How to radio stations broadcast when there towers are miles away?

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chrismol1

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I seen pics of broadcastings antennas around my area out in the middle of nowhere. Some have their antennas on towers that are miles from their location. how do they do broadcast from their office in the city to towers in the mountains? I maybe think microwave dish to tower?
 

Don_Burke

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chrismoll said:
I seen pics of broadcastings antennas around my area out in the middle of nowhere. Some have their antennas on towers that are miles from their location. how do they do broadcast from their office in the city to towers in the mountains? I maybe think microwave dish to tower?
All five of our stations use channels in the 900 MHz band.

We have used ISDN, POTS CODECS, and even an internet link in a pinch.
 

key2_altfire

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Don_Burke said:
All five of our stations use channels in the 900 MHz band.

Interesting. Are the 900 MHz links plain FM in the clear? (e.g. Monitorable by scanner for someone who's in the RF path.)
 

gmclam

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Remote Transmitter Links

key2_altfire said:
Interesting. Are the 900 MHz links plain FM in the clear? (e.g. Monitorable by scanner for someone who's in the RF path.)
When microwave or 900 MHz is used, keep in mind the audio is wideband modulation. So you'll need a scanner that not only can receive the frequency, but can also handle wideband (150kHz-200kHz) modulation.

Signals from studios are typically sent via line of sight "microwave". They may also be sent via fiber or a dedicated line.
 

n8emr

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chrismoll said:
I seen pics of broadcastings antennas around my area out in the middle of nowhere. Some have their antennas on towers that are miles from their location. how do they do broadcast from their office in the city to towers in the mountains? I maybe think microwave dish to tower?


Now a days RF links from the studio are most common, Some older stations may have a wireline and other even use VOIP to link locations.
 

Don_Burke

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key2_altfire said:
Interesting. Are the 900 MHz links plain FM in the clear? (e.g. Monitorable by scanner for someone who's in the RF path.)
Ours are wideband and I would have to try it with a scanner to tell you for sure.

There are dishes on both ends, but some of the links push quite a bit of power.
 

k8mcn

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Talking about remote broadcasting, how about this?

The VOA (Voice Of America) Built and maintained a broadcasting station in Bethany Ohio (North of Cincinnati) From the 1940's through the 1980's. It was the station that broadcast the Voice of freedom and democracy to the Natzi Germany area and all of Europe during WW2.
Later they broadcast behind the Iron Curtain, in to China, and where ever they could to spread the message of freedom and Democracy.

Now for the trivia----------There never was a microphone in the facility--due to fears that the broadcast station could be captured and used against us, in the 1940's when the Crosleys built it, it was designed so that all transmissions would run in via phone lines and patched in to the transmitter. Later Satellites were used, but with all that power(at that time the most powerful in the world)and the best antennas known at the time, but NEVER any microphones.
 
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