{"id":5197,"date":"2012-06-23T15:36:49","date_gmt":"2012-06-23T19:36:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/?p=5197"},"modified":"2023-04-29T08:37:23","modified_gmt":"2023-04-29T12:37:23","slug":"hums-no-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/2012\/06\/hums-no-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Hums no more"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

My first job as Chief Engineer was at WPTR and WFLY in 1991. I was young and it was a learning experience. The WPTR transmitter was a Harris MW50A, which reliably went off the air every six months. The transmission lines going out to the towers had fallen off of their wooden support posts, trees were growing up in the antenna field, and sample lines were going bad. In short, it was a mess.\u00a0 Even so, the station was well-known and well-liked in the community. One could still see echoes of greatness that once was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Crawford Broadcasting purchased the station in 1996, they put much money and effort into renovating the facility.\u00a0 Replacing the Harris transmitter with a solid state Nautel, replacing the phasor and transmission lines, cutting the trees from the field, painting the towers, renovating the old transmitter building into a new studio facility, and finally removing the old Butler building that formerly housed the “Gold Studios.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then the depression of 2008-20?? hit.\u00a0 Once again, the place has fallen on hard times.\u00a0 WDCD-AM<\/a> has been silent since last April.\u00a0 The cost of running the 50 KW AM transmitter being too much to bear in the current economy.\u00a0 Formatically, the station drifted around for several years.\u00a0 According to the STA to go silent:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

WDCD WILL SUSPEND OPERATIONS FOR A PERIOD DURING WHICH IT WILL DEVELOP AND PREPARE TO DEPLOY A NEW PROGRAM FORMAT AND REPOSITION ITS VOICE AND IDENTITY IN THE COMMUNITY.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

They may need to do something slightly non-religious to survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While we were waiting for the utility company to turn the electricity back on after yesterday’s fire, I took a short walk around the WDCD-AM site and took some pictures.\u00a0 The transmitter disconnect thrown,\u00a0 fuses are pulled,\u00a0 it is kind of sad to see the Nautel XL-60 dark:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Nautel<\/a>
Nautel XL-60 AM transmitter. WDCD Albany, NY<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I apologize greatly for the blurry picture, it was taken with my cellphone camera, my good camera being back at home on my desk.\u00a0 Radio stations, when they are on the air, seem like they are alive.\u00a0 Machinery hums, fans move air, meters move, and there is a sense of purpose.\u00a0 Silent radio stations give me a sense of foreboding like something is terribly wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"WDCD<\/a>
WDCD three tower array, Albany, NY<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

View of the towers without Butler Building.  The towers are 340 feet tall, which is 206 electrical degrees on 1540 KHz.  The site was constructed like this to suppress skywave signals toward ZNS, Nassau, Bahamas<\/a>.  ZNS is the only clear channel station allotted to the Bahamas by NARBA.  The other station WDCD is protecting is KXEL, Waterloo, IA.  During the 90’s, I received many QSL requests from Norway\/Finland and even a few from South Africa.  I know that the station had a large following in most of New England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"WDCD<\/a>
WDCD tower base, tower one (furthest from building)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tower one tower base.  This IDECO tower had to have the top 60 feet replaced after it was hit by an airplane in 1953<\/a>.  The tower base also had to be replaced in the late 1980’s as it was crumbling and falling apart.  To do this, Northeast Towers used railroad jacks and jacked the entire tower up off of the base insulator.  They re-formed and poured a new base, carefully letting the tower back down on a new base insulator about a week later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"WDCD<\/a>
WDCD towers looking back toward the transmitter building<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Antenna field looking back at the transmitter building.  If you work at radio transmitter sites, I encourage you to take pictures of all these things, as someday, they will all be gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"WDCD<\/a>
WDCD bomb shelter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The “bomb shelter” and 220 KW backup generator,\u00a0 constructed by FEMA in 1968 as part of the BSEPP.\u00a0 This used to have an emergency studio and enough diesel fuel for fourteen days of operation.\u00a0 Now, the bomb shelter has a kitchen and bathrooms.\u00a0 The underground storage tank no longer meets EPA standards and has been pumped out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"WDCD<\/a>
WDCD Onan generator<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Onan generator is conservatively rated at 220 KW, surge rating 275 KW.\u00a0 These things were way over-constructed, so it is likely it would easily run 225 KW all day.\u00a0 It has an inline six-cylinder engine with a massive flywheel.\u00a0 When the engine is stopped, it takes about twenty seconds for the generator to stop turning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Three<\/a>
Three phase service<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

National Grid, 3 pot, 480 volt, 3 phase service, original to the 1947 building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wonder if it will return.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My first job as Chief Engineer was at WPTR and WFLY in 1991. I was young and it was a learning experience. The WPTR transmitter was a Harris MW50A, which reliably went off the air every six months. The transmission lines going out to the towers had fallen off of their wooden support posts, trees … Continue reading Hums no more<\/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":[35],"tags":[87,33,18,51],"class_list":["post-5197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","tag-am","tag-am-towers","tag-am-transmitter-site","tag-wptr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5197","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=5197"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11586,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5197\/revisions\/11586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}