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From our Engineer Gary Gruver:
"WELL IT'S FINALLY DONE!"
The WHYF transmitter has a new home and what an improvement as we are
learning about the signal.
On Sunday, June 8th, the WHYF transmitter was turned off, packed up,
and moved to our new site along the east side of the Susquehanna River
at Harrisburg. Our new transmitter site is co-located with WHGB 1400
in Harrisburg. All of the connections were documented, heavy parts
removed from the transmitter, and loaded into the back of a truck for
transport.
Monday, June 9th, the truck arrived at the new location. Older
unusable equipment was removed from the building and the transmitter,
equipment rack, RF Switch for a secondary (back-up) Transmitter and
the combiner network, that allow 2 radio stations to broadcast from
the same tower were placed into the cinder block building. All the
equipment arrived safely, and there were no injuries received by
personnel.
Tuesday, June 10th thru the 12th all equipment was reinstalled at the
new site. I am pleased to report that the equipment when installed
worked properly. There were no malfunctions, no oopsies, and while
there were a few minor issues that were found we were able to work
around such issues and get WHYF back on the air on Thursday evening
around 5 PM.
One technical issue that did arise was the lightning protection
"spark-gap" arrestor was set for the 1000 watt signal of WHGB. By
adding the 2,200 watt signal of WHYF, the combined current made 2
signals to "arc" across and then the transmitters, thinking there was
a tower issue, reduced the power of the transmitter to protect the
delicate electronic components of the transmitter. To solve that issue
the WHYF transmitter was reduced in power to 1,800 watts which proved
a good place to operate, as the automatic power reduction was greatly
reduced allowing WHGB to use 1,000 watts and WHYF to use 1,800 watts. This will be adjusted within a week and then back to full power on
2,200 watts.
We have received numerous reports on an improved signal and the have
experience some great reports. As an example, I traveled to Kulpmont,
Pennsylvania the following Saturday and heard WHYF all the way there
with a very listenable signal. We have heard from listeners in
Lancaster that can hear WHYF, as well as listeners in York that are
receiving a good signal as well!
This project has been a long time getting done from the concept of the
idea to now done! All in all, it was an expensive undertaking
that required a lot of faith that God would provide the funds needed
as well as the technical issues and regulatory issues that are
required for this move. Now that it is done and we can see the
results of the efforts, it is a good reminder that "any job that God is
in favor of will receive God's blessings, leading and direction ... In
God's perfect timing".
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