WXLG 89.9 (on Gore Mountain) is an important link in the NCPR broadcast chain.  In addition to providing coverage to a large section of Warren County, it also “feeds” its signal to translators in Glens Falls, Lake George, Wells and Speculator.  So went the transmitter died on Wednesday, we lost our signal over a pretty wide area.

I’d finally bought some new tires for my truck, so on Thursday I headed up the “road” to the summit of Gore Mtn.  There was some snow…

Gore Mountain “road” near summit

After some troubleshooting, I discovered a bad solder joint in the power output stage of our transmitter.  This may have been caused by localized heating, poor workmanship, or possibly age (the transmitter’s… not mine!)

our lovely WXLG transmitter

Just a little cleanup and some solder (and solder braid to make the connection more robust) and we were back on the air!

before and after views of bad solder joint

The snow had melted for the trip back down…

looking Northeast from the summit of Gore Mtn.

On Wednesday,  I saw the Steven Soderbergh movie “Haywire” at our local theater.  An action-packed flick featuring a beautiful ex-CIA  lady who beats up large men, I nevertheless thought it was pretty good, with a unique use of sound (or lack of it) and some beautiful scenery.  This included sequences of sunny Barcelona,  urbane Dublin, and several important scenes featuring “Upstate New York” in the winter!

These scenes included a car chase on a typical North Country road, which degenerated into a snowy back-country chase, which eventually ended with a deer through the rear window of our heroine’s car!  I was convinced that it was shot in St. Lawrence County, and although I didn’t recognize the exact spot on the road, the state “route 56″ sign pinpointed the scene to somewhere between Sevey’s Corners and Massena (Route 56 is only 50 miles long!)

Screenshot from "Haywire" trailer

the chase

Anyway, I was WRONG!  Here’s a snipped of an Emanuel Levy interview with Production Designer Howard Cummings:

“New Mexico stood in for upstate New York in scenes in which Mallory (the heroine) leads police on a wild car chase through snow-covered woods.

The filmmakers prepped an area in Bandelier National Forest, starting two months before shooting. ‘Because Bandelier is a national park, we were required to get permission for everything we did,’ says Cummings. ‘The greens crew came in ahead and packed down the road by hand. We compressed the snow to about a foot and then took in snowmobiles to make specific tracks. In order to make it feel as if she is in deep woods, we brought in shrubbery and trees and lined the path for about a mile. A lot of it had to be brought in by sled so we didn’t ruin the road that we had established.’

I’ll bet $10,000 it would have cost less to simply shoot it in South Colton! (just kidding)

Ahead, just some shameless promotion for a show Guy Berard (host of Jazz at the Ten Spot) and I (Radio Bob host of ?) will be doing this Saturday Night from 9-1.

The whole idea is that we’ll be playing music for people who want to have a New Year’s Eve party at home, or are driving to or returning from somebody else’s New Year’s Eve Party …. or people don’t want to be involved in any way with New Year’s Eve, but their TV set is busted, etc.

Guy Berard

"Radio" Bob Sauter

We’ll be playing Jazz, R & B, and anything else we can think of…. which isn’t very much these days…

So, we’re asking for your help… got any great songs you’d like to hear Saturday night? We’ll try to dig them up.  You can call/email/Facebook/Skype us Saturday night, but if you let us know now, there might be a slightly improved chance that we could actually find your request!

Post a music request below in a comment below, or email me at “radiobob@ncpr.org“

Whatever you decide to do:  Happy New York!

I’m sure you’ve all heard the tragic tale of Major Edwin Howard Armstrong?   He was one of my Electrical Engineering heroes (including Tesla and Steinmetz).  Here’s a brief (and possibly inaccurate) bio:

1. Invented several extremely key concepts in radio, including the regenerative detector and the super-hetrodyne receiver (all radios and TV’s use the super-hetrodyne circuit, even now!)

2. Served as a hero in WWI.

3. married David Sarnoff (CEO of RCA)’s secretary in 1923,  drove to Palm Beach, Florida (in a new Hispano-Suiza!) for their honeymoon, where he gave his new bride the world’s first “portable” radio!

4. conducted years of experiments which led to his greatest invention (IMHO) …  FM radio!

the man LIKED to climb!

5. Along the way, he built a 400 foot tower in Alpine, NJ which (I’ll bet) almost all of us have seen.

Alpine, NJ tower

By the way, this tower became re-famous when most of the New York TV stations were re-located there after the World Trade Center site was destroyed 9/11/2001.

6. Built the world’s first FM radio network (the Yankee Network)… with transmitters in Alpine, NY, Boston (Paxton) MA, Hartford, CT and on Mt. Washington, NH.  This network covered most of the North-East.  Each station relayed the broadcast of the other station, simply by relaying the high-quality FM signal from one of the other “chained” stations in the network.  (just like NCPR!)  People were lovin’ it, buying the new FM radios… life was great!

7. Not exactly…. David Sarnoff (president of RCA) (and others) perceived FM as a threat to their old-school AM radio networks (NBC, etc) So they “convinced” the FCC to eliminate the existing FM frequency band (42-50 mHz) which they needed for THEIR new invention… Television!  42-50 mHz was the never-used “Channel 1″ by the way!  Because all FM broadcasters were forced to move to the “new” FM band (88-109 mHz, where it is located now) all existing FM radios became immediately obsolete, as were all existing FM broadcasting stations (including Armstrong’s Yankee network).  It took 25+ years for FM to recover (boosted by a 1966 FCC ruling which prohibited combination FM and AM stations from duplicating the AM programming on their FM station, opening up “niche” marketing formats,  including the Alternative Rock formats from the late 60′s)

8. Meanwhile RCA used Armstrong FM patents for its new TV system… without paying a penny!

9. by 1954 Armstrong was broken physically and financially by years of fighting RCA for the rights to his FM patents, so he got dressed up in his coat and hat, removed the air conditioner from his 13th story window and took his final walk.   Sarnoff remarked that  “I did not kill Armstrong” .

10. Armstrong’s wife pursued the patent fight and eventually settled… AND she still had the Hispano-Suiza!

ANYWAY, my point is that I just discovered an audio recording made during better times, while Maj. Armstrong and his fellow engineers were first setting up the Yankee Network in 1941.

Imagine how we’re actually hearing this recording:

1) it was recorded directly from an FM radio in Connecticut on a “disc” (probably 78 RPM) recorder.

2) someone (the very “radio” sounding narrator) made a magnetic tape recording of the 78 rpm record probably in the 1950′s or 1960′s (judging by his voice, and the fact that he used the word “Megacycles” instead of the now used “Megahertz”)

3) this tape was played back into someone’s computer and digitized.

4) we can listen to it over the Internet, a HUGE network of glass fiber and computers.

ALSO, please check out the very interesting accents of the participants.  Times have changed.

FINALLY… after all the fanfare, here’s the recording.

The main transmitting antenna for WSLJ (88.9) in Watertown is on a huge 315′ self-supporting tower… which is shared by many other users.  In order to protect tower climbers from the possible harmful effects of RF radiation, WSLJ often has to shut down when they are working on the tower.  As of today, NCPR now has a standby antenna (on the top of the telephone pole) which we can switch to (just in case) and stay on the air should there be humans on the tower.

I really enjoyed operating the electric-powered articulated lift!

Assistant Seth Weiner inspects Radio Bob's work in Watertown

I spent a great multi-media day in the 1000 Islands on Tuesday, and I’ve got to say it really is a spectacular area of the world!

Here’s my story:  I purchased a new (1982 anyway) Chris Craft 25′ cabin cruiser (named “Little Queenie”) which was located at a marina in Fisher’s Landing.

In order to deliver the new boat to my “home port ” of Morristown, I completed the following simple procedure:  tossed my bicycle in the back of my car, drove the 30 miles  to “Mo-town”, left the bike there, then drove the car 30 miles to Fisher’s Landing, then piloted the boat 30 miles from Fisher’s Landing to Morristown, hopped on my bike and rode the 30 miles back to Fisher’s Landing, put the bike back in the car and drove the 30 miles to Morristown, then back home to Canton.

Little Queenie

L.Q. has had some engine problems and could only cruise at about 8 mph… so it was a sloooow trip down the river.  This, however, gave me ample opportunity to take a 3-1/2 hour look at the fabulous St. Lawrence River.  Here’s a brief tour:

The famous Boldt Castle

The famous "Singer Castle" on Dark Island

The not-so-famous Captain Radio Bob

Nice wake!

cute romantic island

Then the bike trip back at 14 mph (almost twice as fast as the boat!):

Do they mean me?

Which was interrupted by a  thunderstorm in Chippewa Bay:

Chippewa Bay

… and subsequent fabulous rainbow!

Finally back on the road in my car, I was able to actually go 55 mph!  Honestly, it was exciting!

Double Nickles

Now I’m set for winter hibernation.

I just thought you’d get a vicarious kick out of a package we just received… from left to right: Radio Bob, $9.00 piece of FLEXIBLE heat-shrink tubing, 9 POUND shipping tube!  (fortunately, NCPR didn’t have to pay the shipping for this)

Wasted!

By the way, “heat-shrink tubing” is an amazing thing.   Cut a small length of it, insert it over your electrical connection, heat it hot with a heat gun, and it shrinks over the connection whilst exuding a gooey “flooding compound” to seal the entire mess tighter than a drum!

Update: NCPR is now back on the air in all locations. Thanks for your patience.

I just wanted to update the status of several of our facilities which are currently not operating due to effects from Irene:

1) WXLH, Blue Mountain Lake, 91.3.  This site is located on the summit of Blue Mountain… electrical service to the top is via a 2 mile overhead power line installed in the 1950′s to power the former DEW radar site on Blue.  This line has always been a problem, we’ve installed some large batteries at the site which give WXLH about 15 hours of backup power…  there is no generator at the site due to environmental, space and engineering issues.  I spoke today with a NYSEG representative who said that they tried re-connecting the power to the summit Monday night, but it only stayed on for a minute before blowing the fuses.  I also contacted one of the other users of the site, who couldn’t get to the summit due to the downed power lines across the trail.  (he was trying to bring a standby generator up!)  NYSEG says they will be working on the site and provided no estimate of when things will be back to normal.  The funny thing is that the site owner has plans to have the power line “trail” cleared during September… too late, however for Irene.

2) Newcomb Translator 97.3… this translator re-broadcasts the signal of WXLH, BML… so as long as WXLH is off the air, Newcomb will also be silent.

3) Keene Translator 90.1…. this translator is located on Jackson Hill Road, NYSEG says that power should be restored to the site today or tomorrow (late Tuesday or Wednesday)  This translator is located in an individual’s back yard, and connected to the owner’s home generator…. which, apparently has failed due to a lightning hit earlier this summer.

4) Keene Valley 96.3…  this translator rebroadcasts the Keene Translator, so hopefully, when Keene returns to service today or tomorrow, KV will be back on the air.

5) St. Huberts 101.7…. receives its signal from Keene Valley etc.

If you have any signal reports… or lack of signal reports email me at radiobob@ncpr.org.  In many cases it is only through listener feedback that I know what is going on with our 33 transmitters.  Thanks for your continuing patience.

An uneventful ride today, 69 miles from Buzzard’s Bay to Provincetown, in 7 hours (told you I’m slow!) bringing my total to 399 miles by bike and 100 miles in Dave’s car.

Weather all day was foggy and drizzly, with my glasses fogging up every 5 minutes.  Here’s a photo of the Cape Cod Canal as viewed from the Bourne Bridge bike/pedestrian walkway.

Most of the day is was on the somewhat deadly Route 6A.  Another two lane highway without any shoulders.  This road offered the additional issue of sand.  The sand accumulates on the sides of the road, typically spilling off the surrounding ground during rain storms.  An attemped turn by a bicycle on sand usually results in spillage (of the rider)… so you’ve got to be careful.  The good news is that the traffice was much slower than on the really deadly Route 2 of a couple days ago.

In the early afternoon I srode 12 miles on the very pleasant “Cape Cod Rail Trail” which follows the route of the Old Colony Railroad. It was much more relaxed to be dodging in-line skaters instead of trucks!

Arrived in Provincetown at 4pm:

Provincetown (the original spot where the Mayflower landed in 1620) still has a large Portuguese population with roots deep in the fishing business.  So one of the social highlights of the year is the “Portuguese Festival” which is happening this weekend.  Tonight they had the music of “Michelle Romeiro” and her band.  They were great!

listen here for a little Michelle Romeireo with “The Party Train Song”

Tomorrow its the parade, boat judging and more music, then I fly back to Saranac Lake on Sunday.  Life IS great!

And it DID rain… but a successful day nevertheless!  First my rescurer, Dave Doherty, took me on a tour of several of the radio stations at which he works … all in Providence, RI:  Here he is at WRNI AM’s antenna “farm” (yes, that’s what they call them) in a swamp

Dave at Rhode Island Public Radio's own swamp!

Yes, AM radio station towers are usually at low, wet spots, whilst FM stations are typically on hills, etc.

Then we went to the ultimate AM tower site…. a tower built on a man-made island!  Dave uses a boat to get to this one… and yes, the island has deteriorated over the last 50 years or so!

Island Radio

He saved the best for last:  we visited WBRU (Brown University) which is a very unique station.  As you know NCPR was originally only WSLU, a non-commercial station licensed to St. Lawrence University.  Being a non-commrecial station means, no c0mmercials, so we have to realy on program underwriting and donations to keep the money flowing.

WBRU, however is a commercial station operated by students (with a professional management and sales staff) and they are actually very successful… rating in the top 3 stations in their market for every reporting period! Its ALL commercials for them! They play music for young people 18-50.

The inside of the place is controlled chaos and reminds me very much of my days in college radio… or the inside of my office, car or garage.

Here’s Olivia at master control… and yes, those are thousands of Jazz LP’s in the back!

Olivia at the helm of WBRU

Then, thanks to the internet, we calculated that I had only a couple of hours of biking before another huge rain storm hit, so wonderful Dave drove me to Fairhaven, where I thanked him profusley and I rode a paltry 20 miles to my current abode, Buzzard’s Bay, on the doorstep of Cape Cod.  And just in time too…. it was pretty miserable for the last hour riding (drizzle, wind, cold) but then, the thunderstorm hit, and stayed for 3 hours.

On the other hand, I am right on Buzzard’s Bay, here’s the rainy view out my porch (or is it verandah?)

Buzzard's Bay out my back door

I’m glad I managed the 20 paltry miles today…. as of this morning I had developed a real aversion… OK, fear, to riding.  Yesterday was a little on the traumatic side.  But I feel pretty good now, although the muscles and Bass Ale at “Captain Al’s” may have helped, and am looking forward to tomorrow.  70 miles on my final leg… then I’m DONE!

Sorry about the lo-resolution photos… I think my camera took a hit getting wet yesterday.