Can You Have A Directional Long-wire Antenna?

[Laurence Glavin]

OK, among the FCC applications and actions this week was approval of WSHU-AM 1260 in Fairfield, CT near Bridgeport, to switch from 1K DA days plus flea power at night to 1K NDA days and slightly higher flea power at night. But according to the pictures at NECRAT, WSHU-AM just has a long-wire antenna, no towers. Have NIMBYites prevented them from erecting a tower until now?

 

[4CX1000A]

A true longwire antenna is directional along its length. When I was at WUNR many years ago I used to get reception reports from people in Sweden who had longwire antennas aimed toward North America. Some of these longwires were a mile long.

 

[fybush]

WSHU had a proper antenna but lost the lease on the site. The longwire has been a makeshift replacement until this move can be accomplished.

And at least from my reading of the FCC database, the WSHU move was denied on June 7.

 

[MisterGort]

KYPA - 1230 in Los Angeles - still uses a Longwire "close-line" antenna as is main antenna to this day. Its located in Central LA on top of a local church - near the intersection of I-10 and !-110 freeways - just down the street from the Central CHP office where they filmed "CHiPs".

 

[fybush]

KYPA is now licensed at the KBLA 1580 site near Dodger Stadium. They left the long-wire "hammock" antenna a couple of years ago, sadly.

 

[Laurence Glavin]

WSHU had a proper antenna but lost the lease on the site. The longwire has been a makeshift replacement until this move can be accomplished.

And at least from my reading of the FCC database, the WSHU move was denied on June 7.

Correctimundo s. As I looked at the actions of June 10th, my eye focussed on "minor change in licensed facilities" to the RIGHT, not to the
text "AM Station Application for a minor change to a licensed facility dismissed" above the dotted line.

 

[DG02816]

You can find more information on Beverage antennas here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beverage_antenna . The Wikipedia article has the history in good detail.

 

[JIBGUY]

A long-wire as a transmitter antenna creates a direction pattern similar to who you would view the earth from afar and seeing the magnetic lines originating from north and south poles.... like a sideway fat figure-8. However, the FCC defines a long-wire pattern as an onmi-directional; signal going equally in all directions even though that's not true.

 

[carmen]

However, the FCC defines a long-wire pattern as an onmi-directional

citation? highly directional at ~1 wl and larger lengths. guess some remnants of the NE/SW beverages are around Chatham

 

[DanStrassberg]

However, the FCC defines a long-wire pattern as an onmi-directional

citation? highly directional at ~1 wl and larger lengths. guess some remnants of the NE/SW beverages are around Chatham

If you had to generalize about vertical radiators, I think you'd call the typical height 90 degrees although the genre covers electrical lengths from ~54 degrees to ~216 degrees, with a few outliers at both ends of the range. My guess is that the range of lengths of long wires was equally great (that is, the range of lengths probably also went from ~54 degrees to ~216 degrees. But that's just my guess; I don't KNOW that to be the case. If the median vertical AM transmitting-antenna height really is 90 degrees, was the median or most common long-wire length also 90 degrees? I have no clue.

Finding out could turn into a job for people with the same degree of persistence and historical bent as PBS's History Detectives. I can imagine visiting the Town Hall in Millis, for example, to obtain records on the placement of the towers at WBZ's site there. Scott could do something similar in Victor NY--about 20 miles east of Rochester--where WHAM's long-wire was located and was eventually replaced by a vertical antenna. Was it Oil City PA, north of Pittsburgh, where the last surviving T long-wire was located? Wasn't that atop a building at a college? If the building is still standing (minus the towers on top) it might be possible to obtain the dimensions. Come to think of it, my college, RPI in Troy NY, owned an AM station, WHAZ, whose towers were across the street from the dorm in which I lived for three years in the early to mid '50s. The towers were atop the EE building, Russell Sage Laboratory. As I understand it, WHAZ's antenna was originally a T long-wire but was converted into a heavily top-loaded and very short vertical. Maybe some ancient records contain the dimensions, but I wouldn't bet on it.

 

[HHH]

However, the FCC defines a long-wire pattern as an onmi-directional

citation? highly directional at ~1 wl and larger lengths. guess some remnants of the NE/SW beverages are around Chatham

If you had to generalize about vertical radiators, I think you'd call the typical height 90 degrees although the genre covers electrical lengths from ~54 degrees to ~216 degrees, with a few outliers at both ends of the range. My guess is that the range of lengths of long wires was equally great (that is, the range of lengths probably also went from ~54 degrees to ~216 degrees. But that's just my guess; I don't KNOW that to be the case. If the median vertical AM transmitting-antenna height really is 90 degrees, was the median or most common long-wire length also 90 degrees? I have no clue.

Finding out could turn into a job for people with the same degree of persistence and historical bent as PBS's History Detectives. I can imagine visiting the Town Hall in Millis, for example, to obtain records on the placement of the towers at WBZ's site there. Scott could do something similar in Victor NY--about 20 miles east of Rochester--where WHAM's long-wire was located and was eventually replaced by a vertical antenna. Was it Oil City PA, north of Pittsburgh, where the last surviving T long-wire was located? Wasn't that atop a building at a college? If the building is still standing (minus the towers on top) it might be possible to obtain the dimensions. Come to think of it, my college, RPI in Troy NY, owned an AM station, WHAZ, whose towers were across the street from the dorm in which I lived for three years in the early to mid '50s. The towers were atop the EE building, Russell Sage Laboratory. As I understand it, WHAZ's antenna was originally a T long-wire but was converted into a heavily top-loaded and very short vertical. Maybe some ancient records contain the dimensions, but I wouldn't bet on it.

The station you are think of is WSAJ-AM at Grove City College, Grove City, PA. The Oil City station was on the same frequency and (I believe) powered down when WSAJ was on the air, which was only a few hours a week. Later, the FCC let the Oil City station stay full licensed at all times because they didn't really interfere with WSAJ. WSAJ-AM operated on a long wire between two poles from the roof of one of the buildings on campus. According to Scott's great story on them, their vintage 1950 transmitter burned out and, since they now had WSAJ-FM, they decided to turn back the AM license to the FCC and take down the wire after around 80 years of service.

There was also the infamous KPPC-AM in Pasadena, CA, that ran with a long wire for many, many years until they got bought out and deleted in the 1990s.

Yes, the LA station finally moved and gave up the wire antenna just a few years ago.

I think you can still see the original ORIGINAL WBZ towers (later WBZA) atop what was the Westinghouse Plant in East Springfield (I hope the recent tornado left them intact). The wire between them, however, is long gone.

I also think there is one tower left on top of The Park Central Hotel in Manhattan that used to be a part of two towers that held the hotel's long defunct radio station.

Anybody know of any other current, or abandoned, AM wire sites?

 

[Laurence Glavin]

When I was in the USAF,I was assigned to McChord AFB near Tacoma, Wa. At that time the 770 frequency was occupied by KXA in Seattle, whose antenna was a long wire atop a downtown office building. It was and is the only antenna of its type I've ever seen (I have no plans to drive to Connecticut to view WSHU-AM's antenna). Its orientation was east-west which I take it emitted a figure-8 pattern favoring Edmonds and Everett to the north and Tacoma to the south. It came in very well in my apartment off-base and on my car radio for a 1,000-watter.

 

[DanStrassberg]

I also think there is one tower left on top of The Park Central Hotel in Manhattan that used to be a part of two towers that held the hotel's long defunct radio station.

The call letters of the station that broadcast from the Park Central Hotel were WPCH. I think it shared time with WNYC and WMCA. The WMCA calls also stood for the name of a hotel, the McAlpin. I'm not sure of the location of the McAlpin, but it may still exist. I don't think the McAlpin was home to any towers, though.

The WMCA/WNYC time share gave rise to a famous incident in the early 1920s, when the mayor of New York, Jimmy Walker, ordered WNYC, which was owned by the City, not to cede the frequency to WMCA when it was time for WNYC to sign off. This resulted in a lot of publicity for Walker and the two radio stations. I don't know how the dispute was resolved. Ironically, for the last 20 years or so, WNYC has been diplexed into WMCA's three towers in S Kearney NJ.

Also didn't Maj Armstong (the inventor of FM) have his picture taken doing back-bends from a perch on one of the WPCH towers? Armstrong was obsessed by feats of derring do performed in high places.