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WRKO C.E.?

D

Deleted User

Who is the C.E. for WRKO?

Does anyone ever bother to check the tower lights there?

Cripes it is close enough to Hanscom to be an obstacle.

It certainly is within feet of Lahey Clinics Helipad

and it seems to me anytime I go by there there is a light out at the top of a tower.

Tonight it is the top light on the southern most tower.
 
MRBIboredop said:
Who is the C.E. for WRKO? Does anyone ever bother to check the tower lights there? Cripes, it is close enough to Hanscom to be an obstacle. It certainly is within feet of Lahey Clinic's Helipad and it seems to me, anytime I go by there, there is a light out at the top of a tower. Tonight, it is the top light on the southern-most tower.
Click to expand...

Do you mean the _western_-most tower? The towers are on close to an east-west line (75 degrees true, IIRC).
 
MRBIboredop said:
Yes, I was going south on "128" a the time, so I thought south.
Click to expand...

Are you aware that, on Route 6 on Cape Cod, you can travel for miles driving just about due north and every route marker will tell you that you are on Route 6 headed south??? Before I found out what was going on, I thought I was going nuts, even though it was 7:00AM in mid-summer and the sun was quite obviously on my right. The secret is that, although Route 6 goes to Provincetown, Provincetown is a little south of Boston and all directions on Cape Cod road signs are with respect to Boston. OK, you say, but Provincetown is a lot more east than south of Boston. So why don't the signs say that you are on Route 6 eastbound? I don't have an answer unless the objective is to drive tourists nuts.

Oh, and don't forget the famous road signs on Route 128 in the Westwood area. There, on a single signpost on the "southbound" side of the road are two signs, one of which says that you are on Route 3 headed north and the other of which says you are on I-95 headed south (or something like that). Not far away, on the "northbound" side of the road, also on a single signpost, are two more signs, one of which says you are on Route 3 headed south and the other of which says you are on I-95 headed north. Most people's reaction is "only in Massachusetts," but I think diligent searchers have turned up similar examples in a few other states.
 
Now that the hours of daylight have spiked upwards, I haven't had much occasion lately to see the WRKO-AM towers at night, but when I have, at least one tower has been lighted, includiong the topmost one. These days, I've noticed arrays that seem to be more thasn 199-feet tall (that excludes the Sawmill Brook Parkway array) are often only partially lighted. Have the rules changed? A seeming exception: I believe all four WPLM-AM 1390 + 99.1 towers ARE on at night.
 
Laurence Glavin said:
Now that the hours of daylight have spiked upwards, I haven't had much occasion lately to see the WRKO-AM towers at night, but when I have, at least one tower has been lighted, includiong the topmost one. These days, I've noticed arrays that seem to be more thasn 199-feet tall (that excludes the Sawmill Brook Parkway array) are often only partially lighted. Have the rules changed? A seeming exception: I believe all four WPLM-AM 1390 + 99.1 towers ARE on at night.
Click to expand...

Depending on the layout and height of the towers, many AM DAs with towers taller than 200' need not have all towers illuminated. Examples are WQOM/WAMG on Sewell St in Ashland (five 540' towers in line. Towers are 205.5 degrees high at 1060 and are spaced 100 degrees center-to-center. Towers #2 and #4 are not illuminated because they are "shadowed" by the adjacent towers) and WWZN at 411 Waverly Oaks Rd in Waltham (four 340' towers in a parallelogram. Only the two towers at the ends of the major axis of the parallelogram are illuminated--I presume because the other two are assumed to be shadowed by the illuminated towers). Both of these arrays were placed into service in 1981. Arrays that are much older than these have received FAA permission to not illuminate some towers, however.

WRKO's three towers are of unequal height. The center tower is shorter than the two end towers. Each of the end towers is 444' high, I believe. The center tower is 390'. The towers are in line and are spaced 623' center to center. Between the proximity to Hanscom Field and the wide spacing between the towers, all of these towers require illumination.

I have never seen the WBZ array, though I have seen photos. These towers are slightly over half wave at 1030 (just under 500') and are a little more than 90 degrees apart. I think that combination would normally permit one tower to be unilluminated. But the location under a glide path to Logan Airport probably requires illumination of both towers.

BTW, towers that are illuminated with flashing red beacons must be painted with alternating red and white sections, whose width is prescribed by the FAA. Towers that are iilluminated with flashing strobed white beacons (formerly Xenon flash tubes, now, commonly white LED beacons--or so I've been told) are not required by the FAA to be painted (that is, the paint that they need to keep them from rusting away is permitted to be all white). The three illuminated towers in what is now the WQOM/WAMG array used to be strobed but, IIRC, were painted red and white. Some years ago, however (probably when major work was done on the array), the illumination was changed to flashing red beacons.
 
MRBIboredop said:
Does anyone ever bother to check the tower lights there?
Click to expand...

Here we go again...another sterling example of what happens when one ass-u-mes.

Does anyone ever bother to consider that maybe the C.E. knows all about it and has notified the FAA, as the rules require? Does anyone ever bother to ask whether the C.E. has already called a tower crew to fix the broken light?

It's really easy to criticize when you have no facts.
 
dumber than a box of hair said:
MRBIboredop said:
Does anyone ever bother to check the tower lights there?
Click to expand...

Here we go again...another sterling example of what happens when one ass-u-mes.

Does anyone ever bother to consider that maybe the C.E. knows all about it and has notified the FAA, as the rules require? Does anyone ever bother to ask whether the C.E. has already called a tower crew to fix the broken light?

It's really easy to criticize when you have no facts.
Click to expand...

If this were Facebook, I'd 'Like" your post. ;D
 
Well I am a licensed pilot and I have not seen a NOTAM for the area in question, so I will ASSUME that they have not notified the FAA on the subject, but I would be happy to make the call if you'd like me too.
 
MRBIboredop said:
Well I am a licensed pilot and I have not seen a NOTAM for the area in question, so I will ASSUME that they have not notified the FAA on the subject, but I would be happy to make the call if you'd like me too.
Click to expand...

You just keep digging a bigger hole for yourself. Just because YOU didn't see the NOTAMs doesn't mean they don't exist.

Searching for less than one minute for NOTAMs at BED (Hanscom Field) shows NOTAMs 04/028 and 04/029 issued for the same lat/long as the WRKO towers.

http://notams.aim.faa.gov
 
dumber than a box of hair said:
MRBIboredop said:
Well I am a licensed pilot and I have not seen a NOTAM for the area in question, so I will ASSUME that they have not notified the FAA on the subject, but I would be happy to make the call if you'd like me too.
Click to expand...

You just keep digging a bigger hole for yourself. Just because YOU didn't see the NOTAMs doesn't mean they don't exist.

Searching for less than one minute for NOTAMs at BED (Hanscom Field) shows NOTAMs 04/028 and 04/029 issued for the same lat/long as the WRKO towers.

http://notams.aim.faa.gov
Click to expand...

ZING. Game set match. LOL. Fun watching this from the outside.
 
dumber than a box of hair said:
It's really easy to criticize when you have no facts.
Click to expand...

I live near those towers and can tell you it is a more common occurrence on WRKO's towers than it has been in years past.
 
MarcB said:
ZING. Game set match. LOL. Fun watching this from the outside.
Click to expand...

I'm sure a ZING from a "Parking Lot Specialist" at ShopRite Supermarket really is going to get to him.
 
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