WWJ's STL during severe storms

[Colonel Flagg]

Right on schedule, severe weather hits, and WWJ's STL takes a dump.

Microwave that link already

[Radiobirdman]

Tonight's storm did hit Southfield pretty hard and DTE showing major outages there.

[Ben Zonia]

STL transmitters rarely exceed 20 watts transmitter power output from a search done a few minutes ago. Why can't they just use a backup power supply during studio power outages? The makeshift studio can be done on a laptop with the right boards, automation software, and accessories.

[billmich88888]

can we get a quick refresher on what a STL is, and when it goes down, what happens"?

[km1125]

Right on schedule, severe weather hits, and WWJ's STL takes a dump.

Microwave that link already

I thought most STLs were using microwave (unless they upgraded to a fiber connection). What are they using?

[jaywmi]

It stands for studio-to-transmitter link - typically a high frequency signal connection between two antennas that sends information from the studio to the tranmission tower. Sometimes, as backup, STL can use point-to-point networking such as over a telephone line or IP-based (internet) methods.

If it goes down... well, you ain't seeing anything but a black screen.
 

can we get a quick refresher on what a STL is, and when it goes down, what happens"?

[billmich88888]

thank you

[Colonel Flagg]

It stands for studio-to-transmitter link - typically a high frequency signal connection between two antennas that sends information from the studio to the tranmission tower. Sometimes, as backup, STL can use point-to-point networking such as over a telephone line or IP-based (internet) methods.

If it goes down... well, you ain't seeing anything but a black screen.
 

can we get a quick refresher on what a STL is, and when it goes down, what happens"?

In order to get the signal from American Dr in Southfield, down to Berlin Twp, in Monroe County, it had to pass through THREE different (at the time) phone companies. I believe the one at the end of the line was GTE. With microwave, there may be a couple "hops" involved, but it would be a lot more stable than using old fashioned POTS lines. As mentioned before, from the top of the Rouge River bridge on I-75, all of the Southfield towers are visible to the north, and if it's clear, WWJ's Berlin Twp towers are visible to the south.

What I envision is a microwave link from American Dr to either the 50 or 62 TV tower. If there's no line of sight to Berlin from there, it could "hop" to the 98.7 tower in Detroit, then down to Berlin.

Ralph Hunt wanted to leave the 2500 watt Aux facility on 8 Mile for use during severe weather. The STL is one of the reasons why. The bean counters disagreed.

[SolidGoldDancers]

In order to get the signal from American Dr in Southfield, down to Berlin Twp, in Monroe County, it had to pass through THREE different (at the time) phone companies. I believe the one at the end of the line was GTE. With microwave, there may be a couple "hops" involved, but it would be a lot more stable than using old fashioned POTS lines. As mentioned before, from the top of the Rouge River bridge on I-75, all of the Southfield towers are visible to the north, and if it's clear, WWJ's Berlin Twp towers are visible to the south.

What I envision is a microwave link from American Dr to either the 50 or 62 TV tower. If there's no line of sight to Berlin from there, it could "hop" to the 98.7 tower in Detroit, then down to Berlin.

Ralph Hunt wanted to leave the 2500 watt Aux facility on 8 Mile for use during severe weather. The STL is one of the reasons why. The bean counters disagreed.

They have the path, what they don't have is the necessary fade margin.

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.0195641 ... &entry=ttu

That's probably it, right up there on the top of the tower.

Are they still using 950MHz for broadcast audio STLS?

[audiophile]

In order to get the signal from American Dr in Southfield, down to Berlin Twp, in Monroe County, it had to pass through THREE different (at the time) phone companies. I believe the one at the end of the line was GTE. With microwave, there may be a couple "hops" involved, but it would be a lot more stable than using old fashioned POTS lines. As mentioned before, from the top of the Rouge River bridge on I-75, all of the Southfield towers are visible to the north, and if it's clear, WWJ's Berlin Twp towers are visible to the south.

What I envision is a microwave link from American Dr to either the 50 or 62 TV tower. If there's no line of sight to Berlin from there, it could "hop" to the 98.7 tower in Detroit, then down to Berlin.

Ralph Hunt wanted to leave the 2500 watt Aux facility on 8 Mile for use during severe weather. The STL is one of the reasons why. The bean counters disagreed.

They have the path, what they don't have is the necessary fade margin.

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.0195641 ... &entry=ttu

That's probably it, right up there on the top of the tower.

Are they still using 950MHz for broadcast audio STLS?

A Mosely Digital STL on 951.5 goes from the 50 Tower on eleven-mile road to the WWJ TX site. I'm guessing they use an unlicensed digital link from American Drive to the 50 Tower.

[Colonel Flagg]

Very interesting. Perhaps the POTS lines near the end of the STL path were eliminated. Either way, it's still not perfect.

[SolidGoldDancers]

Very interesting. Perhaps the POTS lines near the end of the STL path were eliminated. Either way, it's still not perfect.

They're still out there, but given they're Frontier I am not sure they'd be any more reliable. The thread earlier in the post was correct, getting leased lines would have been a nightmare between two companies, and all of those types of circuits are now out of tariff and unholy expensive.

It is a 32 mile path, I've seen longer ones for 950MHz and it isn't intersecting Canada so I'm thinking the first hop lacks the margin.