A pair of Aldena ALP 05 0 2912 antennas, center of the mast, put WGNY’s W247AW onto the air.
MARLTON, N.J. — As a broadcast engineering consulting firm in the congested Northeast portion of the country, we have faced a number of challenging FM antenna pattern design projects in an effort to optimize FM coverage for many station clients. This review describes fill-in translator projects, which can be the most demanding because the antenna pattern must meet all FCC protection requirements as well as keep the translator’s 60 dBu contour inside the pertinent AM or FM contour.
We have chosen to use Aldena antennas and software for the most demanding pattern applications based on multiple factors. Most important is the fact that Aldena offers a pattern design software program called EMLAB which allows the user to design an antenna pattern based on specific radiation limitations using both Aldena’s own extensive line of FM (also TV) antennas as well as antennas from other manufacturers. Having this software is important since without it one would need to rely solely upon the manufacturer, which takes away the opportunity to do “what if” scenarios that most engineers like to do to optimize coverage.
Equally important are the quality of materials and workmanship of Aldena’s antennas. It is rare that engineers don’t comment positively on the quality followed by a later communication saying “beautiful, low VSWR, the coverage is excellent.”
WRNJ(AM) in Hackettstown, N.J., installed a DA array of three ALP 05 02 912 five-element, circular-polarized, yagi antennas for the W284AQ FM translator in August of 2012, just in time to make it through Hurricane Sandy last fall and then the heavy blizzard conditions in February 2013. The WRNJ 2 mV/m contour is filled in by a second translator, W224AS, using ASR 03 02 315 three-element yagis set at 45 degrees for slant polarization.
The station reports, “We’ve found the antenna systems to be extremely rugged and virtually unaffected by the winter ice. Reflected power is always a watt or two at most all conditions during the year.” This AM licensee also comments that most of their listeners are on FM due to the consistent coverage especially when compared to their night DA coverage.
In the spring of 2012 WGNY(FM) Rosendale, N.Y., implemented W247AW using two ALP 05 0 2912 circular log antennas in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Our contact with folks from WGNY indicates stable operation since installation with no known reports of ice impact on performance.
For information, contact Roberto Di Bari at Aldena in Italy at 011-39-02-90390461 or visit www.aldena.it.
