We told you here a few weeks ago about the FM broadcast commemorating Major Armstrong, to be aired on 42.8 MHz from the Alpine Tower in New Jersey.
Interested in listening in, RW Online reader Bob Schroeder asked the organizers for details; and he shared Steve Hemphill’s answer, below.
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Hi, Bob,
Thanks for your interest in our commemorative broadcast honoring Major Armstrong at Alpine this June.
The 42.8 MHz. transmission will be using a full +/- 75 KHz. deviation, just like a standard FM broadcast station and just like the Major first used on the original W2XMN station at Alpine in the 1930s. The audio will be monophonic with standard 75us. pre-emphasis, also just like standard FM broadcast procedure.
Unfortunately, a standard land mobile communications receiver will not respond cleanly to our wideband signals on 42.8 MHz. You would need a receiver with a +/- 100 KHz. acceptance- bandwidth, such as one of the old, vintage 42-50 MHz. pre-WW2 FM table radios or something like a Hallicrafters SX-62 with wide-band 50 MHz. tuning range.
If you don’t have access to a wide-band receiver, we are planning to stream the broadcast on the Internet through the facilities of WFDU(FM), the radio station owned and operated by Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, N.J. Our broadcast will be carried both on the air on their frequency of 89.1 MHz. and on the web at www.wfdu.fm on June 11. The entire program will also be rebroadcast on the web at 7 p.m. Eastern on June 14 and again on June 16.
We have additional information available about the commemorative broadcast that we are doing and about the historic Alpine tower site on the CSC Management Web site www.cscmgt.com. CSC is the owner of the Alpine tower.
Thanks, Bob. Let me know if I can provide you with any more info on the event.
Regards,
Steve Hemphill
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Schroeder adds: “For us techie people who have communications service monitors, you can dial in 42.80 and set the FM receive bandwidth to 75 khz. My IFR can do this easily. All you need is a good, high, low band antenna.”
