Montana KOFI Kalispell Transmitter Fire

[RF101]

Serious damage done to the KOFI 1180 AM transmitter shack.

Fire knocks out Flathead Valley radio station's transmitter building

A fire engulfed local radio station KOFI’s AM transmitter building early Saturday morning.

dailyinterlake.com

Headline "Fire knocks out Flathead Valley radio station's transmitter building"


First part of story ...

by JACK UNDERHILL
Daily Inter Lake | November 11, 2024 1:51 PM
Updated 4:50 p.m.

A fire engulfed local radio station KOFI’s AM transmitter building early Saturday morning.

The fire occurred between 1 and 2 a.m. at a transmitter station on Steel Bridge Road, said KOFI co-owner and General Manager Dave Rae. The 50,000 watt transmitter housed within the building that allowed the community to tune into AM 1180 was destroyed.

.... More .....
With photos and further details...

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

Serious damage done to the KOFI 1180 AM transmitter shack.

Fire knocks out Flathead Valley radio station's transmitter building

A fire engulfed local radio station KOFI’s AM transmitter building early Saturday morning.

dailyinterlake.com

Headline "Fire knocks out Flathead Valley radio station's transmitter building"


First part of story ...

by JACK UNDERHILL
Daily Inter Lake | November 11, 2024 1:51 PM
Updated 4:50 p.m.

A fire engulfed local radio station KOFI’s AM transmitter building early Saturday morning.

The fire occurred between 1 and 2 a.m. at a transmitter station on Steel Bridge Road, said KOFI co-owner and General Manager Dave Rae. The 50,000 watt transmitter housed within the building that allowed the community to tune into AM 1180 was destroyed.

.... More .....
With photos and further details...

Theyve been back on 1180 since Sunday with a 30 watt transmitter ... a 1kw unit is about 6 weeks out and 50kw wont be on again till summer 2025.

There are some photos on Facebook of this that I posted

 

[xmtrland]

What kind of transmitter was it. Kinda looks like a DX50.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

What kind of transmitter was it. Kinda looks like a DX50.

Dont know, its running a 30 watt LPB now, and around christmas time itll be a 1kw nautel

 

[boiseengineer]

Was a DX-50. Talked with their Engineer a few times since we also had a GE 50 kw transmitter then we both got the DX-50 about the same time.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

KOFI has ramped it up to 1kw full time as of Friday night Dec 20th. They had been running 30 watts since a fire destroyed their entire transmitter shack, but the tower and antenna tuning unit survived.

It'll be late spring/early fall before they're back up to 50kw. The 30 watt signal was heard in the Seattle area and I think somewhere in southern Alberta.