| Author | Post |
|---|
artmorris
Administrator
|
Posted: Sun May 11th, 2008 01:21 pm |
|
KBTN-FM 99.7 was knocked off the air Saturday (5/10) night when an F3 tornado destroyed it's transmitter building. The same tornado was responsible for multiple deaths across Oklahoma and Missouri.
In the interest of full disclosure, I am a contract engineer for the station.
Assessment of the damage is still underway. Here's a picture taken last night. That's a BE FM10T transmitter scattered across the field.
Art Morris
Attachment: Xmitter debris.jpg (Downloaded 70 times) Last edited on Sun May 11th, 2008 01:25 pm by artmorris
|
Ace
Member
| Joined: | Tue Sep 11th, 2007 |
| Location: | Missouri |
| Posts: | 30 |
| Status: |
Offline
|
|
Posted: Sun May 11th, 2008 03:21 pm |
|
| Wow. How about the tower?
|
Buddy Dornster
Member
| Joined: | Sun Feb 4th, 2007 |
| Location: | Missouri USA |
| Posts: | 128 |
| Status: |
Offline
|
|
Posted: Sun May 11th, 2008 04:44 pm |
|
| In another picture Art sent the tower doesn' t look so good, but still basically vertical.
|
artmorris
Administrator
|
Posted: Sun May 11th, 2008 05:31 pm |
|
Here's a daylight shot, looking SW, the direction from which the storm originated. Tower seems to have survived. It's a Utility Tower, put up by Rocky Mountain Erection. So, it's a good installation.
But, I need to call Lee Wheeler and tell him what happened. He built this facility about 10-years ago.
The building itself was torn to shreds. The extra-wide steel entry door hasn't been located yet. This location was directly in the path of the storm, which began near Picher, OK, and travelled roughly ESE.
Attachment: xmitter debris2.jpg (Downloaded 61 times) Last edited on Sun May 11th, 2008 05:36 pm by artmorris
|
Ace
Member
| Joined: | Tue Sep 11th, 2007 |
| Location: | Missouri |
| Posts: | 30 |
| Status: |
Offline
|
|
Posted: Sun May 11th, 2008 06:38 pm |
|
| Excellent construction on that tower, to have survived such a direct hit.
|
wsterrett
Member
| Joined: | Wed Mar 5th, 2008 |
| Location: | Houston, Texas USA |
| Posts: | 13 |
| Status: |
Offline
|
|
Posted: Mon May 12th, 2008 02:02 pm |
|
I'm glad nobody has cracked a "Rocky Mountain Erection" joke yet.
|
artmorris
Administrator
|
Posted: Tue May 13th, 2008 11:49 pm |
|
I have posted more pictures at
http://www.artsaurorablog.blogspot.com/
art
|
Ace
Member
| Joined: | Tue Sep 11th, 2007 |
| Location: | Missouri |
| Posts: | 30 |
| Status: |
Offline
|
|
Posted: Wed May 14th, 2008 07:21 am |
|
Thanks for the link Art - just unbelievable what that twister did to the KBTN transmitter, a one-in-a-million shot.
Any status on getting it back up, yet?
|
J ROBERTS
Member
| Joined: | Wed Jun 13th, 2007 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 51 |
| Status: |
Offline
|
|
Posted: Wed May 14th, 2008 09:17 pm |
|
Art, I see they are back on the air. Did you find a low power transmitter to feed the tower ?
That company has more than their share of bad luck , 2 transmitter sites damaged in less than a year.
John Roberts
|
artmorris
Administrator
|
Posted: Wed May 14th, 2008 11:42 pm |
|
Yep, insane isn't it?
I'm running at 250 watt exciter into the antenna. We're using one of the station vans for a transmitter shack.
We're making progress toward ordering new equipment.
Art
|
Gregg Richwine
Member
| Joined: | Sun Mar 11th, 2007 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 14 |
| Status: |
Offline
|
|
Posted: Thu May 15th, 2008 03:25 am |
|
| Just curious, did any of that rack equipment (8100, remote control, what looks like an Armstrong box) survive?
|
Current time is 08:10 pm | |
|
