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Location DB > United States > Florida > Miami > Antannae Tower Remains > Old Channel 6 Tower History

Story Info
Wed, Jul 3rd, 2013
posted by EvilSpork
Old Channel 6 Tower History

Origins

This tower used to be host to Channel 6, WCIX, before Hurricane Andrew. Channel 6 was stationed down here in Homestead to protect a co-channel 6 in Orlando and an adjacent 5 in West Palm Beach from interference.

It was common for TV antenna installations throughout the Miami area to feature two antennas; one aimed towards the "tower farm" up at the county line between Miami-Dade and Broward, and one aimed south towards this tower for channel 6 specifically. Following Andrew, the station broadcast from the tower farm temporarily on an STA* while a new tower was constructed near Krome Avenue and SW 248th Street.

Several other servicess shared this same tower site, including WRTO-FM 88.5, WDNA-FM 88.9, and some three-lettered federal agencies using it for 2-way radio gear.

This building was surrounded by several cargo containers and trailers that contained the transmitters for the FM stations and even a small studio for WDNA-FM (thus must have been offensive to the staff, just a wee bit)

The area had lots of wildlife including snakes (Murphy's law: many were venomous) that would crawl up inside the transmitters. The building was not air conditioned and cooling air was drawn from ductwork below the transmitters, which would serve as.... snake raceways.

Remodelling By Andrew!

With engineers and staff of some of the stations on site, Andrew rolled through overnight, August 24, 1992. SPLAT WENT THE TOWER!!! Luckily for everyone on site, the tower sections fell *AWAY* from the building and trailers.

A fellow amateur radio operator and detective told me that in the days following, temporary construction scaffolding was whacked together on the site to form an ersatz tower to get the 2-way radio systems back online. In my humble opinion, it would have been beyond courage and bravery to be willing to climb that thing to put the antennas up, but go figure...

The New Digs

I'm not sure when the new tower was commissioned for WCIX. It's at a different site, near Krome Avenue and 248th street in Princeton. You can easily see it from where the old one used to be. The new tower is a much sturdier and taller structure, with an elevator up the tower for access. Originally, this hosted a 500KW ERP** signal on Channel 6, from a 65 kilowatt Larcan transmitter. The Larcan's housed in a wall of racks about 30 feet long and the feedlines running up the tower are 4" hardline. I believe the tower height is 1800'. At 1400' there's a level with amateur radio repeaters. WDNA-FM is somewhere around there in terms of altitude. There's a building to house the equipment onsite, it's 2-story with a high bay inside for the Channel 6 gear, and smaller rooms for the other transmitter plants. At some point, WCIX and WTVJ (channel 4) did a signal swap, and this became the WTVJ tower owned by NBC. Around 1999, Florida International University's radio station began broadcasting from here too, 400 watts ERP** at the 400' level. They now have translator stations on the campuses so you can actually hear them there.

I believe the ghost of the former engineer at WTVJ still inhabits the site. I'm totally serious, he messed with the Optimod audio processor settings for WRGP-FM before my very eyes one night, causing me to lose all composure and spend the next 15 minutes uncontrollably laughing. Good times :)

Fall from glory, but still standing

The FCC had to go and ruin things for everyone by mandating that TV switch over to digital. At this time, I'm not sure if it was for regulatory or cost reasons, WTVJ switched to a UHF channel for their digital signal and is now broadcasting from the county line tower farm with everyone else. The channel 6 analog setup was abandoned. All the video switching and processing equipment was removed from the site and the transmitter was abandoned in place (and still stands to this day, the sexy beast). Shortly afterwards, the site was sold to Richland Tower, who ... questionably... maintain it to this day. Richland's management policies have successfully caused many of the site's tenants to leave in droves.

The building at the tower site currently houses all the equipment. At one time there were also some modulars outside, but those belonged to customers that Richland drove off with their lack of maintenance, ridiculous climber access policies, and much higher leasing rates. The top rungs of the tower remain dark and unused, and some of the WTVJ feedline was swapped onto WDNA's transmitter and antenna very recently due to a line burndown***.

This story is also a reminder to myself to post some pictures of the new site to UER because it's pretty cool.


*= Special Temporary Authorization. An STA is filed for and issued by the FCC when temporary operation of a broadcast station is desired to keep them on the air after an emergency (equipment/tower failure, antenna problems, etc). WRGP-FM had to use one to broadcast from a warehouse in Richmond Heights when leasing agreement negotiations with Richland Tower went south.

**= ERP = Effective Radiated Power. Most broadcast stations use an antenna that has a high amount of antenna gain, efficiently shaping the radiation pattern towards the viewers/listeners for a minimum of waste. ERP is a theoretical power output that would be needed to achieve the same coverage as you get from the gain antenna with an isotropic radiator, which is a theoretical antenna with NO gain. The isotropic radiator cannot physically exist due to a number of factors, one of which being mathematically demonstrated by - I kid you not - the "Hairy Ball Theorem".

Hahahahahaha. Secretly I am a 9 year old child.

***= Feedline burndown: Expensive humidity-induced FAIL. Search for "burndown" in this file and there's a good explanation. http://ominous-valve.com/blowups.txt
An example of what the line looks like internally can be found at http://www.repeate.../ant-sys-coax.html

I am so glad the transmitters I maintain at the new site never seem to harbor VENOMOUS SNAKES. Sheeesh!!!

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