A trip to the FM transmitter site

A few pictures from my last trip to one of our FM transmitter sites.  This is a mountaintop site, in as much as a medium-sized hill is a mountain around here.  This site has a 2.3-mile road through the woods that is almost impassable 3-4 months out of the year.

Previous engineers have walked up the hill with a toolbox.  I can say this with all honesty; not me.  In the past, they have also rented a helicopter, and used a snowcat, snowmobile, or an ATV with snow tracks.  I’d do those things provided they are safe and insured.  As I get older (and wiser), I realize that the only person who going to look after my well-being is me.

Anyway, the trip starts here, at the gate:

Gate to transmitter road
Gate to transmitter road

Then it goes up the hill:

Transmitter site access road
Transmitter site access road

Some sections are worse than others:

washed out road
washed out road

Along the way there are some nice views:

City reservior near transmitter site
City reservoir near the transmitter site

Finally, the gate to the tower farm:

Access gate to transmitter site
Access gate to transmitter site

There are two digital TV stations, several cell phone carriers, some government two-way gear, some FM translators, Media Flow, and us at this site.  There are also some Ham radio repeaters off to the side in another building.  All in all, a pretty RF-intense site.

The view from the top:

view looking north
view looking north

The reason why we came:

Transmitter room
Transmitter room

That is a 24-year-old BE FM5B transmitter.  The backup is a Gates FM5G, which aren’t we glad we have a solid reliable transmitter selection for such a remote site.  Actually, we were supposed to put in a new Nautel V-10 here last year, but the money was spent on computers instead.  Oh well, good thing there will be no computer crashes when we go off the air.

A standard maintenance trip consists of meter readings, comparing the reading to the last set of readings, changing the air filters, checking the remote control and calibrating it to the transmitter, checking the tower light sensor, etc.

Normally, the backup transmitter would run into the dummy load, but the backup transmitter no longer works.  Parts are not available to fix it, so we operate without a net.  One of the previous general managers asked if that keeps me awake at night, to which my answer was no, not at all.

Tower down

You know it is going to be a bad day when:

a farmer mowing grass took a wrong turn on June 16, KFEQ AM lost a guy wire and eventually one of its four towers came toppling down

From Above Ground Level magazine.

Is hiring the farmer down the road to come and mow the AM field a smart thing to do?  It depends, I suppose, on whether or not your towers will be standing afterward.  Hopefully, the guy had some insurance, if not then the station is basically screwed.  The article did not mention that, although it did state that “The station is weighing its options,” Which does not sound good.

The good news is at least they were doing the maintenance.  Most AM stations these days don’t even bother to mow the fields.  Look at this picture:

Tall grass at an AM transmitter site.  Owner says don't cut it.
Tall grass at an AM transmitter site. Owner says don’t cut it.

It is not that I don’t want the grass cut, I do.  However, I am not going to pay for it out of my own pocket, that is ridiculous.  So, it grows.