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WCTU-LP 46

P

Poledo

I know this is off topic, but I was hoping one of the Panama City radio guys might know something about this LPTV station.
We had a long cable tv outage yesterday and I plugged in my rooftop antenna for the first time since Hurricane Katrina. While scanning the dial I was getting Daystar on a very strong, apparently local, signal from WCTU-LP channel 46 in Panama City. This was 100 miles away in Pensacola. I'm on the bay, so my antenna was pointed toward the Baldwin County Alabama antenna farm. No other out-of-market stations were coming in. I couldn't even pick up Fort Walton's WFGX or Mobile's WEIQ.
I know it's likely that this was just a freak occurrence, but since everyone knows my soul needs to be saved I can't help but wonder if they built a 5000 foot tower with a 150kw directional antenna pointed right at me.
 
they only run a couple of kw into an antenna at about 80 ft....must have been some freak ducting going on....you can barely pick them up in Panama City....their transmitter is on PC Beach near Ch7's studios....their antenna is directional to the west.
 
Thanks for the reply cceng.
I didn't do enough research before I posted this question. The Panama City channel I was thinking of was WPCT, a "low power" full power station. A quick channel check on FCC.gov shows that RecNet incorrectly lists the city of license for WCTU-LP 46 as Panama City when it's actually a new LPTV in Pensacola. They also have a second channel, W26BV, listed as a Panama City station but FCC.gov shows Pensacola on the construction permit. They show two other LPTV's, one from Gulf Shores, AL and the other from Granada, MS that are trying to move to Pensacola.
Interestingly W26BV's construction permit puts it's tower in Navarre, so hopefully when they go on the air it'll carry a video feed (in stereo) of Coast to Coast AM for RobFWB.

Are speculators bringing in these LPTVs to act as analog translators for the major networks after the 2009 digital conversion?
 
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