I have never found that to be true unless the gear was very, very low power.
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LaPowerFM KTWL
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David, there is no doubt the big broadcasters are paying their own power bills. I'm not arguing that point I'm not at liberty to share my employer's confidential lease agreements on a blog, but I have no problem with sharing one for a low power TV station that is public info on the web. They all use the same wording. I want you to note paragraph 8 concerning electricity. If your equipment (such as a 99 watt translator transmitter and Barix box) plugs into a standard 120V outlet, there is no separate power charge. 93166017 (2).PDF
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What's the most amount of wattage you have seen someone get by plugging a transmitter into a 120/110V outlet?
I feel like if anyone knows, it's you.
I would think, like any transmitter, the power drawn is determined by the efficiency of the transmitter; that is, TPO vs. power consumed.
If the antenna for a 99 watt transmitter has no gain, and the transmitter operates at 80% efficiency (pulling numbers out of a hat) I would think total power consumption out of a standard outlet would be around 125 watts...?
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AnyHuman
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Hmmm, a standard lamp with a 100 watt lightbulb can plug into a standard 120V electrical outlet and go... Why can't an FM transmitter? As lon as it's not 1000 watts or more I imagine it's fine. Heck, I have an electric portable oil heater that uses 1200 watts and it doesn't have a 3rd ground prong on the 120V plug, just the standard 2 that your average table lamp would use.
As for KTWL +713 mentioned we might as well call it "LP" earlier in this thread so I imagine it's running what an LPFM would run, 100 watts.
As for KTWL +713 mentioned we might as well call it "LP" earlier in this thread so I imagine it's running what an LPFM would run, 100 watts.
It was another rhetorical question. Maybe it's not y'all...it's me 🤔.
If you believe 99 watts can reach as far north as Montgomery, TX and disrupt KTWL (even if it is only using a fraction of it's licensed 8kW), then I have oceanside property in Arizona I can sell you as well. No wait, scratch that. I'm on a bad streak of people not understanding my hyperboles 😂
I ran most of my stations in Ecuador that were 1 kw or under of plain old 110 volt single single phase lines due to the lack of 220 v/3 phase at the sites. Back then, a 1 kw tube-driven high level plate modulated transmitter would consume around 3 kw hours of electricity an hour so those transmitters were like a larger plug-in heater.
Once you got over 1 kw, the fact that three-phase makes the power supply filtering easier (among other things) means that you need a more robust power source.
The most I ever saw on single phase 110 was a roughly 2 kw FM transmitter.
Remember, a 100 watt LPFM is usually 100 watts vertical and 100 watts horizontal. If they use a single bay antenna, which some seem to do, then they need about 400 to 420 watts into the antenna, not counting line loss. And a lot of LPFMs use cheaper lossy line, so they might need 500 watts TPO.
David, good explanation, but make sure they also understand how height calculates into effective radiated power. Like the 1 watt LPFM downtown at 1100 feet with far better coverage than most LPFMs putting out the full 100 watts at 100 feet. Bama, Texas, it's line of sight. 105.3 has 99 watts but 1100 feet height. KTWL has only 360 feet height.
There’s no way it’s running that little power. I can hear KTWL just fine in Willis and Hempstead.
But at 99 watts when I'm practically in the shadows of KTWL'S tower? Right now 105.3 performs very close, if not better, to how KPTY-FM performed when it was broadcasting from downtown with 2.7 kW.
I'm surprised Univision hasn't complained since 105.3 originally caused issues for KAMA's HD signal. Before the translator ever singed on the first time, KAMA-HD was a solid lock along Allen Pkwy. Then in early 2017 when 105.3 "jumped" to downtown, all that changed and KAMA-HD wasn't a strong lock anymore inside our building. I dumped the HD Radio soon after that, so I haven't been able to check to see if the issues persisted.
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And 97.9 HD2 is none existent too.
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AnyHuman
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Which makes the translators who lease them illegal?
You could easily count each 100% legal Houston translator with one hand.
You could still count those on one hand. I’ve heard 95.1 past the coverage map. And 92.3 underperforms. Also it looks like KYOK has a new translator going to 106.5. Can’t wait to see how KOVE interferes with it. I just found out about that translator too, never heard it on 95.9.
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