Translator 104.9 got a check-up today...we've been having problems with it and today while Larry our "chief" engineer from Charlotte was in, he and I decided to ride up to Sauratown Mountain and try to improve reception...

Our antenna is near the top of a tower that is home to several paging services in the area. Thankfully the problem is usually on the ground equipment and not the tower because I don't do towers if you know what I mean...




First thing we did was to remove the old unit and get it out of our way. I had already installed the new one a few weeks ago but reception has still been poor.

Larry brought his fancy gadget (spectrum analyzer for those who want to take this to another level lol)so we could see what the translator unit was seeing. And what we saw was not good. We are getting "legal" interference from an adjacent station channel that has just gone digital. So our translator signal is basically getting neutralized.





We tried to use a filter but it didn't help. 104.9 was still filled with "hash". So we came home disappointed. (Also hot and sweaty...was great to get back to the AC and the Lazyboy!)






NOT GIVING UP!



There are some less-than-simple things that we can try and we plan to do just that. But it's going to take time and some trial and error. I know this is an inconvenience (and worse) but if you are in 104.9 land know you are not forgotten.

Email me any comments or questions about this or any reception problems, john@wbfj.fm .