Herald: Where have you gone Air America

[Dan Strassberg]

The FM antenna appears to still be there. Indeed, an application for a
low-power religious station in Lexington a few years ago identified the site
as its proposed transmitter location. I think this was an app for 91.7 that
probably now is unbuildable because, AFAIK, WAVM's application for a power
increase (as well as another app for a new station in Lunenburg on 91.7) has
been granted. I suspect, (although I do not know) that the FM transmission
line to the antenna is still present and it's more than likely being used to
detune the tower from 1150, 1510, and 1470. If the shield of the FM coax is
not grounded, I think it could be driven to detune the tower. To the best of
my knowledge, no skirt has been installed on the tower but it's a sure bet
that the tower is detuned--probably at all three AM frequencies, because the
1150 and 1470 patterns (all four of them) would be way out of whack if the
tall twoer were reradiating the signals. And 1470 has a huge problem with
reradiating 1510. Sometimes 1510's audio is louder on 1470 than the 1470
audio. Sometimes the 1510 audio is considerably below the 1470 audio, but
the 1510 audio is always present on 1470--at least on my Super Radio III.
The problem could be in the radio, of course.

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

----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Vita" <brian_vita@cssinc.com>
To: "Eli Polonsky" <elipolo@earthlink.net>
Cc: "Dan Strassberg" <dan.strassberg@att.net>;
<boston-radio-interest@rolinin.BostonRadio.org>; "A. Joseph Ross"
<Joe@attorneyross.com>
Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2006 6:51 AM
Subject: Re: Herald: Where have you gone Air America


> Eli Polonsky wrote:
> >> Also, WAZN and WTTT recently suffered a lightning strike that
> >> did quite a bit of damage (not visible from outside the site but
> >> serious nonetheless according to WAZN's GM). You'd think the
> >> nearby FM tower, which is at least 50% taller than the AM
> >> towers would protect the shorter towers, but lightning has a
> >> mind of its own.
> >>
> >
> > Perhaps the lightning "sensed" somehow that the AM towers,
> > with their underground grids, were a more substantial "path to
> > ground" than the taller FM tower was. Only guessing, I really
> > have no idea. Another possibility is perhaps the lightning may
> > have hit the taller old FM tower first with no operational effect,
> > then bounced to the AM towers. I guess you had to be there...
> >
> > EP
> >
> >
> >
> Which, of course, begs the question, is there anything at the other end
> of the antenna lead on this tower?  When 100.7 left the tower, were all
> of the electronics pulled or is there some standby equipment still left
> connected?  Is the actual antenna still there or was it taken down
> leaving just the steel frame?  Are there any other services using the
> tower?  Just curious.
>
> Brian