We have been installing a monitoring box at our transmitter sites called the “GoldenEagle HD”. This is an excellent unit that gives us a great deal of information about how the analog and HD signals are performing. It is capable of monitoring not only our own signal but the signals of other stations in the area as well.

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We had been having some issues with erratic power readings on our Douglas transmitter.  I really didn’t think too much of it since (at the time) it was still within normal limits and appeared to be on the air.  I had planned to check it out as soon as I got back.  Soon we started to get complaints that people couldn’t hear the signal.  I asked my assistant to investigate.

As I was enjoying my vacation in England, I checked my E-Mail to find the following message from my assistant…

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Subject: KDUW Tower Collapse

Herewith an image of the carnage. The first is looking southeast from the building.

The second is of a wooden pole on the west side of the building. It was used by the Union Pacific.

I believe I can use a couple of steel clamps with tensioned cables to hold the antenna vertical outrigger to the pole.

— Reid
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Several of the following pictures were attached to the message…Yikes…Weather was not a factor and vandalism is suspected.

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Time to re-wire our Casper site today…This site is actually very nice.  We share the building with Public TV.  It is well cooled and has emergency power.

The re-wiring will allow us better monitoring and control of our equipment at the site.  In addition, this is one of the few sites we have an Internet connection to.  This connection allows us to stream audio back from the site for monitoring purposes.

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Reid and I visited our Pinedale transmitter site today to do some re-wiring.  The building was cramped and hot but we managed to get things re-wired.

The re-wiring of these sites will allow us much more detailed information about what is happening at our transmitter sites at any given time.

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Reid and I were in Jackson so we decided to head over to our translator in Driggs to do some work.

This is a pretty simple site located in the central office of the local telephone company.

When the site was originally constructed it was put together with leftover parts.  We had some better equipment in surplus now so we decided it was time to rebuild this site.  It sounded much better by the time we were done.

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We had been receiving reports that our Rawlins translator was off the air.  This translator has been a problem since the satellite dish was installed to replace an over-the-air feed from Laramie.  The satellite dish has been a problem…It is exposed to heavy winds and goes off point on a regular basis.

On this occasion we found that the feedhorn had fallen out of its mount.  We were able to get a signal back but it is not nearly as strong as we would like to see.

Snow has been preventing us from getting access to the site but since we still had the Argo on loan we used it to get into Rawlins.  It was quite a ride!

Reid with the Argo in front of the shack

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Reid and I have been going around to various transmitter sites doing some re-wiring.  This wiring will allow us much better monitoring and control of the transmitter sites.  The first sites that we re-wired were Laramie and Jackson.  Gillette was next up.  Not for any particular reason, but we happened to be going that direction…

The site was a bit muddy at the time so we used a tracked vehicle called an “Argo” to gain access.  We had rented this vehicle for a couple of weeks and it proved to be an extremely valuable resource.  I hope to purchase one at some point.  There were very few cases where (even in the midst of heavy winter snow) it couldn’t get us in.

The Argo in front of the building.  Mud was the issue at this site rather than snow…

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Since the trip to Copper Mountain on horseback had gone so well, we decided to attempt a trip to Pilot Hill in Laramie on horseback.

We had another HD Radio equipment upgrade to perform with the tech from the equipment manufacturer so we headed out. After a while we arrived at the access road to the tower site and loaded up the horses.

Roger gets ready to ride ‘Billie’

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This has to be one for the record books…Most engineers drive to their transmitter sites in a truck.  Some take a snowmobile or snow cat when a truck won’t make it through.  Others can only get to their transmitter sites with a helicopter.

Sometimes we just have to do things the old fashioned way out here in Wyoming…By Horseback!

Late last week, I received a call that our site on Copper Mountain (91.3, KUWT) was off the air.  The transmitter was on but there was no audio.  This could be caused by one of several things, the most likely being the satellite receiver or dish.

We had just suffered a severe snow storm and all of the roads around the state were closed.  On Friday, we were finally able to get out on the road again but had no way to get up to this particular mountain top.  Copper Mountain was snowed in and would be until about April or May.  There was no snow cat available to get to this particular site.

Our Program Director keeps horses and offered to help us get up to the site by means of horseback.  I decided to take him up on the offer.  Since I was busy fixing ANOTHER one of our transmitter sites that went down during the severe weather, I sent my assistant up to the mountain with him.

They left for Thermopolis (the closest town to the mountain) on Saturday.  On Saturday evening they boarded the horses for the night and headed for the hotel.  Sunday would be a full day of riding up the hill to the site, fixing the problem and then riding back down.

Getting ready to unload the horses for the evening…
“Buck”, a gray Percheron gelding pokes his head out of the trailer

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Since I happened to be in Minnesota, I hitched a ride with 3 engineering colleagues from the area who were driving to an HD Radio seminar at Harris in Quincy, IL.

Much of the material was review for me but it was a good chance to get together with a number of my engineering peers from various stations and backgrounds.  It was also good to meet up with a number of people from the factory.

Studying hard or hardly studying?
(At lunch time it’s probably the latter!)

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