[BC] Class "D" AM Towers

[Dana Puopolo]

When I worked for Multicultural, I was directly involved in moving KYPA to the
KBLA site. 
I even helped hand trench the 600 foot trough for the transmission line-it had
to be done by hand to keep from trashing the radials. (Ron Rackley put the non
D on the tower diagonally furthest away from the building). The PVC conduit
the half inch foam went through was changed on my ATM card from Home Depot.

The Odd Fellows site was decrepit-and MRBI didn't want to put a penny into it.
The first time I was there pigeons were living in the room thanks to several
broken windows-and their crap was all over place-including the BE AM-1A. I
bought exterior plywood sheets at Home Depot and nailed them over the windows
to keep them out. I understand that they finally put some money into the site
(the newer pictures actually looked pretty good). 

The day after we got the KBLA site on air, I was called into the VP's office
and told to IMMEDIATELY dismantle the Odd Fellows site. I protested, telling
them that I felt uncomfortable with a literally day old site as our only
option. I was overruled-and the dismantling took place the very next day. This
came direct from Arthur Liu, who made it clear that he wanted the room
stripped to the bare walls, and everything but the transmitter, Orban 9100
audio processor and Burk remote control tossed out-with photographs to prove
it was done. I called Mike Dorrough to help, as there was an RCA BC-1H there
that had not run in years. It turns out that it was too big to get out of the
room in one piece (they had remodeled and put up walls after it was
installed), so Mike stripped it in place, leaving only the cabinet. He also
took the ATU off the wall. I took the photos-and believed that was that-until
two days later when I was called back into the VP's office again and in a
panic they told me to get the Odd Fellows site back in operation as quickly as
I could!
It turns out (as I predicted) that KBLA was a great non directional site-it
boomed into the studios in Pasadena where it could hardly be heard before-but
since the Odd Fellows site was much closer to Koreatown and quite directional
(thanks to the hammock antenna) the field stregnth in Koreatown had dropped by
about 60%-and the LMA operator was mad as hell!  

I called Mike D. who had just finished stripping the components off the ATU
panel and told him I needed it back. Fortunately, I had not ordered out the
program or remote control lines yet, so they were still active (though believe
it or not, I was called on the carpet for procrastinating-AFTER the site was
back in service!)

Mike hastily put the ATU back together and we went and picked it up. Of course
it had to be retuned. We grabbed a van, brought the transmitter, remote
control and Optimod back, put the transmitter on a table along with the remote
control and audio processor, hooked everything up the best we could (with
pieces of #10 wire tying all the grounds together) and tuned up the ATU with
an OIB running at 25 watts. During all this, my cell phone was ringing every
15 minutes as the LMA operator had already gotten a lawyer involved, and
things were reaching panic stage at the studios in Pasadena. Unfortunately, we
had to take the station completely off the air for about 15 minutes in the
middle of the afternoon because the KBLA site was interfering with the
bridging of the ATU. BOY did I get into hot water over that!

FANALLY-we got everything up and running and went back to full power.
Everything was fine-until later that evening. It seems that during all this
they were taping an Alanis Morrisette video on the lower floors of the Odd
Fellows Hall, which didn't affect us until it got dark and the BIG 500 kW
generators they had brought in for the shoot came on line! Unfortunately, they
had somehow tied them into the ground/neutral of the building power and once
fired up they put a LOUD 60 cycle hum into the transmitter audio. The BE
didn't like this too much (being modulated with 60 Hz to a flat topped
envelope) and burst into oscillation. I was hurriedly called back to the site
(of course this power problem also affected the Burk, so we couldn't shut the
site off) and then found I was unable to enter the site due to the taping.
Frustrated and with the VP of Engineering calling me every 5 minutes and
screaming in a Korean/english mix, I seriously considered quitting on the
spot!
After about 45 minites of waitig (and multible phone calls) I finally managed
to get hold of the building management who then called and told the film
crew's security to let me in and was able to shut the site off manually (we
put the KBLA site back on).

At that point I began looking over the electrical and found they had fed a
'dead' panel to get power upstairs-not realizing that only the hots had been
disconnected in the basement-the neutral was still very much still there-and
they had fed the panel without grounding their neutral to the panel.  Once we
tied their neutral and ground together the problem was fixed. Fortunately (and
amazingly) no equipment had been damaged-and I was able to get the site back
on the air.

After an almost 18 hour day, I finally was able to go home. Was my hard work
rewarded or even acknowleged? Nope-instead I was fired about a month later.
This fiasco (which if they had listened to me in the first place would never
have happened) was a factor. I guess Arthur needed a fall guy to blame for his
bad decision. The supreme irony is that at Christmas the LMA operator sent me
a VERY expensive pen as a token of his gratitude over my help during the whole
mess.

Such was life at MRBI-a no win situation and one of my top 3 worst jobs of all
time.

-D

From: PeterH <peterh5322 at rattlebrain.com>

On Feb 14, 2010, at 11:38 AM, Mike McCarthy wrote:

> BTW...it's KYPA.

Yes, I know that. No need to nit-pick ... we:re professionals here.

> 1230 is a Class C channel and Class C's can't have a DA.

Well, the DA-1 application was approved by the FCC, and it is indeed  
going in, after failing to provide adequate service while using just  
one tower of KDAY:s six tower array.

Yeah, KDAY is now KBLA, but you probably knew that, too.

> This makes no sense.

It makes perfect sense.

The license is grandfathered at 241 mV/m/kW at 1 km, and the  
efficiency of KBLA:s towers on 1230 is something like 305 mV/m/kW at  
1 km.

So ...

A DA-1 was proposed, and accepted.

That this provided more than 241 over the COL downtown, and about 3  
kW, effective, over L.A.:s Koreatown District, fit perfectly within  
the licensee:s desires, and was certainly an improvement over less  
than 1 kW ND2 from KBLA.

The licensee:s representations to the commission included the unsafe  
site, which required armed guards every time a technician was sent  
down to the Odd Fellows Temple building for trouble-shooting. That  
site has since been dismantled, and is no longer available.

KGFJ ... er, KYPA ... is presently operating under an STA with 680  
watts ND, or 1 kW DA-1, whichever meets the protection requirements,  
until the DA-1 system is finally adjusted.

The issue at this point is not the KYPA phasor, but the KBLA phasor.

The Licensee has three days to complete the adjustments, as the  
present STA expires 2/17/2010.

I suspect a new STA will be requested, and will be granted.

So, whether it makes any sense to you, or not, this Class C station  
is indeed going DA-1 with a full kW, and not 680 watts ND2.