WMRA BACKUP SITE PHOTO TOUR

Click on photo for a larger view

WMRA is very fortunate to have an auxiliary (emergency) site to supplement its main transmitter site. The auxiliary site was the original 90.7 site, and served as such until about 1994. It is located near the present main site, but only halfway up the mountain. This was done to provide shielding towards the Greenbank Radio Astronomy Observatory in nearby West Virginia.

Winter View. Sky is hazy because of soon-to-arrive Nor'Easter, which would dump another 10 inches of snow right before the end of 1997.

The Antenna, made by ERI, is an odd design commonly called a "parrot perch". Instead of the common circular polarization, it uses discrete horzontal and vertical elements. The pattern is directional, to provide protection to Greenbank's telescopes. Note also the celluar antennas just above the treeline.

The tower itself was manufactured by Stainless, Inc. Note the better perspective of the "parrot perch" showing 4 horizontal elements and 2 vertical elements.

There is nothing like a fine fall day to climb the tower. Nothing, that is, unless you also have to PAINT the tower. Here are two r iggers from Shenandoah Tower Service applying epoxy paint to the pole supporting our antenna. Click on the photo for a closeup - you will really appreciate the scale of the the antennas!

This is a closer view of the tower structure. The legs are solid, not pipe.

The transmitter building. It is at least 20 years old. You can see that the site is located on the side of a mountain, in a ravine. This is why this site does not get out as well as our main site, which is on top of the same mountain.

Propane cannot be delivered to our main site, so we have an ONAN emergency power generator at our backup site. Note the "ice bridge" over the propane tanks. Ice falling off the tower in the wintertime can damage the gas lines if they are not protected. We have 16 propane tanks. We use multiple tanks instead of a large bulk tank so we can ferry in additional tanks in the winter with a four-wheel drive.