[BC] Counterpoise Ground System

[nakayle@gmail.com]

Scott , I happen to think that the FCC should be the authority when it comes
to what constitutes an acceptable antenna system for a federally licensed
radio station and that their judgement should supersede ignorant local
politicians who don't know beans about broadcast antennas.

 - Nat

On 9/20/06, Bailey, Scott <sbailey at nespower.com> wrote:
>
> Nat,
>    My station in Gallatin, TN, when we got ready to replace my old 195'
> wind charger tower, codes came to me and want me to go down to 100'. At
> the time, my knowledge of unipoles, was not good, and I was still
> learning about what top loading was. I told Jim Zobota (the codes guy)
> that I needed to be at least 150' to be almost right at 1/4 wave, and
> have the same efficiency I had before, and to meet FCC specs for the
> frequency I'm on. The City Council went along with what the 150' tower
> height, but lots of questions were thrown at me at the time, and were
> difficult for me to answer.
>    I'm on the high end of the band, 1560, and I discovered later a 100'
> tower with a decently built unipole would work. Actually, an 80' tower
> would work good for daytime use, but I have some Pre-Sunrise,
> Post-Sunset, and some flea power I use at night, and I was afraid of the
> high angle radiation that the smaller radiator would cause.
>    If I was force to replace the 150' Pirod, Self Supporting tower I
> have, I probably would have to go with a Valcom or Kinstar. I know the
> Valcoms work o.k. but, the not convinced about the Kinstar yet, due to I
> don't know of any stations using one, and another thing, it seems to be
> a property/land hogger, something that city and county codes won't like
> here at all!
>    I thought that when Tom King was developing the Kinstar, he would
> have taken into consideration about real estate and the price is getting
> higher and higher, and developers want that land to build houses and
> businesses. I wished he would have come up with a way to do a
> counterpoise of some sort to shorten the radials to a certain degree,
> especially for us on the high end of the band. I've seen buildings built
> over ground system, and I don't think that's a keen idea.
>    This was 1999. Today, Sumner County Codes are trying to stop any
> tower building at all, including for 2 way emergency use in the UHF
> band, with is really stupid. WQKR (1270), Portland, TN, was forced off
> their licensed tower site by property owner Larry Collins. I think he
> wanted the towers gone to use the land to expand a factory building
> nearby..
>    WQKR former owners went in front of City Codes for a new site found,
> and were turned down. They then found a possible site location outside
> the City of Portland, in the county. Sumner County said...hell no, and
> asking why do you need 2 towers anyway?
>    Luckily, Portland, TN is near the county line, and they found a site,
> just off I-65, near the Robertson County/Sumner County Line. The site
> was zoned in Robertson County. Two towers were erected and the 5 mv/m
> barely covered the city of Portland, but the consultant engineer made it
> work.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: broadcast-bounces at radiolists.net
> [mailto:broadcast-bounces at radiolists.net] On Behalf Of nakayle at gmail.com
> Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 11:07 AM
> To: Broadcasters' Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [BC] Counterpoise Ground System
>
> Very interesting installation but I never have understood the logic of
> rooftop AM antennas.  Seems to me a ground mounted tower would work
> better
> and be so much easier to do.
>
> And I can't imagine even building a rooftop system now a days as strict
> as
> zoning and building codes have become.  Now a days you're lucky if they
> let
> you build a tower at all.
>
>   -Nat Kayle
>
> On 9/19/06, Bill Harms <wharms at philcobill.com> 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
> >
> >
> _______________________________________________
>
>
>