WKYC-TV CHANNEL 17 BUILDING & TOWER
CONSTRUCTION
For those of you who are interested in such things, here are some photos
of the new transmitter
site construction. Included are the construction of
a new transmitter room, the bridge carrying
the lines to the tower and the new
tower itself. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you will
get the
full size photo not the reduced version.
There are a few 300mm shots near the bottom of the page.
At the bottom of the page are a few facts for those who might be
curious.
email: k8dav@k8dav.com
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Area to hold new transmitter before demolition
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Starting dismantling
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This RCA transmitter was our backup for a long time
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Rex & Dawn working on the dismantling
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Main room RCA control room wall & transmitter removed
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Me working on equipment racks with the RCA xmtr gone.
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Gary doing his part with some of the satellite racks
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New channel 17 Harris PowerCD transmitter in place
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The IOT tube being put into its socket in the transmitter
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Tom the electrician wiring up some of the 440 V 220 A. breakers
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George and Matt from Harris Corp giving the new transmitter final checkout
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Backup diesel generator arrival
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Me with my fingers in the rig
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Channel 17 transmitter ready to go
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Tower and bridge construction
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Rebar going into hole for tower base. Old tower is orange in background.
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Guy wire anchor ready to go into hole.
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Anchor ready for concrete
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Tower sections that will be a bridge over a valley
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Nope, it's not the tower going up. It's a support for the bridge.
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Crane to lift the tower and bridge sections.
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New tower lights. Left is a new LED obstruction lamp and right the new LED beacon.
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The beacon has a relatively narrow vertical beam.
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Tower section (bridge) being set.
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Truck carrying the crane counterweights stuck in mud.
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Me making adjustment to transmitter
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One monster crane
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Lifting tower sections
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Setting tower on base
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Our side mount backup antenna
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The main antenna which will also hold the WVIZ antenna on top of it. The gray items are climbing pegs which I won't use.
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Inside views of that orange cover. The flat items are used to put a null in the pattern to approximately north for Canada protection.
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Wider view of the antenna.
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Three signatures on the bottom of the antenna. Brook Spectorsky, Rex Rickly and me.
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Antenna going up.
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Crew going up all tied together on a single line.
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Channel 17 antenna going up
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Antenna coming up to gin pole. Hmmm they do look like ants up there.
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Close to setting antenna
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Channel 17 antenna in place
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Channel 26 WVIZ ready to rotate into place on top of the WKYC antenna
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Antennas in place
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Parting Shots
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Those white things
The 'white things' that were in the center of the tower were actually 3 massive insulators. One on each leg of the tower. They were necessary when the tower was the WKYC-AM 1100Khz antenna. |
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Last few sections
Here the last few sections of the tower are lowered with the gin pole. |
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Sections on ground ready for scrap.
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Tower base
That's all she wrote. |
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Facts For New Tower
The transmitter is a Harris PowerCD. Total power output is 43.5 Kw.
The antenna is a Dielectric TFU-20EBT. Weight 10,600 lbs
Aux. antenna weight is 3,100 lbs.
Gin Pole is 140 ft tall and weighs 21,000 lbs
Maximum effective radiated power is 868 Kw.
Height of tower is 912 ft. Same as original.
The crane is a Grove Crane with the capacity of 250 tons. The
counterweights total 154,300 lbs.
Director of Technology: Mike Szabo
In charge of project: Rex Rickly, WKYC-DT
Electrical provided by Ullman Electric Co.
Tower work by Warmus & Associates.
