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WJAR to be Powered by Wind?

R

Radio1968

Guest
from turnto10.com (7/1):

NBC 10 Receives $40,000 Grant to Study Alternative Source Of Electricity At Transmitter Site In Rehoboth, MA

POSTED: 5:13 pm EDT July 1, 2005

The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC) recently notified NBC 10 that it received a $39,690 feasibility grant to study the possibility of the installation of a wind turbine at it TV transmitter facility in Rehoboth, MA.

NBC 10 had applied for the grant earlier this year with the goals of generating electricity from a wind turbine for its facilities, saving energy costs, and educating the public about the benefits of renewable energy through site tours and school-based forums. .

full story: http://www.turnto10.com/community/4676707/detail.html
 
LOL

What, they couldn't afford to put a little running hamster in a cage?
(Come to think of it, that sound like someting they'd do down here in TX)
 
Re: WJAR Transmitter site

Could a wind turbine be mounted somewhere up on (but not at the very top) of the WJAR-10 tower??

It probably could get more wind than something about 100 feet above ground level.

I don't know how much power a single wind turbine would generate. Unless it's a very large one, WJAR would probably need at least two such systems, even if one gets mounted on their tower.

Anyone who knows more about wind turbines than I do is welcomed to respond with information about how much wind power would be needed to power WJAR's transmitter site.

BTW, back in October, 1999, I took a coast-to-coast bus trip from Boston to Los Angeles and back. Just a couple of hours before arriving in L.A., our bus passed by a large number of wind turbines next to Interstate 10 just outside of Palm Springs. It was a spectacular sight.
 
Re: WJAR Transmitter site

I doubt they could mount much else on the antenna that already holds 3 DTV & 1 analog TV antennas.

What did surprise me was the size of the land they own there...156 acres!

> Could a wind turbine be mounted somewhere up on (but not at
> the very top) of the WJAR-10 tower??
>
> It probably could get more wind than something about 100
> feet above ground level.
>
> I don't know how much power a single wind turbine would
> generate. Unless it's a very large one, WJAR would probably
> need at least two such systems, even if one gets mounted on
> their tower.
>
> Anyone who knows more about wind turbines than I do is
> welcomed to respond with information about how much wind
> power would be needed to power WJAR's transmitter site.
>
> BTW, back in October, 1999, I took a coast-to-coast bus trip
> from Boston to Los Angeles and back. Just a couple of hours
> before arriving in L.A., our bus passed by a large number of
> wind turbines next to Interstate 10 just outside of Palm
> Springs. It was a spectacular sight.
>
 
Re: WJAR Transmitter site

> Could a wind turbine be mounted somewhere up on (but not at
> the very top) of the WJAR-10 tower??
>

It would not be practical. A wind-turbine must have the ability to turn it's head into the wind. What WJAR is proposing would be in the land area behind their tower.

There is a diagram on an engineering website of how it all would work, and for the life of me, I can't remember where I saw it.
 
Re: WJAR Transmitter site

> > Could a wind turbine be mounted somewhere up on (but not
> at
> > the very top) of the WJAR-10 tower??
> >
>
> It would not be practical. A wind-turbine must have the
> ability to turn it's head into the wind. What WJAR is
> proposing would be in the land area behind their tower.
>
> There is a diagram on an engineering website of how it all
> would work, and for the life of me, I can't remember where I
> saw it.
>
I've done a little work there, and the site does not seem to be as windy of a place as West Peak in Meriden, CT or the site of WMUR's TX in Goffstown, NH (Unconnucook Mtn.?). Is this really the best place to test wind technology? For example, NBC's own WVIT would have a much windier location on Rattlesnake Mountain in Farmington, CT.

What is interesting there in Rehoboth is WJAR's very old TX building. They had enough room there for an old auxiliary studio at one time - or so I'm told. Quite a classic - almost art deco - building! Only now with state of the art equipment.
 
Re: WJAR Transmitter site

> What did surprise me was the size of the land they own
> there...156 acres!

As I recall, they bought up nearly a "section" (160 acres)
bck when land was cheap. Again, from very old memory, the
seller retained 4 acres for an existing house and outbuildings.
I suspect the seller would NOT have been willing to sell less.
Just one clean sale; one simple division of the parcel. Of
course that happened in the days when "NIMBY" was a word
that hadn't been invented.

> > Could a wind turbine be mounted somewhere up on (but not
> at
> > the very top) of the WJAR-10 tower??

For swiveling reasons alone, no, but the tower is already
heavily loaded and trying to put a turbine anywhere on it
would be to court disaster.

> > I don't know how much power a single wind turbine would
> > generate. Unless it's a very large one,

What would be more likely...if anything permanent ever were
done...would be several smaller ones, possibly at slightly
differing heights. At an experimental level, it might
be feasible to split the load and use a turbine to charge
batteries to, for example, run the tower lights. There
is serious money to be saved on power just with that unless
you've converted to LED's. Also, might be possible to do
some synchronization and use a blend of commercial/local
power though this is not easily done.

On the site...the Rehoboth location is pretty good though
the surrounding area is heavily treed and that causes
turbulence that can reduce efficiency. Thing is, the
wind there is not dependable so ever thinking of using
only wind power is, at best, improbable.

The Rehoboth site is also "warm" enough in winter so icing
would not be a serious problem, though it could happen
rarely. My experience with wind power generation is limited
to mountain top sites for ham radio. When these work they
are wonderful but you don't wanna be within about 1/2 mile
when the blades start throwing off ice...or when ice
starts the blades being thrown off!


On the plus side, participating in the experiment will earn
lots of "brownie" points with part of the environment
community. It'll also earn lots of negatives from the
bird-lover community for erecting one of those "meat
grinders that target our feathered friends". Major effort
underway in California to tear down the windmills to
save the birds.

WJAR-TV would be "politically" safer to experiment with
solar panels....except....whoops....those are made from
petroleum.
<P ID="signature">______________
Appoint a special prosecutor NOW! For any imagined offense by anybody. The trial lawyers need the work; they multiply like rats!</P>
 
Re: WJAR Transmitter site

The problem with WVIT's site is that the town is VERY strict with building codes and would not allow such a thing. WVIT had to jump through hoops, literally, to get their DT antenna hung on the tower.

> What is interesting there in Rehoboth is WJAR's very old TX
> building. They had enough room there for an old auxiliary
> studio at one time - or so I'm told. Quite a classic -
> almost art deco - building! Only now with state of the art
> equipment.

Of course that old classic building now holds THREE full sized, full power UHF transmitters. (WJAR-DT, WLNE-DT, and WSBE-DT).
 
Re: WJAR Transmitter site

> The problem with WVIT's site is that the town is VERY strict
> with building codes and would not allow such a thing. WVIT
> had to jump through hoops, literally, to get their DT
> antenna hung on the tower.
>
> > What is interesting there in Rehoboth is WJAR's very old
> TX
> > building. They had enough room there for an old auxiliary
>
> > studio at one time - or so I'm told. Quite a classic -
> > almost art deco - building! Only now with state of the
> art
> > equipment.
>
> Of course that old classic building now holds THREE full
> sized, full power UHF transmitters. (WJAR-DT, WLNE-DT, and
> WSBE-DT).
>
Isn't WSNE (a.k.a. Coast 93.3) there too? That equipment sure gives off a lot of heat on a warm summer day!!
 
Re: WJAR Transmitter site

> Isn't WSNE (a.k.a. Coast 93.3) there too? That equipment
> sure gives off a lot of heat on a warm summer day!!

For some reason I want to think that WSNE is in their own building in the corner of the property, I am probably wrong as Ive only been there once.
 
Re: WJAR Transmitter site

> > Isn't WSNE (a.k.a. Coast 93.3) there too? That equipment
> > sure gives off a lot of heat on a warm summer day!!
>
> For some reason I want to think that WSNE is in their own
> building in the corner of the property, I am probably wrong
> as Ive only been there once.
>
No, they're definitely in the same building. IIRC, their equipment is in it's own room at one corner of the building. After the installation of the DTV equipment, that tower sure has a lot of hardware!
 
WPRI Transmitter site

You've got to see WPRI's transmitter site with the new Analog and Digital transmitters. Both built "In Wall" like the old days, it is really sharp.
Bill Hague and his crew did an awesome job with it.


<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by TXengineer on 08/02/05 02:41 AM.</FONT></P>
 
Re: WPRI Transmitter site

> You've got to see WPRI's transmitter site with the new
> Analog and Digital transmitters. Both built "In Wall" like
> the old days, it is really sharp.
> Bill Hague and his crew did an awesome job with it.
>
Sounds pretty interesting! And, its in the same neighborhood as WJAR, isn't it?
 
Re: WPRI Transmitter site

> > You've got to see WPRI's transmitter site with the new
> > Analog and Digital transmitters. Both built "In Wall" like
>
> > the old days, it is really sharp.
> > Bill Hague and his crew did an awesome job with it.
> >
> Sounds pretty interesting! And, its in the same
> neighborhood as WJAR, isn't it?
>

Sure is... WPRI, WNAC, and WJAR are all neighbors.
Within sight of one another too...

(They're impressive to see when you are heading north on 95 just before 195 off in the distance behind the skyline to the right)
 
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