The Basics of Broadcast Radio Station Antenna Systems

[@Rocketman88002]

Wow! & Wow! Wonderful job explaining the terms associated with FM broadcast antennas. I was a mobile FM radio technician for nearly six years. I had operated tactical microwave relay systems in Vietnam prior to that and in the early nineties decided to get a No Code Technicians Amateur Radio license. I love your content and gave you a thumbs up and subscribed. Can't wait to watch more of your videos!

[@SmokeShadow49311]

I know that longer videos are harder and take a bunch of time, but your 'long' videos are much better than the 'shorts'. Keep it up , this stuff is fascinating.

[@WECB640]

Thanks for showing the "rototiller". 99.9% of listeners have never seen one up close, and also without the radome. Keep up the great work. 73

[@scovillesadventures7141]

LOVE your content. I was a broadcast engineer back in the early 2000s for a TV station and have moved into IT. I live vicariously through your content as it reminds me of those days. I LOVED broadcast engineering. Just didn't pay much in my market.

[@HJCF0520]

Fantastic video as usual! Thank you for educating people like myself on broadcast engineering!

[@DavidTeerTheBackyardUfologist]

Wow you are me of the past cool engineers. I miss those guys. I am a radio personality retired. I'm in a community and started a cheap LpFM community radio station. 15 watts with a ground plain antenna. I'm no engineer but did help over the years when they did work. I had no idea what was going on they usually used me to do DJing... like a day timer AM at night after midnight old army surplus tx and almost 700' antenna with transmission line going across the field like 5 copper wires on small telephone poles. I've seen ready kilowatt several times back then especially when it iced over. It was awesome so much respect fur you guys. My room mate was chief engineer back in the 70's at two radio stations he got me my job at several different stations across the country back in my day. Big stations 50,000 watt AM and 100,000 FM and one in Ciudad Juárez Chihuahua licensed to operate with a power of 150,000 watts on a carrier frequency of 800 kHz at night in 1979. I lived in El Paso was 18 years old. Man I was in heaven. 50,000 day 150,000 at night. Clear channel. I think it was CKLW in Canada that fought back and forth in between. Lol:) But ended up on FM after that AM was over for us rocking jocks. I have stories. My roommates were Mr. Leonard, Bg Brad Edwards (KISs Fm LA. Lee master ls WNBC well yes I was big time at one time. Lee just retired as CEO at NPR. Great guy. Back then anyway. We cooked. Anyway enough about me. I am listening to as an engineer. I know there are SWRs and lengths of coaxial cable and going through my limiter and compressor... lol:) nit much. But it sounds good not much noise n the carrier FM 102.7. Can you give sone pointers? I only have the antenna on side of house clearing the top of roof. I get out about a mile and a half but I go further and it comes back at 3 miles then gone. Antenna about 20' high. Hardly any wind load on it. So light. I should get out a little further with 15 watts. I know something is wrong. There are like 3 communities I want you to serve just announcements another HOA the Pool the club house the lake the skiing trail, list dogs, cats, yard sales the whole community takes part in. A lot of fun. And I play a lot of music you don't hear on the radio anymore. I rock it, I country it, I worked every format so knowledgeable music, songs to play fur our age group demographics. I'm 64 now. Old. lol:) so can you give me some pointers? I mean I just gave the small transmitter and it a few electronic equipment. I do have a radio station a board all that but won't fit where so am. I divorced after 30 years moved from Connecticut back to Alabama. All my engineers I worked with are dead or long retired and gone. I been gone from Birmingham 30 years. Anyway no more 1st class licensed engineers... if I understand it's a general class license now. I have my 3rd class elements 1,2 & 9 and can read plate current, plate voltage and amps lol:) ship to shore. I had a provisional when I was 17. I go way back they took thus very seri auxiliary back then so did FCC. Which we got visited a little until my friend came in cleaned it up. He was like you a real engineer. Liked what he did. Like me a radio personality I liked what I did. I'm having fun with this. I want to automate it and go live when I want. 24/7 but yet to come. Thanks & subscribed....

[@danielpereira8584]

I love antennas, the geometry, size and complex designs just boggles the mind.

[@greenongo]

After you turned up in my TT FYP… i followed and now subbed here. UK ham….😊

[@mikewalker4134]

I understood your info because of my ham radio licenses (all three licenses) . Your equipment is on a much bigger scale compared to my home shack!!! Enjoyed the video

[@thomasbrodsky6516]

Really great video!!! And all of the wizardry that goes into these antennas are to compensate for the less than ideal reception conditions that most listeners have. It also ensures your station has a competitive signal in the market!

[@robertblake7145]

Worked at a few am 1 kilowatt stations years ago…one at 1350 kcs. And the other 1590. This explains the 300 ft tower for 1350 and the shorter one at 1590. Great explanations. Thanks! Bob

[@redthepost]

I am hooked. Thanks for the matchless overview. Seriously, you are good teacher. 73s.

[@JoloNavarro]

Really great video! Informative as well!

[@timothystockman7533]

A little bit of history: The unit which is used for power ratios is the bel, named after Alexander Graham Bell. One bel is equal to one order of magnitude, which is 10 times. It's logarithmic, so 2 bels is 2 orders of magnitude, which is 100 times, 3 bels 1000 times, etc. The decibel, 1/10 of a bel, is the most commonly used derivation of the bel. In my years of working at various stations, I never saw an ERI bay closeup; they were always up on the tower.

[@kieranfromclon]

Good explanation. Thanks

[@nicholaskalogris9985]

Awesome information!

[@jerrysinclair3771]

Good stuff. I am into ham radio and especially enjoy antenna theory. 73 de WA4CIF

[@TVJAY]

This is a great video!

[@joewoodchuck3824]

I missed part of the video and dont have time to go back and check what you said about the Diamond NR770 antenna. I just want to make sure that everyone knows that this particular antenna is ground independent and needs no ground plane to operate correctly.

[@Dratchev241]

i have always wanted to experiment with a cp antenna stack on a 440 repeater just to see what it would really do.

[@aligator9552]

Hello. I just found your channel and subscribed. I have a question please. There is a FM station a few miles from me that the local university operates. I looked up the specs, and it says its running at 250 watts. The antenna it is broadcasting from is a few hundred feet and I noticed the radiators are placed halfway up the antenna. Why not mount them at the top for better coverage? Thank you

[@BroadcastBlueprint]

In many countries, radio station licenses are also categorized into classes. In the United States, for example, a station of a certain license class is given exclusive use of their channel to a defined geographic area, generally a number of kilometers from the transmitter where the signal strength must be a certain value. Since FM uses VHF and is typically line-of-sight, it’s possible that using more power or mounting the antenna higher on the tower will cause the station’s signal to be too strong outside their defined contour area, so lots of stations cannot use the maximum antenna height or transmit power for their license class! Stations can trade antenna height for transmit power or vice versa, but what remains the same is the signal strength contour distance. Hope that helps!

[@aligator9552]

@@BroadcastBlueprint Thank you! That helps a lot! Although I never got into the field, I have always had a love of radio. I got into short-wave back in the early 1980's and wanted to know the in's and out's of how radio waves propagate, etc.

[@kevinbradt835]

I was wondering is there a way to connect a 50 ohm antenna to a 75ohm cable

[@nakayle]

A balum can match the impedance, but better to use 50 ohm coax to start with

[@farmerdave33]

"I'll keep the math to minimum" Crams more math into any two minutes I've ever experienced 😂

[@BroadcastBlueprint]

Well, I never said what it would be a minimum of… minimum of math or minimum of time? 🙃

[@LordGryllwotth]

What? It is not that much loss if the polarization is mismatched on linear. Maybe on Lefthand vs righthand polarisation?

[@W4BIN]

Trust me that antenna is nothing like a "turnstile" antenna. Turnstile antennas are horizontally polarized "slot" antennas usually with broad-banding wings. The slots are between the mounting pole and the bar of the wing that is closest to the pole, this at the feedpoint. Ron W4BIN (retired broadcast engineer)

[@nakayle]

I have seen turnstile wings fed directly by a coax harness.

[@charleshunziker7416]

Uhf stations use mega watts, please explain

[@BroadcastBlueprint]

Since TV stations frequently use UHF (higher frequency) signals, their antenna elements are smaller and the propagation isn’t as good. Thanks to that, they also use many more antenna elements to increase the gain of their antenna arrays, resulting in an effective radiated power (ERP) approaching or exceeding 1000 kW.

[@Rocketman88002]

"I'll try to keep the math to a minimum"? That's what the math professor told his class before finals!😅😅😅

[@dylan8495]

Wanna see a cool AM phased array, WKGE-AM..... 9 towers

[@DavidTeerTheBackyardUfologist]

Wow! Crap too much work. At a 50k day and 1k at night we had 5 towers... I would be on sir at night and Charlie Douglas and the road gang union 76 truck stop tiff the professional trucker would blast me out from Louisiana I was in Birmingham AL. On 850 AM lol:) it was so funny.

[@charleshunziker7416]

W about TV stations