Piper ditchs in Long Island Sound (Aug 8, 2009)
- Thread starter CT Arrow
- Start date
SteveW
Pre-Flight
Hm, WFSB --
Is this the station in Hartford that used to be known as WTIC?
Is this the station in Hartford that used to be known as WTIC?
Yes, it is. -Skip
Creeeep...
...I used to watch this channel when I was a kid, summers in eastern Long Island. They would mark the hour with the first four notes of Beethoven's 5th, although for the life of me, I have no idea why.
Continued creeeeeep....
Check out WTIC AM at 1080. They still use the dedededah tones on the hour.
WTIC is a 50,000 watt station and it transmits from one or two antennas. During the day when AM transmissions don't go that far, they use one antenna and radiate a circular pattern. At night, they cut in the second antenna. The two antennas are positioned so that the resulting elliptical radiation pattern has its short axis pointed to Houston - where there is (or used to be) another AM station on the 1080 freq. This prevented interference.
Twice a day, sunup and sundown, the station goes off the air for about 5 seconds for the "antenna switch". As a kid I was loose in the transmitter room on top of Talcott Mountain and got to push the button to switch the antennas....
My guess on the Beethoven's Fifth: Three beeps to let you know the exact time was coming, then the longer beep to let you know to hack the clock. Pure speculation on my part.
-Skip
Check out WTIC AM at 1080. They still use the dedededah tones on the hour.
WTIC is a 50,000 watt station and it transmits from one or two antennas. During the day when AM transmissions don't go that far, they use one antenna and radiate a circular pattern. At night, they cut in the second antenna. The two antennas are positioned so that the resulting elliptical radiation pattern has its short axis pointed to Houston - where there is (or used to be) another AM station on the 1080 freq. This prevented interference.
Twice a day, sunup and sundown, the station goes off the air for about 5 seconds for the "antenna switch". As a kid I was loose in the transmitter room on top of Talcott Mountain and got to push the button to switch the antennas....
My guess on the Beethoven's Fifth: Three beeps to let you know the exact time was coming, then the longer beep to let you know to hack the clock. Pure speculation on my part.
-Skip