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WNEP Tower Down

Kevin,


Is it one of thos Army surplus Willys engines converted to LP gas?? Just curious. Maybe its a Tommy Sommers rig which he used for lighting while making pornos on the other side of your transmitter shack there...hahahahaha... Sheesh, maybe it didn't want to start due to bad memories of traumatics goings on up there...poor thing....
But I digress, For me, personally, the stations I've taken care of the transmitters were always in real bad mountaintop locations, so a gen set was like gold, and would wind up being used a few times a year, so the upkeep was critical. The sites that I didn't have them, where the bean counters didn't want to buy, would always lose power, I'd wind up running to some rental place and renting one for a week for almost the price of a new one. Its a matter of location, if you're in a city, odds are power isn't going to be as much of an issue, if your on a mountain somewhere in the middle of the boonies, and weather can be severe, then its almost a no brainer to have one.
 
Generators are great when they work - they create a vacuum when they don't. Problem: when the site is located on a mountain top you better have a block heater and a big propane tank because chances are that darn thing will run out of fuel right around the time you need it. Its all good during the summer storms since a refill truck can get to the site but winter is murder when the truck can't make it - especially in a situation as this.

As for the topic of Ron Schacht - he always said he didn't like to drive a vehicle he couldn't pull out of a ditch by hand. And there were times he'd be passing the WVIA 4-Wheel drive that slid off the "road" on the way up the mountain and they would have to wait till spring to get it towed out... hehhehe

Bean counters... Wonder just how much PPL saved by not trimming the trees back for the last ten years? Now WE have to pay for all that and all during this recession... :-\
 
WQFM's power is underground the whole 3200 ft. from the north Penob underground power distribution point....well it cost a lot to go underground but was one of Times-Shamrock's best investments. The generator is a 2 cylinder 2 rotor (3600 rpm) Generac; should have gotten the 4 cylinder 4 rotor (1800 rpm) one instead (that's what we have at WEZX, and it works pretty well). Oh yeah....we got 1000 gallons of propane too! Getting a propane truck there in the winter is not easy. The Willy's is still in the backroom on 5 of the Times building!
 
That WAS a great investment... probably hurt initially, but knowing nothing can fall down or take out your electrical service should help you sleep better at night. Forgot about that old Willys, the one in the elevator room. When you fire it up the whole 5th floor gets to enjoy those wonderful CO fumes... Something to be said about army surplus tho, lots of folks have those and lots are still working... and most are 40+ years old. Onans seem to have issues, Generac is definitely a decent brand. Anybody reading this in need of a generator, the US army auctions off trailered 10k-250kW units frequently at Tobyhanna and Mechanicsburg. They're multifuel (you could even run fryer grease in em) and they're all trailered, and you can get a great deal. Although you'll need to know how to work on a diesel (which isn't too difficult) The great thing about these is they can be dragged site to site wherever they're needed and they have fuel tanks on board, so you're set. They all have multipile voltage settings, can do aircraft at 440V or 240 or 120...
 
Kudos to Joe Glynn and the enginering staff at WVIA for holding on to the smaller tower. Other stations would have taken it down, but Joe always wanted the back up and it is paying him back right now...
 
A very interesting editorial by Rich Mates in today's Times about the larger picture here. It really drove home the point of those that feel that radio should be submissive to TV when it comes to information might want to think twice. Firefighters in Scott Twp. had to go door to door to inform people about the shelter due to the power outages! There is an entire market of radio stations that are available to provide this information to "serve the public interest". In a power outage, how many people have a battery powered TV? I think Mates is a million times on with this. This is just as sad as hearing "...we have a ton of schools delayed today!!! go over to our website to find out more..." Gee. Maybe I don't have a computer in the car. This programming with blinders is destroying all credibility that ever existed with radio. Am I entirely wrong on this ???
 
Kudos as well to Rich and the points he made about radio remaining an important delivery system of information in times when power is not available.

On your point about school closings, takes me back to the mornings at the breakfast table watching the snow fall and waiting for Harry West to get to the W's to find out that Wilkes Barre area was closed. But that was before the day of TV posting the closings, as they do today. I guess I can see it from both points of view and appreicate the fact that some radio stations are reacting to a changing market and delivery of such information has also changed.
 
"...takes me back to the mornings at the breakfast table watching the snow fall and waiting for Harry West to get to the W's to find out that Wilkes Barre area was closed. "

Was waiting for the P's myself (Pocono Mountain), thanks for the great memory...
 
Does anyone know what is physically happening on Penobscot to get the analog signal back? Are they running up the digital tower and adding an analog transmitter? Are they somehow rigging some of the repeater transmitters to provide a usuable analog signal in the Valley (albeit on different frequencies)?

Just curious.

Plus, does anyone have any access to aerial photos of the downed tower. I understand that local.wnep.com had some but I did not have access to the web page (perhaps because I am in TX?)

Thanks,

Mark
 
Does anyone know what is physically happening on Penobscot to get the analog signal back?
Click to expand...

Well, if you listen to Lou Kirchen ever since the tower started falling, everything is going just dandy and more people than ever are watching the station. The double talk has turned into triple talk.

I'm sure people are working like crazy up there to get the signal up and running, but I wish she'd just say "We're off the air," rather than "More and more people are getting us (and just what is your problem?)"

I doubt they're going to spend any real money for just 14 months before they go off the air for good.
 
A TV antenna was being installed on the remaining portion of WVIA-TV's tower late last week, I'm assuming its an antenna for WNEP on Ch 16. I'm receiving it now in Scranton (albeit weaker off air). I wasn't sure if they could use that tower....I guess if it survived what it survived its gota be one hell of a tower!! I see WVIA-TV has filed for an STA to put Ch 41 digital back on too, likely on the remaining portion of the WVIA-TV tower. many of the local stations are changing channels on 2/19/2009 anyway; all of these stations elected to change before the big storm; WNEP to Ch 49; WYOU to Ch 13; WBRE to Ch 11; WOLF to Ch 45. In fact.....no stations will be allowed above Ch 51, all stations above this channel will be moving down.
 
So I guess I'll hafta get ready for "Newswatch 49" and "Fox 45"... and "Newswatch 49 at 10 on Fox 45!"

Will WBRE become NBC11 and WYOU become CBS13?
 
Will WBRE become NBC11 and WYOU become CBS13?
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Well, on Circus Electric, WYOU is 12 right now and WBRE is 13. Those with antennas will have to change their mindsets as to who is where.
 
ThomasCarten said:
Will WBRE become NBC11 and WYOU become CBS13?
Click to expand...

Well, on Circus Electric, WYOU is 12 right now and WBRE is 13. Those with antennas will have to change their mindsets as to who is where.
Click to expand...

Nope, they won't. DTV tuners "remap" the channels they receive, so WNEP will still appear as "16," WYOU as "22," and so forth, regardless of the actual RF channel they're transmitting on. So no rebranding will be needed, or desired.
 
Scott....now that's pretty cool; I did not know that the digital channels did that. I have since found out that WNEP's analog is on the WOLF 56 tower and WVIA's digital is up on what's left of their tower.
 
Scott --

I keep your calendar above the air console. This month's is pretty depressing ;) watching WOR's towers slowly collapsing.
 
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