A recent site move has allowed Arizona station KQMR, a 30 kW FM station on 100.3 MHz, to continue providing high-quality and reliable over-the-air radio service without consuming expensive diesel fuel.
Martyn Horspool is regional director of RF transmission for TelevisaUnivision, the licensee. This story is excerpted from the ebook “Awesome RF Buildouts.”
Radio World: Tell us about the purpose and scope of the work.
Martyn Horspool: The project was for full-power station KQMR, which serves the Phoenix/Globe market and surrounding area. It’s a full-power FM station owned and operated by Univision Radio Stations Group Inc.
We moved from a site with no commercial electrical power to an existing site that had commercial electrical service and that already served our aux transmitter and two TV translators.
The old site was operating on a large diesel generator that has seen better days — it was expensive to operate and required frequent re-fueling and maintenance.
It was a major plus to be able to shut off the generator, which immediately provided a significant cost savings while providing environmental benefits.
Both old and new sites are on Pinal Peak, near Globe. They’re remote sites that do not have street addresses. We called the old site Lower Pinal Peak; the new site is a little further up the mountain and is called Upper Pinal Peak.
The project was managed by several people at TelevisaUnivision, including local engineering staff from Phoenix, who helped immensely, and our Corporate RF Distribution Technology staff. I was the main lead on this project and was involved in all aspects of the work.
RW: When was the work done?
Horspool: The main part was completed in December 2023; we have been operating KQMR from the new site since then. There is some follow-up work needed to add an automatic transfer switch and a generator that can be switched in if there is a power outage on the commercial feed to the building.
RW: Who were the key service providers, and what are the key physical components?
Horspool: There were several other companies involved. Coast to Coast Tower Service Inc. removed the old antennae and line from the tower, installed the new ERI FM antenna and new microwave antenna, replumbed the tower and did the tower inspection and report.
Arizona Public Service made changes to electrical service to accommodate the new transmitter. JJ Electrical Contracting handled all the primary electrical work inside the building, and Comfort Systems installed a new HVAC unit at the Upper Pinal site.
We installed a new five-bay ERI MP-5E Rototiller Circular Polarized FM Antenna, and moved our existing GatesAir FAX series FM transmitter from the lower site. It originally was a FAX40 but we converted it into two FAX20 transmitters; one is at the upper site, and the other will be redeployed soon at another site in the Phoenix market.
We reused the existing RFS Flex Line that was on the tower at the upper site, and moved the Kintronic 50 kW load from the lower site.
RW: What do you find most notable about the project?
Horspool: The power savings and helping the environment by switching off the lower site generator.
On the savings side, we not only removed a large diesel fuel cost but we were also able to reduce the transmitter power by approximately half, thus saving electrical energy. It’s worthy to note that the reduction in transmitter power was made without sacrificing any coverage due to the increased height above average terrain and the higher gain of the new five-bay ERI antenna. The transmitter’s output is 13.1 kW, and while the antenna is 135 feet above the ground it enjoys a HAAT of 3,258 feet.
RW: Were there particular problems or challenges?
Horspool: No serious ones to report. All of our contractors did a great job and no significant delays were incurred. One small challenge was that we had to complete the project before the winter weather made site access difficult. Timing, coordinating and scheduling were key to the success of this project. And we now have one less building to manage and maintain.
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