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WTIB to power up.

T

ToddJenkins

I read on the FCC wire that WTIB Williamston/Greenville has been running at 50,000 watts into a poorly performing directional antenna. They have notified Uncle Charlie that a new directional antenna is up on the 1000ft tower and it is ready to tested.

This will bring The Talk FM back to its licensed 100,000 watts.

And THAT explains one reason this station hasn't really been a market player. With the power up, and a new format, maybe WTIB will finally pull some numbers.
 
We are on the new antenna. We are running at 1/2 power While the FCC does the paperwork. I am impressed with the ERI antenna. During some low level tests, We were able to hit Greenville with 250watts! I was going to wait until we went full power and ask everyone on this board about how the signal is doing, but now the cat is out of the bag. Remember, The north signal is limited to 3.7kw. If you all would like, I can post some pictures of the old antenna being brought down and the new one going up.
 
I dare you!
to post the pictures

You know, like the kid on A Christmas Story licking a telephone pole, and in every kid's youth, when people did silly dares. :)
 
Henry keeps saying on the air that the signal is back up to 100,000 but evidently by this post you are not. Will the signal improve at all to the north? It is now clear to Ahoskie but it comes and goes in Murfreesboro. When it was Thunder Country it seemed to do much better up here.
 
We are limited to the north because of protecting Richmond VA. We will never be able to hit the north as stated in my first post. the reason that you got it better before was the old antenna was not as directional as the new one. What Henry was talking about is we had some trouble with our transmitter and was operating at reduced power. I have the problem fixed and am operating at 50kw until the FCC grants us full power. You will notice very little change between 50kw and 100kw. Just the fringe will fill in.
 
RF Guy,

That fringe is ME!! I can kiss CC's 'RDU goodbye when you juice it up. Thanks for the info. You always do pretty work.
Please, post some pics. I would love to see them.

-Todd K4JTJ
 
I am hearing you guys fairly well on an indoor radio. It's a handheld Grundig G5, with a whip antenna. I had been missing Savage and trying to catch him on line or on WOR AM 710 from NYC. So, not bad for the 3.7 KW coming this way (just south of Roanoke Rapids). I definitely prefer WTIB to WRDU! Great to have to guys coming into this area! Best of luck!
 
And there's 590 WGTM, again!
(Those are the older photo's on RFGuy's link.)

Guy, could you tell why two of those four 'GTM towers appear thinner? Were they added later?
And if the old girl falls silent, have you dreamed up an allocation for Greenville or New Bern?
Heck what about Raleigh?

Please let us know when you fire up 'TIB's 100kw.
At 50kw, it still doesn't 'scan-stop' here in Wilson.

Thanks!
Todd K4JTJ
 
I commute from Belvidere to Elizabeth City. Q5 copy all the way. A bit scratchy in E City. Lots of spots, hope the station is making money. -Bill
 
RF Guy, Great photo of the transmitter. Would you or some of the engineers here please indulge a question on this as I have always been curious as to the mechanics of FM transmitters. This being directional actually seems much more complicated and expensive as opposed to a non-directional array. I was curious as to what the particular arrays were and what was responsible for increasing/decreasing the signal strength patterns in certain directions. Looking at the recognizable U shaped claw like arrays, I see them as standard on many towers and take it they by themselves would make the FM transmission non-directional. If that is true, what do some of the other array's in this photo do to the transmission as I am thinking they may be related to redirecting the signal. It if is too much to get into here that is fine, I was just wanting to know some of the mechanics since many of you guys know this very well.

RFGuy said:
A few pictures, I will post more, and thanks for the kind words!
http://www.fotothing.com/EddieH/
Click to expand...
 
Let me start with a disclamer, That Transmitter was one that is at WGTM Wilson, NC. That Transmitter was on the air the day I was born. I learned Electronics from the Chief Engineer there, Bill Bunn. Bill saw something in me and took me under his wing. Now, The answer for your question about the FM Directional. The bays are stock ERI "Rototiller" antennas. The FCC limits the direction and power of the antenna system. As you noted, the elements you see are Parasites, or "directing elements". Mounted on a pole as we are, The antenna without the Parasites would radiate in an even pattern, 360 degrees. The parasites are cut to allow the signal to be "directed" to where we meet the FCC guidlines regarding our licence. We have both Horozontal and Vertical elements that "pull" our signal. The test is done at the ERI test range in IN, A copy of our pole with the parasites are rotated 360 degrees and a polar plot of the system shows us that we are in the guidelines of the FCC. Thank you for your question, If I missed anything that you wanted to know, leave me a message and I will answer to the best of my ability. We are up at full power now and any response from our project would be nice! ED
 
103.7 sounds like crap again. Sounds like the program material is going into the equipment at way too high a volume and is having a lot of distortion. Also sounds like the STL is about to go... every so often there's a LOUD 'digital hash' type noise - the same noise The Hot FM used to have when the 103.7 STL would kick. What's going on?
 
I have also caught the loud 'hash' noise during Savage. I thought it may be a problem with the satellite feed, until I heard it during Laura, after Savage.
 
We are having trouble with Centurylink with our phone lines to the transmitter. They have been working on it for a little over a week and it is causing digital glitching.
 
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