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WBT's signal

hipporadio said:
OH... The WBT TX is off ARROWOOD (not Nations Ford--same area)... I got lost there once back in the fall of '99 and found that three-tower DA... I always got mixed up--as I did most streets in "Charlotte's Web"... LOL!
Click to expand...

I was going to let this go but the WBT transmitter site is indeed on Nations Ford Road. I'll bet you came at it from South Blvd where the streets twist and turn a lot. If you take I-77 and get off at the Nations Ford Road exit and head east you go right by the site. I have been there many times. It's also the address given in the sign off for WBT.

I had the pleasure of working on air at WBT from 1985-1990 doing overnights, weekends and vacation fill.
 
Mike Sheridan said:
hipporadio said:
OH... The WBT TX is off ARROWOOD (not Nations Ford--same area)... I got lost there once back in the fall of '99 and found that three-tower DA... I always got mixed up--as I did most streets in "Charlotte's Web"... LOL!
Click to expand...

I was going to let this go but the WBT transmitter site is indeed on Nations Ford Road. I'll bet you came at it from South Blvd where the streets twist and turn a lot. If you take I-77 and get off at the Nations Ford Road exit and head east you go right by the site. I have been there many times. It's also the address given in the sign off for WBT.
Click to expand...

Mike... I did come up on it from South Blvd looking for Nations Ford - and ended up on Arrowood - and back to I-77 where I finally found Nations Ford (again)... Actually I was "exploring" and came up on it to my surprise. Ah, those streets in Charlotte! There's Tyvola > Fairview >Sardis > Rama ; Morehead > Providence; East > Sharon > Quail Hill; and Queens that intersects Queens... WHEW! Great city, but the streets can get confusing to a newbie. ::)
 
TimKim said:
Re: the reason WBT built south instead of west...

After crowding around it's downton location, a decision was made that the new transmitting site should be out in the boonies where the cheap land is. At that point, the center of Charlotte was more or less somewhat east of what would be considered the population center today. Through the years, JP patted themselves for the forward thinking as white collar population grew to the south while Gastonia remained a lower income blue collar town.

As times changed, development grew up all around the Pineville site, and through the 90's there were many times I would get a call when I was on board that some felon was on the run and climbing oour tower as a way to get away from the cops. Not your super smart Ocean's 11 type of criminals. The standard procedure for a man on the tower was supposed to be to lower the power. The CE at the time always said not to that.
Click to expand...

WBT doesn't have a null to the east. If you go to www.fcc.gov and then pull up WBT and click on the nighttime pattern, you will see that it does out to the east very well.

Since WBT is a Class A Clear Channel, they could still move their towers west of Charlotte and do pretty well but of course, now you have the Charlotte airport but at 1110 with half wave towers only being 400 feet or so, they could probably find a site that would work.

If you look at the nighttime pattern of WPTF, you will also see that they also didn't build where the main lobe goes over the city of license. They built west of town on a pattern that goes NW SE...Even today, WPTF could build NW of Durham and still still put a interference free contour over Raleigh.
 
Art,

Funny you would mention WPTF. One of my old bosses of many moons ago was employed there, and he once talked of a "request by Uncle Sam" that the nighttime pattern be directed toward the Southeast so as to be used as a navigation aid by ships and airplanes! As close to Raleigh as the array is, there was no question the night signal would cover the "metro" way back when.
 
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