RUDOLPH, Wis. (WSAU) — Repairs to WSAU-FM have been completed, and listeners should have no more problems receiving programming on 99.9 FM.
Many of you have called to ask why WSAU-99.9 FM has been harder to hear lately. It’s because of damage to the transmission line, the copper-jacketed cable that gets the signal from the transmitter up the tower to the antennae.
On Wednesday, 99.9 was off the air to allow tower climbers to go up 465 feet and run a new transmission line from the top to the bottom.
Chief Engineer Frank Zastrow made the connections on the ground, and says the damaged cable allowed water to get inside the line. “Once the holes are there, the pressurization is gone and water seeps in, and you get conductivity where you don’t want it.”
Zastrow says the unwanted conductivity due to moisture can severely damage transmitters, which is why WSAU-FM has been running on as little as 5% power during the past four weeks. He says the replaced transmission line should bring the radio station back to its original operating specifications, and much easier for everyone in the area to receive. “Actually, the line we just replaced it with specked the original installation, so in theory, this will radiate better.”
Zastrow says the 99.9 FM tower site hasn’t had a major failure like this since acquired by the company in the early 1990’s. He says whoever put the original line on the tower didn’t secure it properly, causing the line to fail. “Poor installation, and over the years, the wind blew a couple of sections loose and it beat against the tower, basically bore holes in the line and water got in.”
Transmission lines need to be kept dry inside to allow efficient transfer of power to the antennae. Most systems are charged with nitrogen or a compressed air system to keep them dry. Zastrow says the old line was damaged so badly that he emptied a couple of gallons of water out of it more than once in the last month.
WSAU’s 99.9 FM tower site was originally “Oldies 100 WIZD” until it was purchased by Midwest Communications in the early 1990’s. Midwest Communications operated “The Oldies Station” on the frequency until expanding the coverage area of their news, talk, and sports station by simulcasting WSAU on 550 AM and 99.9 FM starting in September of 2009.