[BC] Counterpoise Ground System

[Bob Barnswatts]

Hmmm reminds me of driving thru Hastings, NE there KHAS has a big tower on top of their building, but I didn't see any counterpoise like this.  I don't know if its still in use or not.  Surely the towers weren't hot all the way to the ground level, I'm guessing that it wasn't like the tower was built then the building built around it.  If so that would be interesting.  I'm assuming the towers radiated from the roof top and up, being insulated from "ground" at the rooftop. Must have set on strong pylons of somekind.  How would a typical ground system work like this?  Without the counterpoise wires stretching across the street and all.  Could the grounds be ran in the dirt around the building (hard to do in a downtown area) or would they be ineffective since the start of the base of the tower would be 2 or 3 stories up?  Can anyone explain how this would be properly engineered?  I've never seen a working install like this and found this story fascinating.   Cannot a "counterpoise" also be the bottom half of  a double height tower with an insulater half way up  AND it being fed in the middle or would that not work?

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On 9/19/2006 at 3:12 PM Bill Harms wrote:

>Scott:
>
>	Please check this out.  KSBN 1230 Spokane, Washington uses a counter-
>poise system that stretches across the streets and parking lots to 
>other buildings.  http://spokane.philcobill.com/kfio/tower.php
>
>And this from http://towers.philcobill.com/towers.html
>
>Delaney Building (was Realty Building) West 242 Riverside Avenue.  
>1946 to present.
>
>This transmitter plant is unique among Spokane stations with its 
>overhead counterpoise system. The tower is 190-feet tall and the top 
>is 305 foot above the street level. Technicians strung out 45,000 
>feet of wire for the counterpoise from the building rooftop. Some of 
>the wire was removed when neighboring buildings were razed. In 1946, 
>KREM1340 was the first station to use this facility. Purportedly, 
>KREM subsequently used 970 kHz from this site right before its move 
>to the Moran Prairie site in 1951, when much of the Delaney Building 
>transmitter plant was dismantled.  Del Cody and Dick Williams 
>purchased KFIO from Louis Wasmer in August 1951 and moved to this 
>site. They then rebuilt the transmitting facility, resumed 
>broadcasting on 1340 kHz as KSPO, and then later changed to 1230 kHz. 
>For a long time, the offices and studios were located on the third 
>floor of the Realty Building. KSBN currently transmits from this 
>facility on 1230 kHz (from 29 April 1991). Their offices and studios 
>are currently located in the Ridpath Hotel. Two other stations, KYLK 
>(1950's) and KRSS (19 September 1990-April 1991) also used this 
>facility for a short time. (Edward Antosyn and Carl Partlow, Early 
>Days of Spokane Radio; fcc.gov; Spokesman Review various dates) 
>
>((Bill Harms Copyright 2006))
>-----------------------------------------------------------------  
>
>On 19 Sep 2006 at 9:38, Bailey, Scott wrote:
>
>> Has anyone have a Counterpoise Ground System on their AM tower?  Last
>> month in Radio Guide, Ron Nott brought up some interesting comments in
>> his article about it, and how it may be the answer of getting away from
>> the traditional 120 buried copper radials that the commission demands we
>> AM guys have.
>> 
>> We just had a house across the street from my station that had their
>> plumbing system redone in copper. The copper thieves came during the
>> night and yank out all the copper and I guess cash it in for something
>> like drug money.
>> 
>> If anyone has any pictures of a Counterpoise ground system, please email
>> them to me. Also I'm sure if you decide to use such a ground system, a
>> proof of performance has to be conducted to meet efficiency.
>> 
>> Scott
>> 
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>
>
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