The Nomads

Tis the season to be jolly. And to be moving on.

Things on the transmitter project are stating to enter that final phase. The tower and building are nearing completion, the transmitter and other equipment is either starting to come in or will be in soon. That also means that the people who have been doing the work in construction of this new facility are either getting ready to move on to the next job, or are moving on.

Enter Ralph and Philippa. (yep, that is how she spells it)

Ralph and Philippa work for the tower company. They assemble the pieces of steel that make up the tower sections. They are the first on site, long before the erection crew, the people who actually take the individual tower sections Ralph and Philippa put together and build the tower. They are usually the first people to leave the job site. Sometimes before the tower is completed or sometimes as the tower is being completed. In this case, they are leaving now with the tower work almost completed.


Ralph and Philippa pick out the correct steel piece for the tower - July 2005

Did I mention that Ralph and Philippa are also married. To each other?

I first met them the fourth week of the project. They pulled into the site on that Monday morning looking for their area so they could start setting up their equipment. A little later a 5 ton fork lift arrived. About 2 hours later, three 18-wheelers pulled in. Two had the first sections of the tower and the third had a container that held all of their tools.

Ralph jumped up on the fork lift and had the tower legs and cross members unloaded in no time. While he was doing that, Philippa took inventory. I stood there and watched all of the activity. The thought crossed my mind, what would Philippa do when the inventory was done? Could she drive a folk lift? Would she help assemble the pieces of steel? Could she lift the pieces of steel? Well it didn't take long to find out. Within a couple of days, after they got everything in order, they began to assemble the sections of tower and Philippa did her part and then some.

There were times when Ralph would drive the folk lift over to pick up the 1 ton legs and put them on the framing jig, and then other times Philippa would. Philippa would run the folk lift lifting smaller pieces or large pieces up to the jig to be installed. She would bolt the small pieces to the sections, whatever it took to get the job done. They worked as a team, lifting the steel, moving the steel, bolting the steel together and then moving the completed sections over to the staging area. They had been doing this for so long that they rarely spoke when working, but each knowing what the other needed and when. It was more art than science.

They started assembling in July, through the sweltering days of 98 and 99 degree temperatures. Sweat rolling down their faces and arms. They would start early in the morning and work until about mid afternoon, when the temps got their worst. They continued this ritual for 6 weeks.

When the tower erectors arrived in late August, Ralph and Philippa completed assembling the last 3 upper sections of the tower as the erectors prepared to lift the bottom 6 sections into place. When the first lift happened in mid September, Ralph and Philippa changed roles from tower assemblers to ground crew, preparing the tower sections for lifting up the stack and supporting the erectors on the tower, knowing that the call could come at any time to pack up and move to the next job.

Ralph and Philippa are from the UK originally. Philippa is a naturalized US citizen, Ralph is still a UK citizen but is working on his US citizenship. They have been married for about 2 years and as you might figure, met on the job. Both have traveled the world over assembling and erecting towers.

Ralph told me of the time when he was still climbing, he was working in Libya when Momar Kadafi came to power. The whole crew was put under house arrest and were led to the tower site under guard at daybreak and then back to the hotel at sundown every day. As soon as the tower was completed, the crew was kicked out of the country. That is some nice "thank you."

Philippa related the story of the time she was working in Indonesia and made one of the war lords mad. She was afraid that when she left the country that drugs would be planted on her so she would be arrested by the authorities. To avoid that, she left all of the belongings she had brought with her. On the way to the airport, she stopped and bought new clothes and changed into them and left the clothes she had been wearing in the trash in case drugs or residue had been planted on her clothes. She left the country literally with only the clothes on her back and her passport.

These tower nomads work six day weeks and every 6 weeks they get one week off. Ralph and Philippa have a lovely home in West Virginia, but they don't get there very often, instead living in a trailer that they pull behind their Jeep Liberty.


Ralph and Philippa on their last day at the site at the base of the tower they assembled and help erect - November 2005

They were offered the opportunity to be on the crew going to Jakarta, where their company has the contract to build a 1400 ft tower in downtown Jakarta. That might not sound very unusual, but horizontal real estate in downtown Jakarta is unheard of. So this tower can only be built in one city block, in contrast to the 20 or so acres our 1250 footer sits on. The tower sits on a 400 foot tall steel frame the size of that city block and the guy anchors extent up a short way from there to cut down on the total guy wire length so it will fit in this one city block. This is the first time this has been done. Both Ralph and Philippa turned it down, instead coming to our site and now moving on to Georgia to assemble a new tower there.

The tower erecting crew will still be here a few more weeks finishing things up and then they too will be moving to a tower in Virginia to mount some antennas and then on to other sites. One of the erectors is from Texas, and the other 4 are from Canada, three from around Toronto and one from Saskatchewan, Canada. The erector crew did have an apprentice who was just pulled two weeks ago to be on the Jakarta crew.


All of the Nomad's - November 2005

But now it is time to pull up stakes and move on. The call of Nomad is in the air. So long Ralph and Philippa. We will miss your cockney and southern English accents and your wonderful personality. If you are back this way, feel free to stop in and say hello. You are always welcomed here. It has been a pleasure to know you.

Bring in the power!

We hit our next milestone in the new transmitter site project. We had the BIG power arrive today! The big beam supplies that provide the 35,000 volts to run the UHF digital transmitter arrived and we had the power turned on in the building! Both are milestones in their own right. But to have them both arrive on the same day is pretty special! The digital transmitter itself is not but a few weeks away now and to have the big supplies that run it in means that time is getting short.

We were lucky that the rain stopped while they were unloading the supplies and then placing them on the equipment patio. It wasn't 5 minutes after we completed that it started to rain again.

With the cool weather and rain we have been having, it will be nice to have the heat running in the building. It has been a little chilly and damp last few days, but now we can start to dry things out and get the finishing touches done. It will also be nice to have some real lighting in the building instead of temporary lighting.

How fast were you going? ONE HUNDRED!!

As most people know, the US is the only developed country that does not use the metric system in everyday activities. Well I guess that isn't exactly true since we have 2 liter bottles, but even that is Americanized. The rest of the world writes liter as "litre" and we write it "liter." I guess that is a small thing in the big picture. I have never been a proponent of the metric system, but then I haven't been an opponent either. I don't normally use it and so it was always a hassle but not a big deal.

The US federal government about 20 years ago mandated that measurements dealing with permits and such from the US Government had to use the metric system. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) changed over from feet to meters for height of towers and antennas. This was to help get people used to using the metric system and transition from the imperial system. Well, we see how that has worked!?

Of course I learned some of the measurements like 100 meters is 317 feet, 300 meters is 984 feet. 600 meters is just shy of 2000 feet. (1968 feet) I mention those distances because those are the breakout points for tower heights for certain types of FM and TV stations. When you file paper work with the FCC and FAA and tower/antenna heights are involved, there is no "feet" box. It is in meters. (Thank goodness for the Internet conversion sites!) Up until my trips to the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) that is all of the metrics I knew except for the usual 32 degrees is 0 degrees Celsius and 212 degrees (boiling point) is 100 degrees Celsius. Learned that in school between listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Bee Gees. (does that date me?)

Toronto is a large metropolitan area like an Atlanta or Washington, DC. Many expressways and many small bedroom communities. Pearson International Airport sits off of Routes 427 and 401 (the pictures of the Air France crash last summer showed the 401 close to the 427 collector as they say there but they mean on ramp) west of Toronto in the town of Mississauga. In Canada, they don't have Interstates in the sense as the US. There the Interstate type highways are 3 digit numbers and each province has its own series. Ontario's is 400.

In preparation for my trip this last time, (I would have a rental car, something I hadn't had the other times I had been there) I started to "drive metrically" meaning "scientifically" I would drive the closest metric speed to imperial speed to get use to the relative sensation at a certain metric speed. 60 miles per hour is 96 kilometers per hour (or km/h), 110 km/h is 68 MPH and 120 km/h is 74 MPH. I did this on and off for about a month before my trip, this was to get used to a different numbering system.

My hotel was only about 10 kilometers, ah 6 miles, and the route was out of Pearson on to the 427, one exit to the 401 and then 2 exits to the 403 and then 5 exits to Hurontario St and then 10 blocks to the hotel. All was going well until I drove out of the rental car parking lot at Pearson.

First thing I noticed was that the small numbers on the speed odometer that I had gotten used to no longer were metric but now imperial and the big numbers were metric. OK, I now have to focus on a different location than I had practiced. No problem. The second thing I noticed was that the speed limit sign was not in MPH but km/h. My brain had gotten used to converting up from MPH to km/h. Now for the brain to work, I had to convert down so my sensation of relative speed could work or I would have to keep my eyes glued to the speed odometer to be sure I wasn't speeding or impeding traffic. OK, deep breath. If I can handle 10,000 volts in a transmitter, what is a little metric conversion, hhmmm?

First speed limit sign out of the parking lot was 50 km/h (30 MPH). OK relatively slow speed. I mean this was still the airport property for gosh sakes not the Lowes Motor Speedway, no need to gun it. No sweat. By the time I reached the stop light 1 km later (half mile) to get on the collector at the 427 I glanced down and was doing 80 km/h (50 MPH)! WOW! My relative speed sensation wasn't working very well. Now I have to read a road map to be sure I get on the correct collector (all of the roads were at least 4 lanes per side and had multiple off ramps at the same place) since the distances are now in kilometers (6/10 of mile) and the road signs are different colors than ours and they are bilingual in English and French since Canada has two official languages (all government buildings and road signs must be in both languages) the old mush factory upstairs was starting to move the needle ever closer to the red overload zone with each passing moment.


Now the speed on the 427 is 100 km/h and there are 4 off ramp lanes, 2 for the 401 (looping over the roadway) and 2 for the 407 ETR toll road (looping over the 401 and the 427 and to the left - AVOID THAT ROAD AT COSTS - no pun intended). As I hit the 401 collector, I checked my speed and it was 115 km/h (70 MPH). The speed on the off ramp is 80 km/h (50 MPH).

Oh great! I have been driving less than 5 minutes and already I am getting paranoid that the OPP (Ontario Provincial Police, the equivalent of our Highway Patrol) has seen no telling how many moving violations in just 3 kilometers between speed and lane changes as some idiot in a rental Jeep Liberty tries to read a road map and drive at and/or above and/or below road speed! I am now beginning to think that a rental car was a BAD IDEA! That 35 dollar taxi ride from the airport to the hotel maybe wasn't so bad after all and I really don't walk enough!

Well I am now on the 401 at 110 km/h, the posted speed. Just as I look up from the speed odometer, in the far left lane is an OPP car coming fast! I figured I had it and started to move over to the far right lane preparing to hit the shoulder and probably hauled off to jail. But the OPP car stays in the far left lane and speeds on by to parts unknown. Wow! OK, got past that one. Now I need to concentrate on my exit for the 403 that is just a kilometer or two ahead.

Traffic on the 401 is heavy for a Saturday afternoon but everyone seems to be driving the posted speed. Having gotten used to exits with numbers, I quickly realized that on Canadian superhighways, they don't use exit numbers, just names or route numbers. So I would have to read the road signs carefully to be sure I get off on the proper collector. With signs over the road, on the side of the road, on the road decked out in green, blue, white and bright yellow and TWO languages, I had to learn very quickly which signs to ignore and which ones to look at and which lines to look at. Thank goodness for cruise control for I turned it on and let'er run on autopilot while I searched for the numbers 4-0-3.


Before I know it, I see the multidecked interchange for the 403 and the 410. Luckily the speed doesn't drop down on the collector so cruise control stays engaged. Now I have about 5 kilometers before I get to the Hurontario St exit. The speed on the 403 has dropped down to 100 km/h and the road is packed. I move over to the far right lane and just begin to get used to the difference in road signs. I even turn on the radio and tune in CFTR AM, 680 News.

My nice afternoon drive is brought back to life as I see the sign for Hurontario St. I drop out of cruise control and hit the collector and see the speed is 60 km/h (37 MPH). At the top of the off ramp I stop at the light in the left hand lane. There, that wasn't so hard after all. The light changes and I pull out on to Hurontario. The speed is 50 km/h (30 MPH). As I drove the 10 blocks to the hotel, things moved much slower and I had a chance to catch my breath and figure out what I needed to do. In 5 minutes I am at the front door of the hotel no worse the wear.

After I checked in, I got back out on Hurontario and ran up towards the town of Brampton to get used to driving again and to see some of the sights. It was pretty uneventful. The next day I drove to Niagara Falls, 127 km (60 miles) on the Queens Expressway, another superhighway that ranged from 4 lanes to 10 lanes, depending on where you are and speeds that ranged from 100 km/h to 120 km/h. I was getting the hang of it. By the time I left 4 days later, it had been like metric driving was all I had ever done.

If you go to Canada, don't try your first drive on a superhighway reading a road map by yourself. Find a side street first.

You like the colors?

Lots happening at the new transmitter building, but most is pretty mundane. Lots of wire getting stuffed into conduits that run all over the building to points that I will never find in a million years.

Painting going on too, but it is industrial colors, EXCEPT in my office! Thought it would be nice to "spice up" the place a little and not see the industrial white of the rest of the building when I go to my "corner". (The office is in the corner of the building.) Actually it was my wife who said I needed a little excitement there. (Thanks hon!)

It isn't exciting to anyone but me, but since nothing else of exterior interest is happening just right now (but Friday, hopefully), and since my mind is liquid at the moment from the days events, thought I would share the pretty colors! They do look like Christmas in the pictures, even though they don't in real life.

The door leads into the hallway and it is painted a "bronze" color. Martha would do SO proud! ("That is a good thing!")

ENJOY!

Man, this is cool!! Why are you doing it??

I don't know how many times I have had that questioned asked me in the last six months when people come to the new transmitter site. Everyone thinks it is a really cool thing that we are building a new tower and building (me too!) but they can't seem to get their arms around the "why?" of doing it. Simple answer, we are doing this because we have to so we can stay in business. The more complicated answer is we have to because the FCC said so. Well, Congress told the FCC to tell us we had to. If you are still scratching your noodle, then you are not alone. Have you ever heard of the old saying "HI! I am from the government! I am here to help!"?

First, a little history. In the 1980's the Japanese TV network NHK began testing of analog high definition TV signals. It was clumsy, complicated and it was only on the air from 10pm to 2am because they had to shutdown some of the analog stations to run this supersized TV signal. This alarmed many here in the US that maybe our Japanese friends were getting a technical jump on us in this arena. Our "TV Scientists" began working on a HD system here. Soon it was discovered that computers could send pictures and high def pictures to boot! So to combat the NHK analog HD system, broadcasters went to the FCC asking if they too could do HD but using digital instead of analog since they could put one HD digital signal in the same channel spacing as one standard def analog channel, something that trumped the NHK system.

Well the FCC looked at it and said, yes, the broadcasters could do that. That sounded like something the US should do. So in 1994, the FCC began work on legislation for Congress to draft and enact to officially allow this new form of television. During this process Congress was also rewriting the Communications Act, a law that sets the boundaries for all communications from TV and radio to cable, satellite and cell phones. Since this new digital TV signal could pack more TV channels into less radio spectrum, instead of making it an additional service, why not just make it THE television service, stop analog broadcasting and reduce the TV channels in the process and use the old TV spectrum that would be freed up and sell it for auction to help reduce the budget deficit. (Has the light bulb just lit up?) So when the Communications Act of 1996 was enacted, it set the date of November 1st 1998 as the official start of "Digital Television" and December 31st 2006 would be the last day of analog television. No mention of HD other than to say that it would be one of 18 picture formats allowed to be transmitted in this new television service and left it up to the FCC on how to implement this. Subsequently, Congress revised the Digital TV law to say that the December 31st 2006 date would only take effect for analog shutdown if 85% of a television market had a way to watch the local digital television stations. Still no requirement for stations to transmit ANY HD signals.

The FCC set up a multi tiered timeline when stations would be required to sign on with this new system. Stations in the largest markets like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, DC, etc had to be on by May 1st 1999. The intermediate sized markets like Raleigh and Charlotte, Dallas, Tampa, etc (not the Triad though, we just did miss the cut) had to be on by November 1st 1999. Everyone else had to be on by May 1st 2002.

After 9/11, the FCC revised the manner in which stations could come on the air. Stations were still required to make their deadlines, but now stations were not required to be at full power. They could come on at reduced power until a future date was named. Many stations went with the lower power option, including us, until there were more viewers to watch the new stations.

In September of 2004 the FCC came out with their new timetable for all stations to be at full power. If a station is an affiliate of ABC, CBS, FOX or NBC and is in one of the top 100 markets, they had to be at full power July 1st 2005. All other stations have to be at full power by July 1st 2006.

So here we are, one of the "Big 4" network stations and we have to build a new facility since our current tower was built in 1963, long before "HD TV" was even thought about and it will not hold all of the new digital equipment. Trying to do in 12 months what normally takes 18 to 24 months.

That "December 31st 2006" date? Well Congress is now revisiting the date to set a hard date since the US Treasury is in more deficit than ever and part of the freed spectrum will go to First Responders. The Senate has past a date of April 7th 2009 as the last day of analog transmissions and the House is working on a draft now that has the date of December 31st 2008. One thing is sure, the year 2009 is the year when analog transmissions will cease. Which day is still up in the air. (UPDATE - Congress sets Feb 17, 2009 as the official last day of analog TV.)

Now what does this mean to our viewers? If you watch TV on cable or satellite, nothing changes for you. Which ever date is picked, it will be just another day. If you get your TV via an antenna, you will need to acquire either a new digital TV or a digital converter box. In both pieces of legislation in Congress now, money from the sale of the spectrum would be set aside to help those watch TV off of an antenna buy the new converter boxes. What isn't clear yet is if you have cable or satellite and you have additional TV's and they are not connected to cable or satellite, if those TV's will be eligible. In the Senate bill, they are, in the House version, they are not. When the final bill is sent to the President for signing, we will then find out the date and the amount of the converter subsidy.

"Good Night And Good Luck"

Late this afternoon the wife called and said get off work a little early and let's get a bite to eat and go to the movies. I said, sure, that would be great! I had no idea what movie she wanted to see but the way I have been working lately, I really didn't care. I actually got off work on time and found myself on the soon to be I-73 headed home.

Thirty minutes later we were on the way to diner and a movie. The movie, the new George Clooney film, "Good Night And Good Luck" about the Edward R. Murrow, CBS broadcast, "See It Now" 1954 report on Senator Joseph R McCarthy, Democrat, Wisconsin. If you are not sure who Ed Murrow was, what "See It Now" was or who Senator McCarthy was, you don't know about history.(A little Google goes a long way on Edward R. Murrow) History of the country during a time called "McCarthyism", a television show that pioneered a genre that allowed "60 Minutes", "20/20", "Nightline" and "Dateline" to be created ("60 Minutes" creator Don Hewitt was a producer on "See It Now."), and a man who was trusted long before Walter Cronkite was the "most trusted man" on television. (Yes, Murrow is a hero or mine, long before I found out he was born here in Guilford County. Did you ever wonder who Murrow Blvd was named after? Edward R., of course!)

The phrase "good night and good luck" was Ed Murrow's sig out line of every broadcast he did. It originated from his time as a reporter for CBS Radio based in London during World War II where he reported the Blitz on London and how the Allies defeated Nazism and Fascism in Europe. During his time in London, his riveting reports from the London subway during the bombings and reports from B-29 bombers over Europe created the "war correspondent" and pioneered "electronic news gathering" as we know it and made CBS News a real contender with David Sarnoff's NBC News in the 1940's. For many years, Murrow WAS CBS News (they called him the "conscience" of CBS News) and single handedly built the juggernaut reputation that Walter Cronkite rode to success on and Dan Rather tore down.

Radio was Murrow's real love. Murrow wrote and spoke in such a fashion that is no longer practiced, much less taught. He spoke in pictures. He could tell you about a fly landing on you and you could feel it as the real thing.

Murrow was reluctant to move from radio into television for several years, because he saw no value being expended for television in the wasteland of mindless programming of sitcoms, games shows and serials. He continued to do weekly long form radio news investigative programs such as "Hear It Now" even after coming to television. When Murrow was finally coaxed into moving to television, he brought his "Hear It Now" radio show to television as "See It Now." Murrow, a man who upheld the highest standards of journalism demanded that television fulfill its potential as a tool of learning and civic duty to inform and create debate on important issues that related to all Americans, something that brought Murrow to odds with the suits at CBS on an almost weekly basis for years. Then, as today, this type of programming doesn't pay many bills and is expensive to produce and hard to get on the air and then keep on the air.

In exchange for this "civic exercise" with programs like "See It Now" CBS required Murrow to do cheap to produce, highly rated and profitable celebrity fluff programs such as "Person to Person" where Murrow interviewed celebs about their lives, careers, and upcoming projects. The example used in the movie was the interview with pianist Liberace. During the Liberace interview, Murrow (played by David Strathairn) is seen looking at an off camera monitor of a feed of Senator McCarthy railing against Air Force Reserve Lt. Milo Radulovich, who was severed from the Air Force because his father had been rumored to be connected with the Communist Party in some fashion in the 1930's, setting off the now famous on air confrontation between Murrow and Senator McCarthy and resulting in ending "McCarthyism" or the practice of "Red Listing" people who had innocent connections with people who may or may not have been Communists.

The cast includes Clooney as the producer and friend of Murrow, Fred W. Friendly, and an all star cast who obviously worked for scale in this independent film such as Robert Downey, Jr, Jeff Daniels, Patricia Clarkson, Tate Donovan, and Frank Langella as CBS Chairman, William Paley, just to name a few. The movie is a presentation of 2929 Entertainment and Section 8 Productions. Section 8 is the production company of Clooney (who also directed the film) while 2929 Entertainment is the financial investment company of Dallas Mavericks owner and owner of the first all high definition cable channel HDNet, Mark Cuban. Cuban and his partner Todd Wagner created 2929 Entertainment to create films that would eventual be shown on HDNet and its all movie sibling channel HDNet Movies in a similar manner as Ted Turner did in the early 1990's with his Turner Pictures that produced films that were shown in theaters and then went to Tuner broadcast properties (the most famous being the 1994 Civil War epic, "Gettysburg").

Clooney stays very close to the historical aspects of the story and does not, as has been reported by some media outlets, take a swipe at FOX News Channel's Bill O'Reilly. A simple history lesson would show that the worlds spoken by the Murrow character, are indeed real words spoke by the real Murrow in the 1950's about television then that are still very true today and I am sure to some in the audience, thought that the Murrow character was talking about television in the 21st Century.

The story only covers 4 years of the 29 year Murrow era at CBS, but the story in itself is riveting by showing how the fear of being labeled as a Communist by McCarthy paralyzed the nation, CBS and worse, the staff of "See It Now" and shows what television can do when it puts its mind to it to do good for the public by informing and providing a start for debate on issues that affect all citizens.

Now some may see this film as the early media trying to dictate policy or espousing editorial comment as news, but it was the first time that the news media took a stand on an issue that gripped the nation, how one politician kept the nation in fear of words and how one man in the news media who wasn't afraid to take him on using good journalism with verifiable evidence, in this case Senator McCarthy's own words and actions. It was televisions first attempt at reporting a national controversial topic and finest hour that we in the media keep looking to happen again (9/11 being another time when television brought the nation together on a single subject) and it motivates many reporters and people behind the camera, even today.

Murrow and Friendly went on to produce other socially self introspective pieces for "See It Now" including Murrow's swain song in 1961, "Harvest of Shame" about the problems of migrant workers who worked long hard hours to pick the vegetables for Americans diner tables for very low wages and a 1959 report on how science was beginning to raise red flags on the dangers of smoking (Murrow was a chain smoker and during all of his broadcasts were seen smoking on camera). The television series M*A*S*H parodied one of Murrow's ground breaking techniques when the war reporter Clive Roberts "reported from the 4077th" about the Korean War. During Christmas 1952, Murrow went to Korea for an on location report entitled "This is Korea...Christmas 1952" to show the folks back home what the troops were going through.

Murrow left CBS News in 1961 disillusioned with CBS management's obsession with game shows and serials and, in his mind, lack of attention to the real genius of television to teach and inform. He died in 1965 of lung cancer.

Edward R. Murrow (photo from Museum of Broadcast Communications)

My rating - 4 Stars

We now return you to the mundane

After all of the excitement of the antennas last week and first of this week, the ho hum, everyday life to complete the project has returned. Items become completed, but when a door is painted or a safety climbing device is installed, both are very important in their own rights, it doesn't have the same pomp and circumstance as a tower top out or antenna raising or transmitter installation. But both are just as important as the bigger items to the success of the project.

Most people assume that when the antenna is placed, the project is finished. Far from it. You have to have a way to get the RF energy from the transmitter in the building to the antenna on top of the tower. Anyone who has had a CB radio or an Amateur radio understands something of the wire between the radio and the antenna called "coax." It is a special wire that is made just for efficiently transferring the RF energy from the transmitter to the antenna. We use the same thing except it is MUCH bigger to handle the power. It can be a slow process putting all of those lengths of transmission line together but it has to be done.

Transmission Line Installation


But then work has to continue in the building as well. Electric will be the order of the day from now until the end of the project. Broadcast transmitters use so much electricity, that it takes a long time to get it all hooked up and running.

"Small" Electrical Panels

Of course there will be painting and flooring and plumbing, but they will be a few days here and a few days there and electric is EVERY day.

For the next little while, the mundane electrical and transmission line will take center stage, while the next big event, transmitter arrival is still a few weeks way.

Wake me when we get done.

Two Up, Two to Go

Life moves on in the land of construction. But this "construction" is unique. It is so unique it brought the old construction hands to a standstill to watch this one.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the antennas for the new tower had arrived. Monday the weather looked good to start mounting these metal beasts that provide all of the joys and tears a TV couch potato can stand.

The original plan was to put up the big top mounted antenna first thing before the wind came up. On the ground the wind was not there. On top of the tower was blowing a gale. That sometimes happens. So the tower guys decided to hoist up the little baby standby antenna (all 20 feet and 475 pounds of it) and then see what the winds aloft looked like.

Backup Channel 8 Antenna goes up

By the time the standby was in place and the ice shield installed it was lunch time so the crew came down and off to lunch we go (on MY bosses tab!) and a mini celebration that for the first time the station has a backup antenna, even though we have no way to get the transmitter power to it yet.

We return from lunch and the wind is blowing pretty good on the ground but the two flags at the top of the tower, one a USA flag and the other a Canadian flag in honor of our Canadian built tower and tower crew, were almost limp. Now the photog that we had "acquired" from News has left, my boss has also gone back to the station to do "real work" and the tower crew is in preparations to lift the 13,000 pound main antenna to the top. A quick call to my British colleague "Hale Bop" who runs the photogs in the News Department yields a laundry list of reasons why no one is available. OK, no sweat. The old "Frankenstein" camera Marty in the shop has put together from bits and pieces of old Betacams after we went Blu-Ray DVD cameras is at the old building along with an old spare tripod from sports and I will just "shoot" it myself.

A quick dusty trip in the "in-gun-ear mobile" (we haven't had any real rain at the site since before July so even walking over the site creates dust storms) to retrieve the Frankenstein camera. HHMM, let's see. Camera? Check. Tripod? Check. Batteries? Check. Written instructions for the operation of the Frankenstein camera? Check. Video tape? Well that might be a problem. Mike, my bosses assistant shot some video the other day when the antennas arrived and I know he used two tapes and there are only three here. First tape, full. Second tape, one quarter used. Third tape. VIRGIN! OK! I am set. Now where to set up?

Coming over I looked at the sun angle and the clearest shot to the lifting side. That would be from the old transmitter building 600 feet away. So off to the corner of the security fence to set up. Well it isn't the best since most of the antenna (which is lying down horizontal until the pick) is obscured by site overgrowth. Well I can see the middle section and one end and when the antenna is lifted just a little, it will clear the overgrowth. This is good, "they" will just have to live with it.

So I get everything set up just in time to see the top of the antenna begin its final ride up the tower. I quickly set the picture zoomed in so you can see people and some antenna. I hit the record button on ole' "Frank" and then quickly grab some still shots.

Main Channel 8 Antenna on the way!

For the next 20 minutes or so I keep tilting the camera up and zooming in and out (SLOWLY) and taking some more stills. Answering two phone calls on the cell and then the antenna is at the top. I stop recording while the tower crew sets up for the swing around the gin pole and then to set the antenna. I see the antenna starting to swing and I hit "Frank's" record button and catch the antenna swinging around the pole and on top of the tower. It is 2:20pm. Mission accomplished! (where is the White House PR Machine when you need them?)

Main Channel 8 Antenna on top

For the next 2 and half hours the tower crew completes securing the antenna with the 20 some odd HUGE bolts that hold the antenna down to the top of the tower and connecting the electric lines that run the lights on top of the antenna so planes won't fly into the stupid thing (like some Ultralight almost did about 4pm watching the tower guys finish bolting down the antenna! IDIOT!)

Well two more antennas to install. I am not sure but I think the tower crew wants to continue installing the transmission line to those antennas before they install anymore and if that happens it will be two weeks before the other two are installed since the tower crew is on break next week. But that is OK since the transmitters are not scheduled to arrive until the middle of December anyway thanks to FEMA hijacking some of our electrical equipment that goes in the the building that we STILL are waiting for the replacements to arrive!

The fight continues.

Antenna day!

The general public has no idea what it takes to transmit those pretty pictures to their TV sets. Why should they? Most have never been inside a TV station and their only connection with a TV station is during a personality visit or promotional appearance of a station personality. It is for that reason that I LOVE my job as I do. If it were easy, EVERYONE would be doing it!! It is also one of the reasons I decided to start blogging. It isn't as easy as it looks.

Take this past week. As some people know, at "El Ocho" (as Lenslinger calls it) we are building a new transmission facility. That means new building, new tower, new transmitters, and new antennas. We have been fighting the state, the federal government commandeering our building material for the Gulf Coast rebuild and the usual contractor woes (thank goodness we have a good contractor who has helped us along and smooth the bumps). But we can now see the light at the end of the tunnel is not a train coming but the sunlight. We had the new antennas delivered.

New antennas awaiting unloading-11/4/2005

These puppies are LARGE. The antenna that will go on the top of the tower is 74 feet long and weighs in at 13,000 pounds. The top antenna comes in two sizes. It starts out at 4 foot in diameter for about a quarter of the distance, drops to 2 feet in diameter for about half the distance and then goes back to 4 feet in diameter for the remainder quarter.

The second largest antenna is about 60 feet long but is side mounted on the tower and doesn't need the massive steel to hold it up since the tower supports the antenna and it can weigh in at a mere 1350 pounds. It is only 2 feet in diameter.

It was an event when the antennas arrived. Because of the length, it took a special permit to transport the antennas from the factory at Raymond, Maine. The permit required that the trucks had to run on back roads and daylight hours with escorts. They made it in two days and just did get to the site before sundown. When they did arrive, the building workers and the neighbors all came out to check out these long orange metal things that was blocking the road as we were getting them on to the site. Because of the time of day the tower crew decided to off load them the next morning.

Now if the wind will cooperate this coming week, we can get the antennas mounted and a very major milestone will be met. Just got 4 more major milestones to go!

Canadians are just like us except...

Over the last year I have had the opportunity to travel to Canada on business. Well to travel to the GTA (or as the locals call it Greater Toronto Area or as common folk know it simply by, Toronto, Canada). Hey, I will admit, I haven't done much (any) international traveling. Of late years, I have been lucky to take a trip to the beach for a few days! The lasting impression of the people I have met in Toronto is one of "fabulous" and not in the sense of the "Fab 5" on Bravo either.

Canada is a socialistic republic with remnants of monarchy. They pay ABSOLUTELY OUTRAGEOUS taxes (14% as a MINIMUM sales tax) so the government can coddle them from cradle to grave; continue to maintain their monarchial relationship with the UK even though they are an independent country now; continuing to use monarchial titles for everything from the military to highways and the UK allowing Canadian citizens the right to vote in UK elections, while electing their own representatives. It is an amalgamation of the US and the UK. "They are just like us, but different!"

Port Credit Harbour, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada-10/16/2005 (No swimming between August and October!? WHO in their right mind would swim in an estuary of COLD Lake Ontario AFTER October 31st ANYWAY!?)

Ninety percent of all Canadians live within 100 miles of the US border. They receive our radio stations, they watch our TV stations, they speak like us (except for certain pronunciations of long O's (think PRO-gram) in words like PRO-jects, PRO-cessor and a somewhat comical slurring of the word ABOUT to where it sounds more like A-BOAT spoken very quickly with a VERY long O and yes, many Canadians do say, EH? at the end of every sentence. Bob and Doug McKenzie are both exaggerated and muted examples of Canadians, all at the same time!

Yeah, they LOVE their hockey and beer (sometimes it is beer more than hockey and then other times it is hockey more than beer, but ALWAYS beer goes with hockey...no wait, is that hockey ALWAYS goes with beer? I forget.); the world does pass them by at times and they need a "double take" to catch on; they are passive; they are liberal and find our Conservatism hypocritical and funny all at the same time (they REALLY don't get George Bush!); they always seem to have a good self sense of humor like the Brits, where in their eyes, your stock goes up if you can laugh at yourself (think Mike Meyers). Nothing really gets them upset and they don't seem to carry a grudge and they do know how to relax. Something we Americans need to relearn.

I have enjoyed my three visits to the land of the red maple leaf and do find I miss the bemused befuddlement that Canadians display at times. They really are a neat people that I enjoy talking to and being around. They are what the US would more than likely have become had we not broke away from King George all of those years ago.

I just found out today that I may be going again for a day or two on business, something that I thought wouldn't happen since it appeared all of my business in the GTA was completed. But if my frequent flier miles do take me to the land of Molson and toques, I will be happy to go back to the land of kilometers, liters and Celsius (now there is a really interesting tale to be spun on that one!).

Lake Ontario Waterfront of Toronto-10/16/2005

I will be saying more about my Canuck friends, experiences and thoughts in future posts.