[BC] WLS Tx History Update

[Robert Meuser]

WINS did indeed diplex at WABC while they rebuilt their directional 
array. The scheme was quite complex. They ran the original 3 tower 
inline array at 50 KW during morning and evening drive. The new 4 tower 
array was built around the 3 inline and had to be detuned when the 3 
tower was in operation, an interesting feat as the towers 'grew'. Out of 
drive time, they used a DX10 in the WABC aux. Sometime after 
Westinghouse was absorbed by CBS the aux moved to high Island and the 
diplexer re-tuned for then ABC co owned WEPN. Now that WABC is two 
owners removed from ABC and WEPN is still an ABC property, I do not know 
the current status of the WEPN aux.

One important benefit of an off site aux is that it is virtually 
impossible to legally do any tower work if the site is hot.

On 12/14/11 2:23 PM, Rene Tetro wrote:
> At WBBR in New York (ex-WNEW) back in the late 90s, we looked extensively
> into installing an off site auxiliary transmitter, and looked at several
> locations (most in depth at WPAT-AM).  In the end, however, we installed a
> 12kw Nautel transmitter in the tuning house of our Tower 4, with its own
> generator, STL equipment, and AC Mains feed from PSE&G.  To my knowledge it
> never got used, except for testing.  The idea was to provide a method of
> staying on the air should the main transmitter building be disabled (fire,
> flood, etc).  Since tower 4 was setup as our backup non-directional tower,
> inserting the auxiliary transmitter on that tower with an RF contactor was a
> minimal process.  This happened after the 1993 WTC bombing and Hurricane
> Floyd.  At that point many NYC AMs and FMs were searching for alternate
> sites.  For instance, I believe that WINS had diplexed onto WABC's auxiliary
> tower in Lodi as a backup.