News From The Boonies

[AndyWaldrop]

Liberman is now broadcasting off their new 2000 (plus-or-minus) footer on the 107.9 frequency. I hear they are still waiting on the transmitters to arrive before the 98.5 frequency moves across the highway.

Cumulus appears to be broadcasting IBOC on their 97.5. Their 103.7 has been broadcasting in IBOC for many months now.

KSHN is putting up a new 7-bay ERI antenna on the CC tower at Devers. Supposed to happen this morning (Thursday) starting around 9:00 or shortly thereafter. The plan is to broadcast from a low power stand-by site in downtown Liberty while the Devers site is down. Rio Steel & Tower is saying that the project should be finished in about 12 hours...I'm not holding my breath on that one.

 

[CW]

Liberman is now broadcasting off their new 2000 (plus-or-minus) footer on the 107.9 frequency. I hear they are still waiting on the transmitters to arrive before the 98.5 frequency moves across the highway.

Cumulus appears to be broadcasting IBOC on their 97.5. Their 103.7 has been broadcasting in IBOC for many months now.

KSHN is putting up a new 7-bay ERI antenna on the CC tower at Devers. Supposed to happen this morning (Thursday) starting around 9:00 or shortly thereafter. The plan is to broadcast from a low power stand-by site in downtown Liberty while the Devers site is down. Rio Steel & Tower is saying that the project should be finished in about 12 hours...I'm not holding my breath on that one.

LBI had planned to be on the new tower back on Jan15th....guess that date slipped a bit...Will have to call my contacts there and see whats the latest news. They had dual xmtrs at CC tower for 98.5 (Cont 816R5Bs)...wonder if they decided to buy all Harris (again)?
As for 99.9, did they make it ok? The weather this week will make the CC tower almost impossible to get to!

 

[AndyWaldrop]

Liberman is now broadcasting off their new 2000 (plus-or-minus) footer on the 107.9 frequency. I hear they are still waiting on the transmitters to arrive before the 98.5 frequency moves across the highway.

Cumulus appears to be broadcasting IBOC on their 97.5. Their 103.7 has been broadcasting in IBOC for many months now.

KSHN is putting up a new 7-bay ERI antenna on the CC tower at Devers. Supposed to happen this morning (Thursday) starting around 9:00 or shortly thereafter. The plan is to broadcast from a low power stand-by site in downtown Liberty while the Devers site is down. Rio Steel & Tower is saying that the project should be finished in about 12 hours...I'm not holding my breath on that one.

LBI had planned to be on the new tower back on Jan15th....guess that date slipped a bit...Will have to call my contacts there and see whats the latest news. They had dual xmtrs at CC tower for 98.5 (Cont 816R5Bs)...wonder if they decided to buy all Harris (again)?
As for 99.9, did they make it ok? The weather this week will make the CC tower almost impossible to get to!

As I understand it CW, Robert or Mike (or somebody) was so impressed with the Nautel transmitter (11KW) that KSHN was using, that they decided to purchase eight [8] 20KW Nautel transmitters (four for 107.9 and four for 98.5).

As for KSHN, they were on their back-up in downtown Liberty (at the studios) for a little over 24 hours. They were quite pleased at first, but...the reflected power has been inching-up over the past few days to well over 100 watts now. I believe they are going to go back in and investigate (and Bill is NOT a happy camper). They, by the way, started broadcasting from the new antenna at Devers around lunchtime on Friday (3/9). There had been several days of dry weather and you really didn't need much more than an Army tank to get all the way back to the tower.

 

[CW]

As I understand it CW, Robert or Mike (or somebody) was so impressed with the Nautel transmitter (11KW) that KSHN was using, that they decided to purchase eight [8] 20KW Nautel transmitters (four for 107.9 and four for 98.5).

As for KSHN, they were on their back-up in downtown Liberty (at the studios) for a little over 24 hours. They were quite pleased at first, but...the reflected power has been inching-up over the past few days to well over 100 watts now. I believe they are going to go back in and investigate (and Bill is NOT a happy camper). They, by the way, started broadcasting from the new antenna at Devers around lunchtime on Friday (3/9). There had been several days of dry weather and you really didn't need much more than an Army tank to get all the way back to the tower.
[/quote]

I am surprised Mike got them to go Nautel but that would be my choice, too....likely running them as Q40s (to do 33-35 KW TPO required; but I would not buy 8...just 2 pair would have been enough for both...not sure what antenna they have on the new tower; 107.9 had a Jampro that only required a 27KW xmtr for 100KW ERP). The AC efficiency and smooth operation of the Nautels is sweet!!! I have troubleshot the 99.9 xmtr once while out there; loose 12V buss connection on one card that kept killing the exciter...easy fix...their service dept was great and easy to talk to on the phone (but then so is Dave at Continental If I had been able to make the decision years ago, my stations then would have had Nautels and not CECs...cooler, quieter and smaller And the sister stations went Harris..not bad but I still would take Nautels...a single Q40 (two Q20s in combo) and a switch-less combiner means full power, half power or 1/4 power to the antenna and hot redundancy....(as if anyone would notice a 3db down signal). BUT I bet Liberman did not want to spend the money on a switchless combiner so thats why they bought 8 Q20s..I'll have to congrat Mike on the move.

Yeah I bet Bill is not a happy camper...their signal was not bad yesterday but not sure of any improvement over past range..will have to do some more listening. WIth the weather as it is now, time for a Hummer or something else that can go through the mud/swamp on that road...(yuk..I DO NOT miss that).

 

[Mediafrog+]

I thought the new stick wouldn't make any difference at my Cy-Fair location, but I notice the 107.9 signal is marginally stronger, and the audio seems a bit cleaner.

Wonder what the status of Liberman's plans for 103.3 are?

 

[CW]

I thought the new stick wouldn't make any difference at my Cy-Fair location, but I notice the 107.9 signal is marginally stronger, and the audio seems a bit cleaner.

Wonder what the status of Liberman's plans for 103.3 are?

The old antenna 107.9 had on the CC tower was a Jampro (or knock off) with some screen refelctor behind it....if the rumors I heard were true (and they were likely were Not quite type accepted but the null to the north was achieved.
With the new omni antenna, the pattern is much smoother and likely some places MAY see stronger signal...but overall, there is less signal being thrown over Houston than before (average that is)....the peaks and valleys of the old antenna are gone; places that had marginal reception may hear it better now...but overall the signal will be lower in the places that could hear it before. The new tower is being fed by T1s (which the old tower was as well)...unless Mike backed off the processor a little (but I thought it was sounding ok anyway...98.5 sounded better once the Orbans were moved to the tower...one thing the ex DOE, George Murphy, refused to allow...but then he was not soldering with all the wattage)

 

[stan]

I thought the new stick wouldn't make any difference at my Cy-Fair location, but I notice the 107.9 signal is marginally stronger, and the audio seems a bit cleaner.

Wonder what the status of Liberman's plans for 103.3 are?

The old antenna 107.9 had on the CC tower was a Jampro (or knock off) with some screen refelctor behind it....if the rumors I heard were true (and they were likely were Not quite type accepted but the null to the north was achieved.

CW, was the old 107.9 antenna the one that was placed there when KWIC abandoned Beaumont for the Houston area?

 

[CW]

I thought the new stick wouldn't make any difference at my Cy-Fair location, but I notice the 107.9 signal is marginally stronger, and the audio seems a bit cleaner.

Wonder what the status of Liberman's plans for 103.3 are?

The old antenna 107.9 had on the CC tower was a Jampro (or knock off) with some screen refelctor behind it....if the rumors I heard were true (and they were likely were Not quite type accepted but the null to the north was achieved.

CW, was the old 107.9 antenna the one that was placed there when KWIC abandoned Beaumont for the Houston area?

From what I know, yes ....I dont think the antenna was changed since KWIC moved to the CC Devers tower.