WPSU - which is affiliated with Penn State University, has it's transmitter somewhere near Boone Mountain - way back in the woods, not along RT 322 like most other transmitters in their area above Clearfield PA.
The FCC dictates that you have to have your transmitter within so many miles of the stations transmitters home town.
It's something like 12 miles.
WPSU's physical address is State College Pa, but their transmitter address is Clearfield Pa.
Moving the transmitter to a particular area helps the transmitter to transmit further in one direction - towards your goal market area.
Their antenna height above average terrain is 412.8 meters or 1354 feet.
Their antenna height above mean sea level is 950.6 meters or 3119 feet.
Their antenna height above ground level is 289.1 meters or 948.5 feet.
Their height
If you look back at my other posts, you would read how the height of the antenna above average terrain is factored into the rating of power of the transmitter.
To put it in perspective,downtown Clearfield Pa has a elevation of 1114 feet above sea level.
That means that the antenna is roughly 2000 feet in elevation higher than the town of Clearfield PA.
When WPSU turned on their Digital transmitter to full power, they were transmitting at 1000 Kw.
The FCC did a field study and came back and told them that they had to reduce their signal back to 835 Kw. because that was all they were licensed for.
At 1000 Kw., you could receive with little problems, their signal in Warren and Bradford Pa - 80 miles away.
The other day it was announced that the state of Pennsylvania was not going to give them any grant money and that they would have to stand on their own two feet. Since then they have laid off 8 people and have petitioned the FCC to allow them to cut their signal back to 810 Kw.
Does that answer your question?
A loss of $800,000 grant money caused them to loose 8 employees, do more pledge drives, cut programming, and cut their signal back to 810 KW.
Last edited by JB Antennaman; 06-27-2009 at 08:01 AM.
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