First Continental 816HD Is on the Air

The first Continental 816HD transmitter is on the air.
Clear Channel FM station KRQQ in Arizona threw the switch early Tuesday morning, according to the supplier’s Broadcast Sales Manager Mike Troje. The transmitter is on Tucson Mountain, an antenna farm just west of that city. The station is a Class C at 93.7 MHz, feeding a Dielectric directional FM antenna.
“The room was rebuilt to install the new 816HD transmitter, with their old 816 analog transmitter becoming the analog backup,” Troje said.
Clear Channel staff performed the installation; Gil Garcia is regional vice president of engineering for Clear Channel and the market chief is Mike Irby.
Previously the room held two Continental transmitters in a main/standby configuration. Troje said space was an issue and that the 816HD has the same footprint as a 816 analog transmitter. In its promotion of the product, Continental emphasizes its space-saving nature and that no second IBOC transmitter or tower mods are needed. “The unique thing is that it uses low-lever combining for high-power requirements,” Troje said. “We don’t increase the impact on their room at all. … You don’t have a load or hybrid or anything else to consider.” He said the HD Radio portion of the installation took only a couple of hours and added, “The Ibiquity/NRSC mask requires all products to be within the mask without modulation. Clear Channel, however, requires all products be within the mask with modulation. This requirement is much more difficult to meet, but the 816HD passes this test with flying colors.”
The station’s 816HD system also incorporated a Nautel NE IBOC-FM HD radio signal generator and M50 FM exciter to allow analog and HD precorrection. Troje said Continental was “very proud to to have the opportunity to work with Nautel on this installation.”