After adding HD2 and HD3 to 91.3 KUWT, it was time to rebuild the translator in Riverton so it could rebroadcast Jazz Wyoming via KUWT-HD3 as an analog signal to the people of Riverton and the surrounding area.

It’s a gorgeous day to do this install…A butterfly sits on a thistle at the site…

The new equipment shelter is unloaded and placed on a concrete pad.  The next step will be to drill some holes to secure the enclosure to the pad.

After careful measurements, holes are drilled in the concrete pad with a hammer drill.

The holes are filled with sealant before the anchors are placed so water does not penetrate, freeze and expand.

Anchor points completed…Now to set the rack.

The rack has been set on the anchors.  Note the large washers and rubber gaskets to prevent water from getting into the rack.

Reid installs equipment in the new rack

Equipment installed…A Crown FM30T is the transmitter and a Day Sequerra M4 HD receiver picks up the HD3 signal from 91.3 KUWT for rebroadcast.  These are both very reliable pieces of equipment and should provide years of trouble free service.  A large uninterruptible power supply will keep the equipment running for about 3 hours in the event of a power failure.

Reid shows Ben how to install an “N” connector on the end of a length of LDF4-50 foam filled coaxial cable.  This cable is very low loss and probably overkill for this application but I would rather overbuild than underbuild…

Ben spools out coaxial cable from one of the antennas…

The new equipment rack with front door closed.  Thermostatically controlled fans prevent excess heat from building up inside the rack.  This will provide a very nice weather and rodent proof enclosure for the translator equipment.  The only remaining tasks now are to connect power and RF to the rack and we’re on the air…

As you can see, the old translator was destroyed by rodents prior to my time at WPR.  This should never happen again at this site (and will never happen at ANY of my sites if I have anything to say about it).

Danny and Robin of Boyle Electric join us at the site to complete a few elements of the project including running electricity to the equipment rack and use of a bucket truck to access the antennas.

There was a considerable amount of old and abandoned coax cable at the site…Ben starts the cleanup.

A large wad of coax cables and makeshift repairs has accumulated over the years on the antenna mast…

Even the coax cable at the receive antenna is a mess…It will all be replaced as the new coax is run…

The old disconnect at the meter base…One of the breakers wasn’t even hooked up and was non-functional.

The old disconnect has been removed…

Danny installs a new disconnect and breaker…

Done!

Next task, connect electrical service to the new rack.  The feed was removed from the old (abandoned) building and connected to a junction box mounted on the concrete pad of the old building.

A quad box is mounted inside the equipment rack and watertight flexible conduit is run through a sealed hole in the side.

The splice at the junction box is complete and the rack now has power.

Next task, repair the antennas and run the new coaxial cables.  The bucket truck is parked within range of the transmit antenna.

Reid goes up in the bucket to work on the transmit antenna.  Notice the director element on the antenna that has gone horizontal when it should be vertical.

Ben works on the receive antenna after moving the bucket truck to a new location closer to that antenna…Initially the receive antenna was oriented vertically but there was too much cross-talk between the transmit and receive antennas which rendered the receiver incapable of proper operation.  Switching the receive antenna to horizontal allowed solid reception of the desired signal from 91.3 KUWT while sufficiently rejecting signal from the translator’s transmit antenna.

Transmit and receive coaxial cables attached to bulkhead connectors installed on the rack and sealed.

The 90.9 transmit signal is the peak on the left…Still pretty strong into the receive antenna but low enough in level that I am still able to receive a good clean signal on 91.3 (center) including the digital HD sidebands (the rectangular peaks on either side of the peak in the center).  After all of the work was complete we had Jazz on the air where there previously was none.  A good couple of day’s work!