[BC] KFI Tower replacement ?

[Dan Strassberg]

Dave Hultsman wrote:
The FCC might be an easier problem to resolve than the Santa Catalina
Island authorities.  It is my understanding that the station had to replace
the towers a few years back and they wanted to keep them off the island.

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Naturally. Although I had never heard the story, I assumed as much, hence my
use of the phrase "fat chance." That's why I wrote about using an existing
KBRT tower without modification. My reference to constructing a conforming
radiator on Catalina was simply to make the point that, because of the salt
water for "26 miles across the sea," KFI's effective power on the mainland
would be greater than the FCC curves predict from a 65.5-degree tower and
would probably provide coverage greater than that achieved with KFI's
licensed but no-longer extant 175-degree stick.

Both Peter Haas and Dana Puopolo have proposed using more than one of KBRT's
three towers. Using only two of KBRT's towers, it would be a slam dunk to
produce a cardioid pattern that would yield the same field intensity as
KFI's licensed tower over a broad arc centered around an azimuth of 75
degrees. I suspect, though, that if that were done, avoiding increased
interference to co-channel stations at night (and maybe a first adjacent or
two by day) might require a power reduction because I think the coverage
from the island location would be surprisingly better than that from the
licensed location.

--
Dan Strassberg, dan.strassberg at att.net
eFax 707-215-6367