Translator stations

[ty]

KPLU has several, KMTT has one downtown and Olytown, and a few years ago I heard KJR FM mention they had one located in Edmonds, 100.7 had one in Puyallup on 103.1 quite awhile ago, KGRG FM had one on 89.3, KUOW has a couple, KGHP has three, KCMS has one down in Aberdeen, and someone mentioned a private party running KZOK somewhere in B.C. on another frequency.

The question is, who else in the Puget Sound uses this method to fill in the gaps, are they a viable solution, and do they increase ratings when the diaries are sent to these areas? Are they worth the trouble to maintain and apply for the necessary apps, studies, and other protocol to keep them alive and well? The KMTT @ 103.3 serves a purpose well, downtown reception without HD is a multipath jungle. Also, can they be used to make the HD system more robust when in an area that drops out? Can they rebroadcast HD2 feeds?

Thanks.

A side note, observed KZIZ 1560 during the nighttime hours, it seems they have the go ahead to run the tight pattern to the north protecting Bakersfield CA.

 

[ty]

Looked up KXLY FM over in Spokane, they have translators as far west as Ephrata and as far east as Thompson Falls, Montana. That's a huge area of coverage if they are all in fact up and running.

 

[Bongwater]

The KJR-FM 103.3 translator in Edmonds has been there forever (clear back to the KIXI Light days.) It was said someone turned on a digital radio to 95.7 in the early '80s, fired up a little transmitter and left it and it has been going there unattended ever since for over 25 years. through format changes and ownership changes and everything (you can imagine how much dust and cobwebs can accumulate in a small room in 25 years..)

They had a translator on 106.3 in downtown Everett until about 1990, when they had to make room for 106.1's Tiger Mountain upgrade.

KXLY-FM's 103.9 translator in Ephrata is an enigma to me. First, you can't possibly get KXLY-FM's main signal (99.9) over the air at all in Ephrata without being on a very high ridge and putting up with a LOT of distance hiss in stereo mode. But they are in Eastern Washington so they can slide on that...

But I never understood why WSU needs so many translators in Northwest Washington when they are clear across the state diagonally from Pullman. And don't even get me started on those religious things out of Twin Falls, ID

Cougar Mountain stations need more translators than Tiger Mountain stations because signals off Cougar tend to be spottier than those off Tiger.

KZOK once had a giant list of translators from the summit of Snoqualmie Pass to Port Angeles. They used to announce them all every morning around 8:00. Canada is also more lax with small time pirates than the US. I heard about the Canadian KZOK translator (it's definately not FCC or CRTC approved, whatever it is.)

100.7 had translators on 103.1 in Marysville and Everett.

These days, the FM translator is dying, with LPFMs needing frequencies, reception off HD radio and internet feeds replacing standard analog FM in some spotty areas and upgrades/move-ins/new stations popping up everywhere and CSN hogging everything else up, leaving very little-if any-FM real estate left. They recently approved some AM stations to have FM translators at night, creating even more chaos on an overused radio band......

 

[WDAE-FM101]

I was driving through downtown Seattle yesterday, and switched back and forth between KMTT on 103.3 AND 103.7 -- The translator (103.3) seemed clearer and brighter, while the main station 103.7 was muddled.

The FM signals in Seattle are not clear because of the multipath -- and therefore I end up listening to AM or CD's

There is a 10 watt translator at 91.p from Cougar Mountain that I was also able to pick up in Seattle (20 miles?)

Have a Merry Christmas.

 

[oldnewbie]

Ty mentioned 1560 needing to protect a station in Bakersfield, Ca.

I live and work in Seattle now (since 1985), but I am a native of Bakersfield. Ca. One of my first jobs was at (then) KPMC 1560. It had a very interesting history.

It had begun as an experimental TV station, and Lee Deforest worked on the station for a while.

The station was owned by the brothers who owned the local Pioneer Mercantile Company, a large old fashioned hardware store. When I worked there in 1976 - 1977, only one brother was left alive, and he was old and in poor health.

Since then, the station has been sold and is KNZR, a talk station.

When I worked there, it's programming was every thing they could get from CBS radio, local farm news and local sports. The air studio board was a Gates purchased in 1950.

An interesting article can be found here: http://earlytelevision.org/w6xah.html

I guess this really does not deal with Seattle radio, but that reference by Ty brought back many fond memories.

 

[Stephen_TheMCO]

But I never understood why WSU needs so many translators in Northwest Washington when they are clear across the state diagonally from Pullman. And don't even get me started on those religious things out of Twin Falls, ID

I remember back when our very own earth had a big solar storm back in 1999 when I was still living in Bremerton, and radio/TV signals from all over the US we're invading the northwest.  The CSN translator on 89.9 in Bremerton (broadcasting from Gold Mountain), has some static and tons of interference from some other stations on it, which I couldn't even tell what stations we're interfering with it with so much cross-talk, and it was a real good signal too into Bremerton, looking at the meter on the old stereo I was using for DX at the time, so it wasn't any other signals going into the reciever.  It was really actually coming from the translater station itself.  Which tells me that CSN just transmits on their translators from station-to-station, or in that matter, translator-to-translator (re-transmitting a translator station, in other words).  It sounded like as though, any translator station they have, they are just taking the feed from one translator station, and re-transmitting it to other translators in farther locations.  In other words, if one translator station goes down, it takes like 2 or 3 other translators stations down along with it.  Pretty cheap but sloppy way of running things.

 

[Bongwater]

But I never understood why WSU needs so many translators in Northwest Washington when they are clear across the state diagonally from Pullman. And don't even get me started on those religious things out of Twin Falls, ID

I remember back when our very own earth had a big solar storm back in 1999 when I was still living in Bremerton, and radio/TV signals from all over the US we're invading the northwest. The CSN translator on 89.9 in Bremerton (broadcasting from Gold Mountain), has some static and tons of interference from some other stations on it, which I couldn't even tell what stations we're interfering with it with so much cross-talk, and it was a real good signal too into Bremerton, looking at the meter on the old stereo I was using for DX at the time, so it wasn't any other signals going into the reciever. It was really actually coming from the translater station itself. Which tells me that CSN just transmits on their translators from station-to-station, or in that matter, translator-to-translator (re-transmitting a translator station, in other words). It sounded like as though, any translator station they have, they are just taking the feed from one translator station, and re-transmitting it to other translators in farther locations. In other words, if one translator station goes down, it takes like 2 or 3 other translators stations down along with it. Pretty cheap but sloppy way of running things.

Yipes! That IS cheap-and BREATHTAKINGLY sloppy! But I think that's the role of a translator, technically you have to pick up your feed off the air (cable and internet fed translators are frowned upon.) But you'd think with all those translators repeating each other from translator to translator all the way from Twin Falls that the noise level by the time it got to this neck of the woods would be insane.

But then again, CSN's whole M.O. is insane.

 

[w9wi]

But I think that's the role of a translator, technically you have to pick up your feed off the air (cable and internet fed translators are frowned upon.)

Translators below 92MHz may be fed by alternate means (usually, satellite) as long as the translator is owned by the primary station. Also, translators that are located within the predicted coverage area of the primary station may be fed by alternate means.

Translators above 92MHz which are outside the coverage area of the primary station must pick up the signal off-air.

Before satellites came along (i.e., well into the 1980s) TV network signals were relayed by a chain of microwave relay towers. The chains stretched from coast to coast - and it really worked quite well. Then again, since one licensee had control of pretty much all the channels, interference wasn't a problem even when the propagation was up.

For many years, what is now Wisconsin Public Radio used off-air pickup to deliver their programs from WHA-FM in Madison to their other relay stations statewide. (they did have a bit of trouble at their most distant site)