General – Page 33 – Engineering Radio

SSAC BKON tower light flasher

Tower light outages are fairly typical in this business and I have spent a fair amount of time at various tower bases poking around in the junction boxes looking for trouble. Over the years, I have replaced several old mechanical tower light flashers with these SSAC solid-state units. The SSAC units are nice, in that they have a zero voltage turn-on, which tends to extend the service life of incandescent bulbs.

This unit appears to have taken the brunt of a lightning strike:

I would hazard a guess that lightning struck the top part of the beacon housing where the bulb socket is located, then traveled down the AC line to this device. Luckily, it appears the wire insulation inside the conduit to the beacon fixture is still intact. Sometimes, under high stress, wire insulation can fail, as it is most often rated for 600 volts maximum. I have also seen that happen on more than one tower, especially if water has made its way into the conduit.

Side view, this was mounted on a hot AM tower, but was not the unit designed for high RF environments. Those units are denoted with an “RF” suffix. The difference between the two, the RF models have bypass capacitors installed internally.

Lightning path to ground, through the bottom of the case.

Bumper Stickers

I found this box of bumper stickers at a transmitter site the other day. And you might say “A box of bumper stickers, wow.” which would be nearly identical to the reaction I had. But then I started looking through them and realized that many were from the eighties and early nineties.

It is sort of like a way-back radio promotions time machine. On the back of most of these bumper stickers, there is some type of offer; 10% off, $2.00 off, etc from different local businesses. You remember those things; tire repair shops, miniature golf, non-chain restaurants, and fast food places, retail stores that aren’t Walmart, and so on. There were several that had bumper sticker spotting contests, including one, where if the bumper sticker was spotted covering another radio station’s bumper sticker, they would stop you on the spot and give you $1,500.00. Now that is exciting!

I picked a few of the more interesting examples:

Being an engineer and coming upon new, unknown data, I decided to quantify it. Therefore I made a spreadsheet of all the different radio stations and any other information I could find on the back of the bumper sticker:

Call Sign or Identifier	Frequency	Location	Date
92 MOO	92 FM	??	??
94.9 ZHT	94.9 Mhz	Colorado	1998
B.Rock	97.7 MHz	?	?
B96	96 FM	Chicago, IL	1990
CFX-95	95 FM	Central Michigan	??
FM 96	96 FM	Montreal, QC	1985
Groove 103.1	103.1 MHz	??	??
KAKS KISS 108	108 FM	??	??
KATD	95.3 FM	??	??
KAT-FM	92.9 MHz	??	??
KATT	100.5 MHz	Oklahoma City, OK	1988
KBBY	95 FM	??	??
KBOO	90.7 MHz	Portland, OR	1986
KBPI	105.9 MHz	Colorado	??
KCFO	102 FM	??	1984
KCFX	101 FM	Overland Park, KS	??
KDKA	1020 KHz	Pittsburgh, PA	1986
KEDG	103.5 MHz	Kern County?	1993
KENO AM Stereo	1460 KHz	Las Vegas, NV	1988
KEGL	97.1 MHz	??	??
KFMG	107.9 MHz	San Diego	1983
KGBX	1260 AM	??	??
KHIP	93.5 MHz	San Francisco, CA	Early 80’s
KHTR	103 FM	St. Louis, MO	1983
KIIS	102.7 MHz	Los Angeles, CA	1988
KISS 108 FM	108 FM	Medford, MA	1992
KLBS	1330 KHz	??	??
KLZX	93 FM	??	1989
KMEL	106.1 MHz	CA?	??
KMEL	106 FM	CA?	1990
KMET	94.7 MHz	??	??
KMGX	104 FM	??	??
KMJI	100 FM	Englewood, CO	1986
KNCI	98.5 MHz	??	??
KOMP	92.3 MHz	Las Vegas, NV	1986
KOUL	103.7 Mhz	??	??
KPXI	100.7 MHz	??	??
KRKO	1380 KHz	??	1990
K-Rock	1310 AM Stereo	Albuquerque, NM	1989
KRQR	97.3 MHz	San Francisco, CA	??
KSHE	95 FM	St. Louis, MO	??
KSHE	95 ?	St. Louis, MO	1995
KTAR	620 KHz	Phoenix, AZ	??
KTYD	99.9 MHz	??	1984
KUFO	98 FM	??	??
KVIL	103.7 MHz	??	??
KXOJ	100.9 MHz	??	2000
KXXX	105.3 MHz	Dane County?	1990
KYMS	106.3 FM	CA ??	1986
KYNK	1430 AM	??	??
KYST Radio Alegria	920 KHz	??	??
KZOK	102.5 FM	??	??
KZST	100 FM	Santa Rosa, CA	??
KZZP	104.7 MHz	??	1989
Pirate Radio	100.3 MHz	??	??
Pirate Radio 100.3	100.3 MHz	??	??
Power 104	104 FM	Huntsville, AL	1986
Power 106 FM	106 FM	Los Angeles, CA	??
Q-105 & 1380 AM	105 FM/1380 AM	Tampa, FL	??
Q-106.5	106.5 Mhz	St. Louis, MO	1989
Q-94	94 FM	Cookeville, TN	1983
Rock 103	103 FM	Memphis, TN	1984
Rock 105	105.9MHz	Nashville, TN	??
Rock 107	107 FM	PA	1983
Top 106 FM	106 FM	??	??
TV-69	Channel 69	Gainesville, FL	1986
WAAF	107 FM	??	??
WAIL	99.5 FM	Key West, FL	1987
WALK	97.5 Mhz	Long Island, NY	1992
WAPE	95 FM	Orlando	??
WAZY 96 ½	96.5 MHz	??	1990
WBAP	820 Khz	Dallas, TX	1986
WBFG	97.7 MHz	Effingham, IL	1987
WBT	1110 KHz	Charlotte, NC	??
WCBW	105 FM	St Louis, MO	??
WCCC	106.9 Mhz	Hartford, CT	??
WCKX	106.3 MHz	??	??
WCNX	1150 KHz	Middletown, CT	1984
WCUZ	101.3 FM/1230 AM	Greenville, SC	1987
WDVE	102.5 MHz	Pittsburgh, PA	??
WGN	720 KHz	Chicago, IL	1986
WHHU Y-102	102 FM	??	1988
WHLY	106 FM	Orlando, FL	1986
WHTZ Z-100	100 FM	New York, NY	Early 90’s
WIYY	98 FM	??	??
WIZN	106.7 Mhz	Burlington, VT	1990
WJMX	106 FM	??	??
WJZM	1400 AM	??	??
WKLH	96 FM	??	??
WKVT	92.7 Mhz	Vermont	1992
WLIZ	98.7 Mhz	Detroit, MI	1985
WLLZ	98.7 FM	??	??
WMAS	95 FM	Springfield, MA	1990
WMAS	1450 AM	Springfield, MA	1990
WMJQ	102 FM	Gainesville, FL	1993
WMLI	96.3 Mhz	Dane County ?	1989
WMMQ	92.7 MHz	Lansing, MI	1985
WMMS	100.7 MHz	??	??
WNEW	102.7 FM	New York, NY	1989
WNFI I-100	100 FM	Ormond Beach, FL	1984
WOVR	103 FM		??
WPSC	88.7 (TV-6)	Wayne, NJ	??
WQUT	101 FM	??	1986
WQXM	98 FM	Tampa, FL	1983
WRKT	104 FM/1300 AM	Broward co, FL	1984
WRO	95 FM	??	??
WRQK	107 FM		1986
WRRO	1440 KHz	??	??
WRSI	95.3 FM	Greenfield, MA	1985
WRX	103.7 Mhz	??	??
WSHO SHO Radio	98.3/103.5 FM	Schenectady, NY	1989
XX FM 95	95 MHz	Honolulu, HI	1986
Y-95	95 FM	St. Louis, MO	1988
Z-100	100 FM	New York, NY	??
Zeta 94.9	94.9 FM	??	1987

Right.

Well, if anyone is interested in any of these, contact me off line. There were some other, generic stickers like “Good times, Great Oldies” that did not have any identifying information.

Goodbye, RCI 1945-2012

RCI logo

In yet another example of government-sponsored international broadcasting ending, Radio Canada International calls it quits after 67 years. Effective June 24, all broadcasts from RCI’s Sackville shortwave relay site will cease. All satellite distribution will end and seventy-five percent of the RCI workforce will be laid off. This means the end of almost all RCI original content. The good news, according to the press release, is that RCI will continue on webcasting.

This is due to budget cuts to the CBC, which administers RCI. The Canadian Parliament cut the RCI budget from $12.3 million CAD to $2.3 million CAD for 2012. This cut in expenditures is saving each Canadian resident approximately $0.35 CAD per year.

Thus, this weekend is the last chance to hear RCI or CBCNord Quebec on any HF frequency.

I listened to RCI for many years, until they drastically reduced their English language shortwave broadcasts to North America in 2006. Simply put, HF broadcasters are folding up shop and moving toward web-based distribution networks. Those HF transmitters are expensive and they do not maintain themselves.

One drawback of this scheme is government censorship. It is very easy to the government to block access to sites via internet firewalls. It is very difficult to completely jam a radio station.

And perhaps those considerations are not important.

RCI transmitter site, Sackville, NB, courtesy of Wikipedia

I wonder what will happen to their transmitters after sign-off? According to the wikipedia article there are nine HF transmitters in use, with power levels ranging from 100-300 KW. They are likely to be hauled away and scrapped, the building torn down.

North East Commercial Radio Antennas and Towers

NECRAT logo

Or NECRAT for those who have been around the internet for a while. Many, if not most of you will know Mike Fitzpatrick’s NECRAT website which features many pictures of radio transmitter sites around the country (not just the Northeast).

Even before I began blogging, I checked NECRAT often for interesting pictures of many different transmitter sites.

If you are one of the few who has not visited his site, go and check it out: http://www.necrat.us