[BC] KDKA

[Chuck Leavens]

>At 06:44 PM 5/13/2005, Chuck Leavens wrote
>>You are right. I forgot they took down the Franklin about 5 years 
>>ago and put this one up. Neither antenna has performed well for 
>>them.
>
>         Chuck,
>
>         any idea why neither tower "performed well?"
>

I recall a conversation with Don Everist a few years ago when we were 
doing some work here and he was puzzled by the whole thing too. 
Looking back carefully the old tower was not technically a Franklin 
either by the strict definition and I was surprised they stayed with 
the design because it did not perform well here in any case. Parts of 
Pittsburgh lose the signal and the south hills are not a strong 
signal area for them either. Go figure. A daytimer in town on 1080 
with 50Kw and just a traditional shunt fed tower always seemed to 
outperform them. That station has since changed facility.

They were obviously confident enough with the design to put another 
one up with a different feed height. the new one goes in at 1/4 wave 
I think on a 3/4 wave stick.  I am not expert on this site but just 
find the whole thing fascinating.

So I don't have an answer as to why but have the same question you're 
asking myself. I have heard some say the design just does not work. 
That's hard to believe with the amount of field you can generate. The 
close in self fading seems hard to get one's hands around 
objectively. Sometimes it just seems to be the way of the wind.

-- 
Thanks,

Chuck Leavens
Director of Engineering and I.T.
WDUQ FM Duquesne University
Pittsburgh PA 412-396-5508