Some TV Channels Come In Better in the Mornings

[mikekohl]

Sure, they were located in Fort Yukon, Alaska I took them around 1990 before they were demolished. If you want to read more about the technology look up "White Alice Communications System. They used frequencies around 900 Mhz.

Too bad these antennas were all torn down around the state of Alaska during the 1990s.
I once read an article by an old time broadcast engineer that reported these antennas were great for AM radio reception. An explanation about connecting a portable battery operated AM radio to a ground connection on the White Alice array, and getting consistent reception of broadcast stations from hundreds of miles away, and who knows what at night? Alaska was a much more interesting place to tinker back in the good old days. How about FM reception from Anchorage throughout the west end of Denali National Park, via knife's edge refraction from 20,000 foot reflectors otherwise known as the Alaska Range? It seemed to work continuously from a visitor center starting about 65 miles into the park, and many miles west and northwest to the Lake Minchumina area. Found this by accident in 1976, and later research told me that it had been known as a local secret by miners, who also had discovered its abilities to extend Anchorage analog VHF TV channels over the same four mile high reflector.

 

[907TECH]

You may like this Mike, long ago phone service was requested in Kantishna, at the end of the 91 mile park road. Some crafty Alascom engineers and techs pulled it off by setting up a VHF shot at the C band earth station at Lake Minchumina. They used a quad stack I believe, and bounced the signal off Denali and into Kantishna. The circuit arrived at Minchumina on C band, and was patched to the VHF equipment. Later with increased demand for more circuits, a transportable ES was set up in Kantishna, and 900 Mhz Cylink radios were used to get the circuits to several customers in the area. The 4.5M transportable is shown in the pic. The tower with 900 Mhz antennas is behind the tree. Later still, a 2.4 meter Prodelin C band dish was added at another lodge around 2008. A 5.8 Ghz radio shot extended service to another nearby lodge. Off topic fun...

 

[mikekohl]

You may like this Mike, long ago phone service was requested in Kantishna, at the end of the 91 mile park road. Some crafty Alascom engineers and techs pulled it off by setting up a VHF shot at the C band earth station at Lake Minchumina. They used a quad stack I believe, and bounced the signal off Denali and into Kantishna. The circuit arrived at Minchumina on C band, and was patched to the VHF equipment. Later with increased demand for more circuits, a transportable ES was set up in Kantishna, and 900 Mhz Cylink radios were used to get the circuits to several customers in the area. The 4.5M transportable is shown in the pic. The tower with 900 Mhz antennas is behind the tree. Later still, a 2.4 meter Prodelin C band dish was added at another lodge around 2008. A 5.8 Ghz radio shot extended service to another nearby lodge. Off topic fun...

An old saying that I heard again and again while living in Alaska--necessity is the mother of invention. When you do not have appropriate hardware and/or other normal solutions, they are created on the spot. I probably would not have designed and built 16 to 20 foot spherical antennas back in the early 80s (before Paraclipse changed everything with put-together antennas from boxes that fit into small planes), had it not cost so much to ship a typical 16 foot antenna from Arkansas or Missouri. I would take about $2000 worth of raw materials, drilling on site, and milling the redwood into 2 and 3 inch strips, working for a week to produce a typical 18 foot mesh spherical. It was cost-effective in Alaska, and at worst case, I made a good living for that week of fabrication work plus the rest of the installation. The manufacturer of the 12-foot 8-ball spherical mesh kit antennas encouraged me, and was happy to sell expanded aluminum mesh in rolls, as well as spherical feedhorns. I spent hours hand calculating curves and structural design for my larger antennas, and learned things the hard way on my own. It was the best school in the world, and with this background I was able to play with 90 cm Paraclipse Millennium Ku-band offset antennas in 1999 for multiple Ku and DBS satellite reception, and transfer that same knowledge to modify other offset dishes for multiple sats.