NWS Sauratown Mt going off air

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ai8o

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I just saw an announcement on the NWS raleigh website that they have been told to leave the WXL 42 transmitter site on Sauratown Mtn by the end of May.

I don't know why or who ordered this.

Anybody know what's going on?
 

kb4mdz

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Summary of the statement on NWS-Raleigh Forecast office website:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RALEIGH NC
643 PM EDT FRI APR 18 2014

...GAP IN NOAA WEATHER RADIO COVERAGE POSSIBLE BY MAY 30...

WXL-42...LOCATED IN GREENSBORO...SERVING NORTHWEST NORTH CAROLINA
AND ADJACENT VIRGINIA COUNTIES ON 162.400 MHZ...MAY HAVE A GAP IN
TRANSMISSION BEGINNING MAY 30. THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HAS
BEEN REQUESTED TO REMOVE ITS EQUIPMENT FROM A SITE ON SAURATOWN
MOUNTAIN. WE WILL DO OUR BEST TO MAINTAIN COVERAGE...HOWEVER...THAT
MAY NOT BE POSSIBLE FOR A PERIOD OF TIME IF THE EQUIPMENT IS
REMOVED.

IF THE GAP IN COVERAGE OCCURS...SOME POSSIBLE OTHER WAYS TO
RECEIVE NOAA WEATHER RADIO ARE...

WWF-60...LOCATED AT BUCK MOUNTAIN...SERVING THE SOUTHERN PIEDMONT
ON 162.425 MHZ...

WXL-58...LOCATED IN CHAPEL HILL...SERVING THE NORTHEAST PIEDMONT
ON 162.550 MHZ...

WNG-597...LOCATED IN ELLERBE...SERVING THE SOUTHERN PIEDMONT...
WESTERN SANDHILLS AND NORTHEASTERN SOUTH CAROLINA ON 162.400
MHZ...AND...

WNG-586...LOCATED IN HENDERSON...SERVING THE NORTHEAST PIEDMONT
AND SOUTH CENTRAL VIRGINIA ON 162.500 MHZ.

WEATHER INFORMATION WOULD ALSO BE AVAILABLE AT WEATHER.GOV/RAH.
--------------------------------------------------------

Kind of a shame, but maybe they can move it to another tower on the Mountain; WUNC-TV has a tower there, and there's lots of other stuff up on that mountain. It's a nice place to visit, always enjoyed it when I was doing service work & had to go up there. If they continue to run it at only 100 Watts, I don't see any obvious technical reason why there should be any trouble. About the hardest part will be supporting a DB-228 style antenna; that's an 8-bay VHF dipole array. Loooooonnnnnnng!
 

yardbird

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Probably like the Goldsboro Viper Site.

The tower owner probaby is needing the space for the addition of radios and/or microwave equipment.

Who knows anymore

David
 

WA4MJF

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Probably like the Goldsboro Viper Site.

The tower owner probaby is needing the space for the addition of radios and/or microwave equipment.

Who knows anymore

David

I thought the State put stuff on their own towers.

Ronnie
 

yardbird

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No

The Highway Patrol was leasing space on the Goldsboro Site.

They were allowed to place the Viper Equipment and Antennas on the Wayne County VHF Trunking tower.

Then Wayne County wanted to update their VHF Trunking system and asked the Highway Patrol to remove there equipment.

Now Wayne County only has one Viper Site that is operational and that is Lee Plant.

According to the Viper Team they should still have adequate service, till either they can find another suitable place to relocate or build a tower of their own and re-license the site for Goldsboro.

Please read Pboy's Viper Blog for a better explanation of the change.

David
 

fcfd988

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The current transmitter is located at the WXII TV Tower and Hearst Television, Inc (WXII's parent company) "made a corporate decision to terminate all leases with any federal agency located on its property that come up for renewal." NOAA is a federal agency. The WXL42 tower lease expires on May 30.
 

yardbird

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There is still hope

Maybe they can find space on the Sauratown Mountain Viper Site.

David
 

Quantar22

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There is still hope

Maybe they can find space on the Sauratown Mountain Viper Site.

David

Before everyone gets on the "lets put it on the State Tower band wagon" you need to realize the entire top of that mountain is leased property that is owned by WXII and subleased to the other tower owners... if they do not want to lease to federal agencies on their towers I highly doubt they will allow federal agencies on the others... Food for thought
 

kb4mdz

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Wes, can you provide any more background about this 'corporate decision'? Not doubting you, just want clarification.

Last I knew as of 14 years ago (when I was one of the techs servicing it, and others), WXL-42 was in WXII's building and on its tower. While I can see that Hearst Telev. can make the decision that they won't renew a lease for a tenant on their tower, I would think that would only apply directly to their own tower, and if a tenant wanted to lease on a tower on a subleased parcel, well, why not? I'll admit, I'm not a lawyer, nor do I play one on stage & screen. Just seems to me Hearst wants all federal agencies off their own towers at the end of lease. YMMV.

Hmmm, interesting: looking at the NOAA NWR website station listing, it says WXL-42 is 1000 Watts. Was only 100 Watts during my tenure. 100 Watt transmitters can be handled by lots of commercial antennas; 10000 Watts needs a bigger, beefier, stouter antenna; If it's still only 100 Watts, it should be easy to move to another agreeable tower.


There's got to be more to the story. But I"m not holding my breath waiting for developments.
 

ai8o

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Bad corporate citizenship.
Perhaps a complaint in their WXII "community service" FCC relicensing
file is in order.
 

SquareCircle

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Before everyone gets the torches and pitch forks out, remember that they are a corporate FOR PROFIT entity. There will always be other places for them to go, but lets let the big dogs with the very well paid lawyers, legal staffs and PR departments work their own issue. It's an unfortunate situation for the NWS, but I am sure they will be able to work out something with one of the MANY other owners (other than WXII) on that site!
 

KM4WLV

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Seems like I remember in the not to distant past that WXII got a bug up their rears and started running other people off from up there before. I don't remember who exactly.
 

NegativeTilt

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I saw this myself not too long ago...I'm in agreement in thinking that its not our fight so to speak...WXL42 will resurface soon enough..I will miss the extra layer of coverage in my area though...
 

REVREID

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station remains

just heard the good news-no removal of equipment. the station will remain on the air at its present location. that makes me happy
 
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