WSMR 89.1 Power Reduction

"The original ERI from Green Cove that was originally used when WSMR moved to Nokomis is back on the air."

Ouch! I know that antenna. I built 89.1 on Green Cove Road on the old channel 62 tower when it originally went on the air back in the 90's. It was a "ring stub" antenna that can have up to 30% downward radiation. The antenna was at 450 feet, but there was so much downward radiation I could not cut the grass directly under the tower, the lawn mower would stall from all of the RF. The grass eventually stopped growing under that antenna. Better wear your lead shorts when walking under that antenna.

ring stub? must not be the "original" antenna then, this is the ERI Rototiller that was in use before Northwest sold to WUSF

The Rototiller was not the original antenna. 89.1 was originally built on the cheap by a Christian station in Ft. Myers with a used Harris 20H transmitter and a 5-bay, half wave spaced ring stub antenna. It was on the channel 62 tower on Green Cove Road.

The Dielectric DCR has been put back on the tower and station is back at licensed ERP again. Also if its the same 20H it is now WSMR's backup and runs quite well.

I was able to get WSMR 89.1 in Bradenton, but not in Tampa (the 89.1 signal, not 103.7).

You will NEVER hear them on 103.7

Maybe just a few miles north with a radio with good sensitivity and selectivity, could listen to UF’s WRUF, Gator Country,full power FM at 103.7!

The WSMR 89.1 as reported by hdradioeng and others is back to normal; if fact seems slightly better to me.......with that said does anyone have any clue about WUSF media raising money for this (as listed on their website):

“Donate today to help us raise funds to expand Classical WSMR’s signal currently heard on 89.1 in Sarasota” ........... then in reference to a fund raising event (Jan 5th, 2018) the website went on to say: “All proceeds from this special evening will benefit WUSF Public Media’s efforts to improve Classical WSMR’s signal strength and reach, in order to provide classical music on the radio to even more listeners in our region”. That is all they wrote, did not specify what any of the options might be. Boosters? Additional translators?, moving to Parrish at the WWSB site? (Which of course would diminish the listenable signal for South Venice, Englewood and North Port and Port Charlotte).

Speaking of WSMR,
I came across their tower at the intersection of Tamiami Trail and Rt 681 today.
The very top sported what appeared to be a twelve-bay antenna,
below it was a six-bay antenna,
and below that was a pair of two, three-bay antennæ.
WSRZ on the top commercial band channel is listed as using eight bays at 154m/ground,
so I would guess that they use the top eight of the twelve bays.
WCTQ on the bottom commercial band channel is listed using four bays at 144m/ground,
so I would guess that they use the bottom four of the twelve bays.
WSMR, the reserved bander, is listed as using six bays at 133m/ground, probably uses the six under the twelve.
The two three bay antennæ must either be spares or for HD transmitters

Am I right? Did I figure them all out?

drt said:

...moving to Parrish at the WWSB site?

Click to expand...

That would place them way too close to several other stations,
including a co-channel in Gainesville,
a first adjacency in Tarpon Springs,
a third adjacency in Tampa,
and probably a few others.
I think that W280DW is at its limit.
So, I would guess that adding an additional translator
could be in the cards; on the table; in the running.

ai4i said:

The two three bay antennæ must either be spares or for HD transmitters

Am I right? Did I figure them all out?

Click to expand...

The 2 - 3 bay antennas are Aux's for WSRZ and WCTQ, the HD operations are high level combined in each stations DCR on the lambda section.

hdradioeng said:

...the HD operations are high level combined in each stations DCR on the lambda section.

Click to expand...

Thanks for filling in my blanks, though a bit over my head.
I like combined systems;
the Gannett tower in Miami has (I think) ten class C's and C1's between 93.1 and 107.5 feeding a single antenna.

High Level HD combining is not exactly like a Master FM antenna. Yes, the FM signal and the HD signal are combined into one antenna at the output of the two transmitters. Normally, because of the amount of power that has to be wasted in a reject load, HD power is limited to -20dbc (1% of FM power) The biggest Master FM antenna in the area is on the American Tower in Riverview and combines the FM only signals for 93.3, 100.7 & 103.5 with the low level combined FM+HD signals of 88.5, 94.9 and 101.5. 93.3, 100.7 & 103.5 HD signals are on a separate Master HD antenna just below the Master FM antenna. All stations on that tower are at an HD power of -14dbc (4% of FM power) which is the maximum allowed without special authority from the FCC. 97.1 in Holiday is operating at -10dbc (10% of FM power which is the most allowed by the FCC) low level combined into one antenna on the Holiday tower which is only used by 97.1. 97.9 and 105.5 are combined into a Master antenna at the top of the tower. BTW 97.1 has the very First Liquid Cooled Solid State transmitter built by GatesAir. It is a FLX10k, 10kw transmitter running 8.44kw (7.6kw of FM plus 760 watts of HD). 102.5 and 105.5 also have FLX transmitters. 105.5 a FLX20k and 102.5 the very first FLX40k, 40kw transmitter. Cox was instrumental in the design of the FLX transmitters.

I have this question for hdradioeng, rfrus, or anyone:
If a station has a seperate antenna for HD that is at a significantly different height than their FM antenna,
can they run an equivalent ERP to compensate for the height difference?
For example, a station is 1KW @1,000 feet and can run 40 watts HD
Their HD antenna is on the same tower, but only 500 feet up.
Can they now run 160 watts to compensate for the reduced height?

The answer to ai4i is no. If they use a separate antenna, the antenna must already be licensed as an Auxiliary antenna, must basically be on the same tower as the Main antenna and be between 70-100% of the height of the Main FM antenna. You cannot operate more HD power to make up for the lower antenna. But like I previously noted, the HD antenna must be at least 70% of the height of the Main antenna.