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Florida Radio Preparedness for Irma ?

DavidEduardo said:


Is this WKIZ? I heard that this AM, with 3 towers in a little bay off the ocean, closed down due to the threat of flooding so that they could put the transmitter up on crates to keep it from getting wet.

Monroe County has 40 stations and translators for just over 77,000 people, so certainly there was no lack of service.
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Hi David, sorry I was traveling and missed your question.. I believe that was the station. Was forwarded an E-mail chain where the mom and pop-run AM station in Key West decided to evacuate after initially making the effort to stay on the air as long as possible. Apparently one of the owners left early, while her husband stayed behind to try and reinforce the transmitter site. When it was announced that the bridges would be closed when the wind speed hit 40MPH, he decided to close up and evacuate.
 
Kelly A said:
Hi David, sorry I was traveling and missed your question.. I believe that was the station. Was forwarded an E-mail chain where the mom and pop-run AM station in Key West decided to evacuate after initially making the effort to stay on the air as long as possible. Apparently one of the owners left early, while her husband stayed behind to try and reinforce the transmitter site. When it was announced that the bridges would be closed when the wind speed hit 40MPH, he decided to close up and evacuate.
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One report says that every station in the Keys was off the air during the storm and few have returned. This seems reasonable in that there was a total evacuation order for the Keys: there should have been nobody there to hear the broadcasts.
 
DavidEduardo said:


One report says that every station in the Keys was off the air during the storm and few have returned. This seems reasonable in that there was a total evacuation order for the Keys: there should have been nobody there to hear the broadcasts.
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As a native of Key West the following was posted on the Tom Taylor newsletter today. I have had zero contact with friends and family in Key West, but it looks like most in Key West are okay. The lower and middle Keys are a different story. Most of the radio towers are located in the impacted area (Cudjoe, Sugarloaf and Ramrod Key) and probably suffered severe damage.



A practical suggestion from “a ‘Conch,’ a fourth-generation Key Wester.” Damon Collins, now president of Blackbelt Broadcasting, says “As of now, all communications are down” in Key West. No stations on-air, no power, no cell phone service. Damon says “The only form of electronic media to get info out would be a portable radio...I would suggest that in disaster-prone locations, stations put together an emergency transmission kit. Even a 100-watt signal in downtown Key West (and other impacted locations) could provide valuable information. An exciter with a makeshift antenna (on a building or telephone pole) and a portable generator would at least allow information to be relayed.” He adds that “This is where the NextRadio app would have been extremely useful, too.” And overall, he says “This is why radio is so important.” Damon has history with these things - “In 1992, Summerland and Cudjoe Key was my radio home, at WPIK 102.5 FM. We covered Hurricane Andrew.”
 
I don't know how Channel 7 in Miami does it but they do. With all that water around the station on the Causeway they stay on the air. The only TV station in South Florida still in their original location, since 1956 I believe. It will be a sad day when that building surrenders to the high rises that are getting closer and closer.
 
WBOB (600) Jacksonville blasting into Atlanta relaying local Channel 4 audio.
 
AMRocks said:
Enjoy your right wing Fox and left wing MSNBC,
but when all hell breaks loose, most people will tune to CNN.
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Why would the centrist-extremist Weather channel not be a top ratings contender?
 
ai4i said:
Why would the centrist-extremist Weather channel not be a top ratings contender?
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People don't think of the Weather Channel as a place for news about the event. They probably tune in to see the forecast track, but not during and after.
 
WBOB still on hi power last night.
VOA used to have a relay on Marathon Key at one time. I heard that the engineers' main job was to keep the air filters cleaned of dead mosquitoes that got sucked up.
WRMI Okeechobee 9395 and 9455 was on also last night.
 
kf4rca said:
VOA used to have a relay on Marathon Key at one time. I heard that the engineers' main job was to keep the air filters cleaned of dead mosquitoes that got sucked up.
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The Marathon facility is the main transmitter for the Radio Martí Program, 100 kw on 1180 and very much still alive. While it is related to the VOA, it's not technically a VOA operation. It has oversight from the Board of Broadcast Governors, just like other operations such as the VOA, Radio Sawa, RFE, etc.
 
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WRMI used to contract for VOA on SW. I can't hear their 1180 frequency but I could hear their SW feed for Radio Marti with jamming underneath it in the 41 meter band. At one time, they even had a TV transmitter affixed to a weather balloon until it burst and came crashing to the ground. Equipment was built by Harris.
 
kf4rca said:
WRMI used to contract for VOA on SW. I can't hear their 1180 frequency but I could hear their SW feed for Radio Marti with jamming underneath it in the 41 meter band. At one time, they even had a TV transmitter affixed to a weather balloon until it burst and came crashing to the ground. Equipment was built by Harris.
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Martí on SW was, IIRC, always from North Carolina.

Martí TV also used a pair of fixed wing Gulfstreams to broadcast. One plane was sold and the other, with equipment, stored in GA. Radio also used a Comando Solo fixed wing plane with a "dangling" AM antenna on 530 kHz for weekly broadcasts, which caused Cuba to put multiple transmitters on 530.
 
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