A few hints; it was found (written on a wall) at an old, mountain top transmitter site. We are renovating this site and it was underneath an old old alarm panel from the 1970’s that I removed. It reads 468 ÷ 45 = 10. and the 468 is significant.
Once upon a time, a person could go to the TELCO demark and get all of the inside numbers for the CO and any number of COs in the area. They would be scribbled on the wall next to the equipment along with many other numbers. This was especially helpful when doing emergency troubleshooting on a circuit that was down. Try to do that these days and the most likely result is an unanswered phone. Most of the smaller COs are not normally manned unless there is a trouble ticket in the process.
As alluded to in the previous post, I spent a fair amount of time at Mt. Mansfield last month. It is the highest point in the state of Vermont, topping out at 4,393 feet (1,339 M). At the top, there is a large transmission facility that is home to WCAX-TV, WPTZ-TV, WVPS, WEZF, several low-power TVs, NOAA weather radio, etc. Next door, Vermont Public TV is housed in a separate building. Here are a few pictures and descriptions. First of all, Mount Mansfield is the home of the Stowe Ski area. They own the access road to the top of the mountain and are quite proud of it. In the summertime, the toll for a carload of people is $26.00.
Mount Mansfield Toll Road gate
The transmitter building is below the actual peak. This is one of the few transmitter sites that is manned 24/7, as such there is a working kitchen, bathroom, bunk rooms, and so on. I’d imagine it gets pretty deary up there in the wintertime, but perhaps not.
Mount Mansfield transmitter building
The transmitters are located along a long hallway. WEZF and WVPS share a room, and WCAX and WPTZ are in open bays as are the low-power TVs. NOAA weather radio and some other government transmitters are located in the garage.
WCAX digital TV transmitter
All of the TV transmitters are new because of the recent conversion from analog to digital transmission. WCAX is noted as channel three, which was their analog channel, they actually transmit on channel 22 with a power of 443 KW ERP.
WPTZ transmitter
Like WCAX, WPTZ was on channel five, it is now transmitting on channel 14 with 650 KW ERP.
The site is backed up by two 1.2 MW diesel generators, which can be paralleled with the commercial power grid, if needed, during peak demand times. These generators also provide backup power for the Stowe Ski area. There is a 50 KW back up back up generator that runs all of the emergency transmitter cooling equipment if the two main backup generators fail.
Mount Mansfield generator
All of this generating equipment requires a lot of fuel.
Transmitter building and fuel storage tanks
The TV and FM broadcast antennas are located just below the peak
Mount Mansfield TV and FM antennas
I don’t recall which TV station belongs to which antenna. The FMs are combined into the four-bay, three-around panel antenna, this includes WVPS’s HD radio signal.
Mount Mansfield from the top looking west
From the very top looking west into the aperture of the TV antennas. I only stood there for as long as it took to get a good picture, then departed. Off to the left of this view is the antenna for Vermont Public TV.
Mount Mansfield Vermont Public TV antenna
The transmission lines go down the hill on a large ice bridge. An absolute necessity as the rime ice can sometimes accumulate several inches.
Mount Mansfield Ice Bridge
Tower base, is the location of the highest RF concentration, according to the TV engineers. I only lingered here to snap a few quick photos.
Mount Mansfield tower base
All of the STL antennas are mounted to the side of the transmitter building next to the living quarters.
Mount Mansfield STL antennas
On top of all that, as if that weren’t enough, there is the view. I would also comment a bit on the weather. In some cases, the site can be completely engulfed in a grey dull fog bank one minute, then the wind changes direction, the sun comes out and you see this:
Mount Mansfield morning
I can think of worse things.
I regret that I didn’t have a better camera with me as several of the pertinent pictures came out blurry. All of these pictures were taken with my cellphone camera, which works well when it works. It is also very convenient because it is almost always with me and I don’t have to remember to bring another gadget. However, it this is going to be a semi-serious endeavor, I will have to take some of my earnings from these scribblings and buy a good camera.
Continuing the series, this is a picture of an ice bridge installation I recently saw:
Ground wires on an ice bridge
On an otherwise neat installation, it appears there is something wrong with the way these ground wires are connected to the support poles of an ice bridge. I am not sure how effective that connection will be if lightning hits anything nearby. Generally speaking, those wires are CAD welded (exothermic welding) to the support poles or whatever else is supposed to be grounded. I’d bet that whoever packed the truck for the job simply forgot to throw the CAD weld shots on the truck.
Now they have to come back.
It will be interesting to see how long it takes whatever tower company to return to the site and finish the job.
A trip to the WSPK transmitter site on a pleasant day, or, one could say, another day at the “office.” Tower painting season is here, I’ll post some more about that later. This is a nice set of pictures from the top of Mt. Beacon, in Beacon, NY.
Hudson Valley looking north from Mt. Beacon
South Mount Beacon with the old fire tower:
Mount Beacon looking south at the old fire tower
Tower farm; two TV stations, Media Flow, one radio station, three translators, several cell carriers, one paging company, some government two-way gear, and a few microwave relays. The 320-foot guyed tower in the center holds the main (top) and backup (bottom) antennas for WSPK:
Mount Beacon Tower Farm
Tower climbers ascending a 320-foot tower. This picture (and all the others as well) was taken with my HTC smartphone camera, proving the old adage, sometimes it is better to be lucky than good:
Tower workers on 320 foot guyed tower
View from the ATC site at the very top of North Mount Beacon of the tower workers painting the top of the tower:
Tower workers painting torque arms on 320 foot guyed tower
