{"id":1375,"date":"2010-09-07T20:22:20","date_gmt":"2010-09-08T00:22:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/?p=3928"},"modified":"2023-07-26T16:57:23","modified_gmt":"2023-07-26T20:57:23","slug":"where-will-they-put-a-radio-station-this-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/2010\/09\/where-will-they-put-a-radio-station-this-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Where will they put a radio station this time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the time that I have been working as a broadcast engineer, I have seen some pretty unique transmitter sites. The aforementioned power plant, with the antenna mounted on a smoke stack. The more traditional AM station, is located in a swamp. Other stations both AM and FM combined into one antenna, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"WGDJ<\/a>
WGDJ AM transmitter site<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is WGDJ<\/a>, 1300 KHz, Albany, NY. \u00a0It is located in what might be a swamp if we were not experiencing marginal drought conditions this summer. \u00a0The transmitter is located along route 9J. \u00a0It is a four-tower directional daytime, 10 KW, and a six-tower directional night time, 5 KW. \u00a0Nothing spectacular, 90-degree towers, spaced 90 degrees apart. \u00a0Since they are below 200 feet, they don’t need to be lit or painted, which is nice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"WGDJ<\/a>
WGDJ directional antenna towers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The building and all the towers are on 20-foot-high steel stilts. \u00a0The area is right next to the Hudson River and often floods in the springtime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Back<\/a>
Back of WGDJ transmitter building<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The transmitter site sort of reminds me of something I once saw at coastal radio stations WCC and KPH. \u00a0They were located along saltwater bays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Phasor<\/a>
Phaors with Nautel XR12 transmitter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The station signed on the air in 1963. Initially, it was a 5 KW daytimer only. \u00a0They added night operation sometime in the seventies. Around 2006 or so, they went to 10 KW day, 5 KW night. \u00a0The phasor is gigantic for a 5 KW station, or even a 10 KW station. \u00a0I’ve seen smaller phasors on 50 KW directionals. \u00a0It has a “Quakertown, PA” nameplate on it, which may be the forerunner of Phasetek. \u00a0There is a rare art form to creating a functional, yet space economical phasor. \u00a0Harris could sometimes pull it off, RCA did well, Kintronics seems to be the one of the top phasor makers today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main transmitter is a Nautel XR12, which has a very similar look as the V series FM transmitters. \u00a0The backup transmitter is a MW5A, which, quite frankly scares me. \u00a0The site was just recently air-conditioned, which means the MW5A transmitter was sucking swamp air through it for 25 years. \u00a0I do not want to turn that thing on under any circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Nautel<\/a>
Nautel XR12 medium wave transmitter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

All in all, the station has a pretty good signal into the capital city of New York. \u00a0It nulls to the west, somewhat. \u00a0Being on 1300, it doesn’t carry as far as some of the other class B AM stations like WROW 590 kHz, but it does alright.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After years of neglect, the station is making a bit of a comeback in the Albany market. \u00a0They do a lot of local talk radio, which, when the other station is carrying almost all satellite syndicated talk, is making an impression. \u00a0Being the state capital, there is a lot of fodder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the time that I have been working as a broadcast engineer, I have seen some pretty unique transmitter sites. The aforementioned power plant, with the antenna mounted on a smoke stack. The more traditional AM station, is located in a swamp. Other stations both AM and FM combined into one antenna, etc. This is … Continue reading Where will they put a radio station this time<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[87,33,18],"class_list":["post-1375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech-stuff","tag-am","tag-am-towers","tag-am-transmitter-site"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1375"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12290,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1375\/revisions\/12290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}