Santa Barbara Station Uses First StarLink Composite STL

It’s a tricky STL shot; but Moseley says the first StarLink Composite STL is on the air and operating at Clear Channel’s KTYD(FM) in Santa Barbara, Calif. The shot had been served by a Moseley PCL-606C with a cavity filter to fight off cellular interference. The studio is downtown on E. Cota Street; the transmitter is at Gibraltar Peak.
The company installed the new STL this month. Ran Bullard is station engineer for KTYD. “The path passes directly through an antenna farm site that is about 500 feet below the KTYD transmitter, also up Gibraltar Road, (and) includes cellular phone transmitters and receivers, pagers as well as other FM stations,” the company said. “In addition to the strong interference from collocated pager transmitters (930 MHz band) and cellular service (800 MHz band), several other transmission systems that are directed towards the lower site are also pointed towards the KTYD microwave receive dish.”
As a result, Moseley said the KTYD STL link is “frequently assaulted by audible interference.” The new system is performing well, it said. The system uses 128 kHz sampling to digitally convey an FM composite signal. Product info: www.moseleysb.com.