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WRKO's Center Tower Lights Out?
- Thread starter Smoke
- Start date
VB pulled a Mighty Joe Young and tried climbing the tower. A mighty sandstorm was hurling him right and left and all that weight pulled the metal ...stretched it actually...so thin that the electricity funneled into VBs incredible mass. It took the National Guard to get him down but since they are in Iraq thanks to his endorsement of Bush he's left up there blowing in the wind...lights out baby
T
TowerBuzz
Guest
Varulven said:
Very funny, Mighty Joe Young. Very clever.
L
Laurence Glavin
Guest
Smoke said:
WRCA-AM 1330 operates with two towers, only one of which is lighted; is this legal?
Laurence Glavin said:
I don't know in their case, but WWZN 1510 has only ever had two of their four towers lit.
Also, driving by the weekend before last, I think WNTN 1550's only tower light may have been out that night. Didn't have time to stop and confirm.
Laurence Glavin said:
It depends on the lighting specifications in the station license, and the exact terms of the finding of "no hazard" from the FAA. Some stations with identical-height towers have been permitted to light only some of them.
Laurence Glavin said:
I'm sure I'm over-simplifying the rules, but as I understand it, if there are multiple towers, a station can, in many cases, light fewer than all of them. First off, towers shorter than 200' above ground level usually need not be illuminated. Second, if the towers that are 200' or higher are of differing heights, the tallest one or more must be illuminated. It is necessary to light as many as necessary to ensure that no tower is unlit if it is farther from the nearest lighted tower by a distance equal to or greater than the height of the nearest lighted tower. In WRCA's case both towers are the same height (300') and are 160' apart, so clearly, it is necessary to illuminate only one of them. There are probably more rules than I've written down. For example, the WAMG/WBIX (N) array in Ashland consists five towers whose height is 540' and whose spacing is 257.7'. The towers are in a straight line. The tower-to-tower spacing is thus less than half of the height. By the rules I have listed, it would appear to be acceptable to light only the second and fourth towers in the line, but in fact, the first, third, and fifth towers are illuminated (with high-intensity Xenon strobes). Perhaps if the end towers were slightly shorter than the middle ones, lighting only the second and fourth towers would have been acceptable but with equal-height towers, the FAA must have required that the end ones be lit. When the towers were built, it might have been possible to overcome this requirement by slightly reducing the height of the end towers and compensating by top-loading them via the guy wires so that all towers were of equal electrical height, but due to the critical nature of the 1060 antenna system (the array was originally constructed for 1060), the engineers probably figured that would have been unwise. The use of towers of different electrical heights would definitely have been asking for trouble because it would have affected the vertical radiation pattern, which was (and is) critical for 1060 because of the proximity of KYW, which requires very tight protection from high-angle skywave. High-angle-skywave consderations were what dictated the use of the tall towers in the first place.
N
Neggy
Guest
They were lit the other morning... I'll check them in the AM around 5:50... they should still be on then. With the towers so close to Hanscoms approach within a half mile of the glide path I'd assume all 3 are required to be lit.
Are you sure you were not mistaking the top light not being lit with the fact the middle tower is shorter than the other 2 because of an old 93.7 stick that was up there 50 years + ago?
Are you sure you were not mistaking the top light not being lit with the fact the middle tower is shorter than the other 2 because of an old 93.7 stick that was up there 50 years + ago?
Smoke said:
44 ft 2-1/4 in. to be exact. The end towers are 108 degrees; the center tower is 97. Originally, the antenna of WLAW-FM was mounted atop the center tower. I don't know what year it came down, but it was a LONG time ago. The center tower should be illuminated; the distance to either end tower is more than 40% greater than the height of either end tower and almost 60% greater than the height of the center tower.
W
webcastboy
Guest
The official rules are that towers shorter than 200ft do not need to be lit, UNLESS they're near an airport. Exactly how near the airport, how tall the tower is, and some other issues are all factored into a system the FCC uses to determine whether or not they'd need to be lit. In addition, towers on buildings may be unlit if they are shorter than 20ft, even if they're over 200ft total. Although again, proximity to an airport can impact that.
Some of the rules are here:
http://www.fcc.gov/mb/policy/dtv/lighting.html
There's also literally hundreds of towers that are still lit that don't need to be anymore...either because they're old and built under different rules, or a taller (and lit) tower was installed nearby. It's often more hassle to slog through the paperwork to de-light a tower than to just keep it lit, though.
Dan has astutely noted that the distance/height ratio means all three WRKO towers should be lit, and WRKO is also pretty close to Hanscom Airport which I'd wager makes it doubly so. Still, if a tower light burns out, they need only file a NOTAM with with FAA and they have X number of days to replace the bulb(s). I'm sure that's not done lightly...it's possible that WRKO needs to shut down entirely to be safe for a tower climber to go up there, which could be a few hours or more depending on what shape the beacon housing is in.
Some of the rules are here:
http://www.fcc.gov/mb/policy/dtv/lighting.html
There's also literally hundreds of towers that are still lit that don't need to be anymore...either because they're old and built under different rules, or a taller (and lit) tower was installed nearby. It's often more hassle to slog through the paperwork to de-light a tower than to just keep it lit, though.
Dan has astutely noted that the distance/height ratio means all three WRKO towers should be lit, and WRKO is also pretty close to Hanscom Airport which I'd wager makes it doubly so. Still, if a tower light burns out, they need only file a NOTAM with with FAA and they have X number of days to replace the bulb(s). I'm sure that's not done lightly...it's possible that WRKO needs to shut down entirely to be safe for a tower climber to go up there, which could be a few hours or more depending on what shape the beacon housing is in.
N
Neggy
Guest
I just looked at the flight prep site I use and there is no NOTAM posted for KBED, or the heliport beside the Burlington Mall MA21
The final approach to KBED is more over Wheeler Rd, on the other side of 128 but it is close enough that if I were on final into KBED I'd want the towers fully lit.
I can't recall the heliport at the old BayBank building being used in the last 20 years , but it is listed in the FAA database.
The final approach to KBED is more over Wheeler Rd, on the other side of 128 but it is close enough that if I were on final into KBED I'd want the towers fully lit.
I can't recall the heliport at the old BayBank building being used in the last 20 years , but it is listed in the FAA database.
webcastboy said:
The end towers are 433.8' high (108 electrical degrees at 680); the center tower is 389.6' high (97 degrees). The towers are equally spaced, 622.6' from each end tower to the center tower (155 degrees). The azimuth of the line of towers is 75 degrees. I don't know the distance to Hanscom Field, but I think it's only a couple of miles.
This is speculation, but I'm guessing the rules were changed due to advances in navigation instruments. Once upon a time, navigators relied upon seeing lights in certain patterns (in the case of multi-tower arrays) and even the rate at which the lights blinked. This helped them not only recognize the towers as obstructions, but also use them to help determine their position.webcastboy said:
Now, with GPS, they don't really need so much help determining where they are; they just need to see the towers as obstructions.
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