WSAR-AM 1480 To 25KW Days

[Laurence Glavin]

Any time I see a "minor change" request among the FCC applications, I begin to wonder if it will REALLY be minor. Behold, after all these years, WSAR-AM 1480 COL Fall River, transmitter in Swansea, wants to boost its daytime power to 25,000 watts and add another tower. Unless my mind is playing tricks with me, WSAR's array once had four towers, then voila, just like that they tore down two of them for their current configuration. I wonder if there's already a tower base at the transmitter site. I wonder if WAZN-AM 1470 in Lexington, and perhaps WXBR-AM 1460 in Brockton will file petitions to deny.

 

[fybush]

The new 25 kW WSAR will actually put somewhat less signal toward WAZN than the current 5 kW WSAR daytime does. And second-adjacents like WSAR/WXBR simply can't overlap 5 mV/m contours. They won't come anywhere close, even after the power increase.

 

[WLYNWAZNgm]

If there is something of a null, roughly due north, then WAZN
should not be affected much. I would think that running with 4 towers,
they would have a pretty tight pattern...

 

[DanStrassberg]

If there is something of a null, roughly due north, then WAZN
should not be affected much. I would think that running with 4 towers,
they would have a pretty tight pattern...

Not four towers... three. WSAR's new day pattern is unremarkable and rather similar to the night pattern of WWDJ 1150, although it is created with unequally spaced towers that are not in-line. Also, the added tower is short, whereas the existing towers appear to be half-wave or greater. Radiation is reduced toward WAZN in the area around zero degrees (as seen from the WSAR site). If you believe Hecht's map, at no point in this region does the signal toward WAZN increase and over nearly all of it, it decreases. On both sides of this region, radiation toward WAZN increases, however. In no case, though, does the increased radiation cause prohibited overlap with WAZN. Hecht tabulates the losses and gains in caused and received overlap with several stations, including WAZN. If you believe his calculations, everybody wins on all counts.

However, I did not see any stats in the WSAR app regarding the effects on first-adjacent WMMW 1470, Meriden CT. As far as I can tell, WMMW has not been deleted. If its license is still alive, WMMW should definitely be among the stations affected and should be mentioned in WSAR's application. I found it strange that WMMW was not even mentioned; maybe I just missed it. An application for 1490 in Uncasville CT does show up, however. This app was filed in 2004 and never granted. It ought to have been removed from the database by this time.

 

[MarcB]

WMMW AM 1470 is still alive. It is one of 3 AM stations that relays WDRC 1360.

 

[WLYNWAZNgm]

1360 - our other (WLYN) frequency.
Both stations, there, WDRC programming.
What are the odds?

 

[DG02816]

WSAR's present towers are 215 electrical deg. high at 1480. The proposed third tower is 106 deg. I do remember the 4-tower DA-2 they used years ago, which supposedly protected a 1480 in Quebec. The Quebec one was never built,so Knight Quality Stations(the then-owner)applied to remove 2 towers and go to the present DA-1.

 

[DanStrassberg]

WSAR's present towers are 215 electrical deg. high at 1480. The proposed third tower is 106 deg. I do remember the 4-tower DA-2 they used years ago, which supposedly protected a 1480 in Quebec. The Quebec one was never built,so Knight Quality Stations(the then-owner)applied to remove 2 towers and go to the present DA-1.

I visited Battleship Cove in Fall River in, I believe, 1977. Not far away, on the other side of what appeared to be a river, were four rather tall (relative to the spacing among them) AM towers in a closely spaced parallelogram array similar to that of WWZN, whose Waltham site had not yet been built in 1977. I remember that the tower bases were quite far above the point where I was standing. IOW, the transmitter site overlooked Battleship Cove. I thought I was looking at WSAR, but I never found out for sure, except I later discovered that the WSAR site is not very near Battleship Cove. Can anyone tell me what station I was looking at? If anyone remembers those towers, do you know whether they are still at the site that overlooks Battleship Cove?

 

[DG02816]

Dan,

That WAS WSAR you were seeing in its 4 tower DA-2 days. I was chief there long after they went to the 2 tower DA-1.

 

[DanStrassberg]

Dan,

That WAS WSAR you were seeing in its 4 tower DA-2 days. I was chief there long after they went to the 2 tower DA-1.

So, Dave, did you succeed Ed Juaire at WSAR? Wasn't he the CE for a while at both WSAR and WMEX (or whatever the calls du jour were) at the same time? It was a little early for CEs (who were then still mostly station employees rather than independent contractors) to take on multiple stations, but I can believe that he might have been doing that in the '70s.

 

[DG02816]

I came in there in 1984, taking over from a guy named Blait Harden. At that time, Ed was Norm Knight's Director of Engineering. I still remember him having at it with his TRS-80.

 

[DanStrassberg]

I came in there in 1984, taking over from a guy named Blait Harden. At that time, Ed was Norm Knight's Director of Engineering. I still remember him having at it with his TRS-80.

I may even have met Blair Harden many years ago (1981, I'd guess) at what was then the WGTR 1060 site on Sewell St in Ashland. It was probably around 3:00AM. IIRC, Harden and the late Bob Lund (then WGTR CE) were trying to tune up the WGTR night array. I had caught the open carrier and got out of bed, dressed, and drove out to Ashland to find out what I could. Things weren't going too well, but it would be several years before all hope was lost of properly adjusting the array. And it was close to 25 years before the array was rebuilt for both 890 and 1060 and 1060 finally got on the air at night.

I have seen Harden's name a few times since but I have never spoken with him or corresponded with him. In fact, I recall him as being quite quiet on that early morning in 1981. Lund was a really nice guy and he did most of the talking.

 

[comrex]

I spent my last year of college and a bit beyond working for Ed J. doing technical maintenance and remotes down there. Around '86 time frame. 4 towers then, IIRC. Dave, we may have met back then. Fun times.
Tom Hartnett

 

[WLYNWAZNgm]

Blair Harden continues to look after the
WAZN Lexington transmitter site for us...

 

[Laurence Glavin]

I believe the Knight family took over then WMUR-AM 610 radio, perhaps WGIR by then in Manchester, NH, and WEIM-AM 1280 in Fitchburg, MA from previous longtime owners. Both powered down to 1,000 watts at night, although WEIM was definitely aimed at the ocean and WMUR/WGIR has a southeasterly orientation. I often wondered, since Knight seemed to be a big time operation (they might eventually have at one time considred buying a Boston property of some value) why they didn't reconfigure their AMs in Manchester and Fitchburg to run 5K at night. I suppose if they increased WGIR's nighttime coverage, it would have obviated a 610 signal in Torrington, CT.

 

[DanStrassberg]

I believe the Knight family took over then WMUR-AM 610 radio, perhaps WGIR by then in Manchester, NH, and WEIM-AM 1280 in Fitchburg, MA from previous longtime owners. Both powered down to 1,000 watts at night, although WEIM was definitely aimed at the ocean and WMUR/WGIR has a southeasterly orientation. I often wondered, since Knight seemed to be a big time operation (they might eventually have at one time considred buying a Boston property of some value) why they didn't reconfigure their AMs in Manchester and Fitchburg to run 5K at night. I suppose if they increased WGIR's nighttime coverage, it would have obviated a 610 signal in Torrington, CT.

I've heard that WEIM (or whatever its calls are now) has from time to time considered applying for more night power. 5 kW would almost certainly require more than three towers. I believe the owners believed that there was enough room at the site for the additional towers, but whether they actually hired a consulting engineer to render a definitive opinion, I don't know. Manchester is another story. As you said, the night pattern sends most of the signal to the southeast. The day pattern is totally different. Manchester lies in a _minor_lobe to the southeast. The major lobe goes northwest--away from Manchester--but it's a very good signal throughout most of central NH. The array is quite interesting. The spacing between the towers is very tight--around 45 degrees tower-to-tower. And the self-supporting towers are guy-wire top loaded. Yes, they are guyed self-supporting towers! They guys do not support the towers; the top portion of the guys provides the top loading. Very unusual! Anyhow, the very tight tower-to-tower spacing suggests that there was inadequate land to build a less unusual array. Going to 5 kW at night with a pattern that protected WIP and a legacy 610 in eastern Canada would have required a different site. WSNG (it was WTOR when it was built) lies in a minimum that was designed into the pattern to protect WIP. Presumably, if WGIR were to increase its night power, its protection of WIP would also protect WSNG.

And BTW, I don't think you meant "obviated." I believe the word you couldn't think of was "precluded."

 

[Laurence Glavin]

According to dictionary.com, 'obviate' and 'preclude' are listed as synonyms. One sense of 'obviate' is to prevent something from happening in the future. And the gravamen of my post was the idea that if WMUR-AM/WGIR-AM had boosted power and bulged their nighttime pattern while WTOR was on 1490, they might have therefore LATER ON picked another frequency. BTW, I've driven by the AM 610 towers on my way to the White Mountains, and I can't recall actually getting a closeup look at those towers. I didn't know they were so complicated.

 

[DanStrassberg]

According to dictionary.com, 'obviate' and 'preclude' are listed as synonyms. One sense of 'obviate' is to prevent something from happening in the future.

Preclude is to make something impossible. Obviate is to make something unnecessary. Impossible and unnecessary are not synonyms. Therefore, preclude and obviate can't be synonyms. I think you need a better dictionary.

 

[progressivetalk]

The proposed increase in power for WSAR may run into a problem with WKND in Windsor,CT which is on 1480 and operates at 500 watts day and 8 (why?) watts at night, but I presume that it can be adjusted to run around that??

 

[DG02816]

There shouldn't be much overlap as WSAR's new daytime pattern has a null to the west, which should protect WKND.
Checking the FCC database, WKND has 14 watts at night.