Posted: 2/20/2012 4:32:10 PM EDT
XYL and I went to go look at a piece of property today (long story). Anyway, when we got there, I saw this: Basically at the end of where the driveway would be, house would be not far from where the end of the guy cables are. How badly do you think this will cause RFI problems for me, and me for it? It's the local FM broadcast station. I know it also houses the local 2m club repeater, and there's several more antennas on it that I can't identify (but they look like they're all UHF or higher). Thoughts? Thanks, -Slice |
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I think it will overload many a front-end, and you'd be looking at some heavy filtering on your receive side.
I live 1/2 mile from a Sprint cell tower that desensitizes my scanner on 800 MHz like no other. I also live a couple miles from an FM broadcast station that desensitizes my FM receivers from picking up an FM stations 30 miles away that I want to hear. I'd pass on it, but that's just me. 
ETA: You probably won't bother them at all. They can afford super-duper cavity filters. |
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What do you think about impact on HF, 6m, and 2m? With the 2 Meter repeater there, I suspect it will desensitize your 2 Meter receiver every time it transmits. Lots of variables though depending on their power and antenna, and your antenna. You may be in the "cone of silence" if their antenna is up high, where you receive relatively little signal from them. Take your radios up there and hang out for a bit to do some research. |
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What do you think about impact on HF, 6m, and 2m? With the 2 Meter repeater there, I suspect it will desensitize your 2 Meter receiver every time it transmits. Lots of variables though depending on their power and antenna, and your antenna. You may be in the "cone of silence" if their antenna is up high, where you receive relatively little signal from them. Take your radios up there and hang out for a bit to do some research. Solid advice, there is only one way to know for sure. At least you would not have to buy a tower, or steal one in philly for that matter! 
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I told the XYL I was doing to drag my stuff up there, and she gave me a  . I LMAO'd. I went there once before she did, and sent her a pic of that tower. Her immediate response was "NO!". I told her I was bummed it didn't come w/ the property.The radio station is 3000W, ERP 1950W. The repeater antenna appears to be up 250' or more. It's way up there. How tall is a red/white section typically? or, is there a standard? |
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Quoted: I told the XYL I was doing to drag my stuff up there, and she gave me a . I LMAO'd. I went there once before she did, and sent her a pic of that tower. Her immediate response was "NO!". I told her I was bummed it didn't come w/ the property.The radio station is 3000W, ERP 1950W. The repeater antenna appears to be up 250' or more. It's way up there. How tall is a red/white section typically? or, is there a standard? If you check an aviation map, it will tell you how tall the object is. |
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This will pretty much give you all the info on any tower you want-
http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/AsrSearch/asrRegistrationSearch.jsp Actually, let me rephrase that... It'll give you the physical info, location, height, owner, blah, blah, blah... Won't give you any idea what it is used for, TV, radio, cell... or what freqs. |
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Quoted: This will pretty much give you all the info on any tower you want- http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/AsrSearch/asrRegistrationSearch.jsp Actually, let me rephrase that... It'll give you the physical info, location, height, owner, blah, blah, blah... Won't give you any idea what it is used for, TV, radio, cell... or what freqs. Looked it up. Says it's 122'. No way, it's at least 300 if not more... Either that or im on the verge of losing my vision... |
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I'm gonna be the contrarian here and point out the obvious lightning protection advantages of having a several hundred foot radio tower next door...
As for the guy wires being nearby - This is an FM station we're talking about. Unlike an AM BC station, the entire tower isn't energized - just a few elements at the top. There isn't likely to be much energy coupled into the guy wires. I used to live immediately under a water tower that had the local 2M repeater and several VHF commercial antennas on top of it - Never noticed any problems with receiver desense on either 2M or HF. However, I was REALLY glad the tower was there whenever a thunderstorm rolled through... |
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Quoted: Quoted: This will pretty much give you all the info on any tower you want- http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/AsrSearch/asrRegistrationSearch.jsp Actually, let me rephrase that... It'll give you the physical info, location, height, owner, blah, blah, blah... Won't give you any idea what it is used for, TV, radio, cell... or what freqs. Looked it up. Says it's 122'. No way, it's at least 300 if not more... Either that or im on the verge of losing my vision... So on a typical tower, aren't the guy cables out 80% of overall height? Maybe I can guestimate it that way? |
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I recall...That painted towers are supposed to be painted with 5 equal sections of alternating red and white. So, guesstimate the height of one section and multiply by 5.
Another factoid- Towers under 200' AGL do not have to be lit. (generally) So, if it is 122', there will be no lights. GL de Eric |
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Now, a review of the basics for tower marking. Unless the tower is lighted with high-intensity flashing white lights (high-intensity strobes) or medium-intensity strobes, it must be marked. Towers up to 700 feet should have seven evenly spaced bands; towers from 701 to 900 feet need nine bands; towers from 901 to 1100 feet need 11 bands and taller towers require 13 bands. Normally, a top-mounted television antenna is included in the height of the structure and should be colored accordingly, usually orange. If the height of a painted tower is changed significantly, as when a top-mounted antenna is removed, the rules would normally call for repainting so that the bands of color remain evenly spaced. However, the FAA will usually permit a station to retain the existing color bands until such time that the entire tower is to be repainted. The spacing of the bands should be corrected at that time.
Read more: http://broadcastengineering.com/mag/broadcasting_tower_lighting/#ixzz1n1PVgrBj Take some gear out there and see what you get. |
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This will pretty much give you all the info on any tower you want- http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/AsrSearch/asrRegistrationSearch.jsp Actually, let me rephrase that... It'll give you the physical info, location, height, owner, blah, blah, blah... Won't give you any idea what it is used for, TV, radio, cell... or what freqs. Looked it up. Says it's 122'. No way, it's at least 300 if not more... Either that or im on the verge of losing my vision... Sure it wasn't 122 meters? It didn't give me feet on the ones I checked. It only gave meters and that would work out to what you were thinking about 300+ feet. |
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Quoted: I'm gonna be the contrarian here and point out the obvious lightning protection advantages of having a several hundred foot radio tower next door... As for the guy wires being nearby - This is an FM station we're talking about. Unlike an AM BC station, the entire tower isn't energized - just a few elements at the top. There isn't likely to be much energy coupled into the guy wires. I used to live immediately under a water tower that had the local 2M repeater and several VHF commercial antennas on top of it - Never noticed any problems with receiver desense on either 2M or HF. However, I was REALLY glad the tower was there whenever a thunderstorm rolled through... The lightning protection was my first thought.  |
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Looked it up. Says it's 122'. No way, it's at least 300 if not more... Either that or im on the verge of losing my vision... 122'....what? MSL? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_sea_level AGL? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Above_ground_level HAAT? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Height_above_average_terrain My guess is HAAT...which could very easily be 122' for a tower of 300' or more. Heck, a negative HAAT is not all that uncommon either. |
Skyvector.com will get your aviation maps with everything above 200' (generally). It should show your tower there and give two numbers-the small one is the tower height, the large one is MSL. I have a 199' tower ~300' from my house with 5.8Ghz, 2.4Ghz, 1.2 Ghz, and 900Mhz that doesn't affect my radio that I can tell. I can flip the breaker on the tower and turn it ALL off and notice next to no difference. However, I doe live less than a 1/4 mile from THE major powerplant in my area that I think is the cause of all my headaches. Like was said, take your gear up there and hang out a bit-only way to be sure.
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