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WHOM Transmitter Site

B

BobOnTheJob

I took the Mount Washington (NH) Auto Road recently & saw the WHOM antenna that puts a 60dbu signal into Portland,ME at about 53 miles. If anyone's familiar with the workings of the site, I was wondering what engineering access is like there in winter and how they get away with running 48KW ERP into an 8 bay antenna centered about 50' AGL with tourists able to walk right up to the tower? There's another station within a couple hundred feet at about the same AGL running better than 20KW ERP. Seems like if that passes the RF radiation safety standards that just about anything would. Not only are there tourists, but there are people who work in the gift shop within about a 1 minute walk to the site. Anyone know the particulars? BTW, the radome on that antenna is a single unit that covers all 8 bays...reminds me of a bunch of 55 gallon drums stacked vertically.

Photo of the antenna at http://www.bob-on-the-job.com/WHOM/
 
I think both FM antennas have half-wave spacing between bays to minimize downward radiation. The gain of each is high enough to keep power density at ground level within the legal limit. Here's the RFR study:

https://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/cdbs...h.cgi?exhibit_id=508270&formid=301&q_num=5310


For some good stories about winter conditions up there, pick up a copy of "Marty on the Mountain":

http://www.amazon.com/Marty-Mountain-Years-Mount-Washington/dp/0974096709

Or listen to this interview: http://www.nhpr.org/node/6183

I paid Marty and Don a visit about a year before the WMTW-TV site was decommissioned -- it was well worth the trip.
 
Well, you gotta give them one thing, that tower is a hoss, ain't it? Two - three feet of radil ice isn't going to stress it even close to failure.
 
A lot of history on MT Washington and a lot of creative thought and engineering went into desiging that facility, especially for the power needs, and how to handle the long rough winters.

The web site below tells a lot of the history; there was a better one i found but I lost the link. Follow the links to find out about the television plant and more of the history.

http://www.ggninfo.com/wmtw1.htm
 
Necrat said:
I have to plug my pictures I took up there too.

http://www.necrat.us/whom.html

I rode up with the contract engineer (Bob Perry) to get a tour.
Click to expand...
Thanks for these photos--excellent! Lots of redundancy inside has to give Mr Perry some peace of mind that he probably won't have too many "gotta go right now" calls.
 
Excellent photos and history of the facilities. It's always amazing to me how far some operations have to go to make things work. It must be a serious headache keeping the plant running, the gens maintained, the tanks filled, and moving people up and down the mountain.
 
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