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Big California AM RF Project Is on Schedule
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The big KBRT(AM) facility project for Crawford
Broadcasting at Oak Flat in southern California continues apace and on
schedule, according to DOE Cris Alexander.
He said all four towers are up, the prefab building is in place and
assembled, and the block screening/security walls are just about finished.
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Here’s an example of how mortar-filled concrete
block walls are being used to screen and protect the prefabricated ThermoBond
transmitter building.
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It’s not every day that a broadcaster builds a 50 kW
AM facility. This station, airing on 740 kHz and currently licensed to Avalon,
Calif., has its transmitter site on Catalina Island. It seeks to change its
community of license to Costa Mesa. The Oak Flat antenna site in the Santa Ana
Mountains near Silverado in eastern Orange County was once used by
KPLS/KLAA(AM).
KBRT will increase daytime power from
its current 10 kW to 50 kW, via a directional array made up of four 281-foot
towers and pointing to the southwest. Its format is Christian talk, its slogan
“celebrating the local body of Christ.”
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Operations Manager Todd Stickler dry fits a piece of
3-1/8-inch rigid line. Rigid is being used for all interior RF plumbing.
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The towers
were manufactured by Magnum and installed by P&R Tower out of
Sacramento. Other project work is being done by SWB Enterprises out of
L.A.
Edison, the
electric utility, pulled in the primary feed conductors and set the transformer
and meter. “The transmitter and phasor are in place,” Alexander said. “Antenna
tuning units have been shipped and will be delivered on the 22nd. P&R Tower
will be back at the site on the 23rd to pull the transmission and sample lines
along with power, control and fiber-optic cables into the already installed
underground conduits.” Alexander is also a contributor to Radio World.
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Two runs of the rigid line are complete to the
six-port egress panel through which they will pass to the outside. Rubber
compression boots will make for a weathertight seal around the lines.
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As RW reported in 2011, Crawford had to engineer
this facility to essentially duplicate the location of its existing interfering
and protected contours. Its neighbors include KCBS to the north in San
Francisco, KIDR to the east in Phoenix and KFMB to the south in San Diego.
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This is a simulation of what the
station array will look like.
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See photo simulations of the completed antenna
system here (PDF). Tell Radio World about your own
interesting studio or RF project. Email radioworld@nbmedia.com.
Related:
KBRT’s Tower
Move Progresses (Nov. 2011)
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