I saw this at the WIZN transmitter site in Charlotte, VT:
Somebody went through quite a bit of trouble to chart the transmitter readings from April of 1987 through about February of 1992.
A closer view:
I have not seen this at any other transmitter site, so I thought it was an interesting way to keep a transmitter log. It also seems to be time-consuming and a bit obsessive. Over the years, I have found my fellow broadcast engineers to be a somewhat strange group sometimes.
Another trove of surveillance documents reveals some interesting technical aspects of spying in the modern age:
What we have here is a copper wiretap. This allows some telco or ISP to split an ethernet feed, and send one output on its merry way, while the other output goes to? If not interception and collection, I don’t rightly know what else this device is designed for.
There are many many more like this on the WikiLeaks website. Have any doubts about how deep the internet surveillance goes? Spend a few minutes poking around, it is an eye-opening experience.
This is another one of those, ahem, AM success stories. WKNY is on 1490 KHz, 1,000 Watts day and night from a transmitter site that is located very close to its target audience of Kingston. It signed on on December 16, 1939, broadcasting 100 watts on 1500 kHz according to the Broadcasting Yearbook 1940 edition.
The transmitter location is the key to this station’s good signal over Kingston. Even though it is a class C AM station when driving around the Kingston city limits there is no electrical interference or nighttime co-channel interference. The reason for this is that most of the city limits are within 2.5 to 3 miles (4 to 4.8 km) from the tower.
This is the original transmitter building and tower. Like many old AM transmitter sites, this one is located in a low, swampy area. The tower is electrically tall for 1490 KHz, at 92 meters (305 feet) it is 163 electrical degrees. Something else that may contribute to the station’s performance.
WKNY tower, a typical design of a uniform cross-section guyed tower from the late 1930s to late 1950s.
WKNY transmitter. Another Nautel ND-1 series transmitter. Nothing ever breaks or goes wrong.
The air studio has an AudioArts R-60 console. For an inexpensive audio console, these things sure seem to last for a long time. I think this one was put in in 1997.
A small talk studio is used to originate local programming of interest. This morning, I was listening to “Speak Out With Jody McTague,” a local interest program that was discussing the impacts being felt in the Kingston area due to the “Affordable Health Care Act.”
The production studio has a rather old Harris rotary pot console from the 1980’s.
Of course, all of this equipment makes radio transmission possible, but what makes radio itself is the local people working at the station and bringing relevant information to the area. I know a lot of very smart people are working on the “solution” to the AM problem. It really has to do with the programming.
We take care of a non-broadcast radio site on Clove Mountain, NY. This is a fairly prominent terrain feature and has something else interesting next to the tower site. This old fire tower:
That is an Aermotor LS-60 fire tower, constructed in 1932. For an eighty-year-old structure, it is a remarkably good shape. In New York State, fire towers were used for spotting up until 1990, although I believe the last season this one was used was 1988.
Clove mountain is about 1,400 feet above sea level and 800 to 1000 feet above the surrounding terrain. From the top, on a clear day, the view was approximately 30-45 miles depending on terrain obstacles. A forest ranger would be constantly scanning the area looking for signs of fire. If he saw something, there was a range finder that would give the range and azimuth. He would then reference a map and call the fire department responsible for that location. The fire tower was equipped with electric and a wired telephone.
This picture was taken on a cloudy day, thus the view is somewhat restricted.
It would be nice if this were preserved and not allowed to deteriorate any further. Several of these sites have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Below the tower is this ranger cabin. Presumably, during the busy season, somebody stayed up here 24/7. There was electricity and a refrigerator, but no running water. Off to the side is a bedroom. Over the years, people have broken into the fire tower and this cabin and smashed things for no reason. It would be nice to preserve all of this for future generations to see, but it is likely these pictures will have to do.
