[BC] WMCA/WNYC

[Dan Strassberg]

Peter has said that WMCA's existing site would not support six towers for
the never-built upgrade to 50 kW-D/30 kW-N. I've never seen the application.
I think that the CP was granted before CDBS went on line. But the
application must have contained a site plat. As I understand it, the plan
was to demolish the existing row of three towers and replace it with a near
duplicate (presumably guyed rather than self-supporting) approximately 60
degrees north of the existing towers. A second row parallel to the first
would have been added approximately 60 degrees south of the existing row.
The new patterns would doubtless have added more coverage of open water than
of land and it was never clear to me that the signal would have improved
except in of parts of Manhattan, Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, and
southern Nassau and Suffolk. With the patterns I saw, a move westward, as
Peter suggested, might have been preferable except, there probably was no
suitable land available further west at any realisitc price AND the soil
conductivity to the west can't be anywhere near as good as it is at the
present site, where the towers stand in salt water--at least at high tide.
Moreover, the soil-conductivity hit might well have wiped out the entire
advantage of the power increase.

Actually though, it appeared to me that WNYC would have been the principal
beneficiary of WMCA's upgrade. The azimuth of the two lines of three towers
was not quite the same as that of the current line, and it looked as if the
orientation was optimized to benefit WNYC. Also, the spacing between the two
rows, though possibly dictated by the site geometry, appeared more nearly
optimized for 820 than for 570! Take a look at WNYC's augmented
night pattern; it's a mess. There are HUGE augmentations to the
west-northwest in the direction of CHAM. Those are undoubtedly the result of
a Pulaski Skyway bridge adjacent to the site. I assume that detuning the
bridge to prevent reradiation of the 820 signal proved impractical or maybe
even impossible. WNYC's CP for 820 originally specified a night power of 5
kW. To obtain a license to cover, WNYC had to back off its night power to 1
kW, which must have necessitated a waiver of the COL-coverage requirements.
The combined area of New York City's five boroughs is more than 350 square
miles. Anyhow, with twice as many towers lined in what appeared to be an
optimal configuration for 820, it seemed as though WNYC might have been able
to run the originally planned 5 kW at night or even more. However, at no
time that I am aware of while WMCA's CP was open did WNYC apply to make use
of the new towers. Given the slight change in the tower orientation, even if
WNYC planned no improvements, a CP would have been necessary because neither
row of three towers would have produced exactly the same pattern as WNYC
currently uses.

--
Dan Strassberg, dan.strassberg at att.net
eFax 707-215-6367