Work continues on rebuilding the North Adams tower after the collapse of March 2014. Over last winter, a new tower was erected. This is a fairly substantial tower.
New North Adams tower on the groundNorth Adams new tower erected
In the interim, a new Shively 6810 four bay half wave spaced antenna was ordered. This antenna will be combined for two stations, WUPE-FM and WNNI using a Shively 2630-2-06 branched combiner. The 70 foot utility pole next to the building will be retained as a backup facility for both stations. The Shively Antenna went up in stages.
New WUPE-FM and WNNI Shively 6810 antennaTower climbers rigging tower for new antenna
Prescott Tower from Rutland Vermont was on site to do the tower work. They were the primary contractor for installing the new tower and did a really nice job of it.
New North Adams tower ice bridges to various sheltersHanging the top two bays of the new antennaLift of bottom two bays and first tuning sectionSecuring the bottom section and bolting bays together
After that, there were twenty feet of rigid line, another tuning section, then the 1 5/8 inch heliax into the transmitter room. The antenna was tuned and the load looks very good. We are waiting for the electrician to finish wiring up the new racks and we will move both stations into their new home.
On the subject of project management; oftentimes, we need to keep track of the small details that can derail a project, blow the budget, and upset schedules. A quick checklist can help to identify things that might not have been planned for. I developed a checklist mentality in the military. There, we had checklists for everything. Simple day-to-day things like disposing of garbage over the side, or pumping the CHT (sewage) tank to complex evolutions like entering or leaving port all had a checklist. On the aforementioned CHT tank; the Coast Guard cutter I was on had a vacuum flush system to conserve water. Emptying the CHT tank involved a complex set of valve openings and closings to route compressed air into the vacuum tank and literally blow the sewage overboard. Anyone can see the danger in such a design. Failure to follow the exact procedure resulted in raw sewage blowing out of the nearest toilets, which were unfortunately (or perhaps humorously) in the lower-level officer’s staterooms.
But I digress.
I have made a series of outlines for different project types. These can be used as general guidelines for project planning and management. Of course, each project is different, but these are flexible enough that they can be adapted on a project-by-project basis.
If you are the type of person that drives around to transmitter sites and steals things; fuck you. You have no idea the problems you are causing to get a few extra dollars worth of scrap copper.
Missing copper ground buss bar
I have a feeling that most of these copper thefts can be attributed to out-of-town tower contractors removing old cellular equipment from towers. Notice, only the buss bar and copper ground wire is missing. They did not try to cut the transmission lines. In other words, they seemed to know what they were doing. I have noticed around here that when a particular contractor, employed by an unnamed large company that rhymes with glint, would work at a site, things would be missing afterward.
Perhaps it is just a coincidence. I have never been able to catch anyone pinching things. However, if this is you, and I catch you, you can rest assured that I will block you in with my car, then walk down the road and call the police.
Perhaps that is one Shively Antenna that you haven’t heard of. They were an oddball combination of a horizontally polarized antenna with an adjustable vertical element. This design allowed the station to adjust the ratio of horizontal to vertical power from a range of 1:1 to about 4:1 (H:V). Why would this be a desirable feature?
Back in the early days of FM broadcasting, almost all stations had horizontally polarized antennas. This system worked remarkably well, stations could broadcast at moderate power levels over fairly long, line-of-sight (or mostly line-of-sight) paths. Most FM receivers were stationary units installed in people’s homes often with outdoor antennas.
It was not until the late 1960s and early 1970s that FM radio receivers became a stock option in most low and mid-cost automobiles. It was then that a slight problem with FM broadcasting was discovered; car antennas are vertically polarized. People driving around in their new machines found that the FM reception was not all that great. Stations began adding a vertical component to their signal to help improve the mobile reception situation.
I found this Shively Brochure in a file cabinet drawer at the WFLY transmitter site. This model antenna was ordered and installed by that station in 1970. It had a 3:1 horizontal-to-vertical ratio. Why not install a fully circularly polarized antenna? Because often that necessitated installing a new, more powerful transmitter. Every watt of power taken from the horizontal plane and added to the vertical plane reduced the ERP by that much and had to be made up with more transmitter power output. Oftentimes, the ratio of H:V power would be adjusted to take up whatever headroom there was in the transmitter and the station would run that way until the next transmitter replacement cycle.
I found the remains of this antenna in the woods, northeast of the tower.
Shively 6710 antenna section
This section looks pretty well destroyed. It is probably better to dispose of these types of things by scraping, them rather than dumping them in the woods. While there is not a lot of scrap value to this unit, it can become attractive nuisance to copper thieves and other vandals if it is left laying about.
It is a strange-looking piece of kit, a sort of make-do until the situation could be fully rectified. I think this antenna was in service until 1986 or 87 when it was replaced with a circularly polarized ERI.
