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Old Class C WMBN-FM/WLXT Site Near Cross Village

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CK-722
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Old Class C WMBN-FM/WLXT Site Near Cross Village

Post by CK-722 » Sun Sep 22, 2019 2:45 am

Coordinates.

45°35'09.0"N 85°04'26.0"W

On the South side of Wormwood Rd., West of Vorce Rd., near Island View Hill. As I recall, the tower was 683 feet high. The elevation near there is approximately 1102 feet AMSL. It was fully spaced as a Class C, 150 miles from Class C WHNN. It was only licensed there about a year. They downgraded to Class C1 and moved SE of Petoskey. As I was told, the tower was dismantled and moved to Saginaw to upgrade WKCQ to a full Class B facility. As I was told, the site had Winter accessibility problems. The satellite view shows little remaining there, possibly a tower base and some guy anchors. I'll have to go back there someday and see what's there. From what I was told, it was great for airplane DXing, as the receiver oscillators fell within the FM band and didn't interfere with avionics.

https://www.topozone.com/michigan/emmet ... view-hill/


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CK-722
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Re: Old Class C WMBN-FM/WLXT Site Near Cross Village

Post by CK-722 » Sun Sep 22, 2019 3:34 am

The reason this was a good site is that it crossed relatively low elevation land on its way to Traverse City. The site SE of Petoskey crosses less favorable terrain in that direction. But the site is much more accessible.


Is THAT where they got the idea for the 486-SX?

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Ben Zonia
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Re: Old Class C WMBN-FM/WLXT Site Near Cross Village

Post by Ben Zonia » Sun Sep 22, 2019 1:21 pm

I assume that it is called island View Hill because you can see Beaver Island and nearby islands from there.


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Re: Old Class C WMBN-FM/WLXT Site Near Cross Village

Post by ftballfan » Sun Sep 22, 2019 2:44 pm

Couldn't have been much of a downgrade moving to its current site as WLXT is at maximum Class C1 facilities (100kW @ 981' HAAT) unless its HAAT was much higher than 981 feet



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Re: Old Class C WMBN-FM/WLXT Site Near Cross Village

Post by Ben Zonia » Sun Sep 22, 2019 3:20 pm

ftballfan wrote:
Sun Sep 22, 2019 2:44 pm
Couldn't have been much of a downgrade moving to its current site as WLXT is at maximum Class C1 facilities (100kW @ 981' HAAT) unless its HAAT was much higher than 981 feet
Terrain over the whole path affects the signal. If you draw radials over each path, you will see that the site SE of Petoskey is more obstructed toward Traverse City. HAAT calculations only use the terrain between 2 and 10 miles. This obstruction difference is true regardless if both paths were LOS. It's called a partially blocked Fresnel Zone. Waves are propagated into a roughly ellipsoid/paraboloid three dimensional solid and not a line. If this ellipsoid is blocked, signal loss occurs over and above losses from inverse square law and any additional absorption of the propagation path.
Last edited by Ben Zonia on Sun Sep 22, 2019 4:28 pm, edited 4 times in total.


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1981-2 Public Notice Comments On WMBN-FM Upgrade and Channel Change

Post by Ben Zonia » Sun Sep 22, 2019 4:05 pm

DATA FILED 8-24-82 IN ACCOR. WITH COMM'S. 1ST REPORT &
ORDER ADOPTED 11-30-81 & RELEASED 12-3-81 IN DOCKET NO.
81-504, SHOWING PROPOSED OPER.ON A FREQ. OF 96.3MHZ #242;
CHG. TL TO: ON ISLAND HILL, OFF RT. 17 [sic, 77?], APPROX. 4.2 MI SW
OF CROSS VILLAGE, PETOSKEY, MI & MAKE CHGS. IN ANT. SYS.
MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION UNDER SECTION 1.1305 OF THE
COMMISSION'S RULES. 45 35' 09" 85 04' 26"
CONDITIONS


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Re: Old Class C WMBN-FM/WLXT Site Near Cross Village

Post by Ben Zonia » Sun Sep 22, 2019 10:10 pm

1985 Broadcasting Yearbook says it was 910 Feet HAAT.


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Re: Old Class C WMBN-FM/WLXT Site Near Cross Village

Post by innate-in-you » Mon Sep 23, 2019 10:07 pm

I do know I was impressed with how strong "Michigan's Beautiful North" was on Deadstream Road (the road that divides the Platte Lakes).

In those years (1975-1985), FM was growing like crazy everywhere along the shoreline. Every summer when we got to the cabin, there were several new FMs to try out.



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