{"id":3220,"date":"2011-08-01T09:13:47","date_gmt":"2011-08-01T13:13:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/?p=3928"},"modified":"2023-04-30T11:21:37","modified_gmt":"2023-04-30T15:21:37","slug":"mount-mansfield-highest-point-in-vermont","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/2011\/08\/mount-mansfield-highest-point-in-vermont\/","title":{"rendered":"Mount Mansfield, highest point in Vermont"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As alluded to in the previous post, I spent a fair amount of time at Mt. Mansfield<\/a> last month. It is the highest point in the state of Vermont, topping out at 4,393 feet (1,339 M). \u00a0At the top, there is a large transmission facility that is home to WCAX-TV<\/a>, WPTZ-TV<\/a>, WVPS<\/a>, WEZF<\/a>, several low-power TVs, NOAA weather radio, etc. \u00a0Next door, Vermont Public TV is housed in a separate building. \u00a0Here are a few pictures and descriptions. \u00a0First of all, Mount Mansfield is the home of the Stowe Ski area. \u00a0They own the access road to the top of the mountain and are quite proud of it. \u00a0In the summertime, the toll for a carload of people is $26.00.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mount<\/a>
Mount Mansfield Toll Road gate<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The transmitter building is below the actual peak. \u00a0This 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. \u00a0I’d imagine it gets pretty deary up there in the wintertime, but perhaps not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mount<\/a>
Mount Mansfield transmitter building<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The transmitters are located along a long hallway. \u00a0WEZF and WVPS share a room, and WCAX and WPTZ are in open bays as are the low-power TVs. \u00a0NOAA weather radio and some other government transmitters are located in the garage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"WCAX<\/a>
WCAX digital TV transmitter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"WPTZ<\/a>
WPTZ transmitter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Like WCAX, WPTZ was on channel five, it is now transmitting on channel 14 with 650 KW ERP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. \u00a0These generators also provide backup power for the Stowe Ski area. \u00a0 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mount<\/a>
Mount Mansfield generator<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

All of this generating equipment requires a lot of fuel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Transmitter<\/a>
Transmitter building and fuel storage tanks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The TV and FM broadcast antennas are located just below the peak<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mount<\/a>
Mount Mansfield TV and FM antennas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mount<\/a>
Mount Mansfield from the top looking west<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mount<\/a>
Mount Mansfield Vermont Public TV antenna<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The transmission lines go down the hill on a large ice bridge.  An absolute necessity as the rime ice can sometimes accumulate several inches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mount<\/a>
Mount Mansfield Ice Bridge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tower base, is the location of the highest RF concentration, according to the TV engineers. \u00a0I only lingered here to snap a few quick photos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mount<\/a>
Mount Mansfield tower base<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

All of the STL antennas are mounted to the side of the transmitter building next to the living quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mount<\/a>
Mount Mansfield STL antennas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mount<\/a>
Mount Mansfield morning<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I can think of worse things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I regret that I didn’t have a better camera with me as several of the pertinent pictures came out blurry. \u00a0All of these pictures were taken with my cellphone camera, which works well when it works. \u00a0It is also very convenient because it is almost always with me and I don’t have to remember to bring another gadget. \u00a0However, 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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). \u00a0At the top, there is a large transmission facility that is home to WCAX-TV, WPTZ-TV, WVPS, WEZF, several low-power … Continue reading Mount Mansfield, highest point in Vermont<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[215,216],"class_list":["post-3220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-fm-transmitter-site","tag-tv-transmitter-site"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3220","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=3220"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11774,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3220\/revisions\/11774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}