Re: [IRCA] [HCDX] CBU 690 Vancouver now at 25,000 Watts fulltime

["R. Colin Newell" <coffeecanuck@xxxxxxxxx>]

Another treat from a CBC Staffer that shared with me under conditions of
strictest confidence--

*CBC has few few hardware techs deployed and very little "break and fix"
policy -*
*That means when anything (and I stress ANYTHING) fails, declines or breaks
- it is left to languish until*
*such time as it "fixes itself" or completely fails and if in an urban area
might get the attention of the 1 or 2 techs*
*that are available.*

Our own 90.5 FM in Victoria is a great example of a transmitter that shares
a tower with
some TOP 40 FM stations in Victoria -- and their "technician" who has
actually climbed tower
has ZERO tech training and uses a "common sense" approach to
troubleshooting and fixing...
We had a convo some years back when he insisted that FM and VHF was purely
line of sight,
no skip, no bounce or scatter -- he was convinced that there is no such
thing as FM DX
as the one line in his "40 page" technician learning manual that he got out
of a cereal box
said... "AM Distance, FM line of sight..."

and that is the tech that might deal with one of the FM transmitters
locally.

A wonderful byproduct of "race for the bottom" bean counting when it comes
to supporting infrastructure...

Why would we get a skilled tech on staff *35 years a week* when we
can get a dummy to do the same work for minimum wage AND
be an on-air person too.

Sorry Paul: Not implying *On-air types are dummies* -- but that they
shouldn't be touching
transmitters and antennas.


On Fri, Nov 23, 2018 at 10:09 AM Theo <theod@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Well, Radio One/88.1 pretty much disappears while driving once Hwy 99
> turns the Big Bend and heads north from Horseshoe Bay, only about 20km
> west of the Mt Seymour tx, and reception from the Squamish FM relay is
> spotty till you're well up Howe Sound.  Residents in parts of HB and
> especially Lions Bay likely would agree with that assessment too.
>
> Even driving along parts of Marine Drive on the southern edges of the
> cities of Burnaby and Vancouver, the steep rise up to the Kingsway ridge
> can block the FM'ers from Mt Seymour.
>
> Mother Corp applied to the CRTC to turn off 690 but the request was
> denied because of the difficulties with FM in our, um, mountain-goat
> environment...
>
> Once upon a time, while driving across the southern part of of BC on Hwy
> 3, there was constant AM coverage from LPRT's and lower-powered
> commercial/private stns in towns along the way. Nowadays, daytime travel
> is a blank band, AM or FM, for considerable distances.
>
> Theo
>
> --
Colin Newell - Editor and creator *of *Coffeecrew.com
<http://www.Coffeecrew.com> and DXer.ca <http://www.DXer.ca> -
VA7WWV | Twitter @CoffeeCrew | Victoria - Canada
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