (1510) on my car radio at mid-day
> many times as I drove around the Syracuse NY and Finger Lakes region
> back during previous sunspot minima.  I believe WMEX was 5 KW daytime.
> Today I'm hearing at least three different stations on 1510 at my desk,
> so I don't know if that would still be possible.
>
> Bud Hippisley
>
Well, for many years, Craig Fox (WOLF, WSIV, WVOA (CP)) held a CP for 1510
in the Syracuse area. I think he was granted a move of WOLF to 1510 before
WSIV was built. IIRC, he had been granted 50 kW-D/2.5 kW-N DA-2 with lots of
towers and patterns aimed due north, although the night pattern must have
been designed to miss CJRS. He eventually turned in the CP. I've met Fox. He
impressed me as kind of a weired guy.

I think, though, that after years of struggling, he got the tall tower at
the WOLF site working with acceptable efficiency at 1490. Took him years to
solve the problems, which might have been the result of using steel, rather
than copper, wire for the Folded Unipole antenna. I've heard that if you
want a Folded Unipole to work and you want the strength of steel, you must
use copper-plated steel. The resistance of the steel without the copper
plating is just too high and the efficiency suffers. Also the high
resistance lowers the propagation velocity, which increases the electrical
height of the antenna. If you start with a 225-degree tower, as Fox did, you
wind up way beyond the point of maximum efficiency, so you take a double hit
on efficiency.

--
Dan Strassberg, dan.strassberg@att.net
eFax 707-215-6367