[BC] AM Auxiliary Sites

[Scott Fybush]

r j carpenter wrote:

> How many AMs have an auxiliary installation at a different site? They 
> must be very rare.

I know of at least four: WBZ (at the studio), WEPN (at the site of 
sister-station-for-now WABC), WWL (at the site of sister station WWWL 
1350, and formerly at the WWL-TV tower) and WCCO (at another former AM 
site a few miles away).

Unless it's done really on the cheap (something like a little Armstrong 
or Nautel 1 kW box feeding a longwire on the studio roof), that would be 
one expense I think even the biggest stations would have a hard time 
justifying, as long as there's aux capacity and a generator at the main 
tx site.

I'd think the biggest value to such a separate-site aux facility would 
be in case massive tower work is needed at the main site. I know the 10 
kW-into-a-longwire setup at WBZ got a lot of use a few years ago when 
the towers at the main site in Hull were being rebuilt, and I believe 
the WEPN installation at WABC (a 12.5 kW Nautel into the WABC aux tower) 
was built as a precaution in case the work on the huge Xanadu 
shopping/sports/entertainment project next to the main WEPN site mucked 
with the pattern too much (or the WEPN RF played havoc with the 
construction cranes.) I don't know how much use it's actually gotten.

s